Ahnapee-Western Railway Subject of Historical Society Meeting

Ahnapee & Western Railway. Photo submitted by Andy Laurent.

Ahnapee & Western Railway. Photo submitted by Andy Laurent.

The Door County Historical Society will host its monthly dinner meeting featuring a presentation on the Ahnapee-Western Railway on April 27. The catered dinner meeting will be at 6 pm at Prince of Peace Church, 1756 Michigan St. in Sturgeon Bay.

Andy Laurent will tell the story of the Ahnapee & Western Railway, sharing many images from his collection accumulated over the past 20 years. The program content will expand on a 2013 presentation that focused on the stations and industries of the A&W. This time, Laurent will share some of the little-known events that took place over the railroad’s 74 years of operation in Door County. He will discuss the railroad’s cars and locomotives, labor strikes, and train wrecks. A special feature will be evidence of big plans that the railroad made that never came to fruition, including a car ferry terminal in Sturgeon Bay and an extension of the railroad to the southwest.

Laurent is a railroad official living in the Madison area. He developed a detailed knowledge base of the Ahnapee & Western Railway through 20 years of research specific to the company, its employees and customers. His family is from Kewaunee County, where his interest in the A&W began as a boy while walking the railroad tracks around Casco with his father.

Scaturo’s will cater the dinner. The dinner program fee is $24. To make reservations, mail checks to the Door County Historical Society, P. O. Box 71, Sturgeon Bay 54235.