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Before the arrival of the railroad, Elkhart Lake was remote and difficult to reach. After 1872, when the Milwaukee and Northern Railroad arrived, vacationers from Milwaukee, Chicago, and St. Louis began to flock here. The railway company constructed this picturesque depot, giving it a large octagonal dormer in the steeply pitched hipped roof and a shady veranda supported by wooden brackets across the front. The depot’s residential appearance was likely meant to evoke warm hospitality. The Elkhart Lake Historical Society has restored the depot and maintains it as a museum. A Soo Line wooden caboose (1906), built by the American Car and Foundry Company, stands in the adjacent Depot Park.