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November 26th, 2003 Thanksgiving Update, by: Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

Parks is making preparations to get contractors moving
again at the depot.  By the first of the year, we will
see the windows removed, the interior paint scrapped,
and some demolition work to the interior in
preparation for a big construction push probably in
February that will get the interior spaces shaped up
for the interpretive space, the Beanery and the
Freightroom. 

November 28th, 29th and 30th, the HO train layout
group will be at the Seattle Center for the biggest
model railroad show of the year.  There is plenty of
room for you to come on out and join us for this
event.  It will be a great way to get out and greet
people and tell them the story of what we are trying
to accomplish.  Please contact Ron Cole at
rons22twain@yahoo.com and let him know of your
availability--the show runs 10a to 6p.

December 6th was the date on the calendar for a
holiday get-together.  The timing of this event is
just not good at this time for certain members of the
board and I have decided that it would be best to punt
the holiday party this year.  My apologies for any
inconvenience this change in plans might pose.

December 13th, the Milwaukee retirees will meet at the
Freighthouse.  Look for an announcement from Tom
Goldsmith and come out and meet the new meeting
facilitator, Ron Perron.  There will be a slide
presentation with some rarely seen slides from a
private collection on tap for this meeting.  Should be
a great time.

Mark Borleske, Chris Scarlett and Brian Lee have been
busy with plans for the interpretive trail which we
hope will be ready for the public in time for the
Mountains to Sound Greenways, Discovery Days event
which is tentatively scheduled for mid-June.  In
watching the flurry of emails on trail development it
is good to see the teamwork and communications with
Parks.  Parks staff has been impressed with Mark's
plan and cudos to all those involved in the project.

I will be heading to Sacremento for an extended
holiday weekend visit the California State Railroad
Museum.  May you and your family have a Happy
Thanksgiving.

Russ

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November 17th, 2003 Update, by: Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

There has been some interesting things brewing with
the South Cle Elum Depot over the past few weeks. 
Attached you will find a synopsys of our meeting with
Parks last Friday.  John F., call Tim Schmidt or
Colleen Hawley for interview. 

We need volunteers to help staff the booth at the
Seattle Center on 28th, 29th and 30th.  This will be a
great show, lots of fun, and no SELLING just meet and
greet and you get to see the show for free.  Let me
know what your availability is for those days we need
all the participation we can get and its a great way
to get out and meet people and learn how to run the
trains. 

Tom Goldsmith and Milwaukee Railroader Ron Perron have
assumed the responsibilities for organizing and
hosting the monthly breakfast gathering at the
Freighthouse from longtime host, Jim Holzworth.  The
next breakfast meeting will be December 13th at 9am
and we will be treated to a rarely seen slide
presentation from a private collection.

Parks and the Mountains to Sound Greenways will be
hosting a 100-mile long party in mid-June of next
year.  It is our hope that the depot will be ready for
a dedication or ribbon cutting ceremony by that time. 
The depot may not be finished, but we plan on throwing
a big party anyway as part of the celebration.

Sincerely,

Russell Holter
President
Cascade Rail Foundation

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October 7th, 2003 Update, by: Rruss Holter

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A very busy weekend has passed.  The Friends of the
South Cle Elum Depot divided up responsibilities and
headed off into two different directions.  Mark
Borleske's History and Archaeology tour was a hit on
Saturday.  Approximately 40 people turned out for the
second annual event.  We only anticipated about half
that number and Mark was gracious enough to led a
second tour through the yard when he only planned on
one.  Accompanying Mark was Kathleen Satnik who worked
on the archaeological survey two summers ago. 
Providing first-hand information to our guests were
engineer Gene Lawson, and our perpetual teenager
Gladys Para whose father was the Substation operator
in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Mark was able to entertain many guests including a
County Commissioner, a Towncouncil Member, guests of
State Parks and interested folks from far and wide. 
Congratulations on a great job Mark.  The website has
already been updated from the weekends activities. 
Thanks Chris!

