North Entrance Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Yellowstone National Park
Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program. 2013. North Entrance Station: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Yellowstone National Park. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 975624. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. NPS Intermountain Regional Office, Santa Fe, New Mexico / CRIS-CL Database
Inventory Unit Description: The North Entrance Cultural Landscape is the portal and the chamber of Yellowstone National Park’s northern entrance. Occupying a dramatic level plateau near Gardiner, Montana, the North Entrance Cultural Landscape is contained by rugged mountains and the steep canyons associated with the Gardner and Yellowstone rivers, which conjoin near the park boundary. The broad open space of the plateau, known as the Gardiner Flats, is punctuated by the iconic form of the Roosevelt Arch, a striking rustic stone structure built in 1903 to mark and celebrate the northern portal into Yellowstone National Park. Built to coincide with the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s Park Branch rail line to Gardiner, the arch has since greeted millions of visitors and is a recognized symbol of the park. The significance of the cultural landscape resides in the early-twentieth-century design and construction of the roadway by engineer Capt. Hiram Chittenden of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as an integral part of the planned road system of Yellowstone National Park. The road corridor and the Roosevelt Arch also possess significant associations with the role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in early development of the park for visitors, and the rustic design aesthetic of landscape features and the Roosevelt Arch that would later become the hallmark of Yellowstone National Park and numerous other parks throughout the nation. The Roosevelt Arch is also significant for its role in the landscape as the first gateway or threshold feature to celebrate entry into a national park. The period of significance associated with the North Entrance Road Historic District as documented in the National Register nomination is 1883–1951, with 1883 representing the earliest date that access to the park occurred via the North Entrance Road, and 1951 representing the 50 age consideration at the time the nomination was prepared. This CLI recommends that the end date of the period of significance for the component landscape extend between 1883 and 1948, the year in which passenger train service to Gardiner ended and use of the depot was abandoned. This change effectively altered the traditional intended way for visitors to arrive at the park and experience the Roosevelt Arch.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Regions 6, 7, & 8 Park Cultural Landscapes Program
- Date of Issue
- 2013-03-07
- Publisher
- U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service
- Units
- IMR , YELL
- Keywords
- conservation, Fort Yellowstone National Historic Landmark District, Gardiner, Hiram Chittenden, historic designed landscape, landscape architecture, North Entrance Road Historic District, Northern Pacific Railroad, park development, road system, Roosevelt Arch, rustic architecture, stone arch, tourism, transportation, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers