More about the Inn

Yellowstone National Park was created in 1872, but it took many years for the current features to be developed (hotels, roads, etc...).  Though today seen as iconic the Old Faithful Inn wasn't the first hotel in the park.

The Old Faithful Inn welcomed its first guests June 1, 1904.  It has weathered severe winters, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, and the fires of 1988....  Its design is the creative work of Robert Reamer, a 29-year-old architect from Ohio.  he utilized local materials to recreate a forest indoors; the lobby measures 76'6".  The lodgpole [sic] pine, including twisted supports, was cut 4 miles south of the site.  500 tons of rhyolite rock were quarried 5 miles away to build the mountainous lobby chimney.  Blacksmith George Colpitts forged the hardware for all the doors, fireplace tools and the clock frame on site.  Construction of the original 140 rooms, today called the "Old House", took place in just 13 months time.
--from Xanterra Old Faithful Inn brochure

The building is beautiful, and quite distinctive and recognizable, even from a distance.  I'm sure we came by here when I visited Yellowstone 15 years ago, but I don't remember too much about it.  The closer you get the more obvious the various bits of architecture are that give the building its distinctive style.

Finally, in 1891, the road from Old Faithful to Yellowstone Lake was completed and visitors could travel a southern loop around the park.  More people came on their own and stayed in the rustic lodgings around Old Faithful.  To serve their needs, stores and additional tent camps opened.
Stagecoach tourists expected finer accommodations than existed at Old Faithful.  A large hotel was needed. And so, the Old Faithful Inn was begun in 1903 and opened in 1904.  Now the Old Faithful area could lodge visitors of all incomes and expectations.
--from NPS Old Faithful Historic District brochure (50¢ donation)

As I mentioned before the building is well situated for views of Old Faithful.

There are actually multiple clocks situated around the building predicting the time of the next eruption.  Not all of them were this beautiful wood design--but several were similar.

The Old Faithful Inn has been hosting visitors since June 1904.  Designed by Robert Reamer, it is an early example of rustic architecture (also known as "parkitecture").  The east wing opened in 1914; the west wing in 1927.  Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, the Inn almost burned in the fires of 1988.  Pavement, stead streams of water from fire hoses, newly installed roof sprinklers, and a last-minute shift in the wind saved the building.

--from NPS Old Faithful Historic District brochure (50¢ donation)

 The building is amazing, and was intricately detailed both inside and out.  Wood is the dominant feature, especially the malformed lodgepole pine branches and trunks used as railings and decorative supports.

The building was started in 1903 and construction continued through the winter.  We took a tour of the building the morning that we checked out and our guide explained that there were only a couple pictures of the building under construction and neither one shows very much detail.

Its mighty walls and stone fireplace rose skyward as the first snows of 1903 fell.  Begun in the summer, work on the Inn continued swiftly throughout the bitterest cold of a Yellowstone winter.  In the heart of the Rockies, on a high plateau surrounded by 10,000 foot mountain ranges, winter in the park comes early and stays late.  For seven to eight months of every year the ground lies frozen under a blanket of white.  Temperatures can drop to sixty below and may hover around zero for days or weeks at a time.  Blizzards rage and winds howl.  Snow depths reach four to ten feet standing.  Drifts lie up to twenty feet deep.  it would have been a hard place to be, thirty miles from the nearest community at West Yellowstone, and it took a tough breed of men to endure the hardships which they must have faced.
--from The Inn at Old Faithful, by Susan C Scofield (c) 1979; p 9

In the past guests were allowed to go up on the roof.  However since an earthquake damaged the stairs leading up to the upper landings and the roof they have been closed off from most people.  I think that one person a day can go up when the flags are lowered--but I don't remember if that is a current policy, or an old one.

[W]here the roofridge ends, the flagpoles begin, adding another twenty to thirty feet to the height of the whole.  Flown daily are the American Flag, the Wyoming State flag, and pennants representing the National Park Service and the current concessioner.
--from The Inn at Old Faithful, by Susan C Scofield (c) 1979; p 15

Outside I even got to take a picture of one of the iconic yellow tour buses that travels around Yellowstone.  Sometime it might be fun to take a ride in one of these--but I'd save that for a trip where we aren't trying to see as much as possible.  To really maximize a tour and see what I find interesting I think it is important to have my own transportation.

 We actually ate in the Inn's main dining room.  The food was a bit pricey, but I think it was worth it for the ambiance and the experience.  We took our time and enjoyed the evening.  I particularly enjoyed the painting of Old Faithful that was hung on the fireplace.  I took a picture that you can see below but didn't think to capture any other pertinent information about the piece.

Tomorrow I'll have more about the tour, including several videos.

~Matt