Mammoth Spring Frisco Depot Museum

Mammoth Spring owes its railroad story to the Frisco's arrival in 1883, when the line extending from Springfield, Missouri toward Memphis put a station and depot between the giant spring and the Spring River — a placement that drew the young town itself onto the Arkansas side. The depot that survives today was built in 1886 for the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad, which later became part of the St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, the "Frisco." When the Frisco discontinued passenger service in 1968, the building was converted into a museum operated as an extension of Mammoth Spring State Park, which had been established in 1957. The depot was restored in 1971 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, and it now operates as a railroad museum interpreting Frisco-era operations through the Ozarks, with artifacts and memorabilia from the surrounding area displayed inside.