Railroad Museum to Debut “Sweet Stop" Exhibit March 12! | Arts & Culture

Visitors to the California State Railroad Museum are in for a visual treat when a new exhibit titled “Sweet Stop: Mike Kotowski’s Sugar Cane Trains of Hawaii” debuts on March 12, 2013.  The new exhibit will showcase a collection of 11 original paintings that capture the heyday of Hawaii’s sugar plantation railroads. Inspired by historic photographs, noted railroad artist Michael F. Kotowski created this series of paintings between 1976 and 1978 for a calendar commemorating the 100th anniversary of the introduction of steam-powered locomotives to sugar cane plantations of the Hawaiian Islands.

As background, sugar cane plantations could not have prospered without the technology of steam-driven locomotives which helped Hawaii evolve from an Island Kingdom to the nation's 50th state.  In fact, from the middle of the 19th century until the late 1940s, small railroads --
mostly narrow gauge -- linked the plantations and mills to the ships that transported sugar from the islands to markets in the continental United States. Hence, the sugar industry grew rapidly and became the dominant industry of the Hawaiian Islands.  

Once on display, “Sweet Stop: Mike Kotowski’s Sugar Cane Trains of Hawaii” exhibit will continue through August 25, 2013.  For more information about this exhibit or other events and activities offered by the California State Railroad Museum, please  call  916-445-6645 or
visit www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org.

About the California State Railroad Museum
Operated by California State Parks with financial assistance from the non-profit California State Railroad Museum Foundation, the California State Railroad Museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Widely regarded as North America’s finest and most popular railroad museum, the complex of facilities includes the 100,000-square foot Railroad History Museum plus the reconstructed Central Pacific Railroad Passenger Station and Freight Depot, 1849 Eagle Theatre, and Big Four and Dingley Spice Mill commercial buildings in Old Sacramento. For 24-hour information, visit www.californiastaterailroadmuseum.org or call (916) 445-6645.