In 1918 the old Cache Valley Railroad was merged with the Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railroad to form the Utah Idaho Central Railroad or UIC as most people knew it by. The company had street cars in Logan, Ogden and Brigham City. The main line went from Ogden to Preston, ID along the old Utah Northern grade as far as Mendon. There were passengers as well as a dedicated freight unit. The route in Cache Valley went from Mendon, Wellsville, Hyrum, Millville, Providence, Logan, Hyde Park, Smithfield, Richmond, Lewiston and on to Preston in Idaho. Before the Cache County School District had buses, it used the dedicated school trains to move students to North Cache and South Cache high schools.
The Utah Idaho Central or UIC was in Mendon from 1916 until early 1947, when it stopped operations. The Station on Mendon has been refinished with a kitchen and restrooms added to the west side of the building. Contractor Paul Willie and his crew helped restore and save the building.
William, Isaac Sorenson had a coal business in back of the Mendon Station for many years. He would order in a car or more at a time and dispense it to the people of Mendon. You could pick it up yourself or he would bring it to you for a small charge. This service helped Mendon boom. There is a switch which you can see if the picture above to show where he pulled the coal car in and would switch it to go the other way to send it back.
At one time, after the trains had stopped running through Mendon in about 1947 or 1948, one half of the building was used as the post office and the other half an apartment.
What has come to be called the Mendon Station, has had several names in the past. The town is indeed lucky to have such a historic building in such wonderful restored condition. Paul Willie and his crew were able to use private money and time donations to restore the building. Mendon Station is one of the last older community structures left in Mendon.
I had no idea all the history of this building. There is a lot more about it too! This is just a small clip of it... I am finding it pretty cool that we get to be married in an old train station :)
