The Project Gutenberg EBook of Yellowstone via Gallatin Gateway Montana, by Milwaukee Road Corporation This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Yellowstone via Gallatin Gateway Montana Author: Milwaukee Road Corporation Release Date: July 16, 2014 [EBook #46305] Language: English Character set encoding: UTF-8 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK YELLOWSTONE VIA GALLATIN GATEWAY *** Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, the Mo-Ark Regional Railroad Museum at Poplar Bluff, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Yellowstone via Gallatin Gateway Montana, by the Milwaukee Road Yellowstone via Gallatin Gateway [2] MONTANA The Milwaukee Road The friendly Railroad of the friendly West Set in green lawns, the attractive and informal Gallatin Gateway Inn is staffed by people imbued with the open-hearted spirit of the West. You’ll feel at home here right from the moment you step off the comfortable motor coach. Start your glorious western vacation at GALLATIN GATEWAY INN Composed in equal parts of natural beauty, mystery and fascination, Yellowstone Park has long taken rank as one of America’s and the world’s show places. Recently it has entertained as many as a million visitors in a single summer. Now you are planning a Yellowstone vacation. We propose, in this booklet, to give you a foretaste of the wonders that lie ahead. To show you some of the advantages of entering the Park via the scenic Gallatin Gateway, and to suggest the entertainment possibilities of a few extra days spent at Gallatin Gateway Inn. Gallatin Gateway Inn lies about thirty-five miles south of Three Forks, Montana, on the mainline of The Milwaukee Road. The Inn was built by the Railroad and is now privately operated for the convenience of Yellowstone passengers as well as for the entertainment of guests who wish to stay over for a short time. [3] Of modified Spanish design, the hospitable Inn is surrounded by the green, irrigated meadows of the lovely Gallatin valley. In the background rise the timber-clad mountains of the Bridger, Gallatin and Madison ranges of the Montana Rockies. At its elevation of almost 5,000 feet, the climate is ideal throughout the summer months. There is a high percentage of bright, sunny days yet it is always cool enough at night to enjoy the comfort of woolen blankets. Passengers for Yellowstone on The Milwaukee Road’s COLUMBIAN taking regular Park tours have only an hour or two at the Inn. However, passengers on the new Olympian HIAWATHA arrive at the Inn in mid-afternoon and do not ordinarily leave for the Park till next day after lunch. With a knowledge of the Inn and its facilities, you can plan to take fullest advantage of your time there. And, of course, you may decide to extend your stay. Set in wide lawns and gardens, Gallatin Gateway Inn is a delightfully comfortable place. It has bright, airy bedrooms, a spacious two-story living room, a sun-lit dining room and the friendly Corral cocktail lounge. The food is procured from the Inn’s own gardens, from nearby farms and ranches, and from markets along the route of The Milwaukee Road. Prepared by skilled chefs and expertly served, it is guaranteed to be just right for the hearty appetites generated by mountain air. Outdoor activities and mountain air are a combination that make Gallatin Inn’s famous food taste even better. The bedrooms, far right, are airy and comfortable. [4] The bedrooms, far right, are airy and comfortable. Your genial host at Gallatin Gateway Inn combines a full understanding of hotel operation with an intimate knowledge of the surrounding country. His staff takes pride in seeing that you enjoy every minute of your stay. On your way to or from Yellowstone, a few days at the Inn will prove a pleasant interlude. You can spend those days in quiet loafing, in active sports, or in making exploratory trips. The swift flowing Gallatin river offers fine trout fishing just a short walk from the door. Archery, clock golf and tennis may be enjoyed right on the spacious grounds. Whatever you do you’ll like the comfort and the congenial atmosphere of Gallatin Gateway Inn. Relaxing view. The spacious, two-story lounge has an open fireplace, piano, and plenty of easy chairs. Writing desks, too, to catch up on postcards and letters. The Gallatin valley is a long succession of lovely prospects. The Gallatin valley is a long succession