Big Sky, Big Parks by Ednor Therriault

Author:Ednor Therriault
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TwoDot
Published: 2023-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

Every evening a squad would fire a cannon atop Capitol Hill at sundown, a welcome tradition that helped signify the passage of time in this isolated wilderness post.

The distinctive look of Fort Yellowstone’s red-roofed, white frame buildings began to change in 1902 when Capt. Hiram Chittenden of the US Army Corps of Engineers was granted his request for a two-story, stone office building to serve as his department headquarters. He’d already been allowed a stately, well-appointed residence that had been completed that year, and he probably deserved it. The Roosevelt Arch at Gardiner was reportedly Captain Chittenden’s idea, and the talented West Point graduate would be instrumental in the design and construction of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road. Later he would go on to design the Ballard Locks in Seattle that bear his name. Not exactly a lightweight.

Scottish stonemasons were brought in to build several massive buildings, using sandstone sourced from a quarry between Mammoth and Gardiner. Built in the Colonial Revival style, they included a double officers’ quarters, a three-story, double cavalry barracks the size of a typical Hampton Inn, and an elegant Bachelor Officers’ Quarters, or BOQ. Today the BOQ contains the NPS’s Albright Visitors Center, the Yellowstone Forever bookstore, and a small museum that focuses on the early exploration of Yellowstone.

In 1909 an extravagant stone residence was built for the post commander—who also served as park superintendent—with an eye toward the frequent guests he would presumably be entertaining. The eight-bedroom home featured four bathrooms and four small rooms in the attic. The main floor has a kitchen, pantry, dining room, living room, and parlor. It’s the only building out of the sixty-five structures erected for the Fort that still serves its original purpose. While many of the remaining buildings are available for exploration, the superintendent’s house is a private residence, and is not open to the public any more than your house is.

Every military installation has a hospital, of course. Fort Yellowstone’s original ten-bed facility was replaced by a large stone hospital in 1911 that served military and civilian patients. It stood until 1965, when it was bulldozed after receiving significant structural damage in the Hebgen Lake earthquake of 1959.

Judge John W. Meldrum was a Mammoth resident whose name pops up frequently in the park’s history. A longtime fixture in Yellowstone, Judge Meldrum was appointed the park’s first US commissioner in 1884 after passage of the Lacey Act. For some reason the judge didn’t travel to the park to begin his term until 10 years later, but once he arrived, he settled into the Mammoth Hotel and began supervising the design and construction of a proper commissioner’s residence, which included an office and jail on the ground floor. The structure, funded by the Lacey Act, was built using a design drawn up by a soldier. One of Judge Meldrum’s most notable criminal cases involved a pair of road agents who held up a caravan of four stagecoaches in 1897 between Canyon and Mammoth, liberating the passengers of $630.

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