La Plata, MO (LAP)

Ticket Revenue

FY 2007

$608,838

Station Ridership

FY 2007

10,232

Note: Fiscal year is from
October to September.

The current Amtrak station in La Plata is a restored Art Deco style depot constructed of wood and brick. The original passenger and freight depot, built in 1887, was in need of replacement during World War II, but building materials were not readily available. In 1945, after a fire burned portions of the building, the interior and exterior were was remodeled and modernized in an Art Deco style. The remodeling actually preserved the original building within the inner and outer layers.

The station declined gradually until 1996, when a coalition of the Friends for La Plata Preservation and the NEMO Model Railroad Club began renovation of the exterior of the building, completed in 2001 with volunteer labor and money from individual donations. With their efforts, the station has been restored to its 1945 Post Art Deco appearance. A Naturescape Living Classroom of natural prairie grasses was installed on the east side of the building, with $747 from the Missouri Department of the Interior and is maintained by the La Plata Garden Club, among others. The interior of the building has been gradually restored.

A grant of $2,500 and technical assistance from the Great American Stations Foundation came in the late 1990s and more than $41,000 was granted from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s TEA-21 program, which was administered through the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission and required 25 percent in matching funds. The Missouri legislature granted $24,250 and $14,000 was raised by the Friends of La Plata Preservation in donations from private individuals, including $7,000 from the Surbeck Charitable Trust.

La Plata lies on the prairie of northeastern Missouri. On March 17, 1827, Drury Davis established his trading post a half-mile from present-day La Plata in north-eastern Missouri. The town eventually developed at the intersection of north-south and east-west stage coach roads.

In 1855, Henry O. Clark surveyed the town and presented the plats to three settlers, Louis Gex, Theodore Saunders, and Dr. W.W. Moore. They named three of the principal town streets for themselves and those streets remain today. Town legend has it that the city was named by lottery and possibly because the original town fathers liked the connotations of “silver” from the Spanish word, “plata.”

The North Missouri (later Wabash) Railroad built tracks through town in 1867. Twenty years later, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (now BNSF Railway) placed its route from Chicago to Kansas City through La Plata. This line, now owned by BNSF Railway, sees as many as eighty trains in a day.

La Plata is something of a mecca for rail fans. The citizens of La Plata are currently working to extend their railroad-themed Depot Inn & Suites, just north of the Amtrak station, into a railroad theme park. The Wabash Railroad right-of-way, abandoned in 1995, leads from the Depot Inn to a scenic overlook to view the Amtrak station and the BNSF Railway, which will be part of the proposed Silver Rails Resort.

An Amtrak history exhibit, housed in two former Amtrak U.S. Mail cars, and the new Silver Rails Event Center are parts of a larger proposed project that is planned to include a 300-room resort hotel in addition to the current Depot Inn. A museum, spa, indoor water park, amphitheatre, an alternative energy farm, shopping and a “Pullman Park” that will feature 48 Pullman cars where people can stay overnight are also in the plan, along with a small train to transport guests within the 170-acre resort.

Today, La Plata remains a small town, its primary industries being manufacturing and agriculture-related. It also serves as the rail gateway to Truman State University and the College of Osteopathic Medicine at A.T. Still University, both located 15 miles north in Kirksville, Mo.

Amtrak does not provide ticketing or baggage services at this facility. A group of local volunteers staff the station and open and close the facility coincident with train times.

The station is served by the Southwest Chief.