Filed Under Gardiner

Roosevelt Arch

North Entrance Road Historic District

In April 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for the Roosevelt Arch, a massive, Rustic style monument that symbolically marked the entrance into Yellowstone National Park. The only such grand entranceway into a national park, the arch was the brainchild of Captain Hiram Chittenden, chief of the U.S. Army Engineers in Yellowstone. Using basalt quarried nearby, stonemasons constructed two fifty-foot towers spanned by a twenty-foot wide arch and flanked by two wing walls. The effect was deliberately rustic: stones were used “with the least possible dressing” to “present as natural an appearance as possible.” The arch greeted the multitude of tourists brought to the North Entrance by the Northern Pacific Railroad. Disembarking from the train, travelers left the station in stagecoaches and later buses. Passing beneath the arch, visitors read the words inscribed in tablets of molded concrete commemorating the park’s purpose: “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People” (from the Act creating the park), “Yellowstone National Park,” “Created by Act of Congress March 1, 1872.”

Images

Northern Entrance Arch, Yellowstone National Park
Northern Entrance Arch, Yellowstone National Park Jack Elllis Haynes' automobile under the Theodore Roosevelt Arch, Colonel F.T. Arnold and Haynes in car. Source: Montana Historical Society Research Center Photograph Archives, Helena, Montana Creator: Jack Ellis Haynes, photographer Date: 1916
Roosevelt Arch, Entrance Gateway, Yellowstone Park
Roosevelt Arch, Entrance Gateway, Yellowstone Park Colorized postcard of the Roosevelt Arch entrance of Yellowstone National Park, Montana. Source: Montana History Portal Creator: Detroit Publishing Co. Date: 1887-1936

Location

2819 US-89, Gardiner, Montana | Public

Metadata

The Montana National Register Sign Program, “Roosevelt Arch,” Historic Montana, accessed March 29, 2024, https://historicmt.org/items/show/1703.