♪♪ [Kohlsdorf] Constructed in 1903, Moravia's Wabash Combination Depot, one of two remaining in Iowa, served as a weigh station for both commercial freight and rail passengers over several decades in the 20th century.

The Wabash Railroad once connected the Great Lakes to cities and towns in the Mississippi Water Shed, as far west as the Missouri River.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1996, the Queen Anne style building's curators now display local memorabilia, railroad artifacts and in a nod to area heritage, have adorned it with Moravian stars.

[Marcia Benjamin] In 1976, the Combination Depot was given to the historical society.

However, it had to be moved to this side of the road because it couldn't be so close to the tracks because of having public visitors.

[Kohlsdorf] A separate electric railway, whose own depot serviced local small-town routes, remains as part of the collection.

Over the years, other landmarks have arrived to the museum grounds including a country school, summer kitchen and stained-glass church.

Passersby can learn about them via a smartphone audio tour along with the story of a local author with a giant reach.

[Voice of Audio Tour] Welcome to Moravia, the childhood home of World War I veteran James Floyd Stevens, the author of the book Paul Bunyan, written in 1925.

His stories helped to make Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox legendary figures in American folklore.

[Marcia Benjamin] He was an adventurer.

He went to the northwest.

Around the campfires he heard many of these stories that he would then embellish.

He was the one that kind of collected them and then wrote them down and brought them to a national audience and published.

[Kohlsdorf] While some of Stevens' thinly-veiled satire was known to have ruffled feathers among conservative townsfolk, Moravia and surrounding communities now embrace him, as well as the structures and relics they house here as significant stops along the line of historical legacy.

♪♪