BACKGROUND:
Although it has been overshadowed by a much more famous gift
from the French people to the United States (the Statue of
Liberty), The Merci Train
played an important yet little-remembered role in the historical
friendship that has long existed between France and America. This
train, also referred to by its English moniker "Gratitude Train,"
consisted of forty-nine railroad box cars filled with tens of
thousands of gifts from individual French citizens. The generous
offering to the American people was sent in response to the
American
Friendship Train, which in 1947 toured the United States to
collect more than 700 box cars of food, clothing, and other relief
goods donated by individual Americans to help war-ravaged
France.
The assortment of gifts lovingly packed into the various box
cars by grateful French citizens range from exquisite Louis XV
carriages and sterling silver family heirlooms to tree seedlings
and hand-drawn children's artwork. A full description of these
unique, often handmade gifts would fill many volumes, and the
stories of the origins behind the gifts would fill many more. A
particularly well-presented pictorial overview can be found at the
State Historical
Society of North Dakota.
The Merci Train was loaded aboard the steamship Magellan,
which set sail from La Havre for the Atlantic crossing. Its arrival
in New York harbor on February 3rd, 1949, was met with exuberant
fanfare and in-depth press coverage. Each of the forty-eight
American states then in existence received one of the gift-laden
box cars, with the 49th being shared by the District of Columbia
and the Territory of Hawaii. Millions of curious Americans turned
out for ceremonies of welcome as the box cars fanned out across the
nation atop flatcars (the narrow gauge cars were incompatible with
American rails) en route to the various states. The largest such
celebration took place in New York City, where more than 200,000
people turned out to welcome the Empire State's assigned box
car.
The box car assigned to Texas occupies a prominent place of
honor adjacent to American Legion Post 76 in Austin. This car has
been lovingly maintained by a local branch of The Society of
Forty Men and Eight Horses. Many of the precious gifts which
once filled the car remain on permanent display at the Texas Memorial Museum on the
University of Texas campus.
The symbol of the Merci Train depicts a frontal view of a steam
engine garlanded with flowers, symbolic of Flanders Field in
France, where many American Doughboys -- killed in action during
World War I -- lie buried in massive cemeteries. This drawing was
adopted as the official symbol of the French Merci Train Committee,
and a plaque of the drawing was affixed to each of the box cars.
The committee also prepared matching gift tags to accompany each of
the more than 52,000 gifts that filled the box cars.
When the cars arrived in the United States in 1949, millions of
surviving World War I and World War II veterans had memories of
spending as much as a week being transported to various European
battlefields in this exact same type of boxcar. These spartan troop
transports lacked seats, windows, toilets, bunks, and dining
accommodations. The forty troops stuffed into each car had barely
enough space to sit down, and were forced to pack themselves into
tight rows to lie down for sleep. Despite the hardships, most of
the surviving veterans looked back fondly on those final rides and
conversations with buddies, many of whom were killed and never made
it back to America.
Surviving veterans thus resolved themselves to dedicate these
gift box cars as memorials to their lost buddies and the sacrifices
that they made to save the world from the tyranny of Nazism. And so
it is that for more than sixty years, various VFW and American
Legion posts and similar organizations have volunteered to keep the
antique boxcars in good repair and honorably displayed to
memorialize all who sacrificed their lives to protect the freedoms
of people everywhere.
THE CACHE:
You'll be looking for a small camouflaged Lock-n-Lock stashed in
an obvious spot. After signing the log, be sure to check out the
star of the show -- the Texas Merci Train -- as well as the
adjacent giant oak tree, the historic Johnson Home, and the vintage
pair of 75 mm WWI-era artillery field pieces. Merci beaucoup!