Depot Rail Museum

The rail line from Portland to Bonneville opened May 21, 1882, the first passenger train traveling from Portland to Walla Walla, Washington, the following November 20.

The first Troutdale depot was a two-story structure with quarters for the station agent and his family. It burned in 1907 and was replaced the same year by the one-story depot that now is the Depot Rail Museum. The ORN had by then been acquired by Union Pacific, so the second depot was of Union Pacific construction.

After John Harlow’s death in 1883, his widow, Celestia, platted the Town of Troutdale on the hillside with blocks and streets. Much of the city was built in 1890 and 1891 finally justifying the existence of the depot. Harlow knew that a depot could make or break a town. Troutdale grew up facing the railroad, a community with a one-sided main street.That situation existed until development of the north side business district, the first store opening in 1997.

Troutdale’s major industry before the turn of the century was the American Dressed Meat Company, a slaughter and packing house, built near the railroad and the Sandy River. Other industries that rose in the new community were a lumber mill, a hotel and a distillery. Troutdale was also a shipping site for railroad ties, rafted down river from mills upstream, and held in the Sandy River with log booms until they could be removed, stacked and shipped.

Beginning in the early 1900s, farmers coming from the Midwest, discovered the fertile, sandy soil in the Columbia River bottom land and began growing celery and other vegetables. In the 1920s, Troutdale was claimed “Celery Capital of the World” because of the prize-winning celery grown in the area. The railroad linked Troutdale with Portland and communities eastward up the Columbia River Gorge.

Exhibits

The City of Troutdale completed a renovation of the Troutdale Railroad Depot building in March 2022. After a being closed for 3 years the Depot Rail Museum reopened on April 30, 2022. Its newly renovated museum showcases the return of the old scarred wood floors and the restoration of the ticket counter. The walls were painted and repaired where needed but the scraps, scars and signs of structural changes remain to tell its story during its 115 year life. A timeline gives you an idea of how and where this depot was utilized. A video full of photos and narration depict its history. Passenger steamer trunks, leather suitcases are on display. A sampling of railroad lanterns tell the story of their varied uses. A wall features the story of two women who worked for the railroad during World War II and their use of an order fork - a method of communication to the train engineers.

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