THURSDAY, May 14, 2026 |
Photo – Fossil Cabin on flatbed trailer – Bigfoot99 file photo
After years of delays, Carbon County’s historic Fossil Cabin was successfully moved to the Medicine Bow Museum.
Yesterday, May 13th, the North Dakota-based motor carrier O’Neil House Moving transported the Fossil Cabin from the Como Bluffs to its permanent home at the Medicine Bow Museum.
Company Foreman John Coppe explained what it took to get the 94-year-old structure ready to move.
The Fossil Cabin was built in 1932 by amateur fossil collector and entrepreneur Thomas Boylan. Using more than 5,000 plant and animal fossils he had discovered in the nearby Como Bluffs, Boylan built the roadside attraction to promote his Lincoln Highway fuel station, located roughly seven miles east of Medicine Bow.
Seven years after its construction, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! named the building the “World’s Oldest Cabin” for its use of Jurassic‑era bones dating back 150 million years.
The Fossil Cabin served as a local tourist attraction until the 1960s, when construction of Interstate 80 shifted the majority of motor traffic off the Lincoln Highway and away from Boylan’s fuel station. The cabin was sold to the Nash family in 1974, who ran a dinosaur museum in the structure until 1992.
In 2018, the Nash family donated the vacant building to the Medicine Bow Museum. To improve access to the Fossil Cabin, the nonprofit Friends of the Medicine Bow Museum hired a contractor to transport the structure to the museum grounds. Unfortunately, the mover was either unable or unwilling to complete the job, and the Fossil Cabin remained at its original location until yesterday.
O’Neil House Moving Company Foreman John Coppe said the historic landmark was difficult to move without causing damage because Thomas Boylan built the cabin with little regard to its structural integrity.
Earlier this month, O’Neil House Moving crews securely wrapped the Fossil Cabin in plastic to prevent loose material from falling off during transport. Coppe said the cabin’s weight also created additional challenges when crews lifted the structure onto the moving truck.
Despite the challenges, O’Neil House Moving successfully lifted the Fossil Cabin onto the trailer and, over the course of 44 minutes, transported the building seven miles from the Como Bluffs to the Medicine Bow Museum. At the time of this report, the Fossil Cabin is still on the back of the transport truck. The contractors will spend the next three days placing the structure onto a pre‑poured concrete pad next to the Owen Wister cabin.
However, the job isn’t finished after the Fossil Cabin hits the ground. Contractors must still pour additional concrete to secure the structure to the pad. After that, the interior will be renovated to make it more accessible to visitors. The building is not expected to open to guests until next year.
