If you look just beyond the tracks, you’ll spot the grand, castle-like Cheyenne Depot Museum-built from tan sandstone blocks, it towers with its tall clock tower and arched windows, making it hard to miss as you approach from the plaza.
Now, while you stand outside this amazing building, imagine the clatter and hiss of steam engines rolling into town in the late 1800s. This place isn’t just any old train station-it’s a National Historic Landmark, built with sandstone hauled all the way from Fort Collins, and positioned right down the street from the capitol to show off its importance! Picture bustling travelers and conductors shouting, as this was once the Union Pacific’s biggest depot west of Council Bluffs. Over the years, it grew longer, got a fancy facelift in the roaring ’20s, and even a $6.5 million spruce-up in the 2000s-Cheyenne sure knows how to pamper its landmarks! These days, the plaza out front echoes with music and laughter during events. But after the last Amtrak train to San Francisco left in 1979, there was a bit less hustle-though plans for fresh train service are on the horizon. Since 1993, the museum inside has told wild tales of Cheyenne’s earliest days and the railroad that sparked a city. Can you almost sense that anticipation, as travelers stepped onto the platform, hoping for new beginnings out West? That’s the real magic of the depot.
