Roosevelt Arch

When Yellowstone was established in 1872 as the world's first national park, it was remote and nearly inaccessible, and few tourists had the time or means to travel there from major cities on the east and west coasts. By 1903, however, Yellowstone's North Entrance had become a bustling tourist destination, where most visitors arrived by train and then boarded stagecoaches to begin the Grand Tour of the park. Captain Hiram M. Chittenden, director of road construction, decided that the park's primary entrance deserved a formal structure to improve and dramatize the appearance of the dusty staging area, and during the spring of 1903 a fifty-foot-high stone archway was built to face the train depot. Its inscription, "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People," welcomed visitors, and President Theodore Roosevelt presided over dedication ceremonies on April 24, 1903. By 1927, landscaping further enhanced the road winding from the train depot to the arch, but automobiles were changing travel patterns, and by the 1940s the North Entrance was no longer the park's primary route. Over time, the Roosevelt Arch became one of the great symbols of the national park idea: that places of outstanding natural and cultural significance should be preserved for the benefit of humankind, an idea first officially sanctioned with the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

Montana · United States