Ellis Railroad Museum

Ellis owes its existence to the railroad: the Kansas Pacific Railway built a water station on the site in 1867, laid out the town in 1873 — establishing a depot, a hotel, and a few shops — and drew workers from Syracuse, New York, and Louisville, Kentucky, before the town spent the late 1870s as a cowtown shipping cattle herds from the south. Founded in 1994, the Ellis Railroad Museum keeps that heritage alive with items and photographs from the town's railroading past, displayed in a restored Union Pacific depot, plus a 5,000-square-foot model train exhibit. Outside, a miniature railroad circles a one-mile loop track known as the BK&E — the 'Buddy King and Ellis Railroad,' named for its primary donor, Francis 'Buddy' King, a former Ellis mayor who died in office in 1994 — and the half-scale train offers short public rides on summer weekends.