Roosevelt Lodge Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service

Shapins Associates, Contractor

Roosevelt Lodge Historic District is located in the northern section of Yellowstone National Park in northwestern Wyoming. The district lies within an area known as Tower Junction, which receives its name from the junction of two key park roads and the nearby scenic attraction known as Tower Fall. The two roads are the Grand Loop Road and the Northeast Entrance Road, both originally constructed in the first decade of the twentieth century. Roosevelt Lodge Historic District is located a short distance south of this intersection. In the early twentieth century, the inventory unit was the setting for a Wylie tent-camp, the first tourist facility built on the site. It was rumored to have been occupied by President Theodore Roosevelt during a 1903 camping trip, a visit that lent the camp its name. The Roosevelt Lodge was constructed on the site of the former Camp Roosevelt between 1919 and 1920, the first component of the new lodge system developed by the National Park Service (NPS) at Yellowstone. For many years after the lodge was built, the area continued to be known as Camp Roosevelt. To this day, the Roosevelt Lodge Historic District preserves some aspects of the earlier tent camp, such as the spatial organization characterized by a central dining and gathering facility surrounded by clusters of individual camping units. Roosevelt Lodge was designed to resemble a dude ranch. In comparison to lodging in more developed areas of the park, Roosevelt Lodge is modest in scale and appearance. Visitors are still attracted to its serene setting at the edge of Pleasant Valley and the low-key accommodations in rustic guest cabins. There are ample recreational opportunities near the developed area, such as organized horseback riding trips and excellent fishing in the nearby Yellowstone River. The district is significant for its role in broader historic events and patterns, as well as its embodiment of a particular construction style. Specifically, it is important for its association with the development of tourist accommodations at Yellowstone National Park and with the Rustic architecture style. The district illustrates the rise of tourism in Yellowstone and the progression of accommodation types, which parallels the evolution of transportation within the park. Buildings and landscape features are representative of the Rustic style, marked by an effort to merge natural and built elements by emphasizing natural views, materials, and construction patterns. The buildings of the Roosevelt Lodge Historic District were listed on the National Register (NR) in 1983. Landscape features and patterns also contribute to the district’s significance, but were not included in the nomination form. This CLI discusses landscape features that should be added to the existing nomination. It also suggests revising the period of significance from 1906-1942 to 1906-1948 to include important changes to the landscape that occurred after what is generally considered to be the end of the NPS Rustic design period (1942). The cultural landscape retains historic integrity and is in good physical condition, and the Roosevelt Lodge Historic District continues to provide an image of park development and construction styles from the period of significance. Although landscapes and parks have been modified through the decades, many early forms of early land use and develoment became the forerunners of current visitor services, recreational opportunities, and educational programming. A barn and corral from the Wylie period, which supported the primary recreational activity of horseback riding, was removed in the late 1940s and replaced by the currently-operating Roosevelt Corral. The surrounding landscape is also notable for is role in education and scientific research, and the site hosted both early researchers and summer camps for kids.

Roosevelt Lodge Historic District: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Yellowstone National Park, National Park Service

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