Canyon Village
The Canyon Village complex is part of the Mission 66 project in the park. The Visitor Center was completed in 1957, and the new lodge was open for business in the same year. Though some people consider the development representative of the architecture of the time, none of the present buildings in the complex can be considered historic. There are, however, still remnants of the old hotel, lodge, and related facilities. These constitute the cultural resources of the district.
The Canyon Hotel (no longer standing)
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. Photographs of the hotel are available for viewing in an album at the Visitor Center and in the park's historic photo collection. Little if anything is left of the hotel building itself, but the hotel's cistern and the dump remain. The winterkeeper's house, in which Steve Fuller (a concession employee) lives, 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.
The Old Canyon Lodge (no longer standing)
The old Canyon Lodge was located at the present site of Uncle Tom's parking lot and in the meadows just east of the rest rooms. Remnants of this complex can still be found in the meadows.
Other Cultural Resources
The remaining cultural resources associated with earlier developments are far from the public eye and not easily accessible. One has to know where to look for them. They include, but are not limited to, the Ram pump on Cascade Creek, the concrete apron (for water supply) on Cascade Creek, the hotel water tank, and the water tank at the Brink of the Upper Falls. All are slated for some kind of mitigation, depending upon funding, staffing, and priority by the resource management staff.
