We have a bonus day in Yellowstone NP today. We got here 2 nights before our reservation in the Grand Tetons and it’s time for Yellowstone. Many years ago, back in the 70’s, when I taught and lived in Rhode Island, a friend of mine and I got jobs on Catalina Island and drove across the US to get to them. Interesting adventure. We actually got into Yellowstone while it was early June with at least a foot of snow covering the areas we saw. All I remember is making a small snowman in the snow while wearing shorts and stopping to see one eruption of Old Faithful before heading on down to the Tetons. So, if you ask me if I’ve ever been to Yellowstone, the correct answer is ‘yes’, but the real answer is ‘no’. And, Gary has never been here at all. So, we’re excited. Isn’t this why we have an RV?
We got up early since we expected mobs of people in the park on a beautiful sunny summer day. Pretty empty at 8:00 and we glided on in to the Old Faithful Inn for the 9:30 tour. Oops, there’s a bison jam ahead which slowed traffic with people taking pictures out of the windows and we didn’t get into the Inn until 9:25. Marvelous tour given by a woman who has been giving it for 15 years at least. She was dressed for the part in late 19th Century clothing.
The Yellowstone Park Company wanted a 5 showpiece inns for the wealthy to stay when they were in Yellowstone. The underwriting was by the railroads which wanted to transport these people out to the National Parks in the West. (Probably the railroad wanted permission to build the railroad right to the front door of the Inn but this did not happen.) Old Faithful Inn is probably the most spectacular of them all. It was designed and and built by Robert Reamer, all of 29 yrs old, who was a relatively unknown architect. Most park hotels were usually designed to be familiar to their patrons and were thus in the style of the times. They were to be a comfortable reminder of home. Remember, these people are traveling thousands of miles to stay in a National Park, they want comfort and familiarity after a day in the wilderness. At least that’s what other architects thought. Reamer actually started with this idea but, after seeing Yellowstone for himself, changed his mind with a different vision: he wanted the inn to reflect the wilderness, to fit into the setting, to use the natural materials on hand to build a fine hotel.
“I built it in keeping with the place where it stands. Nobody could improve upon that. To be at discord with the landscape would be almost a crime. To try to improve upon it would be an impertinence.’
His style, called ‘rustic architecture’ or ‘Parchitecture’, is still the standard for national park architecture today. He not only designed the hotel, he also hand-picked many of the gnarled and twisted lodgepole pine logs that we saw throughout the building. For the gigantic fireplace in the center, he chose rhyolite lava stones found in the area. The inn was constructed over the winter of 1903 - 1904 with an army of some 1500 craftsmen. Surprisingly, it was outfitted with electric lights, hot water and heating, all three almost unknown in National Parks at this time but designed to attract only the best of visitors.
Since he was so young when the original Inn was built, he was available to plan and build the two additions that have been made. Today the Inn has over 300+ rooms. The prices reflect the splendor that you get when you stay there. The most popular rooms are those in the original building that have only a marble topped commode with a sink in the room.
A table and heat.
The shower and bathrooms were/are down the hall.
This and 4 other inns catered to the wealthy: people were expected to dress for dinner, bands played for the dances, meals were very elegant with several courses.
And, it was the rich who were the original visitors to Yellowstone since trains and stage coaches through the park cost more money than the average American could afford.
It was Henry Ford with his Model T who opened up the parks to the average person, who democritized the parks. With the arrival of middle class tourists came companies who catered to the middle-class with villages of floored tents. Everyone wanted to see the National Parks.
The class differences survived through the Depression and until the end of WWII as more and more people visited the National Parks and wanted the best in accommodations. Class differences in accommodations faded. It was said that the ‘geyser’ people, the common people, were coming in to use the bathrooms. That ended any pretense of class distinctions and the Inn was open to all.
It is still elegant but it bustles with our neighbors who are now dressed in shorts and t-shirts and eating hamburgs in the dining room.
In September of 1988, the Inn almost burned down. This summer was one of the hottest and driest on record. Lightening strikes hit the bone-dry forest and another fire would start. Fire after fire burned forests that hadn’t seen a fire for years. Then on September 7, the fire rushed towards the Inn. The Inn and other buildings in the area were evacuated except for about 200 firefighters who stayed to fight the fire. Then - the winds changed and the Inn was saved.
In the end, when the first snowfall of the season managed to snuff out the last of the fires, over 36% of Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres had burned. 67 buildings succumbed and 2 firefighters also died. Very few animals died and the fires rushed through so fast that the soil wasn’t heated so much that seeds and roots in it died. I’m sure that anyone driving through the park in 1989 saw the devastation everywhere. Charred trees standing like sentinels, greenery gone. But it’s amazing how a forest can rejuvenate. Today, we drove through walls of trees - not as tall as those in 1988 but standing tall and growing fast.
After our tour of the Inn, we ventured out to see Old Faithful and the other ‘geothermal features.’ But, that’s for the next blog.
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