of lovely prospects. [5] Here the camera catches an S-curve in the river at Sagebrush Point. The full 80 miles from Gallatin Gateway to Yellowstone are a scenic delight that you’ll long remember. OFF TO YELLOWSTONE Chance turned the footsteps of the first white man toward Yellowstone. In 1807, John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was wounded in an Indian battle near Jackson Hole. In escaping, he journeyed northward and penetrated Yellowstone as far as what is now known as Tower Falls. More than twenty years later, Jim Bridger, a famous frontier guide, also entered the region that had come to be known as “Colter’s Hell” and verified the fantastic tales of his predecessor. But even then, no one accepted the story. Colter and Bridger were in the position of Marco Polo who had discovered an empire so strange that its very existence was doubted. Not until 1870, when a public exploring party made a thorough study of the region, were its wonders accepted as fact. Then, action quickly followed. In 1872 a bill was introduced before congress and speedily passed, that established Yellowstone as the first of our National Parks. A vast rectangle of 3,438 square miles lying in the northwest corner of Wyoming and overlapping into Montana and Idaho, Yellowstone is a broad, volcanic plateau with an average elevation of 8,000 feet, and with mountain peaks in and around the park rising as high as ten and twelve thousand feet ... more than two million enchanted acres with the greatest and most varied array of wonders in all the earth. [6] Luggage and cars. But all this is recent history. Take a brief look at the amazing past of Yellowstone. Millions of years ago, the present high plateau was a parched, arid plain sheltered behind the buttresses of the continent’s two great mountain ranges—Appalachia in the East and Cascadia in the West. Slowly, the land sank and Yellowstone was buried a hundred fathoms deep under the arctic waters of the Sundance Sea. As the invading waters retreated, a shift in temperature changed Yellowstone into a huge subtropical marsh where giant dinosaurs drowsed and fed in the green half-light that filtered down through jungle trees. The next great geologic change saw Yellowstone thrust skyward by the slow buckling of earth’s crust ... scorched and shaken by a million years of volcanic activity ... covered by a vast sea of molten rhyolite. The hot lava slowly cooled and was in turn engulfed by creeping rivers of blue- green glacial ice. As this new ice age withdrew, countless sediment-bearing streams roared down from the melting glaciers and, aided by the bitter winds of high places, began carving Yellowstone into its present form. The Cathedrals are natural Gothic spires of hard stone that resisted erosion by the river when it carved the deep gorge of Gallatin Canyon. These formations are especially beautiful under a Montana moon. [7] Man with camera. Even today, Yellowstone is a “young” land that is undergoing relatively rapid changes. The subterranean heat that causes its geyser activity is slowly subsiding. Old geysers die out and new ones grow in power and regularity. Imperceptibly, the canyons deepen, and erosion carves new patterns on rocky walls. This is the land ... rich in forests and wild life, and gemmed with sparkling mountain lakes ... that has been set aside for the perpetual enjoyment of our people. This is Yellowstone, oldest and greatest of America’s National Parks. Your trip to Yellowstone via The Milwaukee Road takes you through the most spectacular of all entrances—Gallatin Gateway. You leave the train at Three Forks, Montana, on the main transcontinental line of The Milwaukee Road. Just outside of town the Gallatin, Madison and Jefferson rivers flow together to form the headwaters of the mighty Missouri. Lewis and Clark’s expedition camped here in 1805 on their way to the Pacific Northwest. There is a bronze tablet in the town park dedicated to Sacajawea, the Indian girl who guided the explorers. Three Forks was established as a trading post for the Missouri Fur Company in 1810. Pale shades of gray, buff, yellow and orange-red give rich color to the face of Sheep Mountain in Gallatin Canyon. Dark conifers cling to the lower slopes. Leaving the train, you board a motor coach for a delightful drive of a little over an hour to Gallatin Gateway Inn. Accurately carved by a strange quirk of nature, Pulpit Rock