According to Jim Shilling in his article, "Pride in the Community", it all started in the mid-1980's when a group of local citizens began talking about how to improve their community. After many discussions, they came up with the theme, "Pride in the Community". One of the ideas for creating "Pride in the Community" was to beautify the entrance to the city to show pride to motorists driving into a
nd through the city. In order to implement this idea, Jim formed the Gateway Committee, a small group of private citizens. With the help of Matt Swanson, the President of the American State Bank, a loan was secured and three properties just south of the Yellow River Bridge on US 35 were purchased. The Starke County Historical Society had expressed an interest in purchasing the abandoned Nickle Plate Railroad Depot on Pearl Street across from the then United Telephone building. In 1992 the railroad was ready to remove the Depot and replace it with a maintenance building. The building was purchased by the Historical Society and moved to its present location on the US 35 property. The building was in deplorable shape and work started on raising money to restore it. Also in 1992 the Starke County Historical Society obtained from Starke County an abandoned 1915 Historic Truss Bridge built by the Rochester Bridge Company of Rochester, Indiana. with the help of donations from citizens, the money was raised to move and install it over an abandoned railroad bed at the entrance to Wythogan Park. By 1996 the funds had been found to restore the Depot but work could not begin until 1999 after several bureaucratic hurdles had been overcome. Also in the 1990's the Nickle Plate Railroad donated a caboose to the project. The Watchman's tower arrived in 1999 from Dr. Fritz's farm where he had been storing it since 1986. Since the city owns the Depot, Caboose, Watchman's Tower and Bridge they have been doing routine maintenance through the years. Unfortunately, now, after almost 20 years of existence in the current location, these structures are in need of some major repairs. The most serious structure in need of repairs is the Bridge which in time could become unsafe for pedestrian traffic if we are not diligent in locating the money for necessary inspections and repairs. The Gateway Committee, now Knox Gateway, Inc. has a new project to raise the funds to save the Bridge and create a perpetual maintenance fund to maintain these structures in the future so the entrance to the city will continue to show the pride the people of Knox have in their city. We hope you will follow us to learn more about these amazing historic structures and find a way to help us with these goals.
