Railroad

    The 10.37 mile line of the Milwaukee Road from Mazomanie to Prairie du Sac was constructed in 1881. Six citizens of Sauk City and Prairie du Sac negotiated with the Milwaukee Road officials for this line. Handing over $25,000 sealed the deal and a new era began. H. C.  Keysar sold his steam boat, "The Ellen Hardy", and shipped his 100,000 bushels per year business by rail. On a Monday in February, 1900 H. C. Keysar shipped eleven carloads of stock. Three trains a day served the village daily with the most important item being the mail. The newspapers would arrive a day and a half late but would still be news. In 1909 the wooden railroad bridge was replaced with a steel one strong enough to handle the heavy equipment needed for building the dam. The track ended at the stock yard behind 540 Water Street, about four blocks north of the depot pictured below. By the 1940's the railroad station was closed and the rail bed sold to  the village. In 1942 the rail bed was purchased again by the railroad so supplies could be delivered to the Badger Ordnance Works to make powder for the war effort. By 1970 only three trains a week came to the village. today the railroad bridge in Sauk City is missing one pier and two spans because the river currant eroded out the foundation of the second pier on the Sauk City side and made it unstable. No more trains are able to come to the village from the south.

Photo of the Prairie du Sac depot taken by F. S. Eberhart in 1908. This depot was torn down in the 1950's and the area filled in for a village parking lot.