Oregon Illinois Depot, 401 Collins Street, Oregon, IL (2026)

10/12/2026

Pictured is the Merci Train presentation ceremony in the Fourteenth Street yards opposite the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C., February 6, 1949. The Train and all 49 cars arrived aboard the Magellan on February 2, 1949, with over 25,000 onlookers in attendance. On the side of the gift-laden French freighter was painted, "MERCI AMERICA"

Saturday, October 24th at 10:00 at the Oregon Illinois Depot, there will be a “Those Were the Days” presentation entitled The Merci Train AKA the French Gratitude Train, given by the Highland Community College’s Lifelong Learning instructor, Brad Keyes. Keyes is a retired healthcare consultant who assisted hospitals and ambulatory care centers in meeting government standards and regulations for accreditation and licensing. He enjoys conducting research and making presentations on historical topics of interest, as well as family activities, volunteering, and pickleball.

The Merci Train, also known as France's Grateful Response to America, consisted of 49 boxcars gifted by France to the United States in 1949. This gesture was a thank-you for American aid during and after World War II. Each boxcar was filled with gifts from French citizens and was sent to each state (at that time 48) including the Territory of Hawaii. The Merci Train boxcars were opened and turned into travelling exhibits before each state committee distributed the entire contents.

Unfortunately it is believed that the Illinois Merci Train boxcar was burned by workmen preparing the fairgrounds site in Chicago for the present day McCormick Convention Center in either 1949 or 1950.

On a positive note, it is believed that all the gifts were removed from the Illinois boxcar before it was burned. A lucky June 1950 Illinois bride, Miss Millicent Hill, won a beautifully crafted wedding dress to wear at her wedding to Theodore Dudley of Cary, Illinois. Dudley was a World War 2 veteran who had fought in France.

Each of the 49 boxcars had a wedding dress that was gifted to a bride in that state and each state probably had their own criteria for a bride to win the wedding dresses.

http://mercitrain.orgeslinois/ #

The presentations from HCC: Lifelong Learning in Freeport are offered at no cost through a partnership with the Oregon Illinois Depot. Register at this link to help make sure that HCC Lifelong Learning can continue to offer these free events.

https://highland.corsizio.com/event/6a284a38545aeb715dca3af4

Follow HCC Lifelong Learning on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/hcclifelong

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For more information about this presentation or other presentations, please contact Roger Cain 815.757.9715, Chris Martin 815.742.8471 or Otto Dick 815.440.0639.

09/07/2026

The "Those Were the Days" presentation at 10:00 AM at the Oregon Illinois Depot on Saturday, September 26th will feature Dr. Tom Wadsworth of Dixon, back by popular demand. Wadsworth’s presentation will be the George Page Story, the man behind Dixon's Page Park and Page Drive.

George Ham Page (1836-1899), the “first white child" (Euro American settler) to be born in the Palmyra area outside Dixon, later became the area's most successful homegrown entrepreneur. He was responsible for Dixon's Swissville and the world's largest condensed milk factory built in Dixon in 1889. At the time of Page's death in 1899, the factory had “many thousands" of employees. He had a total of 11 factories; four in England, two in Switzerland, two in Norway, one in Germany plus two in the US. Come hear about Page’s life story and the establishment of Swissville, the area west of North Dixon.

Wadsworth is a nationally known speaker and author who holds two master's degrees and a PhD. Since 2023 Wadsworth has been a local history columnist for the Sterling Gazette and the Dixon Telegraph. His popular new book, Distinctive Dixon: Fascinating Stories of Dixon’s Rich History, is now in its third printing.

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For more information about this presentation or other presentations, please contact Roger Cain 815.757.9715, Chris Martin 815.742.8471 or Otto Dick 815.440.0639.

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.

Oregon Illinois Depot

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