Saturday and Sunday, the Model Railroad Group was in
Lynden WA for the Lions Club trainshow.  Ron, Tom,
John and Nick kept the troops entertained and managed
to raise about $200 for the group.  Big John
celebrated a birthday over the weekend by nearly
burning his eyebrows off trying to blow out the
candles on his birthday cake.

Donovan Gray and I will be meeting with Parks Staff
this week to discuss a mirade of topics including how
to get the shed ready for winter, how to start-up
weekly discussions like we had in the past, and the
10-year Master plan. 

The next event on the calendar is the retirees
breakfast at the Freighthouse Square in Tacoma.  Meet
at the Whistlestop Diner at 9am.  You dont need to be
a retiree to enjoy the comradery and the great train
stories.

The Maple Valley train show will be Saturday October
18th.  Please let me know if you are able to assist
the model train group by attending that day.  New
folks are always welcome.  Just drop me a note and we
will have you running trains that weekend. 

Hope to see you on the 18th.

Russell

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September 30th, 2003 Update, by: Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

October has begun and we have several special
activities to attend to this month.  First of all, on
October 4th, Mark Borleske will be conducting a
historical and archaeological tour of the ruins found
in the Milwaukee yard in South Cle Elum.  This event
has been months in the making and Mark has prepared an
excellent presentation, mapped out a route which may
become a self-guided, interpretive trail through the
landscape.  Join Mark on the 4th from 11am to about
1pm at the depot.   Please be prompt so that you dont
miss a thing. 

Also on the 4th the HO Train Layout will be on tour
again; this time we will be at the Fairgrounds in
Lynden. 

The start of the fall season means that the Milwaukee
retirees will be meeting again for breakfast the
Freighthouse.  The first breakfast of the season will
be Saturday the 11th at 9am.  Some of these guys are
in for a big suprise when they see the Sounder trains
parked next to the restaurant for the first time. 

I was hoping to announce that we can get to work on
some of the interior details of the depot right away.
After talking to Parks staff, I realized that we would
not be able to perform this work until after the
removal of the lead-based paints from the ceiling and
walls has been completed.  Because we are not
certified to do this type of work, we cannot dispose
of materials such as wallboard.  This work has to be
done by a contractor so we will continue to be
patient.

Russell
 

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September 26rd, 2003 Railyard Tour, by: Mark Borleske

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Saturday, October 4th, 11am.

Visitors are invited on a walking tour through the site of the Milwaukee
Road South Cle Elum rail yards, conducted by members of the Friends of the
South Cle Elum Depot. Located on Iron Horse State Park, the depot and
substation and rail yard site are owned and administered by Washington State Parks & Recreation Commission.

The site includes a 1909 wooden depot undergoing rehabilitation, an
electrical substation built in 1917 and the ruins and foundations of the
roundhouse, turntable and other steam locomotive facilities. Other nearby
railroad-associated buildings located off-site include the original
bunkhouse, now a bed and breakfast facility, and the three bungalows built
as homes for railroad substation employees which are now private residences.

By 1909 the Chicago, Milwaukee & Puget Sound Railway's transcontinental
extension to Seattle-Tacoma had reached South Cle Elum. The railroad
actively promoted it as a new townsite along its main line, where it
established a crew change station and roundhouse for steam locomotives. By
1920 the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, now the official
name but soon shortened to "The Milwaukee Road" had installed an innovative system of electrification. It would allow clean and quiet electric
locomotives to power trains over the Cascade Range. The brick substation is
one of a series of 22 such buildings, constructed to support the
electrification that moved Milwaukee Road traffic over five mountain ranges
between Montana and Puget Sound.

The Milwaukee Road went through a cycle of increased traffic and brief
prosperity during and innovation in the 1940s and '50s followed by a slow
decline into the 1970's. After a third bankruptcy, The Milwaukee Road
abandoned the route in 1980.

