The Cheyenne Depot Museum, Heart of the City

The Cheyenne Depot Museum, also known as the Wyoming Transportation Museum, is located in the former Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne. The museum was created as a means of preserving and presenting both the City of Cheyenne’s railroading past and that of the Union Pacific, which has been operating through Cheyenne for well over a century.

To give a brief history of the Union Pacific, its original main line (that is still in use today and quite busy) is the Overland Route which runs between Ogden, Utah; Omaha, Nebraska; and Chicago. Today’s Union Pacific is much different from the system prior to 1980 as it operates as far north as Seattle, as far west as Los Angeles/Long Beach, as far east as Minneapolis, and as far south as Dallas, Brownsville, and New Orleans (and about every west in between!).

The UP of today, however, was not as large or wealthy prior to the 20th century. It struggled on and off during the late 19th century but after coming under the guidance of Edward Harriman the UP has generally lived a prosperous life since that time. As the 20th century progressed so too did the UP, being instrumental in the development of lightweight streamliners in the 1930s (the M-10000) which would be the forerunner of today’s common diesel-electric locomotives.

The Union Pacific we know today began to take shape in 1982 when it purchased rival Western Pacific, which granted it access to northern California, and soon after this it would take over the Missouri Pacific to reach Chicago, St. Louis, and Texas. In 1988 the company grew even larger when it purchased the Katy (the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad) and in 1995 did the same with the Chicago & North Western. Finally, just a year later in 1996 the UP purchased the gigantic Southern Pacific, a one-time powerhouse railroad that by the time of its take over by UP a company which was floundering (so much so that it had been purchased earlier by the much smaller Denver & Rio Grande Western).

The future of the Union Pacific is as wide open as the great western plains where the railroad operates. However, if the company’s past is any measure of what may happen in the years ahead, I think we can safely say that when the merger movement picks up again the Union Pacific and its famous shield logo will continue to flank locomotives during their daily task of moving goods across the country.

The Cheyenne Depot Museum is one of, if not the biggest draws to the city’s downtown area and was recently named a National Historic Landmark. A brief overview of the museum and depot courtesy of the Cheyenne Depot Museum:

The new museum has a grand home in the Cheyenne Depot. This building is a symbol of the deep connection between the City of Cheyenne and the Union Pacific. The museum gives visitors 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 new exhibit will not only take advantage of these stories but will also bring forth photographs of Cheyenne’s outstanding 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.

This, the longest enduring transportation connection to our city, is a first great chapter in the story of Cheyenne’s transportation history.

The museum and grounds itself are overseen by the Cheyenne Depot Museum Foundation and they have many sponsorships and projects slated for the museum’s future growth. If you are perhaps interested in any of these please do not hesitate to get in touch with them to learn more about everything available and upcoming.

For more reading on the Union Pacific you might want to consider Union Pacific Railroad from noted author Brian Solomon. Of course, being that the Union Pacific is so well known and has been around for so many years, hundreds of publications (many quite good) have been written about it detailing various subjects of the railroad. However, this book will at least give you a general overview and history of the UP (filled with many, excellent, historical and colorful photographs) at which point you can decide if you are interested in further books of study on the railroad. Even if you are a historian of the UP and have not seen this book I'm sure you will enjoy it!