Roosevelt Lodge

Lodge registration

Quick Facts

Location:

Tower-Roosevelt

Designation:

Part of the Roosevelt Lodge Historic District

Amenities

5 listed

Accessible Rooms, Food/Drink - Restaurant/Table Service, Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Restroom, Toilet - Flush

2024 Season

• June 7–September 2

Roosevelt Lodge Cabins, built in 1920 near Yellowstone’s Tower Falls area, is named after Yellowstone-enthusiast: President Theodore Roosevelt. The rustic cabins and family-style dining are a favorite of families and anglers alike, and the front porch rocking chairs give guests an opportunity to rock their stress to sleep and awaken their “Old West spirit.” A large corral operation offers horseback trail rides, stagecoach adventures, and a popular cookout. This reservable lodging facility is operated by a park partner.

Campsites to Lodges

Indians, fur trappers, and explorers on the Bannock Trail camped in this area where a sagebrush meadow was encircled by Douglas fir, quaking aspen, and a mountain stream tumbled toward the Yellowstone River. President Chester Arthur camped here in 1883. In 1906, the Wylie Permanent Camping Company built a tent camp that became known as "Camp Roosevelt," though Theodore Roosevelt never camped there. The tents were replaced by a lodge and cabins in the 1920s. Park lodges and cabins were built to accommodate the increasing number of visitors arriving in their own automobiles who wanted something more than a tent, but less expensive and formal than the park's hotels. During the 1920s and 1930s, the old hotels often stood empty while the new lodges overflowed with visitors.

Dudes & Scientists

Camp Roosevelt provided the atmosphere of a dude ranch and was a base for fishing parties and saddle-horse trips. It also served as a field laboratory where teachers and their students could conduct research at minimum expense, a purpose that the first director of the National Park Service was promoting for the parks. In what was a forerunner to the educational programs found in the parks today, the National Park Service hired a naturalist at Grinnell College to present lectures and conduct daily field trips for Camp Roosevelt visitors and collect botanical specimens for the park museum. Scientists based near conducted studies on the park's wildlife. From 1921 to 1923, the lodge was the headquarters for a boy's summer camp run by Alvin Whitney of the New York State School of Forestry at Syracuse University.

National Historic District

The Roosevelt Lodge Historic District, which includes 130 buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, with a period of significance from 1906 to 1948. The lodge, constructed of un-peeled logs and completed in 1920, was originally surrounded by 43 small log cabins, the first of which were completed in 1922. Over the years, the Roosevelt Lodge area became a repository for guest cabins brought from areas in the park where they were no longer wanted. By 1982, the corral had been moved farther from the cabins, of which there were now 110 of four main types.

The area has undergone intermittent expansion and changes as visitor use has changed and facilities have aged over the years. The architectural appearance of the original lodge is retained only in the interior and exterior of the front portion (the lounge and dining room); the other sections of the building have been modified. The accommodations are still rustic, with unpaved roads into and around the lodge and cabins. Although the Grand Loop Road can be seen from the corral, which is not part of the historic district, it is obscured from view of the lodge and most of the cabins by a stand of mature trees.

Dining

• Dining Room: Breakfast, lunch, and dinner as first-come, first-seated
• Cookout: Ride to dinner and songs by horseback or in a wagon, with reservations required (June 7–September 2)

Frontier Cabins

• 2 double beds
• Private bathroom with shower, toilet and sink

Roughrider Cabins

• Sparsely furnished rustic cabins
• 1 or 2 double beds
• Heat with wood-burning stove (2 “presto” logs are provided for use)
• Communal showers and bathrooms are located nearby

Additional Details

• No televisions, radios, and air conditioning available in any park lodging
• Trail rides available June 2–September 10
• Stagecoach rides available June 2–September 10

Accessibility

• 2 ADA cabins available
• Wheelchair-accessible services in lodge building
• Designated accessible parking in front
• Wheelchair-accessible entrance is on the west (left) side of the lodge

Reservations:

• 307-344-7311
• 307-344-5395 for TDD (Telecommunications Device for the Deaf) service
• online