(Published Saturday, April 28, 2007 10:26:52 PM CST)
A d v e r t i s e m e n t
By Carla McCann Gazette staff
MILTON-Milton is depending on rail to help fill its industrial parks.
Without the railroad, city officials say, Milton wouldn't have attracted United Ethanol, Cargill or New England Extrusion to its Eastside Industrial Park.
The railroad also is vital for Farm City Elevator and Tomah Products on the west side of the city.
"If we did not have rail access, we would not have landed the developments," said city Administrator Todd Schmidt. "Rail-served industrial sites are a commodity for two reasons. One reason is that there are industries that rely heavily on rail, and cannot survive without it. A second reason is that vacant rail-served industrial sites are hard to come by.
"So, because the city's industrial parks are situated with access to rail, they are attractive to a greater number of potential developments who are looking for an array of transportation options," Schmidt said.
The city has a long history with the railroad. Trains whistles have echoed across Milton for 155 years.
Joseph Goodrich, the city's founder, was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Milton in 1852. He mortgaged his farm to help raise $250,000 to extend the rails from Waukesha to Milton, according to stories in Milton Historical Society archives.
At a meeting in 1850 with Milwaukee & Mississippi Road executives Goodrich said he could raise $3,000 on the farm by traveling back to his eastern roots to find investors.
Before the meeting ended, Goodrich also encouraged the 300 other farmers in attendance to invest in the city's future by bringing the railroad here.
The rails were built on a vision, but it was the railroad that brought prosperity to the community.
In the past, local farmers depended on the iron horse to transport crops to markets in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. In addition to regularly scheduled freight trains, the community was served daily by more than a dozen passenger trains.
The passenger trains are gone, but the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad short line rail service has become a major player in Milton's economy.
Wisconsin & Southern was created in 1980 as a regional service operating in the southern half of Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. It travels more than 600 miles of branch and mainline track through 20 counties on both sides of the state line.
In Milton, trains make regular deliveries of corn meal to Cargill and raw plastic resin to New England Extrusion.
"A high amount of our raw material comes by rail," said Christopher Brissette, shipping and receiving manager at New England Extrusion.
The railroad was a key factor in the Massachusetts company building in Milton, Brissette said.
At United Ethanol, rail tankers line a spur in front of the building. The cars will leave the plant with their ethanol cargo destined for national markets, said Ken Lucht, Wisconsin & Southern community development spokesman.
Milton has actively pursued new residents for its industrial parks, Lucht said.
The railroad was one of the primary reasons Tomah Products located to the city in the early 1970s, said Greg Linder, area site manager with Air Products.
"The company wouldn't be here without the railroad," Linder said.
Rail cars deliver raw materials to the Milton company and transport about a dozen products to a diverse and national market, Linder said.
"In Milton, we rally around our railway heritage," Schmidt said. "It's a big part of what Milton is and will be."
