Oregon Illinois Depot

Name: Oregon Illinois Depot
Address: 401 Collins Street, Oregon, IL, 61061, US
Telephone: +18157579715

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Oregon Illinois Depot

The very first depot in Oregon was a two-story building constructed in 1872. History Museum

08/06/2026

As a part of the Oregon Depot Series "Those Were the Days", we would like to make you aware of an upcoming event. This event will be held at the Oregon Coliseum CMAAA 124 n. 4th.st.

Dr. Norm Moline, author of the book Mobility and the Small Town, 1900-1930: Transportation Change in Oregon, Illinois, will present the key points of his book at the Oregon Coliseum at 10 AM on Saturday August 22. The primary focus of the book is the rapid changes that communities were feeling during those years due to the arrival of the automobile. Transition from horse and buggy changed lives and communities dramatically. That started the mobility we now take for granted.

Norm is a Professor Emeritus of Geography at Augustana College where he taught for 45 years. He has a Ph.D from the University of Chicago. This book was his dissertation. Because of his book, he was selected to be one of the advisors for a Turner Network four-hour series on the history of the automobile in the U.S. entitled "Driving Passion." The producers of that series chose Oregon to show some impacts of the automobile on average citizens and small towns.

07/20/2026

Pictured is Pat Donahue of Oregon, overseeing section 337 as an usher at Busch Stadium in St. Louis. (Photo provided by Pat Donahue)

The Oregon depot program, Those Were The Days, will be presented on Saturday, August 1st at 10:00 instead of the last Saturday of the month, as it usually is. Locals, Pat Donahue, Gary Mueller and sports’ reporter, Andy Colbert will talk about major league baseball, especially the St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball team.

Long-time Oregon resident Pat Donahue fulfilled a lifetime goal of joining the St. Louis Cardinal organization as an usher at Busch Stadium this year. He will share his unique experience of going from a retired bank president to commuting back and forth from Oregon to St. Louis in his new job capacity.

Joining him will be Gary Mueller from Oregon. Gary covered sports for the Metro East Journal and St. Louis Post Dispatch for 38 years. He also has the distinction of having been the official scorekeeper for the Cardinals, going back to the 1980s when the stadium converted from manual to electronic scoring.

Area sports reporter Andy Colbert will moderate the discussion. Both Pat and Gary will delve into the mystique of baseball and some of its history. They will also examine the changing nature of the sport, along with numerous other aspects. You won’t want to miss this one!

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For more information about this or other depot programs, please contact Roger Cain 815.757.9715, Chris Martin 815.742.8472 or Otto Dick 815.440.0639.

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Lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan Pat Donahue of Oregon working as an usher for the team this summer.

https://www.shawlocal.com/ogle-county-news/2026/07/05/lifelong-st-louis-cardinals-fan-pat-donahue-of-oregon-working-as-usher-for-team-this-summer/

06/23/2026

The Those Were The Days program that was originally scheduled for March 2026, Riley Jacobsen, known to radio listeners as Riley O'Neil, had to be postponed. The depot is happy to announce that Jacobsen's program was rescheduled for Saturday, June 25th at 10:00 am.

Jacobsen grew up in Oregon and is a 1981 graduate of Oregon High School. He is the longest-tenured broadcaster in Rockford radio history, having been on the air since 1983. He's also WROK radio's longest serving morning show host, holding court each weekday morning for the last 25 years. He's interviewed 5 presidents, 6 governors, multiple US senators, and countless movie and TV stars. Riley is also a multiple award-winning commercial producer and voiceover artist whose work runs all over the country. Riley has been married to Amy, the love of his life, for almost 35 years. They have 2 adult kids, Spencer and Molly.

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For more information about this or other depot programs, please contact Roger Cain 815.757.9715, Chris Martin 815.742.8472 or Otto Dick 815.440.0639.

06/13/2026

Chris Martin will be the Master of Ceremonies for the 250 anniversary of America celebration today at the
Oregon Illinois Depot starting at 10:30.

