Picture 1925: this Union Pacific depot opening in Boise amid mainline service to Portland. Perched at 2,753 feet above sea level on the rim of the first bench, the depot looks down over Capitol Boulevard toward the Idaho State Capitol, a mile to the northeast. The station building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and its very presence tells a railroad story.
Built by the Union Pacific Railroad, the depot welcomed the Portland Rose when it began service between Chicago and Portland; thousands attended its debut with mainline service in mid-April, among them Union Pacific president Carl Gray, who was granted a key to the city by Mayor Eugene Sherman. For decades the UP's City of Portland, another Chicago–Portland train, also stopped here. That chapter ended when Union Pacific discontinued the Portland Rose and the City of Portland on May 1, 1971, the day Amtrak began operating.
Six years later Amtrak resumed passenger service here in 1977 with the Pioneer, initially run between Salt Lake City and Seattle. Somewhere beyond the platform, you can imagine the Pioneer rolling toward Seattle, carrying on what began here in 1925.