Dedication Ceremony & Ribbon Cutting: Heritage Site Sign Honoring Whitman Station on the Baker Railroad
The Blue Mountain narrow gauge engine ran from Wallula to Walla Walla from 1878-1881, and south from Whitman Station to Blue Mountain Station in Oregon from 1881-1883.
The public is invited to a dedication ceremony at 1:30 pm on April 5, 2025 at the Whitman Mission National Historic Site for a new heritage site sign on Last Chance Road honoring the historic Whitman Station on the narrow gauge Baker Railroad and its branch line running to Milton-Freewater and beyond.
The ceremony will take place at the Whitman Mission auditorium and will feature brief talks by retired Whitman professor Clark Colohan who has recently published a book on the railroad, officials of Columbia Rail which operates the present railway in the Walla Walla area, and others involved in historic research on the narrow gauge line. Following the talks there will be a ribbon-cutting for the sign at the crossing of Last Chance Road by the current standard gauge track where the station was located.
The history of the railroad station and the rail lines it served will also be featured on the website of the citizens group Walla Walla 2020, which has placed the sign along with signage at twenty other heritage sites in the county, and whose history websites are found at ww2020.net/historic-sites/.
For more information, please contact Daniel Clark, Walla Walla 2020 coordinator, at 509-629-2791 or danielnclark12@gmail.com.