The Friends of the South Cle Elum Depot, a volunteer non-profit
organization, is active in the rehabilitation of the depot and substation.
One of its current goals is the establishment of a Rail Yard Interpretive
Trail through this historic site. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING.

Hope to see you there,

Mark Borleske

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August 22rd, 2003 Depot Update, Rruss Holter

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I offer a thousand apologies to you for the confusion
that has occured over the picnic date.  The annual
volunteers picnic will be Saturday September 13th from
11am to 2pm at the Iron Horse Inn Bed and Breakfast. 
The reason for the change was a scheduling conflict
with the Bed and Breakfast.  Please note the change on
your calendars and accept my apology if I have goofed
up your plans with the premature announcement.

For 2003, Chris Scarlett will be doing up a pot o'
Ken's RR CHILI.  The Pittis' will make complimentary
CORNBREAD.

If your last name begins with, bring the following
 A-M  bring  DESSERT
 N-Z  bring   SALADS

Russ - soft drinks and ICE  (cool the chili fire)

A barbeque will be ready for those who want to grill
an entree.

Hope to see you there,
Russell
 

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June 23rd, 2003 Depot Update, Rruss Holter

mFriends,

The busy season is now upon us.  The model railroad
group is frantically preparing the train layout for
the Milwaukee Road Historical Association's National
Convention in Spokane later this week.  This task will
keep Ron Cole and myself busy for a while.  Ron is
requesting that if you have some free time during the
week that you put a few hours toward planting little
HO scale trees into the scenery in his garage. 
Contact Ron at rons22twain@yahoo.com for more
information. 

The painters will be finished painting the depot by
THIS Friday.  To keep our new paint from becoming
fouled, David Newcomb will be leading a work party to
install bird spikes in the eaves of the roof.   This
work party will take place on Sunday June 29th and
should be an all day affair.  Bring a hammer, some
rags and ladder if you are able.  Brian Lee will be on
hand to add the final coat of Kilz preservative to the
attic and we need to add more waterproofing to the
foundation.  There will be plenty to do and we need
everyone who can make themselves available for this
work party. 

By Sunday, the caboose shed will have been removed
from its location.  Washington State Parks will then
have a contractor come out and dispose of the
contaminated soils.  Once Parks gets that portion of
the work done, I will call for another work party to
have volunteers rebuild the shed.  I am assuming that
we will get started on this project in July.  Stay
tuned.

Next up is Thomas the Tank Engine at Snoqualmie.  This
is a six-day long event and it will require maximum
participation to make the event a success.  So far I
have at least one person signed up to cover every day
of the show.  Please let me know what your
availability is for working July 11th through July
13th and July 18th through July 20th.  Even if you are
only available half-a-day for one day, your help would
be greatly appreciated.  Make sure you reply directly
back to me and not to everyone in the distribution
above.

Thanks 
Russ

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June 3rd, 2003 Depot Update, Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

Great news, the depot will be painted and looking
exceedingly fine by Independence Day!  A group of
contracted paint strippers are on the site today
removing loose lead-based paint.  This material has to
be disposed of at a special location.  Any remaining
paint will be carefully sanded and encapsulated in
three overcoats.  Following close behind the team of
strippers will be the painters who will work on
painting one side of the building while the other
contractor is stripping the other.  This will speed up
the process and will ensure that the paint project
will be completed by the Fourth of July. 

I have received word that there are no available
storefronts in Cle Elum for the Cascade Rail
Foundation to open their temporary museum during the
annual Pioneer Days Celebration.  This is actually
good news because it demonstrates a clear and positive
step in the economic development of the Upper Kittitas
County.  Long time resident, Louis Musso says, this is
the first time in many years that every storefront in
the central business district will be under lease
simultaneously.  By 2004, the museum at South Cle Elum
will be open during Pioneer Days, and we hope to
capture large crowds who will want to spend daylight
hours seeing the counties newest attraction.  This
year, it would be worth the trip from anywhere to see
the fresh paint job and enjoy the festivities in town.

