For untold eons, the show came every 90 minutes. Whether there was an audience or not. Old Faithful is the most well-known feature of any National Park aside from the Grand Canyon. Its home is in Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the world.
Yellowstone National Park came into existence on March 1, 1872, with the signature of President U.S. Grant. The park was a natural wonder of spectacular geological formations, unique wildlife, and scenic rivers, lakes, and waterfalls. Nearly five million people hailing from all over the world and all 50 states visit Yellowstone on average each year.
Today, it’s easy with modern amenities, nearby airports, and well-maintained two-lane highways with 70 mph speed limits. It wasn’t the case in the first half-century after the park opened.
There are five entrances into the park; the West Entrance near West Yellowstone, Montana, is the busiest, handling heavy west coast and Asian Rim traffic. There are two more entrances in Montana, the North Entrance in Gardiner and the Northeast Entrance near Cooke City. Two Wyoming towns have been in a sometimes not-so-friendly rivalry to increase traffic through their nearby entrances.
The East Entrance a few miles west of Cody and the South Entrance about the same distance above Jackson have volleyed for Yellowstone bound tourists since soon after the park opened.
More distant towns like Shoshoni, Riverton, and Lander in Fremont County and Rawlins and Rock Springs in Carbon and Sweetwater Counties did their fair share of advertising with the help of the Union Pacific Railroad to the south and the Chicago North Western Railroad in Fremont County.
Until highways began to improve just after the turn of the century, there was no easy way to get to Yellowstone. Passengers rode the railroad to destination points, then traveled by horseback or behind a wagon for hundreds of miles just to reach the park.
George Wingate arrived in the park in the summer of 1885. He traveled on the Northern Pacific Railroad as far as Bozeman, Montana. The Northern Pacific reached Bozeman two years before. His account of the trip was slow and closely connected to the natural environment. Travel just to the park boundary took almost five days. He contracted an outfitter in Bozeman, and together the party traveled all across the park.
The only development was a few tent hotels, an occasional store, and primitive log hotels with accompanying restaurants. Wingate related that they sometimes threw their dirty clothes into the geyser pools to wash them.
Mostly they traveled a few miles, set up camp for the night where they cooked dinner, and breakfast the following morning before setting out again.
They were mostly alone with the wildlife; they encountered few other people. The solitude combined with the scenery was their strongest impression of Yellowstone.
The journey was as much a part of the experience as sightseeing was.
Wingate was one of the handful of tourists to reach Yellowstone in the first 20 years of the park’s existence. There were many people in the park, but most were businessmen and construction workers who were building lodges, cabins, restaurants, and stores in anticipation of a future rush to the park.
Their hopes were built on an 1883 expedition to Yellowstone by President Chester A. Arthur in the summer of 1883. Arthur chose to travel on the Union Pacific. His choice with the arrival of the Northern Pacific in Western Montana sparked a rivalry that continues into the 21st century, even though trains are no longer the method tourists use to reach the park.
The Northern Pacific built a spur line to the North Entrance in 1883 as well.
Journey Through Yellowstone National Park and Northwestern Wyoming 1883
“The train arrived at Green River, Wyo., at 10:30 today (Sunday), and in consequence of the pre-arranged plan to spend Sunday at this point, we remained quietly on the train all day. Tomorrow morning at 7 o’clock we take the spring wagons for Washakie, and will encamp tomorrow night on the Sweetwater, one hundred and one miles north of this point. The next day we will drive into Fort Washakie, fifty-five miles.
There are three of these spring wagons. The President, Secretary Lincoln, and Gen. Sheridan will ride in No. 1; Senator Vest, Judge Rollins, and Gen. Stager in No. 2; Gov. Crosby, Mr. George Vest, Surgeon Forwood, and your representative in No. 3. We expect to make about ten miles an hour over a fine natural road, and to reach Washakie about 3 p.m., August 7.”
Among the party was Montana Governor Schuyler Crosby, Lt. General Phillip Sheridan of Civil War Union Cavalry fame, Secretary of War Robert T. Lincoln, and Senator George Vest of Missouri, a former member of the Confederate House of Representatives.
Sheridan was a strong advocate for protecting the pristine park from speculators, as was Senator Vest. The park had no greater advocate than George Bird Grinnell, the editor of Forest and Stream.
The Department of the Interior was a mess, corrupt, inefficient, and woefully inadequate to protect Yellowstone. Sheridan sent an Army detachment from Fort Custer, and the U.S. Army managed Yellowstone from 1886 to 1916.
