The museum is dedicated to the railroad, and local history of Brooksville, Hernando County, and Florida.

Although roads have been important in providing the residents of Hernando with a means of transportation, it was not until the extension of the railroad to Brooksville, the commercial center of the county, that the area was given real opportunity to grow.

[2] For Floridians it was a dream come true, for thousands of square miles of back country were opened to the tourist and the real estate operators.

In the early 1880s the closest rail contact for Hernando county residents was at Wildwood, thirty miles to the northeast.

Merchandise, produce, tourists and other items bound for Brooksville had to be transported there by wagon or stage over miles of dusty trails.

By 1881 it had pushed south to Gainesville and by 1885 it was at Pemberton Ferry, near Croom, just ten miles east of Brooksville.

Several local citizens then realized that they had better act fast, or Brooksville might remain in a state of virtual isolation.

Trucks hauled freight and automobiles took the place of passenger train cars.

Railroads fought back with piggyback flat cars that hauled the loaded trucks.

School groups rode the train from Brooksville to Tampa for day long field trips.

The railroad offered vacation packages to south Florida travelers from Hernando county.

In 1991 The Hernando Historical Museum Association purchased the 1885 Train Depot along with an acre and half of land from CSX for $12,600[11] and restored the building.

See original objects used by early settlers as they struggled to survive in the wilderness of  Hernando County.

The work car was originally owned by Cummer Sons Cypress Lumber Company which cut timber in the area of the “Green Swamp”.