The Railroad Cometh

Dowagiac Daily News - Michigan / March 8, 2007

The Railroad Cometh

By JOHN EBY / Dowagiac Daily News
Thursday, March 8, 2007 10:13 AM EST

Vestiges of Niles’ rich railroad history remain. Trains earned the Four Flags City its other nickname, the “Garden City,” for the flowers around the depot featured in three Hollywood films.


The Second Street tunnel, opened for $14,000 on Feb. 8, 1892, is still there.

Taxis and livery wagons ferried passengers and freight through the sandstone archway when there were two train stations 2,800 feet apart.

“How many communities had that?” Niles historian Donna Turtle Ochenryder asked Wednesday night at The Museum on Southwestern Michigan College’s spring lecture series, which continues April 4 with a Civil War program and concludes May 2 on war correspondent Webb Miller.

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