Railroads in the National Parks

Butler, William

Railroads were associated with the National Parks even before the Park Service was formally established in 1916. Although not yet a National Park, Hot Springs in Arkansas was set aside as a reservation in 1832 and the “Diamond Jim Line” was built between Malvern and Hot Springs in 1875 to bring tourists to the attraction; the reservation became a National Park in 1921. On a somewhat grander scale, the Northern Pacific completed a branch line – “the Park Branch” – in 1883 from Livingston to Cinnabar, Montana, to bring tourists to Yellowstone National Park. The railroad became an ardent supporter of the nation’s first National Park (1872) and promoted it widely to the pubic such as in the booklet Wonderland 1904 by the Northern Pacific’s director of advertising and historian, Olin Wheeler. Like the railroads to Yellowstone, the main line of the Great Northern across the northern United States was built just south of Glacier National Park in 1893, and the railroad promoted visitation and constructed several lodging facilities including the Many Glaciers Hotel. A subsidiary of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway constructed a line from Williams, Arizona, to the south rim of the Grand Canyon in 1901, and to accommodate travelers, the railroad (through the Fred Harvey Company) built the El Tovar Hotel in 1905. Realizing that National Parks were becoming a great attraction for the public – and thus generating revenue producing passengers – the AT&SF then successfully led the lobbying effort to establish Grand Canyon National Park (1919).