Depot - Saturday June 13th – 10:30p-6p

10:30a – Start – Welcome - Chris Martin
11:00a – Essayists
11:30a – OHS Band
12p-1p – Jim Henkel
1p-2p – Denny Jacobs
2p-3p – Ira Hougan
3p-4p – Steve Catron
4p-5p - Wellstrung
10:30a-6p - Silverview Tours:
10:30a-6p - Rotary Raffle
10:30a-6p - Food and Drinks – Hectors

05/19/2026

Pictured is a colorized postcard of the Chicago North Western Railroad Depot which was located on the SW corner of Main & Cedar Streets in Rockford, Illinois. Built in the 1880s and torn down in the 1950s, it was one of four depots that rose to prominence in Rockford; the Chicago & North Western, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (the Milwaukee Road) and the Illinois Central. Railroads were key to Rockford’s rise as a thriving manufacturing and commercial center.

The “Those Were the Days” presenter at the Oregon Depot on Saturday, May 30th at 10:00 am will be Rockford historian, Lynell Cannell. Canell is a Winnebago Boone County Genealogical Society board member, a speaker and docent at Rockford's Ethnic Heritage Museum and a presenter at Rock Valley College's Center for Learning in Retirement. Canell will speak about the Rockford Railroad Convention of 1846, the start of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad, the first railroad in Chicago and the first to serve Rockford. She’ll talk about the completion of the route from Chicago to Freeport in 1853 and the eventual merger with the Chicago & North Western in 1864-65. She’ll talk about its visionary first president, William B. Ogden, the 1st Mayor of Chicago, about the route across northern Illinois, local depots, the earliest locomotives (and where you can still visit the first one!). Canell will show recent photos that will help you recognize parts of its route that you may encounter as you visit the communities of Rockford, Winnebago, and Pecatonica. Canell thinks you’ll want to hear the story about the first railroad, the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad.

For more information about this or other presentations or if you have a depot program topic you’d like to see or present, contact Roger Cain 815-757-9715, Chris Martin 815-742-8471 or Otto Dick 815-440-0639.

04/17/2026

Pictured are bison of Nachusa Grasslands with their young calves. Calving season at the grasslands occurs primarily in April and May. Most cows have a single calf following a gestational period of 285 days (about 9 & ½ months). Calves are cared for by their mothers for about nine months. This period is crucial for the survival of the calves and is influenced by several ecological factors.

The presenter for our Those Were The Days program at the Oregon Illinois Depot on Saturday, April 25th at 10:00 am, will be Oregon resident, Mark Herman. A Nachusa Grasslands volunteer, Herman will talk about the history and evolution of the critical grassland habitat which the Nature Conservancy has protected and restored since 1986. Herman will also talk about the return of wild bison to the Illinois prairie in 2014.

What began as small prairie remnants and oak savannas interspersed with corn fields, has been carefully managed and restored to more than 4,000 acres of prairie, woodland, savanna, and wetland habitats. In 2014, the first wild bison herd in Illinois was brought to the Nachusa Grasslands to complete the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. Nachusa Grasslands is a community-based volunteer supported operation and has become a model for habitat restoration and science research, making it one of the best preserves in North America.

Herman is the former Superintendent of Education at the Byron Forest Preserve District in Byron and Curator of Education at Midway Village Museum in Rockford. He is an active volunteer with The Nature Conservancy’s Nachusa Grasslands, Middle Rock Conservation Partners and the Chana School Museum.

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The Those Were The Days programs are always the last Saturday of every month at 10:00 am. For more information about this program or other programs, please contact Roger Cain 815.757.9715, Chris Martin 815.742.8471 or Otto Dick 815.440.0639.

Address

401 Collins Street
Oregon, IL
61061

Opening Hours

9am - 12pm

Telephone

+18157579715

Website

http://www.oregondepot.com/

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