American Pickers: Colfax Railroad Museum episode airing March 20
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By LeAnn R. Ralph
COLFAX — The American Pickers episode filmed at the Colfax Railroad Museum will be airing on The History Channel March 20.
Herb Sakalaucks, the curator of the Colfax Railroad Museum, had been working for quite a long time to convince the crew which produces the television show that it would be worth their while to visit Colfax.
After all, Sakalaucks has spent decades collecting railroad memorabilia, which he has found by searching on-line auction sites and at auctions and estate sales around the country.
The Colfax Railroad Museum’s collection includes train cars, a large collection of railroad dining car china, railroad lanterns, uniforms, furniture from depots, books, blueprints and periodicals, toy trains and a miniature train ride — just about anything you can think of related to trains and railroads.
Railroad depots
The Colfax Railroad Museum is housed in two of the three railroad depots built in Colfax.
The original depot, constructed of wood and located where the stone depot sits now on Railroad Avenue, burned down after being set on fire by a spark from the train in late August of 1898.
Not only did the railroad depot go up in flames, but village residents also were afraid they were going to lose the entire town.
The fire caused by the train inspired village residents to put together a fire department that fall, to purchase firefighting equipment, and to hand dig water lines for a fire suppression system.
An old photograph from 1898 that surfaced during the Colfax Sesquicentennial in 2014 shows village residents on Main Street with pick axes and shovels digging trenches for the water lines.
The wooden depot that now occupies a site on Main Street just south of the railroad tracks was built near the site of the original depot in the fall of 1898.
About 15 years later, the stone depot was built and then dedicated at a banquet held in 1914.
When the stone depot was built, the wooden depot, no longer needed at the site on Railroad Avenue, was moved to its present location on Main Street, directly south of the railroad tracks on the east side of Main Street.
Success
After several years of trying to convince American Pickers they should come to Colfax, Sakalaucks finally made some headway in piquing the crew’s interest to see what was available at the Colfax Railroad Museum.
The show, in its earliest days, featured Mike Wolfe and his friend, Frank Fritz, traveling around the country looking for unusual antique items.
Frank Fritz left the show in March of 2020 to undergo back surgery. In July of 2021, Wolfe confirmed that Fritz would not be returning to the show.
In subsequent episodes, Wolfe has traveled by himself, and he has traveled with his brother, Robbie.
The show’s scheduler had told Sakalaucks that the crew would be coming to film at a certain time in the summer of 2023.
Sakalaucks said that when he found out the schedule for filming, he had then gone ahead and booked a vacation.
“I paid for the tickets, and a week later, I found out (American Pickers) would be here while we were on vacation,” he said.
The American Pickers crew showed up in Colfax on July 28.
“My only appearance on the television show is my disembodied voice over the phone,” Sakalaucks said.
After they had finished filming at the Colfax Railroad Museum, the crew stopped to eat at A Little Slice of Italy, which was memorialized by a photograph posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
A “premier event” for the American Pickers Colfax Railroad Museum episode will be held Wednesday, March 20, at the Whitetail Golf Course south of Colfax on state Highway 40.
The show will start at 8 p.m., and door prizes will be awarded, including shirts that have been donated by American Pickers.
The event is sponsored by the Whitetail Golf Course and the Colfax Railroad Museum.