Though I have not personally seen the final set of
plans for the interior, the information that I have
received is very encouraging.  The ticket cage, the
telegrapher's desk, the beanery lunch counter will all
be rebuilt.  The floors and ceiling will be wood
(except in the beanery and kitchen) the windows will
be rebuilt, and storm windows added to provide better
energy efficiency.  We thought we had an old wrought
iron ticket window for the depot, but it turns out to
be from Sumner and is much smaller than the one we
need.  If you have a larger ticket window cage, or
know someone who does, please contact me because this
is a very important piece of the puzzle and requires
the architect to design around it.  We would
appreciate the donation very much.

Because 99% of all the work to the depot this summer
is under contract, there has not been the endless call
for volunteers to work on summer projects.  We are
still planning to rebuild the shed, but we are waiting
for a hazardous materials mitigation plan from Parks
and the Department of Ecology.  Once we know what is
under the shed and how to dispose of it, we can set
the plan into motion. 

The donations of items just keep on coming.  The HO
train crew recently acquired another estate.  Much of
the estate items are Milwaukee HO equipment and many
of them are true showpieces.  About half of the
collection could be made available for liquidation at
up coming events.  The Cascade Rail Foundation has
also received four tons of railroad artifacts from a
private donor recently.  Most of the big stuff was
parts and pieces to block signals but also included
some telegraph, communication and office equipment
from the depot.  Notable were the 70 ROW maps, the old
wooden file cabinet from Cle Elum, the depot clock,
and a passenger ticket stamp from Kittitas. 

Russ

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May 12th, 2003 CRF Board Meeting Update, Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

The Cascade Rail Foundation held a board meeting last
Saturday in Kent.  In attendance were Mark Borleske,
Ron Cole, Donovan Gray, Russ Holter, Jim Holzworth,
Ray Horton, Brian Lee, David Newcomb, Chris Scarlett,
and John Stenger. 

During the meeting the board discussed items necessary
to outfit the entire depot.  Parks is looking for a
comprehensive list of items, building materials,
fixtures and operating equipment necessary to open the
museum, beanery and rental concession.  CRF board
members were tasked to come up with a list of wants.
These wants will be collated and given to Parks on
Wednesday.  David Newcomb will help round out the list
of stuff to complete the interior.  Brian Lee is
looking at the electronics.  Mary Pittis is completing
a list of furnishings.  Doug Pittis will compile a
list of kitchen equipment.  BOLA Architecture is
working on big stuff like storm windows, HVAC, and
alarm systems. 

John Arena has offered to sell his collection of
switch stands to the CRF at scrap value.  It was moved
and seconded to accept his offer.  Ray Horton will
make the arrangements for the sale and pick-up. 

Mark Borleske was asked to prepare a conceptual plan
for a walking tour through the archaeology of the
railyard for Parks consideration.

The board discussed the notion of providing a plaque
honoring the recent National Register Nomination of
the railyard.  I will provide a list of companies that
make these plaques to board members.

I had presented a mock-up of the motorshed to Parks
last week.  The overwhelming concensus of opinion is
that the shed is big!  BOLA Architecture will be
tasked with making the shed fit the boundaries of the
Park while being sensitive to the historic nature of
the depot and the substation. 

Chris Scarlett reported that the website visits are up
slightly from the year previous but is maintaining an
average rate of growth of 6.7%.

The HO train layout team is going to be incredibly
busy for four weeks this summer.  We have three
back-to-back meets starting in Spokane on the last
week of June.  This will be followed by Pioneer Days
in Cle Elum and two consecutive weeks in Snoqualmie
for the Thomas the Tank Engine show.  John Stenger of
the HOTL team brought a 1988 cube-box cargo van to the
meeting to show the Directors.  The CRF can acquire
the van for about $5000 and requires $1000 worth of
maintenance.  After an adjournment, the Directors
voted for Ron Cole and John Stenger to pursue the
purchase of the van.  It was also decided that the
unique Milwaukee quilt made for our organization by
Pam Goldsmith will be offered as a raffle gift during
the Milwaukee Road Historical Association meet in
Spokane this summer.

