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Historic place

The 1880 Train (Black Hills Central Railroad)

222 Railroad Ave, Hill City, SD

The oldest continuously operating standard-gauge steam railroad in America runs on tracks originally laid during the 1890s Black Hills gold rush — but the "vintage" train itself is a 1957 tourist creation named for an era that predates the actual rail line.

📅 1957–present🏛️ Heritage RailroadStill hereBuilt 1957

Open on the map Slide back to 1957

The story

The rail line between Hill City and Keystone was built in stages during the 1890s central Black Hills mining boom. Hill City itself, founded in 1876, grew as a mining and timber town along it. In 1957 local businessman William Heckman revived the aging branch as a tourist excursion, naming it the "1880 Train" for Old West nostalgia even though the track dates to the 1890s. The Black Hills Central Railroad is recognized as the oldest continuously operating standard-gauge steam railroad in the U.S., running a scenic 10-mile route between Hill City and Keystone.

Everything that was here

1957–present · still open
The 1880 Train (Black Hills Central Railroad)Heritage Railroad
The oldest continuously operating standard-gauge steam railroad in America runs on tracks originally laid during the 1890s Black Hills gold rush — but the "vintage" train itself is a 1957 tourist creation named for an era that predates the actual rail line.
See the map in 1958 →

Did you know?

Despite the name, the "1880 Train" actually runs on track built in the 1890s.

It's the oldest continuously operating standard-gauge steam railroad in the entire U.S.

The excursion railroad is a 1957 tourism creation, not a surviving original passenger service.

Connected places

Mollie Johnson's Brothel

Black Hills Gold Rush

Explore the full web of connections on the map.

Nearby history

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park · 9.6 km away

This granite-ringed "jewel of the Black Hills" predates Custer State Park by three decades — and in 2007 it stood in for

Sheridan (drowned townsite)

Sheridan Lake (US-385) · 9.8 km away

South Dakota's very first Pennington County seat spent its last decades as a dying gold camp of about 10 people — then v

Needles Highway

SD Highway 87 (Needles Highway) · 10.4 km away

Governor Peter Norbeck personally walked and rode horseback over every foot of the route before a single machine touched

Mount Rushmore National Memorial

13000 SD Highway 244 · 11.1 km away

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum blasted 450,000 tons of granite off a Black Hills peak to carve four 60-foot faces — and died in

Crazy Horse Memorial

12151 Avenue of the Chiefs · 11.4 km away

Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear told sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to k

Holy Terror Mine

Base of Mount Aetna (Keystone) · 12.8 km away

Legend says a Black Hills prospector named his richest strike after his own wife — not as a tribute, but as a joke about

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Sourceshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Hills_Central_Railroad