The museum, located in an old Union Pacific depot, is open only during the warm months (late May through early October) because trains only ran to West Yellowstone during the summer, the museum‘s website notes. Heavy snows covered the railroad tracks the rest of the year.
The original depot, constructed in 1908, had only one room, but the following year wings for waiting rooms (separate facilities for men and women) and women‘s dressing rooms were added. Today, one wing houses an exhibition on the history of flight in West Yellowstone, while the opposite wing has small theaters for viewing movies the museum shows.
Tourists can watch educational movies
These movies include the disastrous 1988 forest fires in Yellowstone National Park that almost destroyed the town of West Yellowstone, the 1959 Hebgen earthquake that killed 28 people and formed a new lake when a mountain came tumbling down, and the 1964 Montana centennial train.
The movies are both educational and interesting to watch, though the Hebgen movie can be a bit frightening as scientists say another earthquake of at least the same magnitude of 7.6 will happen, though no one can predict the time. In the meantime, scientists tell viewers hundreds of earthquakes happen daily in the Yellowstone area, though they are not strong enough for people to feel.
The centennial train movie delves into the history behind Montana’s celebration of its centennial, with actual news footage of the train crossing the United States. The movie also includes interviews with some participants who traveled cross-country on it to New York. After watching the movie, viewers can step outside to the rear of the museum and see one of the seven remaining train cars.
Other Yellowstone museum exhibits
In between the wings, visitors to the Yellowstone Historic Center can see a stagecoach that transported early tourists throughout the park, and photos of the long yellow bus limousines, which are still used to transport today’s tourists around the park. Dishes used in the Union Pacific dining lodge as well as the crisp black uniforms the waitresses wore also are on display.
On the other side of the room, a horse laden with multiple items such as a mattress box springs topped with a black barrel shows how supplies were hauled to West Yellowstone.
More modes of transportation are housed on the front porch. Snow enthusiasts will enjoy looking at early snowmobiles used in the Yellowstone area.
But there is more to historic Yellowstone than the museum. It has published a free brochure, West Yellowstone Historic Walking Tour, which takes visitors to sites of interest in downtown. The list includes the Madison Hotel, built in 1912; a 1920s school; and various Union Pacific facilities, including a train car built in 1903 to carry the railroad’s vice president around.
Visiting the Yellowstone museum
The Yellowstone Historic Center museum is located at 104 Yellowstone Avenue in West Yellowstone, Montana. The museum opens at 9 a.m. daily, with closing time depending on the month. It closes at 6 p.m. in May and after Labor Day until it closes down for the winter. During summer months it closes to the public at 9 p.m. Admission is charged.
Cheryl Probst - Cheryl Probst is an award-winning photojournalist who specializes in writing about motorcycles, China and the Pacific Northwest.
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