towers high above the Gallatin Valley. Formations of this kind are not too unusual, and result when a core of hard rock is surrounded by softer material. Mountain view. Yellowstone-bound, a Park motor coach starts up the Gallatin Valley with Castle Rock in the background. The comfortable buses have roll-back tops that permit full views of the surrounding rocky walls. [8] Riverside Geyser is an irregular performer that sends its plume-like jet diagonally out over the Firehole River. Higher up, the Firehole is a good fishing stream, but here its waters are strongly charged with minerals from the geysers and hot springs. [9] Geyser view. A bus load of visitors has stopped for a look at Old Faithful shooting its mighty column skyward. The Ranger at the far right indicates one of the hundreds of tinted pools that dot the geyser basins. First Stop ... Geyserland One of the chief attractions of entering Yellowstone via Gallatin Gateway is the 80 mile motor trip through glorious mountain country that you enjoy without extra charge. Promptly after lunch, you leave Gallatin Gateway Inn in one of the luxurious motor coaches of the Yellowstone Park Company and begin the trip southward. In a short time you enter spectacular Gallatin Canyon. Just beyond Roaring Creek lie the huge, eroded battlements of Castle and Cathedral Rocks, majestic cliffs that dwarf the tiny river flowing swiftly at their base. This is the famed Montana dude ranch country, and you glimpse many of the ranches in the innumerable little valleys that are tributary to the Gallatin. You’ll see Sagebrush Point where the Gallatin flows in a graceful S-curve hundreds of feet below the road ... the broad cone of Lone Mountain rising to a height of ten thousand feet and Pulpit Rock, oddly and accurately carved by some freak of Nature. Perhaps you’ll catch sight of a moose feeding on lily roots in a pond beside the road, or a band of elk emerging warily from the timber. Over there is a new beaver dam, and that gray shadow skirting the road is a coyote. Feeding a fawn. [10] Old Faithful Inn is said to be one of the highest and largest log buildings in the world. Its pleasantly rustic public rooms have long made it a favorite with Park visitors. Facilities are exceptionally complete. Crossing dozens of creeks with picturesque, western names, you enter the boundaries of Yellowstone. Again leaving the Park, the road winds through the Madison National Forest, skirts Hebgen Lake, crosses the Madison and brings you to West Yellowstone—your official entrance to the Park. Its curiously formed cone has earned it the name of Grotto Geyser. In its two major basins, Yellowstone has more active geysers than all the rest of the world, but you’ll never tire of their varied fascination. Cowboy with guitar. The Motor trip from Gallatin Gateway is a perfect introduction to Yellowstone, and shows you country unlike any within the Park. [11] Here Comes Old Faithful From West Yellowstone, the route follows the Madison through Christmas Tree Park, and then down the lovely valley of the Firehole River into geyserland. There are more geysers in Yellowstone than in all the rest of the world, and the greatest of them are here in the Lower and Upper Basins. The hiss of steam, low, subterranean mutterings and the roar of geysers in action make this landscape a scene from the Inferno. You see Fountain, Great Fountain, Riverside and Giant geysers, Morning Glory Pool and Fountain Paint Pot, and reach Old Faithful for dinner and the night. The most famous geyser in the world, Old Faithful may be depended upon to stage its almost hourly shows for your special benefit. Approximately every sixty-five minutes it growls and hisses for a moment, and then leaps into action sending its glorious plume of boiling water 120 or more feet into the sky. Old Faithful is a perfect spot for your first stay in Yellowstone and offers a variety of attractions that will make your time here seem all too short. Besides the many nearby geysers, you will see the iridescent turquoise of Morning Glory Pool with its flower-tinted cone ... Black Sand Pool and Sapphire Springs ... Firehole Lake with its flame-like streamers of gas bubbling to the surface, Chinaman Pool and numerous other steaming pools and springs. Yellowstone’s Ranger-Naturalists are always on hand to give interesting explanations of the numberless wonders of the Park. Shopping for souvenirs.