The joint Milwaukee Road / Soo Line depot at Pembine, Wis., burned Monday.
Alexander D. Mitchell IV
PEMBINE, Wis. — A fire, believed to be arson, destroyed the joint Milwaukee Road/Soo Line depot at Pembine, Wis., Monday morning. The fire, reported at 10:43 a.m., according to local media sources, burned the structure to the foundation, rendering it a complete loss.
Two teenage boys have been arrested in connection with the fire. The boys, ages, 14 and 16, are both from the Pembine area of northeastern Wisconsin, the Marinette County Sheriff’s Office says. Investigators did not release any more information about the boys or how they may have been involved.
A variety of construction dates have been given for the joint depot with two platforms and offices, at the crossing of the north-south Milwaukee Road line from Green Bay to Ontonagon (now the Escanaba & Lake Superior) and the east-west Soo Line from Sault Ste. Marie-St. Paul (later Wisconsin Central and now CN, with E&LS trackage rights from Pembine to Wells).
Although local news reports say the depot dated back to 1887, one account states the current depot was built in 1896, to replace a similar one that was destroyed when a Milwaukee train collided with a Soo Line train. The Railroad Station Historical Society online database gives the building’s construction date as 1914. Canadian National and the E&LS shared use of the surviving depot in recent years for storage of maintenance of way materials.
Try them as adults, keep this felony on their records for life, force 100% restitution, regardless of the time, and bring back public flogging.
Like the way you think ANNA !!
These will likely not be held accountable – the offenses will be purged from their record when they become adults. This is more often the case as younger children become more involved with criminal damage to property. Had $100,000 or more of broken windows at a nearby museum – neighbors know the perpetrators but the county govt cannot prosecute because the laws protect the underage criminals here.
@Steven Burns: I agree it doesn’t explain them all. Most arson is revenge motivated, not due to a fascination with fire.
Can’t tell you how many preserved rail oriented buildings got torched after the preservation folks tooted their horn in the press that they had raised the money to save it.
One depressed town raised $14,000 to save an old Illinois Central freight house. The day after they got it moved, vandals torched it.
The PR they created in the local press was successful in raising the money, but it also made it target #1 for those resentful punks.
John Rice– I think you’re giving these idiots’ brains too much credit. It’s much more likely that they burned it merely for cheap thrills. I seriously doubt that these teenage punks were conscious of the concept of “preservation.”
Terrible. Make the boys rebuild the station.
I loved that station because of it’s unique shape being situated between Highway 141 and the diamond, It was in pretty good shape for it’s age. This is truly a tragedy. I will really miss seeing it there.
Hang them from the highest tree in the land and feed them Ex-Lax.
The above comments are generic in nature and do not form the basis for an attorney/client relationship. They do not constitute legal advice. I am not your attorney. Find your own damn lawyer.
I mentioned this before, the more we revere old stations and make large press to preserve them, it in turn motivates those locally who have very little themselves to burn them down to show everyone that its not as important as they think.
I am not saying this is right, I am letting you know what drives some kids or people to burn down these old train stations.
I know some years back vandals burned down half of the Canaan Union Station in Canaan, Ct. I know that part of the station was rebuilt to look like the original. I don’t know where the funds came from to do it. Maybe it was paid for by the perpetrators insurance company or a fine. Perhaps someone out there remembers. May be in idea for this case.
In some states, local news do give out names fir minor who commit certain crimes. But since some news cross state lines especially thru “wire” they don’t mention names, here in FL Ive seen plenty of local news mention minors names when the crimes are felonious,
This was a special depot for me. Thanks to friendly Soo Line crews, I was able to ride in the locomotive cabs of Soo trains #28 and #29 from Neenah,WI to Pembine and back on three different occasions during 1972-73, hanging out at the Pembine depot between the westbound and eastbound runs. There were six freights daily through Pembine in 1972 (Two on MILW, four on SOO) and the depot then was a train order office for both railroads, with both daytime and night operators. I hope they punish those teenage punks for what they did.
I hope the “parents” have insurance or large bank accounts to cover their kids behind.
How did we ever establish not giving out names because of age? Its time to scare these vandals off the property with prosecution, fines and lots of time behind bars.. It has become a playground out there.