The presence of soldiers inside the park gave visitors a false sense of security. A three-time convicted felon came to the park in early summer 1905 and robbed 15 stagecoaches.
Wyoming Tribune – May 25, 1915
Yellowstone Stage Bandit Is Edward Trafton
One-Armed Man Arrested in Idaho for Sensational Crime in Wyoming
“Edward Trafton of Pocatello was arrested at Rupert, Idaho, this morning on the charge of holding up stage lines in Yellowstone National Park and robbing the passengers of money and jewelry, according to the Denver Post.
The robbery of the stages was one of the most picturesque crimes ever pulled off in the West and attracted international attention because people from all parts of the world were relieved of their valuables.
After the robbery of 26 people in the fifteen stages at Yellowstone, government and state officers searched for weeks for the robber. They had excellent descriptions of him and photographs taken by Miss Evelyn Hammond of London and Miss Anna Squire of Chicago, both of whom took snapshots of the bandit while he was securing the money and jewelry.”
Trafton earned his fourth trip to the Wyoming Penitentiary in Rawlins for his efforts.
By 1916, technology began to take hold on the tourist trade.
There were now three railroads within visiting distance of the park. The Chicago North Western reached Lander in 1906, joining the Union and Northern Pacific lines as a viable contender.
In Lander, former freight and stage companies, reduced in business by the arrival of the railroad, looked northwest towards Yellowstone.
In 1899, the Army began keeping entrance totals. The North Entrance accounted for 75% of the 9,579 visitors that year, with 7,338. There were only 237 tourists using the South Gate near Jackson Hole.
The East Entrance had no traffic at all, but that would change as the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) steadily worked from Seattle and Orin Junction to meet in the Wind River Canyon in 1914. The CB&Q reached Cody in 1904. That summer, there were 310 park visitors using the East Entrance.
By 1912, the North and West Entrances were nearly equal, with 10,552 and 10,184 entrants. The South Entrance was still far behind with just 573. The spark in West Entrance totals came after 1908, when the Northern Pacific built a spur line to the location.
The low numbers from the South might have discouraged most people, but businessmen in Lander saw an opportunity. The lure of the “Old West” was strong in Europe and along the East Coast. The thrill of riding in a stagecoach through an Indian reservation was a strong marketing tool. All three railroads began advertising for adventurous trips to Yellowstone.
The Chicago North Western hitched its hopes to Lander and stage rides along the Wind River to Dubois, up Togwottee Pass to Brooks Lake Lodge, and on to Yellowstone.
Early ventures brought hundreds of travelers to Lander and Dubois, but technology was about to “up the ante.” The first reliable buses entered the American market just after World War I ended.
Buses were faster and more comfortable than stage coaches. They weren’t as exciting as playing cowboy on the western range while being pulled behind a team of horses, but they were safer and appealed more to families traveling to the park.
The roads remained in appalling condition through most of the 1920s.
Wind River Mountaineer – March 31, 1922
Bus Line Direct From Lander To Park
Home Corporation Formed Will Carry Passengers To Moran By Way Of Dubois Stopping Place At Brooks Lake Hotel and Camping Place To Be Prepared Easy And Safe Traveling Assured Success Was Sudden
“A direct bus line from Lander to the Park Hotel in the Yellowstone National Park.
That is the latest successful move accomplished by the boosters of Lander and the entire community.
For years to come this will mean more to Lander and Fremont County in the way of advertising than any other one deal ever put through and will prove a big source of revenue to everyone.
The connecting link between the outside world and the Yellowstone National Park through Lander is now an accomplished fact.
The entire system of the Northwestern Railway Company will throw its mighty advertising machinery at work to boost for the southern entrance to the Park with direct travel through Lander.
The Yellowstone Bus line which operates the transportation in the Park will connect up with the Lander Bus line at Moran and thus complete the through line.
The Transportation Company will also build a hotel and standard Yellowstone camping outfit at Brooks Lake.
Mr. Albright superintendent of the National Park and Mr. Mather superintendent of all National Parks in the United States have promised their full cooperation in advertising the route.
The bus line will start operation for daily service on July 1 and run to and including September 15. Extra buses will be put on when the occasion demands it.
The bus left Lander at 8 a.m., stopped for lunch in Dubois around noon, then arrived at Brooks Lake Lodge for the evening meal and an overnight stay around 5 p.m.
On the second day, the bus reached Moran Junction around noon, and passengers transferred to buses operating out of the park.
