There’s something familiar missing following the railroad tracks between Cheyenne and Laramie near the Wyoming-Colorado state line after an old Union Pacific water tower that had been there for about 80 years was demolished without warning.
“We are in the process of demolishing an obsolete water tower from near Harriman, Wyoming, this week,” Mike Jaixen, a senior manager of communications with the Union Pacific Railroad, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
The railroad did not respond to additional requests for comment.
For decades, the 50-foot-tall structure towered over the railroad station in southeast Wyoming, and many locals are upset that it’s gone, especially since they wanted to save the tower and say they would have attempted to do so if they could.
“People around here are sad and angry,” said Harriman resident Michael Geary. “It’s been a landmark forever, and many people have ventured here to see it. It’s very dismaying.”
Towering Over Harriman
Since the 1940s, the water tower has stood along the Harriman railroad line 8 miles south of Interstate 80. The tank itself was 30 feet tall and 40 feet wide, and could hold about 300,000 gallons of water.
Tanks of this size were commonplace along Union Pacific rail lines during the heyday of steam locomotives. Perched on a 20-foot-tall base, the Harriman Tower towered over the landscape, making it a local landmark and a destination for train aficionados.
“The first time the Big Boy 4014 went by, there were roughly 2,500 to 3000 people out here,” Geary said. “Photographers loved that spot because the giant water tower was a great backdrop alongside the railroad.”
UPS driver Casey Lambert described the tower as “an icon” for many people on both sides of the state line. It symbolized Union Pacific’s history in the American West.
“The Transcontinental Railroad went all the way up through that area, and it’s close to Sherman Hill, which was the highest point on that line,” he said. “It was along the set of tracks that used to be the main tracks going to Laramie, and that tower was one of maybe two of its kind left in the nation.”
Now it’s gone.
Ominous Indicators
Geary owned property adjacent to the land where the Harriman water tower stood. He believes the incident precipitating the tower's being torn down happened in Spring 2023.
“We had a pretty horrific windstorm here,” he said. “There were 80-90 mph winds for over 36 hours.”
The winds destroyed a significant portion of the tower’s wooden roof, scattering debris across the railroad tracks. Geary believes that the incident alerted Union Pacific of the potential hazards of the aging water tower.
Then, this fall, Geary noticed someone taking pictures at the foot of the tower. The photographer said he was doing a site survey, gathering information for contractors.
“He told me the contractors were getting documents together for contractors interested in bidding on the tower's demolition,” he said. “But in the course of conversation, he told me not to worry about anything immediate and that it wouldn’t go out to bid until spring or early summer.”
Geary contacted Kelli O’Brien, the senior director of public affairs for Union Pacific in Iowa, Minnesota, western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming.
“I made comments about the tower being a fairly iconic piece of history of the Union Pacific, especially tied to 4014 and steam engines, but never got any reply from them,” he said.
A few weeks later, he encountered another team conducting another site survey of the water tower. They told him the tower was being considered for demolition.
A historic water tower along the Union Pacific line near the Wyoming-Colorado state line at Harriman, Wyoming, was a local landmark for about 80 years. Now it’s gone, torn down Dec. 17, 2024, without notice or discussion, leaving locals and railroad buffs livid. (Courtesy Michael Geary) 
A historic water tower along the Union Pacific line near the Wyoming-Colorado state line at Harriman, Wyoming, was a local landmark for about 80 years. Now it’s gone, torn down Dec. 17, 2024, without notice or discussion, leaving locals and railroad buffs livid. (Courtesy Michael Geary)
Your Application Accepted
Earlier this year, Geary received an email from Laramie County Planning and Development saying the department had received his application to demolish the water tower.
“I’m looking through the documents, and they had my property address on them,” he said. “The name on the application was a demolition contractor out of Salt Lake City, Utah.”
Geary contacted the contractor, who told him he used his address for the application because it was the closest address to the tower. It confirmed Geary’s apprehensions that the historic water tower was coming down.
Geary believes Union Pacific decided to demolish the tower and go through the permit process quickly and quietly. That way, the railroad could avoid the questions and “public consternation” that would arise if anyone discovered its plans.
“The contractor told me he’d run into several cases where there had been public consternation about historical structures being taken down by the Union Pacific,” he said. “Many people tried to slow down or stop them, and no one had ever succeeded. The railroad has pretty firm control over whatever they want to do.”
After this discussion, Geary couldn’t reach the Sale Lake City contractor again. He tried to alert Laramie County commissioners about the tower's imminent demolition and rally the community to speak out to save it, but his efforts went unheeded.
“By that time, it was the Union Pacific did not want information about the water tower being taken down getting out into the public,” he said. “They put it on the fast track before any opposition could steam up, but that’s just conjecture on my part.”
No Interest At All
On Tuesday, Geary and his wife were near the tower when they saw a large track hoe at its base. The tower was coming down, but not without a fight from the tower itself.
“The driver had to knock out around 75% of the vertical supports and all of the bracing structures on the underside, and it still wouldn’t go down,” he said. “He had to get on the backside and push it before it went over. It was quite a structure.”
Geary is unsure why Union Pacific suddenly demolished the historic water tower. He suspects their leadership deemed it too much of a liability to remain standing.
“Some people were speculating that after the roof blew off, the Union Pacific thought there might be some liability issues there,” he said. “Since they’re not talking or sharing any information, it’s hard to know their thought process.”
Nevertheless, seeing the iconic water tower reduced to debris was disheartening for Geary. There was no notice and no chance of preserving it for future posterity.
“I think it would have taken a very small amount of money to make the roof structure whole again and maintain it as a landmark,” he said. “The Union Pacific certainly could’ve done it, but apparently that wasn't any of interest.”
End Of The Line
While the Union Pacific will continue using the Harriman line, Geary and many others feel disheartened that the iconic tower won’t be towering over the line anymore. The romance of the railroad is considerably less than it was.
“The tower used to sit adjacent to a giant coal pile with conveyers so that they could fill up the train with coal and water at the same time,” Geary said. “Now, that’s all gone.”
Lambert said he knew a woman who lived in Alta Vista, Colorado, who told him how her late husband had helped restore the tower’s wooden roof when he was a teenager. He believes that if there had been any public notice of the tower’s demolition, there would have been a national response to save it.
“People living in Wyoming and Colorado cared about that tower, and people throughout the nation sought it out. Whenever Big Boy made its run or stopped along the line, hundreds of people traveled there. They wanted photos of that historic steam locomotive with the historic water tower behind it. And then they raised it without telling anyone they were doing it.”
For Geary, the landscape will never seem complete without the iconic water tower. The Union Pacific built it up and tore it down, and now those highly sought-after photos are all that remains of the historic structure along the historic railroad.
“A big piece of history is lying in piles out there,” he said. “It’s dismaying that it could have been saved, but there was no interest in trying to save it. None at all.”
Contact Andrew Rossi at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
