All aboard for this crazy ride to Sturgis, with a stop at a haunted train station in Yakima, Washington. Another great place to stop, with a shady and ghostly past. The Depot Restaurant and Lounge in Yakima was built in 1910 by the Northern Pacific Railway. It was a stop originally a train depot, and a main stop in the growing city of Yakima. During the typhoid epidemics in the early 1900's, the stations basement furnace was used to cremate bodies. If this isn't spooky enough, the basement also includes an entrance to an underground network of tunnels running below Yakima. It was discontinued as a rail station in 1971, and converted into a restaurant. But did the trains and passengers stop coming? This former train depot might just still be in service, from the afterlife.
The stories and legends about the Depot are more than just one. Rumor has it, that there is a the ghost of a famous traveling hobo who used the nickname "A #1" to elude authorities for who knows what reasons. His name is supposedly carved into the marble of the bathroom wall. While he may have escaped authorities, he seems to never have escaped The Depot. The reports also contain tales of children playing, ghostly organ music, faucets turning on and off by themselves and a "lady in white" seen walking the staircase to the attic.
Whether you believe in ghosts or not, this station had an appeal to us that we just had to indulge. We'll be stopping ride to Sturgis in this reportedly haunted station. While we enjoy a meal and some rest, we'll keep our eyes peeled for the ghostly passengers that may still be riding the rails at The Depot. Stay tuned for our next stop on the LRS journey to Sturgis.
This sure looks an awful lot like an article published by Yakima Magazine. Wish you'd give them credit for your information here.
ReplyDelete