From Richard Crabtree on Frisco Rails Across Missouri. Here we are at Frisco depot in Iantha, Missouri. The Kansas City, Ft. Scott and Memphis (KCFS&M) aka Frisco built the depot here in Barton County, Missouri in 1880. Photo 1) Frisco depot in Iantha, Missouri 1910-1920 timeframe. Photo 2) Frisco depot in Iantha, Missouri layout - Missouri State university (MUS) Digital Collection. Photo 3) Barton County, Missouri Map. Photo 4) Frisco depot in Iantha, Missouri in 1950s. Click here for current view. https://www.google.com/maps/@37.5163952,-94.400525,3a,75y,61.69h,79.8t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1smKoYFsOeZswLaxENP2CbSQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
Keith, Thank you for sharing this. Just this afternoon my Grandpa was telling me that he and some other folks in the neighborhood have been trying to track down old photographs of Iantha, so he will be happy to see this one. Iantha at one time was a hoppin' little village. In addition to the depot, the Frisco served 2 grain elevators as well as loading for Barco rock and hay. There use to be 5 hay barns in town that would serve as storage until the railroad could ship it out. Also, there were 3 banks, 3 general stores, a black smith, a post office, and probably some other stuff I am forgetting. Today, there are a few of the old buildings remaining, although some are in rough shape. The area between Hwy W and Northwest 58th now contains an MFA fertilizer plant. The Frisco also had a section house in town for track maintenance in the area. After the Frisco no longer had a need for the section house, it was expanded and was used by Beachner Seed to clean and bulk store fescue seed harvested in the area. Beachner let go of the building several years ago. It is now storage for the MFA plant. I will see if Grandpa can remember a date for the depot being torn down. CTC was installed on the Ash Grove Subdivision during 1976-77, so it probably did not last very long after that. An aerial photograph from 1981 shows it as gone. I drew the approximate location and dimensions of the depot on google earth, a screen shot of that will be attached. Ethan
