Griffith once had three railroad stations, with eleven tracks crossing Broad Street for five railroads: the Michigan Central, the Grand Trunk, the Erie, the Elgin, Joliet and Eastern, and the Chesapeake & Ohio. By the end of the 1970s, only the EJ&E and GT tracks still came through town, the EJ&E depot had burned to the ground, and the Erie station had been torn down, leaving only the small seventy-year-old Grand Trunk combination depot, which was also slated for demolition. Griffith became known as The Town that Came to the Tracks because its founders, Jay and Elmer Dwiggins, chose the site specifically for the concentration of railroads, which at its peak supported 180 trains per day. To honor that railroading heritage, a town-wide effort saved the last depot, and in January 1980 it was moved across Broad Street to its present site. After renovation through the efforts of town organizations, businesses, and citizens, it opened in October 1981 as a museum dedicated to Griffith railroad history, owned and operated by the Griffith Historical Society.