The mission of the Fort Payne Depot Museum is summarized as: to collect, preserve and, through exhibits, educate the public about the history of the DeKalb County area. The museum staff and the Board of Directors understand the mission of the Museum, and there does not appear to be pressure to expand the scope of the collections to areas outside of the stated mission. The collections do, for the most part, support the mission. The collections fall into three broad categories: local history artifacts, including the railroad caboose, Native American artifacts, and special-interest collections.

The Fort Payne Depot, constructed in 1891, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1971.