Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1907-01-03
ONE OF BIGGEST STATIONS
Quartsrmsster Depot in Omaha Among
Most Important in Country.
VAST ARMY STORES ARE KEPT THERE
Uncle Sam Has Series of Twelve OF
Fifteen Buildings, Covering an
Area of Many Acres, in
Omaha.

One Of the most important establishments
connected with the general government
located In Omaha Is the quartermaster s
depot situated between Twentieth and
Twenty-seconds streets and south Of Pop
pleton avenue, terminating IN triangle
along the Union Pacific right-of-way. The
depot is more popularity known as the gov
eminent corral and comprises an enclosure
OF several acres in triangular shape and
surrounded by a high wall.
The depot comprises twelve or fifteen SUBJ
Btantia1 brick buildings, with the large
new warehouse built about two years ago,
and all Of them are equipped with every
modern convenience for handling heavy
freight necessary for army purposes. This
embraces quartermaster's supplies of every
description. though at present little stun
h stored there, having all been sent out
TO the various posts Of the western de-
pertments. The new warehouse is equipped
with electric elevators.
Great quantities OF commissary supples
are also stored here, particularly during
the quarterly periods when the contracts
are made for the quarterly supplies. These
supplies are being constantly shipped out,
going into every department Of the west
and as far as Alaska and the Philippines.
At present much of the army parapher-
MALTA from the recently abandoned post
of Fort Niobrara is stored here, including
wagons, harness, tentage, cooking utensils
from the abandoned barracks. The depot
also IL made the storage department for
much of the signal service equipment not
in actual use at Fort Omaha In addition
TO its use as a storage depot the buildings
are equipped with apparatus for the re-
pair Of all varieties Of military supplies
except ordnance.
Captain SwObe I'm Charge.
The depot is under charge of Captain
Thomas Swobe. quartermaster. United
States army, and is garrisoned by about
thirty-hve men. all civilians including If
teen clerks employed in the various de-
partments. One of the buildings is de-
voted to the storage OF household furniture
belonging to officers OF the army who
have had recently to change their stations,
some of them being now in the Philip
pines and Cuba
The grounds are kept like a park and in
the summer season are very attractive and
beautiful. In the busy season the depot
presents a scene of the liveliest activity,
with the constant inshipping and outship-
ping OF army supplies.
The monthly expenditure Of money for
-quartermaster supplies and barrack equi-
page, the latter including queensware.
stoves, ranges, cooking utensils, type
writer's, desks and miscellaneous furniture
OF all kinds, will reach $4,000. Most of
these articles are bought here in Omaha,
and with a little more encouragement the
monthly purchase of army supplies at
Omaha could be increased to $4,000 or
$4,000.
One of Most Important.
The depot is one Of the most important
in the country and by the purchase of four
acres or whereabouts just west OF the depot,
which is much desired by the army officials,
the depot could be very materially enlarged,
thus making It the largest in the country.
with the depot says:
Gould the government he persuaded 70
buy this property, which Ia known as the
old boiler works. It would straighten out
the grounds and afford room for several
additional buildings that could be utilized
as an Indian supply house, thus avoiding
ne necessity OF renting quarters for the
Indian supply house, as now done. The
railway trackRge is the best in the city,
and shipments could be loaded directly into
the cars for any part of the country.
There is no good reason why much of the
stun that is assembled at Jefferson, Ind,
Quartermaster depot should not be assem-
bled here. We have every facility for
handling 1t and can buy here Just as we'll
as In the east, and thus make an immense
saving in transportation charges"
Bids will be advertised for miscellaneous