Cascade Rail Foundation Walt Ainsworth Photograph Collection

In 1999, a group of volunteers formed “The Friends of the South Cle Elum Depot”. Their goal was the rehabilitation and historic preservation of the Milwaukee Road facilities at South Cle Elum, which were showing the effects of time and abandonment. This group evolved into the Cascade Rail Foundation, or CRF, as it is known today. Cascade Rail Foundation is now a Washington State nonprofit corporation, and operates under a 501(c)(3) tax-deductible status. It is the vision of the Cascade Rail Foundation, in partnership with Washington State Parks , that the South Cle Elum Rail Yard Historic District, in the Palouse to Cascades State Park Trail, will become a significant resource for the region and the nation. The goal is to preserve the site of the Milwaukee Road rail yard in South Cle Elum and to tell the story of the Milwaukee’s electrification and route through Washington and the Cascade mountains. The site is dedicated to the interpretation and preservation of the history of the Milwaukee Road’s western extension and electrification. The Milwaukee is considered one of the most significant and cherished railroads ever to exist in the United States.