User:Ishtar456/history of SNHS

F. Nelson Blount, the heir to the largest seafood processor in the United States, was an avid railroad enthusiast. When he was just seventeen years old he wrote a book on steam power and later began amassing one of the largest collections of antique steam locomotives in the Unites States. By 1964, part of his collection, 25 steam locomotives from the United States and Canada, 10 other locomotives, and 25 pieces of rolling stock, was housed at North Walpole, New Hampshire. The Monadnock, Steamtown & Northern Railroad, as the enterprise was then called, ran excursions between Keene, NH and Westmoreland, NH.

After a failed attempt to convince the the State of New Hampshire to take over control of the bulk of the collection, in 1962, Blount established the "Steamtown Foundation for the Preservation of Steam and Railroad Americana", in 1964, to operate Steamtown, USA. The non-profit charitable, educational organization was to have nine un-salaried directors, including the five incorporators of which Blount was one. The other incorporators were former New Hampshire governor, Lane Dwinell; Emile Bussiere; Robert L. Mallat, Jr., mayor of Keene; and Bellows Falls Municipal Judge, Thomas P. Salmon, who later became governor of Vermont. The president of the Campbell Soup Company, William B. Murphy, who had also served as National Chairman of Radio Free Europe, and the vice president of Blount Seafood, Fredrick Richardson were among the other directors. The first order of business for the Steamtown Foundation was to acquire the Blount collection at North Walpole, and relocate it to property once owned by the Rutland Railroad, in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

F. Nelson Blount was killed when his private airplane hit a tree during an emergency landing, in Marlboro, New Hampshire, August 31, 1967. By that time a good deal of Blount's collection was controlled by the Steamtown Foundation and had been relocated to Bellows Falls. Blount owned several corporations and one, the Green Mountain Railroad (GMRC), controlled the tracks that lay between Walpole, Bellows Falls and Chester, VT., which Steamtown was to use for its excursions. When Blount died most of the controlling stock of the GMRC was tranferred to the president of the railroad, Robert Adams. By 1976, the relationship between Steamtown and GMRC was strained as the two organizations fought over maintenance of the tracks, which were owned by the state of Vermont. In addition, the steam excursions that Steamtown sponsored were in violation of Vermont's pollution regulations, but the railroad was able to operate for several years under waivers issued by the state. By 1978, the Steamtown Foundation had begun scouting for a new location for Steamtown, USA.

In 1980, The Chairman of the Board of Steamtown Foundation, Ray Holland resigned after accusing the board of incompetence. His resignation was followed by that of Roberta Barbera, a long time director of the board. In the year that followed, Steamtown did not run excursions. Don Ball, Jr. had taken over direction of Steamtown by this time and discovered that the excursion train did not meet federal safety guidelines. In 1981, despite its vast holdings of vintage railroad stock, Steamtown had only 17,000 visitors, while Connecticut's Essex Valley Railroad, which ran two small engines, had 139,000 visitors. Even in its best year, 1973, the Vermont location had attracted only 65,000 visitors.

Self-syndicated newspaper columnist Michael McManus once said that his goal in writing his weekly column was "to suggest answers to problems of the old industrial states." In the March 1982 a substantial article by McManus appeared in the Bangor Daily News. In the article, McManus proposed several reasons why a city, like Chicago, Pittsburgh, Scranton, etc. might find the addition of a tourist attraction like Steamtown beneficial. McManus went on to explain why the business was failing in Vermont. Among the reasons the article gave for poor attendance at the the Vermont site were: past failed management, an isolated location and the lack of signs on interstate 91, which the state opposed. In addition to these problems, the roof of the largest storage shed on the property had collapsed under heavy snow the previous winter, damaging several pieces of equipment. Among the injured were the Canadian Pacific Railway No. 1293, which had served on Vermont's "Bicentennial Train" and on the movie Terror Train (1979), and the Meadow River Lumber Company No. 1 Shay.

When asked by McManus to describe the value of the Steamtown collection, Jim Boyd, editor of Railfan magazine said, "Everything there is no longer obtainable anywhere, weather it is the "Big Boy" [Union Pacific No. 4012] or the Rahway Valley No. 15, a nice-sized locomotive any museum would give a right arm for. Most of the other large collections do not have any serviceable equipment." McManus closed his argument for the relocation of Steamtown by pointing out, "What is at stake is more that tourism and jobs. It is a significant part of America's past before the welder's torch is turned on the likes of the 1877 "Prince of Liege", the rare Union Pacific diamond stack, etc. The steel alone is worth $3 million.

In June 1983, McManus wrote about Steamtown again, this time announcing that Scranton had taken his suggestion. He said that other cities in contention for the relocation were Springfield, Massachusetts and Willimantic, Connecticut. "But on May 24, Scranton signed a contract to get it, pledging to raise $2 million to cover the cost of moving 40 ancient steam engines and 60 cars, few of which are operable, and to create a museum." on October 23, 1983, Steamtown sponsored its last Vermont excursion, using Canadian Pacific 1246 to pulled a "dozen or so cars" on a 100 mile round trip from Riverside station to Ludlow, VT, and Scranton began raising money for the the move.

When Scranton agreed to take on Steamtown, it was estimated that the museum and excursion business would attract 200,000- 400,000 visitors to the city every year. In anticipation of this economic boon, the city and a private developer invested $13 million into renovating the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Station and transforming it into a Hilton hotel, at a time when the unemployment rate in the city was 13 percent. Only 60,000 visitors showed up at Steamtown in 1987, and the 1988 excursions were canceled. After only three years it was $2.2 million in debt and facing bankruptcy. Part of the problem was the cost of restoration of the new property and the deteriorating equipment. In addition, while the tourists in Vermont had enjoyed the sites of cornfields, farms, covered bridged, and a waterfall and gorge on a Steamtown excursion, the Scranton trip to Moscow, PA cut right through one of the nations largest junk yards. The junk yard, which Ralph Nader had described as "the eighth wonder of the world", was an eye sore that was also visible from route 81.

In 1986, the House of Representatives, under the urging of Scranton native, Pennsylvania Representative, Joseph M. McDade, voted to approved the spending of $8 million to study the collection and to begin the process of making it a National Historic Site. By 1995, Steamtown was acquired by the National Parks Service (NPS) at a total cost of $66 million, and in 1995 opened as Steamtown National Historic Site. In preparation for its acquisition of the collection, the NPS had conducted historical research during 1987 and 1988 on the equipment that still remained in the foundation's possession. This research was used for a Scope of Collections Statement for Steamtown National Historic Site and was published in 1991 under the title Steamtown Special History Study. Aside from providing concise histories of the the equipment, the report also made recommendations as to whether or not each piece belonged in the now government-funded collection. Historical significance to the United States was a criterion of the recommendations. Many of the piece of equipment that did not meet the reports recommendations were sold or trade for pieces that had historical significance to the region.

Steamtown National Historic Site does not consider the history of Steamtown USA as part of its own history. Its official website makes this statement regarding its New England roots: "Steamtown National Historic Site was created in 1986 to preserve the history of steam railroading in America, concentrating on the era 1850 through 1950. This is the mission of the park. The park was not created to preserve the history of Steamtown USA. Our site does touch on the history of railroad preservation, specifically in our History Museum. The work of F. Nelson Blount, creator of the former Steamtown USA, and other pioneers of the steam preservation movement, is a part (albeit a small part) of the story Steamtown NHS has been charged with preserving."

Union Pacific 4012, "Big Boy"