I reported that funds for the interpretation of the
snowsheds would be made available to the CRF for the
restoration of block signals and for the model
railroad display.  I will be working with Margaret
McCloud of Parks to see to the funds are moved in the
appropriate direction.

The Directors spoke briefly about the possibilities of
acquiring historic bungalow #1.  The Directors voted
to allow me to continue discussions with the owner of
the home.  Louis Musso, in a phone conversation,
stated that the Jeld-Wen Corporation could be
approached for funds either for the acquisition or for
the restoration of the home.

That is the update from the Director's meeting on
Saturday.  It has been brought to my attention that
some of you, who cannot attend, would be interested in
seeing an agenda/minutes.  Send a note to Chris
Scarlett if you would like a set.  The minutes to the
previous meeting are included in the agenda.

Russell Holter
President 
Cascade Rail Foundation

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May  5nd, 2003 CRF Board Meeting Announcement Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,
 

The next board meeting for the Cascade Rail Foundation
will be Saturday the 10th at 1pm at the Edward Jones
office in downtown Kent.  205 East Meeker.  The public
is invited to attend.  We typically try to have at
least one meeting on the Westside a year and this will
be it. 

Russ

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May  2nd, 2003 Depot Update: Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

Big news!  The Keeper of the National Register of
Historic Places announced from Washington D.C. this
morning that the Milwaukee rail yard in South Cle Elum
has been accepted on the National Register of Historic
Places!  This is a great honor and will open door to
new funding opportunities in the future.  The
properties affected are all the structures owned by
Washington State Parks as well as the Bed and
Breakfast and the three operators bungalows.  In
celebration of the announcement I will recommend to
the Board that we purchase plaques for the depot and
substation as a gift to Washington State Parks. 

Long range planning
On Monday, Parks expressed a sincere desire to
allocate unspecified human and cash resources for the
purposes of putting together a 10-year design/build
plan for the yard facilities at Cle Elum.  I found
this very encouraging given the fact that the state
budget is in such a state of confusion at the present.
 These resources will become clearer once the Governor
signs the state budget package.  Plans for the
stabilization of the substation structure have been
batted about in both the House and Senate budget
bills.  At last report, it did not make the cut.  If
this is true, we will have to find other sources of
revenue for the substation or put off stabilization
work until 2005.

Milwaukee Fans Unite! 
The MRHA Convention is June 26th through the 29th in
Spokane.  Several of our boardmembers, will be on hand
to provide Milwaukee fans from all over the world
information on the development of the rail facility at
Cle Elum.  We will be the only organization allowed to
display a model railroad and several of our modelers
plan to submit models for judging.  Wait until you see
Ron Cole's scale model substation!

HOTL group on a roll.
The Model railroaders finished off a productive
weekend in Monroe last week.  The show was well
attended.  The next major event is the convention in
Spokane.  July will be non-stop shows for the Model
railroad group.  We will be celebrating Pioneer days
again in Cle Elum July 4th, 5th, and 6th.  I need as
many people as I can get to come on over to Cle Elum,
set up displays, run the model trains and to talk to
the community about our organization.  Please contact
Ron Cole.  Kathy if you can help out again, send me a
note.

After Pioneer Days, we will head for Snoqualmie for
two consecutive weekends.  Tom Goldsmith will be
organizing the "Day out with Thomas" event.  We have
modified our agreement with the Northwest Railway
Museum so that we will be able to solicit during the
event.  The potential for donations at this show are
good enough that the model railroaders might be able
to raise enough funds to cover the cost of a bigger
van to move all their stuff.  These modelers have only
been in business for a year and a half and have
already outgrown two vans!  Dates for Snoqualmie are
July 11th through the 13th and July 18th through the
20th. I need all the help that I can get and then some
for these dates in July. If you can work even half a
day, it would help our cause immensely. 

