(rshsdepot) Cheyenne, WY

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

Story on WyomingNews.com.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
New depot floor to pay tribute to Cheyenne's railroad history
 
CHEYENNE - Wayne Hansen and Rick Heimsoth stood on a long, bare patch of  
cement in the lobby of the old railroad depot.

It's a scar in a city  landmark built north of the 19th-century time warp, 
the Transcontinental  Railroad. A few years ago, the lobby of the depot sprang 
back to usefulness when  it was restored to its Jazz-Age-in-the-West art-deco 
glory.

Brides map  out plans for their wedding receptions here. On Valentine's Day 
weekend, the  Kiwanis Club will host its Chocolate Indulgence event. Every 
single Saturday  between now and next year is booked, Hansen said.

But this gray, bare  slab where they stood is a jarring halt to the orderly 
flow of the  diamond-patterned floor that's polished to a high shine.

It looks as if  whoever was installing the floor ran out of granite squares, 
got up and went  home.

People call and complain about it all the time.

In reality,  the floor installer was working around the depot's brand-new 
newsstand in 1929.  It was just like City News, Heimsoth said. Train passengers 
and locals off the  street stopped at its counter to buy something to read and 
a pack of  smokes.

More than that, this was a city meeting place, Hansen said. This  was where 
you met people and said goodbye.

With the newsstand ripped  away, leaving a scar the size of a large vegetable 
garden, it's time for  something more pleasing.

Hansen and Heimsoth are two people who are  working on that.

They're tasked with keeping Cheyenne's railroad history  alive. Hansen is the 
CEO of the Cheyenne Depot Museum, located in the very room  where third-class 
passengers and baggage were once whisked out of sight from the  elite during 
the depot's early days. Heimsoth is the president of the museum's  board of 
trustees.

The depot museum raised $75,000 to fill that space on  the floor, which was 
donated by the Union Pacific to the city of Cheyenne. It's  money made from the 
summer's Brew Fest and a few folks who like railroad  history.

By May, pieces of granite, limestone, marble, discs of copper  and stainless 
steel will come together like pieces of a puzzle to form an image:  a map of 
the Transcontinental Railroad, its crooked stretch from Omaha to  Promontory 
Summit, Utah.

And it will cover the entire 44-by-12 foot  scar.

It's an image that will explain why we're here - in Cheyenne,  anyway.

During the Civil War, the North knew it could gain great economic  advantage 
by building a railroad track that reached the West Coast.

As  Union Pacific Railroad - funded by the government - laid tracks, a series 
of  end-of-track towns sprang up along the way. These places were built to 
house the  crews of workers, who carted in their loads of wood ties and food.

People  called it hell on wheels, Hansen said with a smile, as they rolled 
into the next  place at a furious pace.

Cheyenne is such a town. Heimsoth pointed to a  date on the map: Nov. 13, 
1867. That was when the first train rolled in. One  might say it was the day 
Cheyenne went live.

The floor map will show the  towns; their names will be written in cut pieces 
of black granite. The curves  and lines of the letters will be precisely 
carved by a water jet controlled by a  computer in Windsor, Colo.

Some towns are still with us, like Kimball,  Neb., and Green River. Others 
are gone, like Fort Steele, Wyo.

Here or  gone, the towns will be represented on the map, their points lit 
with  fiber-optic lighting - a symbol of man's presence in a wild land.

Smack  in the middle will be Cheyenne, with an image of its depot  tower.

Different shades of buff-colored granite and sandstone will tell  the story 
of how Greenville Dodge wrestled with the puzzle of how to build  quickly on 
the rugged and varied terrain across Wyoming. At first, you'll see  Dodge 
plotted it along the river. Then the route gives way to open  wilderness.

As Hansen talked, midmorning sun slanted in south windows.  Outside, empty 
cars of a diesel train stood quietly. Automobiles zipped up the  ramp of the 
Central Avenue viaduct.

Nothing was here before, he said.  Really, Cheyenne exists for artificial, 
man-made  reasons.



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