Boomer was a friendly stray dog who wandered into the roundhouse on a cold morning in March 1927 and became beloved in Breckenridge, where railroad employees, businessmen, and townspeople treated him as a privileged companion for 12 years. A mongrel, and thought to be part Scotch Collie, he was known for his loyalty, gentleness, and friendship toward everyone in the city, receiving countless pats, meals, candy bars, and ice cream cones, and each year his railroad friends bought the dog license for his collar. He died on April 23, 1937, and more than 200 people attended his funeral in Great Northern Park, where railroad men carried his remains from the roundhouse, flowers were placed on his grave, and he was buried beside the concrete flag pole as rain fell and trains passed the resting place of a dog many regarded as a true friend.