Rruss Holter
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April 12th, 2003 Oral Histories Fest: Chris Scarlett

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What a fantastic event this was! 

Our first organized "Oral Histories Fest" saw a large gathering of about 15+ retirees from the Milwaukee being interviewed by a roughly equivalent number of students in what turned out to be a well organized and very fun afternoon. 

At about 1pm the retirees began to show up along with some of the students, coaches and organizers to the middle school common room that was expertly decked out for a party. The room was complete with maroon and orange table covers, memorabilia, black and yellow balloons, props of railroad signage, a Milwaukee Road logo as well as cake and refreshments catered by Key Club! A social hour developed preceding the 2pm interviews as more retirees streamed in. This created a great opportunity for old friends and co-workers to get caught up on personal news. One notable encounter was between Gene Lawson and Ron Dent. Gene remembers Ron’s first day on the job when his father began training him to be a sub-station operator in Kittitas. If I had understood it right, they had last seen each other close to 50 years ago! 

At 2pm Mary gave an introduction and a briefing on the afternoon’s activities then seated each group of students and retirees along with their coaches at specific tables. This set the stage for introductions and informal interviews between the retirees and the students. While these discussions were taking place a more formal interview setting was used for each group and their coaches in the library. This is where the tech crew from Mr. O'Donnell’s class really shined. They set up living room furniture in a well lit corner of the library and gave each group of students about 15 minutes to interview. They recorded the whole process on videotape. From what I witnessed the students were very involved, enthusiastic and they got a warm reception and many interesting stories from the retirees (wish there was more time). For some of the students this was just an introduction to more one on one interviews with individual retirees.

Kudos to the organizers for this event especially Sandy and Monica Malcoln, Mary Pittas and Rruss Holter from the Cascade Rail Foundation and the teachers involved including Mr. O'Donnell, Mr. Briggs and Mr. Wilson and many others that I did not get a chance to meet. 

This event was well planned, went smooth, and was real fun! The groundwork has been laid to build from for next year to make this "Oral Histories Fest" even more successful.

Check out the "Video of the Week" link on the website (in about an hour) for an idea on what our afternoon was like.

Chris Scarlett 
Secretary, Cascade Rail Foundation

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April 8th, 2003 Museum Update by: Rruss Holter

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Dear Friends,

It was a very productive day today for the Cascade
Rail Foundation as I met with Park Manager Tim Schmidt
and our new Park Planner, Paul Valcarce.  The three of
us spent about three hours going over all the fine
details of the Parks development plan and educating
Paul on what the long-term goals would be for Park
development.  We surrendered several drawings both
from the Friends and from the Milwaukee so that he
could use them as reference materials. 

We spoke at length about balancing our need for
development with Parks concerns over historic
preservation and archaeology.  With that in mind, Paul
felt that the proposed site of the new motorshed would
be most appropriate between the depot and the
substation.  This location solves many dilemmas for
us.  One, it is Parks idea--no selling on our part is
necessary.  Secondly, by having it close to the other
two major structures the public will not have to hike
through the yard to find crown jewels of our
collection.  Thirdly, the proposed location will not
diminish the depot because the motorshed will be
behind it.  Fourthly, the location will automatically
draw pedestrian traffic from the parking lot to the
West side of the depot which becomes increasingly
important when the substation is developed and open
for visits.  Fifthly, the location allows for tracks
to be run through the motorshed and out into the yard
from both ends of the building.  Perhaps most
importantly, the site gives us the opportunity to show
off our collection of electric motors, which should be
visible from the street when you look between the
depot and the substation. 

I have asked Ron Cole to work with David Newcomb to
construct a foam-core model of the motorshed so that
we can get an idea of the relative scope of the
structure when it is side-by-side with the depot and
the substation. 

