ID: All aboard! City celebrates 100 years of historic Boise train depot

Wednesday will mark 100 years since the first passenger train arrived at the Boise Depot, and the city is celebrating the landmark with four days of events.

The Spanish-style depot on the West Eastover Terrace hill overlooking the Capitol has become an icon over the last century, often featured on postcards and popular as a wedding venue.

While today the building is used to teach local train history and host events, the Boise Depot was once a economic engine for growth, making the arrival of the Union Pacific’s main line on April 16, 1925 one of the most important moments in the city’s history, according to Boise’s Department of Arts and History Director Jennifer Stevens.

The depot put Boise on the map — both literally and figuratively, Stevens said.

“Up until then, our main line train passed by Boise, and you had to take a special branch line to get into the city,” Stevens said. “So there had been for 40 years, boosters in Boise that had been clamoring for the main line to come through Boise. It meant economic development. It meant that when people were traveling transcontinentally from west to east or east to west, they had to now come through Boise and see the incredible resources that we had.”

The Boise Depot’s Centennial celebration kicked off Sunday with a new permanent history exhibit, bell tower access, model trains, classic cars, guided history tours and children’s activities.

Mayor Lauren McLean will “flip the switch” at 8:30 p.m. to unveil an animated projection display by local artists reimagining a future with more passenger trains and improved public transportation. The art can be viewed each evening at dusk through Wednesday.

The festivities will continue Monday with free history tours, and Tuesday with a conversation led by McLean and Valley Regional Transit CEO Elaine Clegg on the future of passenger rails in Boise.

The centennial celebration will wrap up Wednesday with a “Roaring 1920s” themed-party featuring a cake and commemoration, as well as live music, kids activities, exhibits and a photo booth.

A full schedule of events can be found on the city’s website.

Dave Wilson, treasurer of the Caldwell Model Railroad Club and Historical Society, helped set up extensive model trains depicting Idaho scenes on display at the Sunday celebration. Children and adults alike gathered around the sets as they looped over painted hills and under bridges.

Wilson said it’s easy to get wrapped up in the “romance” of trains and train travel.

“Railroads were really important in populating, expanding and opening up this whole area,” Wilson said. “The transcontinental railroad did a lot of huge things for this country. The history is there, and most folks maybe don’t realize that, or maybe just take it for granted. We try to tell folks, this is a part of our community.”

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