There's No Attraction In The World Quite Like This In North Dakota
By Leah|Published January 10, 2018
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Leah
Author
Leah moved to North Dakota when she was 12 years old and has traveled from the Red River Valley to the badlands and many places in between. She loves small-town life and currently enjoys living on a small farm in the ND prairie. She's always had a passion for writing and has participated in novel writing challenges such as NaNoWriMo multiple times. Her favorite part about this job is recognizing small businesses that deserve a boost and seeing the positive affect her articles can have on their traffic, especially in rural areas that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
Do you love train history? How about the history of a specific jazz singer? The chances of you being interested in both are probably pretty slim, but even if you aren’t interested in either of these things you’ll want to check out this unusual yet awesome small town museum. It’s a place that you won’t find anywhere else in the world – and it’s right here in North Dakota.
In the quiet town of Wimbledon - no, not the one relating to tennis, the town in North Dakota - there is a history rooted here of both great success and optimism turned to failure.
Both of these things come together at the Midland Continental Depot Transport Museum, which also happens to have the story of the late famous singer Peggy Lee.
The train part of the museum highlights what was planned to be and could have been a railroad from Canada to Texas. At the time, this was heavily anticipated to be one of the first lines from north to south instead of east to west.
Unfortunately, despite all the optimism, only about 80 miles of rail was laid - part of which went through Wimbledon, North Dakota. The history of this railroad is preserved in the museum.
Along with train history, the museum has the story of famous, Grammy award winning jazz singer Peggy Lee. Her father was a station agent for the railroad company that was making the new route. She was born right in North Dakota and her roots here are well preserved at the Midland Continental Depot Transport Museum.
The Midland Continental Depot Transport Museum is located at 401 Railway Street, Wimbledon, North Dakota 58492. Click here to visit their website for more information.