Click Here to visit the Wilbur Craig Wood Art in Motion Exhibit online

Come and visit the "touchable" exhibit at the Cheyenne Depot Museum. It's delightful for children of ALL ages.

The museum is truly a highlight of the Cheyenne Depot. Not only is it fun, but it's full of great information, which is based on three main themes:

1. The establishment of Cheyenne;
2. The role of Cheyenne and its people in the operation of the Union Pacific Railroad; and
3. The history of the greatest remaining tangible evidence of this connection, the Depot building itself. 

While these three themes provide the undercurrent of the museum's exhibits, the focus of the Cheyenne Depot Museum is really about the people who lived and worked beside the "iron horse" and those who depended on it for their daily business, travel and livelihood.

It has been a strong desire for the citizens of this community to have some tangible connection with its past, and so we honor that with the Cheyenne Depot Museum.

The transcontinental railroad was conceived during a time of great national turmoil just prior to the Civil War, yet it was also the dawning of the ages of Mass Communication and Transit.

The railroad was seen as essential to binding the prosperous east and west coasts of the nation. These two areas, though, were separated by a gigantic expanse crossable only by the foolhardy or the very bold. Where to put the railroad was a contentious decision, but Congress decided that a northern route would prevail. 

The Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha and the Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento would be tasked with building a railroad from the west coast to the vast existing rail networks of the east.

It would be the Union Pacific Railroad that would build a railroad through the site that would become the State of Wyoming and the City of Cheyenne.

At the coming of the new century, the advent of the automobile and the airplane began to have a significant impact on the future of passenger travel, particularly in Cheyenne.

With the need to compete with these new technologies, the railroad brought on new technologies of its own in the form of the diesel engine. Ultimately the advent of this new technology couldn't stem the gradual decline of the passenger service, which ended in 1971.

At the same time, the technology of the diesel engine made the facilities at Cheyenne, built for steam engine technology, obsolete.  The transition from steam to diesel was a painful one for the city, as the magnificent shops that had so long been a defining feature of Cheyenne disappeared.

But the relationship didn't end, it just changed. Many of the people who called Cheyenne home continued to work and make their livelihoods with the railroads, just as their fathers and grandfathers had. They all have their own stories to tell. The tradition and bond remains between our city and the Union Pacific Railroad. 

The new museum has a grand home in the Cheyenne Depot. This building is a symbol of the deep connection between the Union Pacific Railroad and the City of Cheyenne.

The museum gives the visitor an opportunity to know the people who built the railroad and our community; those who traveled and worked the rails; and an understanding that the original intent of the railroad's founders and builders is still being served. 

The museum's exhibits not only take advantage of these stories but also bring forth photographs of Cheyenne's astounding railroading past, artifacts secured from those who worked and lived on the railroad, and sounds and sights from the past and present of what was and is here - a modern mecca of rail transportation. 

Using pictures, artifacts and interactive displays, the museum tells the history of Cheyenne, the Railroad and the Depot.

The museum houses scales used in the 19th Century for the railroad.