How do I get tickets to Wadena Depot?

Tickets and current schedules are available on the operator's official website at https://www.wadenachamber.com/.

Photo by McGhiever, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Wadena Depot

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Upcoming Events

No ticketed events are currently listed for Wadena Depot. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.

Check the operator’s website for current hours and special runs, or subscribe to event alerts and we’ll email you when something is scheduled.

About Wadena Depot

Step into Wadena's restored 1915 Northern Pacific depot, now a visitor center, railroad museum, and event venue in the heart of this Minnesota crossroads town. Exhibits recall the railway that drove Wadena's founding and growth, and the main line outside is still active, so BNSF freights regularly rumble past the platform. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

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History

The Wadena Depot was built in 1915 by the Northern Pacific Railway, which served the central Minnesota town from the station until passenger trains ended in 1971. Wadena itself was a child of the railroad era — first settled in 1871, with a post office by 1873 and incorporation in 1881 — and when the depot was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989 (as the Northern Pacific Passenger Depot), it was specifically for representing the railway's impact on the town's establishment and growth. After decades without passengers, the building was restored in 2008 and reopened as a visitor center, railroad museum, and event venue, while the rail line beside it remains busy with BNSF Railway freight traffic.

Nearby

Wadena sits at the crossroads of U.S. Highways 10 and 71 in central Minnesota, about 160 miles northwest of Minneapolis–Saint Paul. The county seat of Wadena County, it is an agricultural community of roughly 4,300 that serves as a hub for the surrounding tri-county area. History buffs can seek out the town's other National Register properties — the circa-1885 Commercial Hotel, the 1912 Wadena Fire and City Hall, and the Peterson-Biddick seed and feed buildings — and the city takes its name from Chief Wadena, a 19th-century Ojibwe leader.