| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
This one-story depot has an intersecting gable roof with asphalt shingles, walls of local ashlar sandstone, and a raised decorative rough-finished sandstone foundation. The cut stone basement foundation was reused from a previous depot. In 1958, a tornado damaged the west end of the depot and the building was shortened by about one quarter in size. Sandstone from the ruins of this section was used to make a new west wall. At the same time, horizontal boards were added in the gable peak of this wall and the east wall. Openings on all but the west elevation are regularly-spaced and filled with six-over-one light double-hung sashes. Wooden doors cover entrances.
The interior of the depot features an office, two waiting rooms, two restrooms and a full basement. The walls are half plaster and half wainscoting; in one of the waiting rooms the wainscoting is painted. Wood trim includes a picture rail and cornice moldings around doors and windows. The floor is covered with narrow board flooring and the ticket window is intact. In 1994, the building was renovated in a manner that kept most of its historic (1958) character intact. The building is used as a railroad memorabilia museum.
The first white settler came to Colfax in 1867 and a settlement began to grow in the 1870s. By 1881, Colfax had a population of 60 and in July of 1884, the Wisconsin Central Railroad came to the community. The depot built in 1884 burned and was replaced in 1898. In 1904, Colfax was incorporated as an official village and by 1925, the population was 1,000 people and was the largest community in Dunn County. This depot was built in 1914 when the 1898 depot was moved off the site. (Franklyn Curtis-Wedge, History of Dunn County Wisconsin, Minneapolis: H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Co., 1925)
The Wisconsin Central Railroad was formed in 1871 as a consolidation of three small railroad companies in north-central Wisconsin and track was laid from West Menasha to Waupaca in that year. In 1877, track was laid between Stevens Point and Ashland. The line was completed to the Twin Cities by 1884, to Chicago by 1886, then to Duluth by 1909. In 1908, the line was acquired by the Minneapolis, St. Paul & Sault Ste. Marie Railroad, known informally as the “Soo Line.” However, the Soo Line operated the Wisconsin Central as a separate entity until 1961. In the meantime, the Wisconsin Central went into receivership in 1932, bankruptcy in 1944 and reorganization in 1954. In 1961, the Minneapolis, St. Paul, Sault Ste. Marie and the Wisconsin Central officially merged along with the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic railroad to form the Soo Line Railroad Co. In 1986-87 another reorganization created the current Wisconsin Central Ltd. Railroad line. (Information from the Minnesota Historical Society, www2.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00343.xml).
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