Ione Train Depot, Ione - Amador County

Previous to 1876, lone was connected with the out­side world with only the poorest kinds of wagon roads. Many persons had advocated and others had opposed a railroad. Those who favored it pointed to the fact that, with few exceptions, cheap transportation aided to build up a country; that, though a few local interests suffered, a railroad made markets and also made more things marketable.

A ride over the abominated stage road between lone and Galt was sure to convert one to the railroad system. About 1872 things began to shape themselves in this direction.

The discovery of extensive beds of lignite, which made a very good substitute for coal, which had not then been found in quantities that it since has, turned attention to the valley. Occasional articles in the county papers which were copied into the city papers also called attention to the projects.

Students from Jackson and Sutter Creek also utilized the railway to go back and forth to school at the Ione Academy, then being the only high school in Amador County.

You can see more of the Iron Ivan and other locomotives used by the Amador Central Railroad Here

Return to our Ione Tour or click on our Miner to end the tour

Information, photographs courtesy of the Amador County Archives, The Historical Marker Database, The Chronicling America Database, and Larry Cenotto, Amador County's Historian