The town of DeQuincy owes its existence to the railroad. Saturday, Oct. 7, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., it will celebrate those ties to its past when it marks the 100-year anniversary of the KCS Depot, now the DeQuincy Railroad Museum. The Museum, at 400 Lake Charles Avenue in DeQuincy, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is known among railroad enthusiasts as having a varied collection from model trains to switch keys, dining car dinnerware to tools, artifacts to railroad art.

The Museum preserves more than railroad history. It is a reminder of DeQuincy’s heyday, the thriving community with movie theaters, car dealerships, hotels, plenty of shopping, and cool drugstores that offered burgers and sodas.

The KCS Depot is a tribute to officials and women’s club members who were instrumental in making sure the depot was fixed up instead of taken down. The Depot served as a post office, After DeQuincy established a post office, the train delivered mail to the town four times a day. Many wives and mothers checked for mail at least that many times a day and more, hoping for letters from husbands and sons fighting the war.

The first collected artifacts at the DeQuincy Railroad Museum were from local families, making the “old KCS Depot” a repository of family history. Families visit and tell youngsters about what their great grandfathers did for a living, how it was done, and they can point to the tool he used to do it.

Old-fashioned family fun for all, period dress encouraged

The event and museum admission for the 100-year celebration is free to the public and will  include free refreshments such as coffee, pastry, popcorn, snow cones, birthday cake, ice cream and cookies. Two food trucks and a lemonade truck, all locally-owned, will be on the grounds with lunch options available for purchase.  Children will enjoy the free bounce house and kiddy train rides.

The gift shop will have special commemorative posters and other gifts, as well as great holiday gifts for all ages.

Katy Haley, one of the Museum docents, said the 1947 Pullman car, located on the Railroad Museum grounds, will be the setting for viewing the 1923 Buster Keaton silent film, The History of the Railroad. A ticket taker and movie projectionist in period costume will be in attendance. As long as supplies last, attendees will receive a free commemorative wooden token and funeral fan, from a local funeral home owner who also happens to be Mayor.

“We are inviting everyone to come dressed in period clothing from their favorite era, 1923 to 2023,” Haley said. Haley’s  grandfather was a KCS engineer. She said her father, Woody Thompson, who later became a Judge in Southwest Louisiana was known to hop rail cars to get where he wanted to go when he was home from law school via the train.

The bluegrass band of the Very Reverend Edward J. Richard, M.S., V.F., – the banjo priest – and a DeQuincy native son, will provide music. Local musicians will host a jam session. Local artists and photographers are invited to bring their depictions of the museum to be on display through October.

The young at heart will appreciate a little play time. Look for tables with checkerboards and dominoes. Some of those folks may even recall riding the passenger train. Service ended in 1968. A ticket from DeQuincy to Lake Charles was 66 cents.

Docent Mary Jane Barberry remembers train rides from the time she was born until the 1960s. She and other local women helped supply  sandwiches and soft drinks to workers who helped paint the depot when it opened for the 1976 Centennial Celebration. She came to DeQuincy from New Orleans by train right after she was born and adopted by a DeQuincy family.  Her father was a Missouri Pacific man for 52 years, and she’s still “MoP” proud.

“Local historian and DeQuincy Railroad Museum board president Vance Perkins said at one time over 1,000 men worked at the rail yard where engines were built, and most residents know DeQuincy was laid out in 1897 when the railroad got here. From DeQuincy, rails turned west to Port Arthur.”

What they might  not know is that Arthur Stillwell, the man behind the railroad, began buying and building tracks with the intention of connecting Kansas City to the Gulf of Mexico. Cameron Parish property owners got wind of his plan and they were ready with inflated prices.

“That’s when he decided to turn the line south toward Port Arthur, which is named for Arthur Stillwell,” Perkins said.

The Lit’l Brownies told him…

The night before a board meeting to talk about continuing the line to Galveston, Texas, Stillwell had a dream and decided to turn south at the Sabine instead, Perkins said.

“He listened to the brownies,” added Haley. “Brownies are part of Gaelic folklore, something like a fairy,” Not long after listening to the Brownies, the Great Galveston hurricane made landfall.

The first depot was just an old box car. By 1905, the first wooden structure was built in the same footprint,  according to Perkins. When KCS “modernized” its operations in 1923, it decided on the Spanish Mission Revival architectural style for all its depots.

It’s DeQuincy’s iconic landmark, a 100-year architectural preservation marvel holding  railroad history, family history and even a few nods to world history.  The celebration is plenty of reason for residents to celebrate pride of place and others to take a closer look.  For more information, call 337-786-2823.