Historical Campus part of Preston’s Riverfront Masterplan

(ABC 6 News) A large project brewing in Preston could result in a makeover of Trailhead Park, and also restore a lot of the town’s history.

The Preston Historical Society has been moving forward to progress its riverfront masterplan. At Tuesday night’s community engagement meeting-board members provided an update.

“This is a project to me that will take us some years to unfold,” volunteer Jon DeVries said.

A huge part of the project would be developing a history campus at Trailhead Park to highlight the history of the railroad that once ran through the city.

With the restoration of the Milwaukee elevator, the Preston historical society added a train boxcar next to it.

“We would like it to be complete so that people can see more about how the rail and ag history came together in this community,” Preston Historical Society President Sheila Craig said.

With the historical campus being by the riverfront the hope is for it to draw attention to people living in town and visitors. Down the road, they hope to construct a depot and have that serve as a museum. They also plan to add more landmarks to the project, but that’ll be a process that will take years.

“We’re gonna go apply for some grants through the park trails legacy grants and what else we can find out there in the public to start fundraising and bring this project to life,” Landscape architect Ryan Hermes said.

Officials believe the project will cost at least $1 million.

The next step is to secure funding to make the additions of the historical campus. They’re hoping to get some of Minnesota’s $17 billion surplus fund the project.