According to railroad historian Gary Wildung of Blaine, Minnesota, who compiled an amazing amount of information about the rail line connecting White Bear Lake and Carlton, the construction of the Beroun Depot began in the summer of 1896. The original depot was 16’ 3” by 38’ 2” feet. That depot was replaced with a new, two-room 8 foot by 6’8” foot depot in 1959 at a cost of $1,100. According to Jim Cordes’ Pine County history book, the second depot was removed 11 years later in 1970.
This is an interesting piece of information that I got from Melvin Lieding. Highway 61 was once called Number One.
Beroun's Buried Treasure
One of the more fascinating stories about the Beroun area was the story of a train robbery that reportedly netted a cache of gold that occurred elsewhere. As the story goes, the robbers made their escape but realized that they were soon to be caught. The story has the thieves burying the strongbox of gold in a Beroun area field with the hopes of digging it back up when they got out of prison.
The story was apparently true enough that during a summer in the late 1950's, J.J. Chalupnik returned to Beroun from Vertigre Nebraska. He brought along a young man who was good at finding gold with a divining rod. Mr. Chalupnik apparently knew what field held the strongbox. He hired several strong backed men and spent several days digging for the gold.
The men would dig down about 6 feet or so and then hit ground water. J.J. said that he thought the strongbox was indeed buried in the field, but that the years of train traffic rumbling nearby caused the strongbox to work its way deeper into the water soaked peat bog and that it was unretrievable.
Editor's note:In the 1970's the peat bog started on fire and it burned underneath for the whole summer. I remember smelling it as a kid. So the treasure is probably still there, only deeper than ever.
This is a photo of the cabinet shop that Mr. Ruby ran. It was located on hgwy 61. When the service road went through in 1953, it had to be moved. It was moved to a location near where Beaver Meadow greenhouse is. The service road was closed in Beroun in 2014. Those are two of the Bell boys standing by the building. Kenny and Dale (Call me again if I am wrong. I was in my car when you called. I wrote it on a piece of paper, but can't find it. I think this is what you told me.)
This photo is of Norway Point before it was developed. Many of the Beroun locals spent time there having picnics. My Aunt Mary Mikyska is in the photo.
This is Green Valley. The local swimming hole where even I swam as a kid. That is my dad Dick Mikyska with the girls.
It was located on what is now Homestead road just west of Beroun.