I almost hate to bring this up again, but Tim assured
me that there will be funds to restore the block
signals. 

Soils tests at the shed have been conducted but the
results are unknown at this time.  We may proceed on
the shed project as soon as we know what we are
dealing with.  Parks is responsible for the soils
mitigation.  I also spoke to Tim about laying in about
300 feet of track in front of the shed.  He gave us
permission to start the process.  This should involve
drafting a plan and some construction language.  We
can then take this plan to Parks and to others who
might be willing to supply us with the necessary
rails, ties and jewelry with the idea that we could
lay in the rail by opening day. 

I have clearance from Parks to use the substation for
storage.  As some of you know, we had let an
opportunity to purchase Bungalow #2 slip through our
fingers last year.  That bungalow was purchased by a
contractor who is remodeling the building as we speak.
 I did talk to him today and he very graciously
donated the historic windows from that house to our
organization and Mary Pittis and I moved them
carefully to the substation for safe keeping.  Mary
will send them a thank you note acknowledging their
gift as a contribution to our organization. 

In all it was a very productive day and Paul Valcarce
is truly excited to be apart of this team.  When we
parted company, he told Tim and I that he would look
into some funding opportunities for planning costs.  I
left that meeting with very optimistic feelings.  He
left nothing on the table and was very receptive to
all of my hair-brained suggestions. 

Last Weekend
We spent the weekend at Arlington for the Lions Club
Train Show and Swap meet.  The venture was not as
successful as the year previous but we did manage to
take in well over $600.  We could have done better if
we had the whistles set-up on Saturday.   Despite some
lousy weather, we did manage to sell at least 10
T-shirts and Ron's test run of 6 child-sized shirts
accounted for three of those sold.

Coming up
Saturday is a very big day for our organization.  In
the morning we will be entertaining the retirees at
the monthly breakfast meeting in Tacoma.  Many of
these guys will be carpooling over to Cle Elum for the
day.  They will meet up with Sandra Malcolm at the
Middle School for the Annual Students In-Service day
at 1pm, where our team of student reporters will take
turns interviewing retirees and capturing stories
about the Milwaukee and life in Cle Elum on film. 
This project has been so blessed it is just beyond
comprehension.  The oral histories project is unique. 
Many organizations and governmental agencies are
waiting for reports to determine its success.  I have
been told that it will be emulated all over the state.
 

April 26-27th, the model railroad team will be
presenting at the Monroe Fairgrounds.  We certainly
could use your help in talking to folks about our
organization.  If you can spend a couple of hours just
smiling, meeting and greeting, it would be greatly
appreciated.  Contact Ron Cole for details at
rons22twain@yahoo.com

Thank you for your support--You guys are great.

Russ

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April 7th, 2003 Depot Update by: Chris Scarlett

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Dear Friends, 

Just to update our group. 

We have an event planned for this weekend involving both students and Milwaukee Road retirees in the area at our Oral History Fest.  Students from the Cle Elum-Roslyn High School will be interviewing the retirees in 8 groups in the Middle School commons room this Saturday, April 12th, from 1 to 3 p.m.  This is the Cascade Rail Foundation’s first organized attempt at trying to document some of the stories from the retirees of the Milwaukee and its historical influence in the area.  Organized by Sandy Malcolm and her daughter Monica both history and journalism students will be the interviewers.  Other supporters of this event include a grant from State Farm Insurance; the Northern Kittitas County Historical Society, Key Club and the Builder’s Club as well as the teachers involved Tom Wilson, Mike O’Donnel, and Jay Briggs.

We hope to make this an annual event making it bigger and better every year.

Video Clips and images from this event will grace our website over the next couple of weeks. 

Many thanks to Sandy and Monica for organizing this event.  With out their organization this event would not be taking place.

Chris Scarlett, 
Secretary,
Cascade Rail Foundation