Buck Snyder of Cornelia led the charge to save the Cornelia depot from demolition nearly 35 years ago and on Saturday the city honored the culmination of the work he has led over three and a half decades.
Cornelia Mayor John Borrow proclaimed Saturday as Buck Snyder Day, honoring Snyder at the Cornelia Depot Museum from 10 to 2 Saturday.
“It was a surprise, that's for sure,” Snyder said. “And I didn't expect it and very pleased and proud that they did. But I would have done it – the depot – without that recognition, but it was very humbling to get that.”
Snyder said the depot has been an important part of his life for years and means a lot to his family.
“I was raised in a house right up the street about a block and a half,” Snyder said. “And I used to come here all the time when I was a kid. And then I found out, after I moved back up here from Atlanta, that the railroad was going to bulldoze the depot just like they have almost all of them. And I went to Howard Whatley, he was the city manager of Cornelia. I told him that if he would work out a lease with the railroad, that I would get enough people and raise money and make whatever repairs to get it usable and clean. And when we started that, and after he got the lease on it, my dad was getting on up in years, and he was starting to get Dementia, and just needed to get him out of the house some. So, we would come down and work and I’d get him and bring him down here. He’d sit with us while we did what we had to do cleaning and painting and fix-up. And it kept him busy and kept him happy. And that was one of the main reasons.”
While Snyder never worked for the railroad, his father, Ernest Snyder, did.
The renovated depot opened in 1993, with fundraisers and support from the City of Cornelia making the depot and surrounding area what it is today.
Over the past year or so, both the wooden Tallulah Falls X-5 caboose and the metal Southern caboose have undergone interior and exterior renovations. In addition, a shed has been built to protect the wooden caboose from the elements and a black granite map of the Tallulah Falls Railway has been added.
“We've picked up a two-man motor car that actually I got it about 30 years ago, and it had been in storage over Johnson Railway for about 28 years or so,” Snyder said. “And we finally managed to get it sandblasted and painted yellow. And it was made back in the ‘30s – 1930s.”
Maintaining the depot exhibits
Railfans and local residents and businesses who want to see the cabooses, museum exhibits, and other elements of the museum serve the community for years to come can donate to make that happen.
“With the depot and all the rolling stock, there's always repairs that have to be made,” Snyder said. “There's always painting. We need donations so that we can carry on what we've started and maintain it the way it should be. And of course, anybody that has artifacts from the railroad that they want to donate, they can always do that, too.”
The Cornelia Depot Association is a 501(c)3 tax-deductible organization.
