The Galloping Goose, during the 1950s and 1960s, traveled along the Northern Pacific Railroad tracks in Otter Tail County.

By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

The Galloping Goose was a short train which went east and west through Otter Tail County during the 1950s and 1960s.

The old N.P. Depot in Fergus Falls is now a restaurant and tavern, with the old freight room used for medium-sized events such as birthdays, anniversaries and reunions.

The train traveled from Oakes, North Dakota, to Wahpeton-Breckenridge, through Fergus Falls to Staples, with other stops along the way. A person could board the train in Underwood, travel to towns such as Battle Lake and Henning to spend the night with a relative, and return home by train the next day.

Today the old Northern Pacific tracks are pretty much gone. One exception is railway tracks from Fergus Falls westward to Foxhome, east of Breckenridge, for trains to arrive at grain elevators.

An account of this short journey, during the 1950s and 1960s, came under the heading “Personal and Social News” in the Fergus Falls Daily Journal. 

The author remembers seeing the Galloping Goose travel along the tracks between Fergus Falls and Foxhome in 1957, while riding ponies with grade school classmate Dan Jennen at the Jennen farm. 

Long-time residents also remember traveling on the Galloping Goose along the Northern Pacific tracks that ran eastward from Fergus Falls to Underwood, Battle Lake, and points beyond, and westward to Breckenridge-Wahpeton and Oakes.