Owyhee County Museum Complex (Ahern Homestead, Marsing Train Depot)

Owyhee County Museum Complex (Ahern Homestead, Marsing Train Depot)
Murphy, Owyhee County

  • Grants: 2016, 2021, 2023 (Painting of Interior/Exterior)

Location: 17085 Basey Street, Murphy, ID 83650

The Owyhee County Museum Complex located in Murphy has several historic structures adjacent to the Museum. The Owyhee County Historical Society runs the museum and seeks to investigate and preserve any kind of historical records, documents, buildings, oral histories, and artifacts pertaining to Owyhee County.

One of the structures onsite is a “prove up” homestead cabin built by an Irish immigrant, James Ahern. Mr. Ahern immigrated to the United States in April 1873 and worked as a sheepherder and ranch hand near Bruneau for many years.  In June 1928, at age 75, he received a patent for 640 acres as a Stock Raising Homestead on Bates Creek, near Oreana. A stock-raising homestead was allowed in areas designated as not suitable to irrigate but could be used for raising stock. Certain improvements had to be made to obtain the patent. Mr. Ahern built the cabin using cottonwood logs from the Gilmore Ranch on Sinker Creek.  The cabin was donated and moved to the Owyhee County Museum Complex in the late 1960’s.

Another building on the site is the Marsing Train Depot, which was moved to the museum in 1975. A full restoration began in 2021 and focused on repairing the windows. After the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, other companies began constructing branch lines off the main 1869 line, thus opening up even more areas in the West to grow and expand. Construction began on a new railroad that would run from Wyoming to Oregon’s Willamette Valley connecting the East to the Pacific Northwest.

The Oregon Short Line Railroad became a reality in the 1880s, and it opened up Idaho to greater development. The railroad built additional branch lines along the route up through the 1920s, tying more settlements and towns to the main line. A branch line called the Southside Line, named so for its position south of the Snake River, ran to Homedale, Idaho. In 1922, the line was extended 7.5 miles up the river to the future townsite of Marsing, Idaho.

Local farmers donated the land and labor to the construction of the line, and by September 1922, the project was complete. That same year, the railway built a depot from which farmers could ship out their products, including fruit, potatoes and lots of sheep wool. In 1942 alone, the farmers of the Marsing area shipped 27,000 tons of sugar beets by rail. The presence of the railroad enabled
the region to flourish, and today the Marsing area is still a major agricultural producer.

A new town named “Erb” arose at the end of the line, though the name changed to Marsing soon after the depot was built. The railway was slow to adopt the new name, and the depot bore the name “Erb” on its sign until 1937, when the company finally changed the sign to “Marsing.” The depot, though currently painted white, was originally painted a two-tone scheme of colonial yellow and light brown. Through the years, the colors changed according to the preference of the various presidents of the Union Pacific, which came to own
the Oregon Short Line.

As time went on, trucking became more prevalent, and the need for a railroad decreased. By the late 1960s, rail service to and from Marsing essentially ended. In 1975, the Marsing Depot was gifted to the Owyhee County Museum and relocated to the museum grounds in Murphy, Idaho. There it stands as a reminder of the history and growth of Idaho, as well as the hard-working citizens that built Owyhee County.

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