According to local oral tradition, the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad (GCSF) gained a vital right-of-way through Emily Hitchcock's property in 1875 by agreeing to establish a depot named for her deceased husband, Lent Munson Hitchcock. GCSF platted the town of Hitchcock in 1891. The depot, built by 1893, became a social center as passengers, freight, and agricultural produce moved past its doors. This structure, the last of this area's GCSF depots still standing, was relocated here by the Santa Fe Area Historical Foundation in 1975 and converted for museum use in 1982.