MEDEA

MEDEA

Established Station: January 1, 1899

Formally Abandoned: January 1, 1907

Milepost: 693 miles from San Francisco

Medea is another short-lived station along the line between Bovine and Lucin. It was established, primarily to service the livestock industry. The origin of the name for this station is unknown, but the name has origins in Greek mythology, where Medea is the daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, a niece of Circe and the granddaughter of the sun god Helios.1

Medea first appears in the SP Station lists early in 1900 at milepost 693, as a non-agency station with no services shown. Medea likely never had regular railroad personnel on site. 89

It continues as such until 1905 when it becomes a Class A Freight Station. 2 The station disappears from the list by 1907. Medea is listed in the 1904 Employee Timetable where it is a regular stop. In 1905 it is listed as a flag stop and drops from the timetable after this year. 3

Due to decreased traffic on the line after the Lucin Cutoff was completed, Medea was abandoned as a station by 1907. Raymond and Fike carried out a brief survey of the location and found no features or other evidence of the siding, indicating it was probably lightly used during its life as a station. 4

1 Wikipedia.org, "Medea,", (Online Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea, Accessed on 9-14-20).

2 Southern Pacific Company, List of Officers, Agencies and Stations, on file, California State Railroad Museum Library, Sacramento, 1900-1907.

3 Southern Pacific Company, Salt Lake Division Employee Timetables, (Ogden: Southern Pacific Company, 1904-1905)

4 Anan S. Raymond and Richard E. Fike, Rails East to Promontory: The Utah Stations, Bureau of Land Management, Cultural Resource Series, No. 8 (Salt Lake City: Bureau of Land Management, 1981), 35. https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov /files/documents/files/Library_ Utah_ Cultural ResourceSeries08.pdf (accessed 12-7-20).