Collections
Railroad Room Collection
The furnishings and many of the smaller items in this collection were collected by William White and were donated by the Rosemount Museum. White collected most of these items in the Durango and Silverton area.
The captain's chair and monkey stove are from a narrow-gauge caboose and are on loan from Sue Cutler. The stove has only three legs.
The brass locomotive bell was on an engine that was first used on the Crystal River Railroad, which may have been used to haul marble for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Later, the engine was used on the C&W Railroad near Trinidad, Colorado. During World War II, the trusty engine made its last trip to Pueblo under its own power to be scrapped at the CF&I Steel Mill. The bell was donated by Mrs. William O'Conner whose husband was head of the C&W Railroad in Pueblo. The collection also includes six photos of General Palmer's private railroad car, which was built in 1878.
The dishes in the cabinet are from a number of different railroad companies. They were collected by Gary Carter and are mostly on loan to the museum.
A framed copy of the Colorado Chieftain, 1876, tells of the great celebration when the Santa Fe Railroad finally reached Pueblo.
The importance of the railroads to this area cannot be measured. The railroads brought many settlers and immigrants who formed the working fiber of this community. The local industries used the railroads to ship their products to markets. The "Cowboy's Bible" (saddle catalog) would have done little in sales had they not been able to ship from Pueblo.