Living the Dream(sville)...

While railroads quickly displaced the Canal Era in Ohio as a new century dawned in America, and in the Buckeye state, rail was no less significant than the shipping traffic on the canals and lakes.  One tiny town in eastern Ohio became a significant layover as the nation steamed across the new iron highway and a shining beacon to the spirit of volunteerism in Americans.  Today the Dennison Depot stands as testimony to how a few thousand made the lives of a few million better, if only for a moment in time.

Dennison became a depot along the rail line between Columbus and Pittsburgh out of necessity.  100 miles was all a locomotive in the late 1800s could go without replenishing water.  Exactly that distant between the two major metropolises, Dennison was born of and for the railroad.  It was said that everyone in Dennison either worked for the railroad or was related to someone who did. 

As the 20th Century dawned, it was one of the most complete facilities in the country.  Over 40 acres of various railroad shops saw over 3,000 people employed while over 40 trains a day, split evenly between passenger and freight, passed through town. If you were heading from New York westward towards St. Louis, you would pass through Dennison.  The museum sports a sizable working model train display that replicates the Dennison yard in its heyday.

In the early 1900s, working for the railroad had its slower moments that allowed for a little recreation.  The Pennsylvania Railroad sponsored company baseball teams with one formed locally to Dennison that competed against other similar groups.

While freight moved across the country on countless lines with many different companies, it was a very different cargo that brought fame to Dennison.  During the course of World War II over 1 million soldiers being transported cross country, westward for training or eastward for deployment, had a layover in the tiny town. As the war progressed, some returned in hospital cars that tended to their war wounds.  One of the rail cars in the museum is a restored hospital car.

Locals began operating a canteen specifically for the soldiers and gave them goods free of charge.  Nearly 4,000 volunteers from the surrounding eight counties rotated through the canteen all day, every day.  As word spread, young men eagerly anticipated the stop over in Dennison, so much so that as the war rolled on Dennison began to be called Dreamsville, USA. 

As America moved to the highways and airways in postwar America, Dennison, like many other small rail towns, felt the economic impact.  But like other American small towns with a historic gem, the Village of Dennison was able to purchase the depot in 1984 and through a strong grassroots effort renovated the facility into a museum showpiece. 

There is a considerable display of World War II era items, from the hospital car to a look at the homefront that was Dennison during the war years.  Area residents have donated World War II artifacts that are showcased along a wall of one of the rail cars that even include former ration cards (notated as property of the United States government).

Other restored railcars, some now dating back 100 years, tell the story of rail in Ohio, as America, and how it took a village to raise the hopes of over a million young men at a time of need in the nation’s history.  One car, a restored 1914 passenger car, has a rotating exhibit and at the time of this visit had just ended a Civil War remembrance display.

Another rail car is dedicated to the other industries of the region, including coal and gas. An old uniform of a gas worker and several gas furnishings are on display.  Some of the devices are the first (and larger) versions of today's creature comforts of home.

The museum is very kid-friendly, offering a scavenger hunt for those with an eye for the little things along the way.  There are plenty of hands on activities, from the working telegraph and mock coal chute for the engine boiler to sleeper births and dining cars.  One of the passenger compartments even offers vintage Life Magazines from the 1940s.

The depot itself has several rooms of displays, ranging from the typical behind-glass displays to open-air recreated scenes, such as a luggage carriers placed in about the same place they would have been for decades during the station's active years.  The floor is even the authentic paver bricks. 

The original ticket window displays a large chalkboard of directionally bound trains.  Even numbered running one way, odd the other.  Just off the main ticket window today is a restaurant, called Trax, that operates at regular hours.

Outside the depot to the west are several older rail displays, including a caboose, boxcar, flatbed and very old steam locomotive.  To the east, following the rail cars that serve as the bulk of the museum, there is a massive steam locomotive with 5+ foot wheels and bolts the size of a human fist.  The locomotive, a nearly 300,000 pound monster, sits patiently awaiting the funding to be restored. 

Dennison proper offers a small, but interesting, downtown complete with an actual corner department store. The museum is well-represented on Facebook and is a active advocate for Tuscarawas County historical information and activities.  Just up the road is New Philadelphia and minutes beyond the historic sites of Schoenbrunn and Zoar.

While Dennison may not be the type of "happening" town that brings you out for a day, the museum is well worth a stop to spend an hour or so immersing yourself in the rail culture and how a little town can make a lot of people's life special. The little museum that it could, that it could, that it could has climbed the hill, being honored in July of 2011 and placed on the National Register of Historic Landmarks.  And that's something worth blowing your horn about.

- J.