The Western Mining and Railroad Museum is a

railroad museum A railway museum is a museum that explores the history of all aspects of rail related transportation, including: locomotives (steam, diesel, and electric), railway cars, trams, and railway signalling equipment. They may also operate historic equ ...

and mining museum located in Helper,

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, southeast of

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. The museum is housed in the Old Helper Hotel building, built in 1913–1914. The museum was started in 1964. Teancum Pratt was Helper's initial settler in the 1800s. After the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway arrived in Helper, it began to become a popular town in the 1880s. Helper later became the eastern and western union station. Because of this, Helper grew bigger by adding hotels and other buildings for those passing through. As Helper continued to grow, the town gained saloons, a grocery store, a clothing store, and a school. Helper also grew in ethnic diversity in 1890. Mining and railroad work brought the need of unskilled labor. As a result, many people of different races and backgrounds came to work in Helper. Chinese, Italian and Austrians were the most common immigrants that worked in Helper. Because the town had neutral stance on labor, more and more immigrants came and populated the area. It was a place of safety for union organizers and strikers. The Western Mining and Railroad Museum contains tools and equipment that were used by the workers in the mines and on the railroads.

External links

* Railroad museums in Utah Mining museums in Utah Museums in Carbon County, Utah History museums in Utah Railway hotels in the United States {{Utah-museum-stub