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KANSAS CITY, MEXICO & ORIENT DEPOT (PRIVATE)
500 S 3RD ST
CHILLICOTHE, TEXAS 79225 -USA
Location: SOUTH OF U.S. 287 AND ALONG THE SOUTH SIDE OF 3RD STREET, 300 FEET WEST OF AVE. F
Description:
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Comments/Directions:
Chillicothe's depot - now a derelict sitting along the abandoned right-of-way - once had been one of the little yellow wooden depots of Santa Fe's small-town freight agencies. When built in 1909 as a standard 84-foot long "Orient" depot, in 1959, it was then crudely cut to a 24x34 foot building with a lopsided roof line. It's original hip roof is on one end and it's a gable on the cut-off end. It appears it's demise likely will end soon with a fire or bulldozer. Apparently some had sought to preserve it but the owner refuses to sell. This segment of the Orient railroad started at Altus, OK heading south hopefully to reach a Mexican port on the Pacific Ocean, which would have been the closest coast to Kansas City. The line only made it as far south as Sonora, Texas, however. Purchased by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway in the 1920s, this section of line between Chillicothe and Sweetwater was evidently abandoned in the 1990s. Incorporated in 1908, Chillicothe was a cattle ranching community by 1887 when the Fort Worth and Denver City RR built east to west through the county. That main between Dallas and Amarillo line survives as BNSF.
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Added 11/02/2014
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