Restoring the Minneapolis & St. Louis 457 (Rotary Cannonball)

In 1959, Mason City's Mayor George Mendon started a campaign to bring a railroad steam engine to town. He said, "Future generations must have an example of the railroad's history." Shortly, the M&StL 457, built in 1912, found a home in East Park. Forty-five years later, the old engine was an unsightly piece of rusted-out history destined for the scrap pile. This is a story about the restoration of that engine, the people who did it, and how they did it.