Our first stop today was to see the Historic Railroad Depot which was built in 1907 and restored in 2004 to its 1942 appearance. The building includes a nice restaurant and an excellent museum. This is a functioning passenger train depot with a ticket office and a lobby as well as an Amtrak office.  We have tickets for an Amtrak train ride adventure to New Hampshire next month. We almost decided to leave from here, but we will be boarding in Benson instead. Watch for my blog on that!

Historic Railroad Depot

Life size sculptures of Wyatt Earp and “Doc” Holiday mark the 1882 incident ending with the death of Frank Stilwell near the first depot.

Wyatt Earp and “Doc” Holiday

Of course any good railroad museum would have a cool train engine on display. This one was donated to the city of Tucson to mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the railroad to the city. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Locomotive #1673

Right across the street from the train depot is the Historic Hotel Congress, built in 1919. In 1934 members of John Dillinger’s gang rented rooms here. While they were here the building caught fire. The gang paid some firemen to carry their bags outside which contained submachine guns and bulletproof vests. They were soon recognized and arrested.

The hotel is still functioning today and includes a nice restaurant and a night spot.

Hotel Congress

Hotel Congress Lobby

We know the Tucson Visitor Center is in this colorful complex somewhere. We followed a few directional signs but they were not complete. After wandering the colorful maze of offices and such and finding a center plaza, we finally found the Visitor Center. We should have entered from the other side.

Tucson Visitor Center

As we were walking around the old part of Tucson we see this bench. Bernie thought it was pretty neat.

We figured riding the new streetcar its full route would be a good way to get a feel for the area so we bought a couple of one-day transit passes and did that before we went home.

• Gasoline:  $27 @ $1.85
• Lodging:  free
• Transit fare:  $8