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Film on depot in works

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Mike Kirk and Ron Scott at the Waupaca Train Depot. Scott is making a documentary about efforts to restore the depot. Robert Cloud Photo

Documentary to focus on restoration efforts

By Robert Cloud


A local filmmaker plans to make a documentary about the Waupaca Train Depot.

Ron Scott, who currently calls Iola home, has lived in California and Hawaii.

Scott studied viticulture and history at the University of California San Diego from 1970-74, and film in England and Scotland from 1979-81.

Scott moved to rural Iola because his wife has family in the area.

Awarded a Purple Heart, the Waupaca County Post featured Scott’s experience in Vietnam in 2016.

Scott has also produced or co-produced documentary films, including an Emmy award-winning film on the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego.

The Waupaca Historical Society screened Scott’s half-hour documentary on April 12 at the depot.

Built in 1935, the Old Globe was a replica of the theater where Shakespeare’s plays were originally staged.

In 1978, the Old Globe was severely damaged by a fire.

Scott’s documentary is about the community’s efforts to rebuild the Old Globe.

Rebuilding train depot

He hopes to tell a similar story about efforts to rebuild the Waupaca Train Depot.

“What they’ve done here is nothing short of a miracle,” Scott said. “They breathed life back into this place.”

Built in 1907, the old Soo Line railroad depot was a major transportation hub for Waupaca for decades.

Passenger service to Waupaca ended in 1965, and the building was left vacant for nearly four decades.

In 2004, the Waupaca Historical Society purchased the depot and began the long process of restoring the facility.

Volunteers have spent thousands of hours refurbishing the building, replacing a fire-damaged floor, cleaning the grounds, installing a Spanish tile roof and digging out a basement that now houses a model train display.

A barn that houses a baggage car from Waupaca’s early trolley line, a caboose and Soo Line potato car are located on the depot grounds.

Mike Kirk, with the Waupaca Historical Society, has led restoration efforts at the depot.

Making documentary

“This is a story that has to be told,” Scott said. “This needs more voice for the public to see what they’ve done.”

Scott is co-directing the documentary with Max Hauser, a 24-year-old Wisconsin actor and director.

Hauser may be familiar to those who saw “Aberration,” the horror movie filmed in Waupaca in 2007.

In 2017, Hauser wrote and directed “So We Bowl,” a short coming-of-age drama.

“We have an Emmy award-winning producer teaming up with a young cinematographer,” Kirk said.

So far, Scott and Hauser have filmed interviews with former railroad employees and with people who worked on restoring the depot.

They hope to finish production in the summer of 2020.

The project is looking for funding.

Donations may be mailed to Premier Community Bank, in Iola, 505 E. State St. 54945, or P.O. Box 344, Iola, WI 54945. The account is under the name of Ursa Major Film Productions.

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