Approaching two years after destructive flooding, the Sioux City Railroad Museum continues to bounce back, and now has a sizable grant for improvements.
On Thursday afternoon, Museum President Larry Obermeyer and others announced receiving a $1.93 million grant from the National Park Service.
Those sort of NPS grants go to support flood recovery and long-term mitigation at a nationally significant historic site.
Historic flooding by the Big Sioux River in June 2024, which took 72 hours to recede, caused $2 million in damage to buildings and interior artifacts. The Sioux City Railroad Museum was closed for 10 months to May 2025.
Obermeyer said the grant of $1,926,000 will be well used to bring back exhibits that people will enjoy seeing. It will be used to restore iconic locomotives and critical infrastructure in the Milwaukee Railroad Shops Historic District of the museum grounds.
Located at 3400 Sioux River Road, the museum was the brainchild of Obermeyer, who worked with the city of Sioux City to bring back the grounds from a decrepit state in the 1980's.
That was years after the 1948 heyday of the railroad repair shop at that location. At one point, 565 workers were employed there.
