FE&MV Railroad Passenger Depot

The passenger depot for the Fremont, Elkhorn and Missouri Valley Railroad is, from every conceivable historic standpoint, the most important building in Douglas. For the city itself would never have been established—at least, not as and where it is today—had it not been for the construction of the FE&MV Railroad, which built the depot at the tiny town it had laid out across sage-covered flats along the east bank of the North Platte River. To access the isolated mining sites and cattle ranches across central Wyoming, the new railroad was extended from the Nebraska-Wyoming border to reach, in May of 1905, the town of Lander, Wyoming, nestled in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. En route, the town of Douglas was conceived, its literal birth occurring on August 29, 1886, at two o’clock in the afternoon. Within four days, a total of 242 land parcels had been sold to area settlers, and the building began. On September 9th, a local reporter wrote: Despite the fact that the townsite, on Tuesday last, presented an unbroken surface of sagebrush, it today has all the appearance of a large and thriving town. And such a town! One “can hardly hear himself think” for the din of saw, hammer and plane! Buildings in every stage of construction ... bustle, stir and activity on every side. We counted, last evening, fifty-eight buildings underway, most of them business houses, and there are dozens of business men who had not begun to build yet. The Depot, along with several other railway buildings, was erected by the railroad during this initial boom. Built to standardized plans, it was no different than hundreds of other small depots that dotted the 19th century American landscape, and offered the usual arrangement of the usual spaces: a waiting room, an office, two restrooms, and a freight room. Built with strict economy, there is scarcely a nail or a board extraneous to the functional purpose of the structure. After being closed to passenger traffic in the 1950’s, the building fell into a state of disrepair, but was meticulously restored in the 1990’s. Now occupied by the local Chamber of Commerce, it serves visitors to the Douglas Railroad Interpretive Center, which showcases several historic train cars and a steam locomotive.