High Iron is a mobile monument built inside a transformed 1950s railroad boxcar. To date,eleven public artists have created installations that honor the immigrant and migrant labor communities that built Wyoming's rail and mining economy. The car tours the I-80 corridor through 2029, stopping in the former rail towns of Laramie, Cheyenne, Rawlins, Rock Springs, and Evanston — free and fully accessible at every stop.

The short answer: very carefully, with a crane and a semi. High Iron's boxcar doesn't have wheels and doesn't run on tracks — it lives on a trailer. The car was hauled from a field in Rigby, Idaho to Laramie by semi-truck, then lifted into place by crane. That same process happens at every stop on the tour. It's one of the more spectacular things you can witness — a 60-foot painted boxcar swinging through the air before it settles into its new home.

Not exactly. High Iron is a public art installation, an oral history archive, and a community gathering place all at once. There are no velvet ropes and no admission fee. You can come inside, listen to oral histories, participate in programming, and add your own story to the archive. Think of it as a monument that moves — and one that talks back.

Everyone — and especially the communities whose ancestors built Wyoming's rails and worked its mines. If your family has roots in the I-80 corridor, in rail or mining labor, or in the immigrant and migrant communities that made this state, High Iron is for you. It is also for students, educators, historians, artists, and anyone curious about the full story of Wyoming.

High Iron is fiscally sponsored by ALCES Community Works, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Laramie, Wyoming. The project has received support from Monument Lab's Re:Generation program, the Wyoming Arts Council, the Wyoming 250 Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Mellon Foundation, the Wyoming Humanities Council, and a growing community of individual donors and organizational sponsors. Donations are tax-deductible.

Yes — and we hope you will. The oral history archive at the heart of High Iron grows with every stop on the tour. You can record your story inside the boxcar during open hours, submit photos, audio, or video through our website, or simply write to us. You control how your story is shared and whether it's attributed to you by name.

Use the group visit form on our Visit page. We ask for a minimum of 72 hours notice for groups of 10 or more. Educator guides and curriculum-connected materials are available for K–12 groups. Reach out even if your timeline is tight — we do our best to accommodate all requests.

Donate at any level through our Give page — all donations are tax-deductible. You can also become an organizational sponsor, volunteer at events, share our programming with your networks, or simply show up. The most important thing you can do is bring someone with you.