The Hill City Depot was built in 1889 by the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad, an early subsidiary of the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad. It was originally a two-story depot with living quarters for the station agent on the top floor, but in the late 1960s the Burlington Railroad removed the second story. Even so, it remains the most original depot on the line from Edgemont to Deadwood, South Dakota. In the 19th century, transportation was often limited to foot, horse and buggy, boat, or train, and a person traveling by horse and wagon could usually cover only about ten to fifteen miles in a day under good conditions because roads were often poor, muddy, rutted, and winding. For longer trips, most people took the train because it was the fastest way to travel. By the early 20th century, nearly every little town had a railroad depot, where people bought train tickets and communicated with other towns and cities by telegraph. Baggage carts, also called baggage trucks, were used to haul baggage, express, and mail from the baggage room to the train, with baggage handlers pulling the heavy loads around railroad stations by hand; their wheels, handles, and braces were made of metal, sometimes with hard rubber tires, while the rest of the cart was made from various woods.