Depot Market and Cider Mill

Aug 13

HISTORY OF THE DEPOT MARKET BUILDING

In the 1880’s, two train stations were built in Courtland, one on the main line of the Rock Island and the other on the Sante Fe. In 1918, sparks from a burning livery stable blew across town, ignited the roof, and destroyed the Rock Island Depot which was located where CVA is today.

A boxcar was used as a depot temporarily until sometime in 1919 when the Sante Fe depot was cut in half and moved two blocks south to the junction of the Rock Island and Santa Fe. A twenty -foot section was added to the middle of this building to facilitate the commerce of both rail lines.

For many years, the depot employed a telegraph operator, depot agent, and clerk. Additionally, a switchboard operator worked outside. As many as 20 trains a day came through on the Rock Island, including the Rocket (Chicago to Denver) and five trains daily on the Santa Fe.

IN THE BEGINNING

In 1988 the train depot was moved from its location in Courtland to create their current storefront one mile north of town on 36 Highway. As time passed, interest in local apples began to wane and habits of canning and preserving changed. As this became apparent, Dan started growing vegetables adding watermelon and cantaloupe along the way and as time went on the vegetable and melon sales outperformed apple sales.

The wholesale and retail business has grown over the years and so has the need for workers to harvest the crops. From 2007 to present we have been using the H2A program, a that allows foreign workers to legally work in the US, and until 2019 also employed high school and college students to help with growing and harvesting the crops.

MEET MARK STADLER

Meet Mark Stadler. He is from Wichita and in the summer of 2014, on summer break from Benedictine College, Mark came to the farm to work alongside our usual group of high school and college kids. In August, Mark asked if he could work fall harvest instead of going back to school. Always a busy time, he was a welcome addition. He worked fall harvest of 2014, went home that winter, came back in the spring of 2015, and has been here ever since. In 2016, Mark and Emilee Strecker, also from Wichita, were married. Over time, Mark has assumed more and more responsibility, our farm operation has grown prodigiously, and we are in the process of gradually transitioning the farm to Mark and Emilee.

In 2018 Mark visited an orchard in eastern Kansas that stirred the love of apple growing in his heart. Since this all started with an apple orchard, it didn’t take much to convince Dan to plant another one. He told Mark, “You’re not the first 20 something guy in Republic County to want to plant an orchard.” In 2019 we planted our first trees in a high-density system, very different from the trees Dan planted in the 80’s. The high-density system uses a trellis to support full dwarfing trees planted 3’ apart in rows 12’ apart. The trees produce much earlier, are easier to maintain, and have fantastic yields. Last year, 2021, we had our first crop. It was a great joy for us to see families once again picking apples in our orchard.

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