This is a short history lesson about trains in "Little Chicago" or Nephi, Utah of 130 years ago.

If you are coming to Nephi, Utah for the Ute Stampede Rodeo, you will undoubtedly hear the train going through Nephi with it's loud whistle. It is a few octaves higher than the first train that came to town on May 3, 1879. Back then, Nephi became known as "Little Chicago" as there was enormous activity around the depot, which was on First South and three blocks down from Main. That street was commonly called "Depot Street" and lined with business' such as "Co-Op Furniture; J.W. Summerhays Wool; Livery Stable; Booth and Broadhead Harness and Saddles, then Harris Blacksmith shop and in 1888 it was Cooper and Pyper, with all of those names being popular pioneer names. You can't get to the rodeo grounds on that street anymore, but we wanted to see if we could find the Depot that was built there and still used when I was a kid. Prior to 1879, the trains from up north only came to Santaquin hill, or what us old folks call "by Doc Steele's place". In those days it was a settlement referred to as "York", as Nephi freighters had to drive their teams up there to get loads for anything south. We have three photo copies of trains from those days, taken from the history book called "They Left A Record" and information from Alice P. McCune's book of the History of Juab County. Yesterday, we interviewed a Union Pacific employee where the Depot used to be, trying to find the exact spot in the second photo. We had to rely on this writer's recollection when the U.P guy responded with "Your guess is as good as mine". After a preliminary investigation, four of the Nephi Jones Boys believe we found the Depot with the only thing remaining being the heavy timber dock area. We then traveled up "Track Street" to try to match the area where the last photo was taken, which was of the Sanpete Valley Railroad. That was built in 1880, to haul coal from the mines of Wales in Sanpete County, to the main track built the year before in Nephi. We took a photo of the area we think where the original photo was taken, as it is right across the street from where the "Central School" used to be. That also became Nephi High. Our photo matches the home still standing across the street by the Veterans Memorial.