Fennimore Railroad Historical Society Museum

Fennimore's railroad story is bound up with southwest Wisconsin's 3-foot narrow gauge. The Chicago and Tomah Railroad finished a 31-mile slim-gauge line between Woodman, on the Wisconsin River, and Lancaster in 1877, pushed east from Fennimore through Montfort in 1879, and came under Chicago and North Western control in 1880. Most of the network was widened to standard gauge in 1882, but the stretch between Fennimore and Woodman never was — it soldiered on as a narrow gauge operation until abandonment in 1926, remembered locally as the "Dinky." The Fennimore Railroad Historical Society Museum keeps that memory alive: its centerpiece is the Dinky itself, a 1907 narrow gauge steam locomotive, displayed with railroad memorabilia plus a collection of antique farm, home and military items.