Railroad Park History
Although the history of people traversing through is thousands of years longer, in 1887 the current town of Dunsmuir was created, primarily around employing railroad workers who could help push the steam engines further up the hill. For 70 years, trains and the railroad jobs were the center of Dunsmuir, until the mid 1950’s when trains switched to diesel and the labor force greatly contracted. In 1968 this railroad park was constructed by bringing retired cabooses onto the land, with the idea at first for a museum, and then later, to retrofit them into one-of-a-kind lodging.
Today, our visitors have the unique opportunity to actually sleep in and explore the onsite cabooses, box car, pullman dining cars, and one of the world’s last six Willamette steam-driven geared locomotives, which kids and train lovers can climb aboard! It is one of only two built with an open cab, which they called their “sport model”. Our Magic Market has a brass model of the Willamette on display as well.
Still today, Dunsmuir is the place to catch the Coast Starlight traversing between Seattle and Los Angeles. And the original Starlight Express Amtrak waiting-room-bench is today by the service counter in our Dining Car.
For more:
Dunsmuir Railroad Depot Historical Society maintains the Dunsmuir Depot Museum and contributes to an annual Railroad Days celebration.
The Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture hosts some very cool music events, history, and the truly rare “hobo library” of writings and art by travelers who rode the rails.