This portion of the Denver & Rio Grande narrow gauge railway, known as the San Juan Extension, was built to serve the rich mining areas of western Colorado. In late 1880, the D&RG reached Chama from Denver, Colorado, continuing from here to Durango, Colorado, and finally Silverton, Colorado, in 1882. It operated as the Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad until the late 1960s, when traffic dwindled to a trickle. The yard includes a water tank built in 1897; a coal tipple, sand house, and bin built in 1924; two remaining stalls of the brick roundhouse, the machine shop, the boiler room, and the oil house built in 1899; and the passenger depot, also built in 1899. To save the line from the scrap yards, the states of Colorado and New Mexico purchased the stretch between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama in 1970 and renamed it the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad. As the longest and highest narrow gauge steam railroad in the United States, it was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service in 2012.