Lodging No Longer Standing

A large, yellow hotel surrounded by trees and mountains
The Fountain Hotel, shown here from a Haynes postcard, is one of several hotels that are no longer standing in Yellowstone.

NPS/Haynes postcard

 

Marshall’s Hotel, which stood near the present-day intersection of Fountain Flats Drive and Grand Loop Road, was built in 1880 and was the second hotel in the park. Later renamed the Firehole Hotel, it was razed in 1895, with other buildings removed later.

Fountain Hotel opened in 1891 north of Fountain Paint Pot. This was one of the first Yellowstone hotels where bears were fed for the entertainment of guests. The hotel closed after 1916 and was torn down in 1927.

Four lodging facilities were built at Norris. Three were built between 1886 and 1892; the first two burned. The last hotel at Norris, which overlooked Porcelain Basin, served the public from 1901 to 1917.

 
A 4- or 5-story hotel built into a hill with multiple roads leading to it
The Grand Canyon Hotel no longer stands.

NPS/Haynes postcard

Canyon Area

Three hotels were built in succession at Canyon, the last being the largest hotel in the park. Sited where the horse stables are now, the Canyon Hotel was closed in 1958 due to financial and maintenance problems and burned in 1960.

Canyon Hotel

The old Canyon Hotel was located about 1 mile south of Canyon Junction at the present site of the horse corrals. It was a huge building, nearly a mile around its perimeter. It was dismantled and burned in 1962. See Aubrey Haines' account of this in The Yellowstone Story, Vol. II. Little if anything is left of the hotel building itself, but the hotel's cistern and the dump remain. The winterkeeper's house is also from this era. The cistern is being studied for removal, the dump is an archeological site that must be evaluated before further action is taken, and the house is being considered for the National Register of Historic Places.

Canyon Lodge

The old Canyon Lodge was located at the present site of Upper Falls Viewpoints parking lot and in the meadows just east of the rest rooms. Remnants of this complex can still be found in the meadows.

These and other sites of former park facilities are historic archeological sites. They are studied and documented for what they reveal about past visitor use in the park.

 

Source: Data Store Collection 7685. To search for additional information, visit the Data Store.

 
An historic postcard of a large tent camp and stage coaches
Places

Every place and building in Yellowstone has a story.

Last updated: November 16, 2021

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