THE MONUMENTS WE'VE LOST.

Millston, Wisconsin, July 23, 2005.

In the foreground: the one track of the Union Pacific's Milwaukee-Adams-Wyeville-Eau Claire-Twin Cities freight main. On the other side of the tracks, and across U.S. Highway 12: a 400 Club tavern. At the left side of the sign: a rendition of the Chicago and North Western's Twin Cities 400, which last ran in July of 1963. The diesel and paint scheme would be correct beginning in 1939, when there were two tracks of the Chicago St. Paul Minneapolis and Omaha Railway, which, unlike its parent the North Western, were set up for right-hand running. Multiple tracks, gone. Passenger trains, gone. Models, available. Most of the freight trains in these parts, gone. But explore central Wisconsin, along the logical travel routes between Milwaukee and the Twin Cities, or Milwaukee and the North Woods, and sooner or later a 400 Club or a Hiawatha Tap will turn up.

What transportation equipment of today ... heck, what cultural icons of any kind ... will be commemorated in taverns 40 or 50 years hence?