The new group forming to support the railroad branch from Elgin to Joseph, the Friends of the Joseph Branch, will meet 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28, at Elgin City Hall. According to organizers, it’s still not to late to become a charter member.

The organization last met in the Wallowa Senior Center July 23, when it signed on 20 new members.

An estimated 40 to 50 persons attended that informative gathering which included presentations from Joseph Branch members, discussions from the audience and, at the conclusion of the one and one half hour meeting, three short film clips of comparable rail lines.

Stephen Adams of rural Enterprise, who this week was named by the Wallowa County Board of Commissioners to the new Railroad Authority board of directors, was a main speaker during the early evening session, covering the history of the 63 miles of railroad track and the efforts to revive it as an operating line over the last 18 months. During those 18 months the nucleus of the Friends of the Joseph Branch formed through a Future Search program and began working with county government to revive what was then an abandoned railroad line.

On May 31 Wallowa and Union Counties purchased the line of track from Idaho Northern & Pacific Railroad.

County commissioners Mike Hayward from Wallowa County and Colleen MacLeod from Union County also spoke to the gathering. Hayward addressed the subject of a Railroad Authority being formed to govern the new acquisition, while MacLeod spoke of lobbying efforts afoot to seek federal moneys to help in the purchase of the line.

Two million dollars of the agreed to $6.5 million price of the transaction has been forwarded to INP with the balance due within 4 1/2 years of the purchase date. A state backed loan has been approved if federal money is not procured.

Interim Joseph Branch president Bob Casey said after the July meeting there was “lots of enthusiasm” for the group. He spoke during the meeting of the group’s mission statement, designed to support the line. Ralph Swinehart addressed efforts being made to become a non profit entity and about the formation of by-laws.