Out driving around the countryside of Iowa, bright sun, clear day, beautiful colors and I run into a "Minimally Maintained" road, enter at your own risk. Well I entered. No big ruts, in fact the road was pretty much covered over with grass. After a few minutes of driving real slow I come upon a bridge out sign. I haven't seen a bridge built like this. I am guessing it has hasn't seen traffic since the horse and buggy days. It was just neat and it was covering the creek coming out of the ox bow. A person has to love a autumn day!

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It has been a long time since any work has been done on this bridge. The rail line however has been reworked since it was install. Given the age of this bridge I just had to do a black and white since that it is how it would have been photographed when it was new.

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It has been a long time since any work has been done on this bridge. The rail line however has been reworked since it was install.

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I am guessing more than a few horse teams pulling wagons have gone over this bridge. It has definitely has been there for sometime as some of the beams have been split, there are some boards missing and time has worn some grooves in the bridge bed. It might have even been put up when the railroad was built that runs under the bridge.

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Small towns all across the USA have a train station no longer transporting people or goods across the nation. Some have fallen to the passage of time while others have been repurposed. This building has been in service since 1879 and was put on the National Historic Register 1980. In Stuart, IA, the Rock Island depot now serves as community center and houses historical artifacts.

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It was a very busy place. The fastest way across the nation was to catch a train. The best way to move an army was a train, vacations take a train, seeing family members take the train. Go to an airport today and see what the activity would have been here years ago. I have ridden the trains way back in their days. Nothing beats the sound and rhythm and comfort of a train. So may of these stations are gone but this one has been preserved.

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This spot was a very busy spot in its day. Passenger trains would have been stopping several times a day. As very young kid I rode the train from Villisca to Red Oak for a school picnic. Very big deal back then. But as one can see, the trains are not stopping here anymore. But, there are still rolling across the country.

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You see them every day you drive in a city. They are a key part of every city. But you don't often get to see all the talent that went into making a manhole cover. This does more than provide entry, it tells a story.

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This Veteran Day and your freedom is being brought to you by one of the many thousands of service units. 11/11/2013.
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Photo was taken in July 1981 and is a scan of the negative. It is hard to believe this station isn't there anymore since it was made famous by the 1944 Pulitzer Prize Photo “Homecoming” by Earle L. Bunker, photographer, Omaha World-Herald which you can view at http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1944
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Photo was taken in July 1981 and is a scan of the negative. A train depot even in a small town was usually one of the main structures and a hub of activity that allowed the community to flourish.
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This was taken in July 1981 towards the end of it life. While the station may not be there, there are still many memories of the activities that took place here.
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You couldn't drive through Iowa without filling up your car at one of these stations.
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I spent my middle school years in this building and while I had my share advantures, I didn't do this.
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I played basket ball here, my mother played basket ball here, my aunt played basker ball here and lots of other things were done here. Time moves on.
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9/11 tribute in Omaha, NE receiving a new day's sun.

9/11 tribute in Omaha, NE waiting for the sun to come out.

So many lives lost and so many lives affected, so many yet to be lost and yet to be affected.

A tribute in Omaha, NE.

Omaha, NE tribute to 9/11 at Memorial Park.

Tribute to 9/11 in Omaha, NE.

Just one of the many victims of 9/11.

Just one of the many rescuers.

Home town paper Illustrated Supplement from 1908.

Use to be a lot of activity in this little town. If you are from here the name Jones in the Villisca National Bank will mean a lot.

And of course J. B. Moore Implements. Another well known name to the residents.

Outside of advertisements the main object was to show case the local farms. The No. 10 School House is from Washington Township.

It is the movement of people that settle our planet and nothing has played a more key role in this than the railroad. There is a lot of history with this station.
From the book Villisca by Roy Marshall �Villisca was a railroad town, and on any given day the dozen or more passenger trains that stopped might drop off hobos, hustlers, and sightseers; salesmen, businessmen, and burglars.�
From the book An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson which outlines the war in North Africa from 1942 to 1943. It contains a lot about our guard unit and contains the following for the year 1941. �And in Villisca, on March 2, cars lined the village square and 1,500 people spilled from the little depot into the adjacent streets.� �Behind the Company F guidon, Bob Moore led his men across the viaduct in perfect march step. At the station, he commanded them to halt and fall out for final hugs and handshakes and murmured words of reassurance no one quite believed.�
And of course this is also the scene of the 1944 Pulitzer Prize Photo �Homecoming� by Earle L. Bunker, photographer, Omaha World-Herald which you can view at http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1944
The station is no longer there but here are a couple of pictures I scanned in from the 35mm negatives. Definitely not the best. Wish it was still there for a digital session.

Different kind of picture of Mom and Dad. Guess who is in the clippings and who clipped and pasted the articles. I suspect there are a lot of these around. Hang on to them as they represent an effort unparalleled in Earth�s history.

A few things of my granddad that have passed to me. A couple of well used pipes and an ashtray. There is his railroad watch and his water bucket for the Burlington Route. He spent his years in many trades but I remember his railroad days.