Laws Railroad Museum is located on the site of the village of Laws, named after R.J. Laws, a railroad official. Founded in 1883, Laws existed for approximately 80 years along a narrow-gauge railway portion of the Southern Pacific Railroad. Southern Pacific donated the train depot and other buildings, as well as the last train, to Inyo County and the City of Bishop in 1960, and a local post office, which had operated at Laws since 1887, finally closed in 1963. The museum opened one year later.

The section of the Southern Pacific Railroad that passed through Laws was called the Carson and Colorado Railroad, as it was originally intended to run from Mound House in Carson City, Nevada, to the Colorado River. However, it only ended up stretching as far south as Keeler (72 miles south of Bishop on Highway 395), on the east side of Owens Lake. Because of the narrow tracks, one type of engine that powered the narrow-gauge trains was affectionately dubbed the “Slim Princess,” and one can be viewed at Laws.

Although most of the buildings at Laws now are not original, the feel of the village has been recreated by bringing in historic buildings and an extensive collection of late-19th/early-20th-century artifacts from around the Owens Valley to grace our beautiful museum grounds, which lie near the base of the postcard-worthy White Mountains to the east.