The return trip left at eight, stayed again at Brooks Lake, and arrived in Lander the following day around 5.
The bus line was a success, generating business for the Noble and Fremont Hotels in Lander and for Welty’s Inn in Dubois, which had the lunch contract. Having regular guests at Brooks Lake Lodge, also owned by the bus company, was a lucrative cash stream as well.
The rivalry between Cody and Lander grew heated in 1922.
Lander Evening Post – July 7, 1922
CODY TOWNS OUT WITH “HAMMER”
“About the “nastiest” piece of propaganda that has ever been promulgated by outside towns, and especially some of the towns on the Yellowstone Highway, has been started in order to “knock the Southern Entrance to Yellowstone Park” is now going the rounds. A Lander man was at Thermopolis the other day, and in talking to some of the citizens there he learned that “a car could not get through the Southern Entrance at all, and that the busses were not now running.”
Such talk shows the narrowness of the towns on the Yellowstone Highway and to what ends they will go to knock a rival. When anybody in Thermopolis, Basin or Cody will tell you that the road from here to the Park is impassable and that the buses are not making scheduled time between here and the Lake Hotel, they are simply lying, and moreover, they know that they are lying.
There is not one place in the road between here and Moran, that has the climb that the Yellowstone highway has at Birdseye Pass. There is not any place in the Rocky Mountain Highway that is one-half as dangerous as the canyon road near Cody.
The competition to the south in Sweetwater County noticed. A 12-passenger bus began daily runs to Moran Junction.
The Rock Springs route started across vast expanses of sagebrush, but once it reached Pinedale, the alpine beauty began to take the passenger’s interest.
Wyoming State Journal – June 20, 1924
Rock Springs Bus Runs to Yellowstone
“The new bus line between Rock Springs and Moran is now making daily trips between Pinedale and Rock Springs, leaving that city upon arrival of No. 17, arriving at Pinedale about one o’clock and returning in the afternoon. Beginning June 16th, the bus will start its regular trips to Moran and will continue its daily trips during the open season of the Yellowstone National Park. The new bus is a twelve-passenger Cadillac, the most modern and up to date car that money can buy. The fare between Pinedale and Rock Springs is $8 each way.”
In 1924, U.S. Highway 20 was carved along the sheer rock walls along the east side of the Wind River Canyon. The new highway gave the crossroads town of Shoshoni an economic boost. Tourists had a choice to head west to the South Entrance or north to Cody and the East Entrance. That choice was made at Shoshoni.
Travel increased slowly from Lander until 1930, when a reconstructed highway produced a surge of travelers.
The Denver-sponsored Rocky Mountain Highway began construction in 1928, following the old Rawlins to Fort Washakie stage route. A quality gravel and shale road was completed to the junction with the Riverton – Dubois Highway near Diversion Dam.
Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho artists and bead workers sold their artwork when the bus made a stop at the J.K. Moore Store in Ft. Washakie. Native American art was popular, and the tourist trade gave the local people of the Wind River Indian Reservation an economic boost.
The road from there remained primitive, but it too was improved to a high-quality gravel road by 1934.
As roads improved, the journey itself, once the heart of a Yellowstone trip, began to fade.
What had once been an expedition became a destination.
The change was noticed by the Union Pacific Railroad, and they began to market that idea, concentrating on their spur line from Salt Lake City, Utah, to the West Entrance.
In 1934, they began producing a booklet entitled “Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.” Grand Teton was established in 1929 and offered even more vacation incentives.
Incentives were hard to come by for most Americans in 1934. It should have been the “Golden Era” of train travel to Yellowstone, but the Great Depression got in the way. By the time the economy began to recover, America was at war.
When the war ended in late 1945, the travel options drastically changed. Roads improved dramatically as did vehicle design.
In 1944, only 85,000 people visited Yellowstone; that number jumped 1200% in just four years to over a million in 1948.
The Chicago North Western ended passenger travel to Fremont County in 1943. The age of the railroad as the primary means of traveling to Yellowstone came to an end.
By the 1950s, nearly everyone traveled by car. Traditional hotels gradually gave way to more modern motels, and fast-food restaurants began to replace traditional dining.
Quality air travel arrived in Riverton, Jackson, and Cody. With the addition of rental cars, the bus became as antiquated as the stagecoach.
The modern world had arrived in Yellowstone National Park.
Shoshoni, Riverton, Lander, and Dubois still benefit each summer from the tourist trade. The Native American artists selling their products in Riverton, Lander, and especially Fort Washakie do as well.