Conventions & Meets

The Chicago & North Western Historical Society’s annual convention has now been rescheduled for May 19-22, 2022, after twice being postponed because of  Covid-19 restrictions.

This fun-filled event will take place at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems Event Center in downtown Mankato, across the street from the brick former C&NW/Omaha Road union station. Our sleeping rooms will be in the adjoining Hilton Garden Inn.

Most of the original slate of activities are still planned, including several slide presentations of rail action in Mankato from the 1950s to the 1990s, a C&NW veterans panel, a program about Laura Ingalls Wilder growing up in Walnut Grove west of Mankato on the former Alco Line, bus tours over two days visiting five depot museums west of Mankato and two interesting nonrail tours for spouses and significant others.

The convention also will feature the usual model and rail photo contests, silent auction of C&NW items, and the society’s company store.

Mankato is located on the Union Pacific’s former Omaha Road/C&NW main line between the Twin Cities and Sioux City, as well as on the original St.

Peter & Winona (C&NW) east-west line known for being served by Alco locomotives in the 1960s and 1970s. Mankato also was at the west end of a Chicago Great Western line from Faribault and Red Wing, as well as being the midpoint on a Milwaukee Road route from Farmington (MN) to Wells (MN) until the late 1970s.

Watch for more detailed convention and hotel registration material on this site in the coming months and in the society’s North Western Lines magazine later in 2021 and early 2022.