Eve and I have been waiting months to get to Heritage Park in Plover, Wisconsin and do some photos but had to wait until after Memorial Day for the Park to open. Even then they are only open Saturday’s and Sunday’s between 1:00 and 4:00 PM. We finally got there yesterday, the 2nd weekend they were open this season. I was most interested in the old Bancroft Railroad Depot and the restored Caboose, but also really enjoyed the school and other buildings. Here is a little background on the buildings we shot in and the Caboose.

The Bancroft Railroad Depot was erected on the old Portage Line which ran from Stevens Point to Portage, Wisconsin. The line was known as the P-line and served the towns of Plover, Bancroft, Plainfield, Hancock, Coloma, Montello, Packwaukee and Endeavor. Dating from the very early 1870’s, it was originally developed by the Portage, Winnebago & Superior railroad. On February, 1871 it became the Wisconsin Central, Inc. No exact date exists for when the depot was built but estimates point to 1897. The last train to use this line arrived in Stevens Point, November 8, 1945.

The Canadian National Railroad after purchasing the Wisconsin Central Railway, Ltd., inherited all of the rolling stock of that Railroad and the roads the Wisconsin Central had purchased. In among these was the ex-GB&W's (Greenbay & Western) caboose 117 (originally numbered 617). It was built by International Car Company in 1967

The Hie Corner School was built in about 1894 on the corner of County Trunk V and County Trunk T. This is just a few yards from the Portage-Waupaca County line about 18 miles east of Plover. The school functioned until the late 1940's.

The Post Office was one of several buildings that served the Village of Plover. It was built about 1870.

The Blacksmith’s shop comes from the Town of Buena Vista and one of the earliest homesteads in the county. The original plat of the site shows that the land was a payment to a veteran of the Seminole Wars in Florida but that man sold the land, sight unseen, to Antoine Precourt. Mr. Precourt came to the area before the Civil War and took up farming. The smithy itself was built, probably by Antoine, in about 1880.

Be Sure To Select "ORIGINAL" Size For Best Viewing. (From The Other Sizes List Below Photo)