Plains caboose mystery finally unraveled

Danielle Switalski

When driving down McGowan Street, an unfamiliar sight meets the eye behind the local Sinclair; a caboose, straight out of the 1970s. Where did this caboose come from and how did it come to sit in the middle of Plains?

The 35,000 pound caboose came from Arlee and was purchased by Kathy Abarr and Mark Madrid, current Missoula residents who also own the two buildings opposite from one another in Plains and land in Paradise. Kathy has wanted her very own caboose for the past few years after getting to visit their friends’ caboose. Not thinking owning a caboose was a plausible thing to do, Kathy let the thought fall away. Then, one morning in early September, Mark asked his wife if she still wanted a caboose because low and behold the Missoulian Classified section was showing one for sale by a gentleman living in Arlee.

Initially, Kathy thought the caboose would make a nice addition to their land in Paradise, however, soon realized their enclosed land was not an ideal location for it, as the narrow road was not easily accessible for the size of the caboose.

Once again the desire to own a caboose fizzled, until, on a trip back from Plains on September 3rd, Mark suggested they put the caboose in front of her building on McGowan Street. Kathy took to this idea and immediately went to Plains the next day to find out the measurements of the caboose, spoke with Mayor Michael Brinson to understand the necessary setbacks and spoke with the neighbors to see if they would be opposed to seeing a caboose outside their front windows, to which no one had a problem.

It was on Tuesday, November 10 that everything came together.

The couple hired local Wayne King to prepare the site at the building, Bob Hermiston to dig a hole for future development at the site, D & G Crane to lift the caboose onto a Fleischhauer Trucking flat bed for it to be transported from Arlee to Plains, Rocky Rail built and transported the tracks from Missoula which were first placed onto the ground, then the wheels, which were built around 1918, were placed on the tracks and finally the caboose was placed on top. All of the placement was done in one day.

Now that the heavy lifting is complete, Kathy has plans to revamp the caboose and use it for educational purposes and a town attraction.

“I am really in hopes that the people of town like it and it is seen as an asset to the community and I want to use it as a tool to encourage young people to be very interested in education and learning more,” said Kathy.

Kathy plans to speak with the schools and teachers in the hopes of setting up an incentive program of sorts for the kids to come and see the caboose, walk through it and have an on-sight history lesson as well participating in a program that involves the students in enhancing their educations.

Once the caboose is up and ready for public visits, which Kathy suspects will be this coming Spring, she will start hosting events for the public to come out and walk through it. These events will be centered around donations, where visitors can walk through the caboose, get a lesson on the history of the caboose and choose a local organization in which to place their donation.

“We’ll have little jars and people can put their donations in whatever little jar that they want to support in town, so I’m not making that choice, they will make it,” said Abarr.

Kathy and Mark also have plans to incorporate the caboose into town events such as Plains Days and the Sanders County Fair.

For now, while Kathy works on the revamping the caboose, it sits in the middle of town as a new attraction. Kathy will also keep the ‘no trespassing’ signs up on the caboose as it is not safe for people to climb on yet. However, Spring will be here in no time and the caboose will be ready for visitors.

“I would prefer not to have the ‘no trespass’ signs everywhere, but because of liability I have to,” added Kathy.