A Place Called Yellowstone by Randall K. Wilson

Author:Randall K. Wilson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781640096660
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 2024-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

After lunch, visitors spent an hour or so exploring the geyser basin before traveling on to the Fountain Hotel near modern-day Madison Junction. Opened in 1891, the three-story structure with 350 rooms included electric lights, steam heating, and hot springs mineral baths. After dinner, guests could gather in the ballroom for another night of dancing or head out back to watch bears feeding on leftover food and trash tossed out to them by kitchen staff.

DAY THREE

Visitors took the relatively short eight-mile ride to the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful, with some stopping to see Grand Prismatic Spring along the way. At Old Faithful Inn, they approached the building that has become one of the most iconic structures in the United States.

Walking through the massive front doors made a powerful impression. Built of native volcanic stone (rhyolite) and timber hewn from nearby lodgepole pine stands, the open lobby stretched four stories to the roof, highlighting the immense freestanding stone fireplace near the back. Around the perimeter of the cavernous lobby, twisting polished-wood railings and off-centered windows of various sizes and shapes gave the feeling of being in a forest with dappled sunlight filtering through the canopy. A staircase led to guest rooms and interior balconies dotted with sofas and writing desks, creating the sensation of being nestled in a tree house. At the highest point, a “crow’s nest” could hold musicians, who filled the air with subtle classical melodies. The second floor offered passage to a partially covered exterior deck for observing the geyser basin. A searchlight mounted on the rooftop “widow’s walk” allowed for special nighttime viewing of Old Faithful, wandering wildlife, or unwitting romantic couples pitching woo.

The inn, often called the largest log structure in the world (but without any supporting evidence), received a 100-room east-wing expansion by Reamer in 1913 and another 150-room west-wing expansion in 1928. In 1936, he completed the Bear Pit Lounge (moved to its current location in 1962). But the building’s distinctiveness had less to do with immensity than with the outdoorsy feel of the interior space, which even today exudes the same treehouse-like sense of wonder.

DAY FOUR

The day began with a stagecoach ride to the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake for lunch and a stroll near the hot springs. Afterward, visitors could choose to continue on by coach along the shoreline to Lake Hotel or board Eli Waters’s steamer ship, the Zillah, instead. For tired tourists, the boat had its appeal, but it also required an additional fee. The crusty Waters tried to entice stage drivers by offering them a fifty-cent kickback for every tourist they sent to his boat, but eventually even this wasn’t enough to keep Waters’s business afloat.

At Lake Hotel, visitors found a completely different expression of Robert Reamer’s talents. What began in 1891 as a flat-sided clapboard hotel of eighty rooms transformed after Reamer’s 1903 redesign into a four-story, 210-room structure featuring a distinctive set of gables and a colonnade of fifty-foot-high Ionic columns. Painted a soft yellow with white highlights, the new lobby featured a grand piano and plush furniture.

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