The Roosevelt Arch is a rusticated

triumphal arch A triumphal arch is a free-standing monumental structure in the shape of an archway with one or more arched passageways, often designed to span a road, and usually standing alone, unconnected to other buildings. In its simplest form, a triumphal ...

at the north entrance to

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

Gardiner Gardiner may refer to: Places Settlements ;Canada * Gardiner, Ontario ;United States * Gardiner, Maine * Gardiner, Montana * Gardiner (town), New York ** Gardiner (CDP), New York * Gardiner, Oregon * Gardiner, Washington * West Gardiner, ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. Constructed under the supervision of the

US Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

at Fort Yellowstone, its

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid down by

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), also known as Teddy or T.R., was the 26th president of the United States, serving from 1901 to 1909. Roosevelt previously was involved in New York (state), New York politics, incl ...

in 1903. The top of the arch is inscribed with a quote from the

Organic Act In United States law, an organic act is an act of the United States Congress that establishes an administrative agency or local government, for example, the laws that established territory of the United States and specified how they are to ...

of 1872, the legislation which created Yellowstone, which reads: "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People". The idea of the arch is attributed to Hiram Martin Chittenden, who felt that the area surrounding Gardiner was not sufficiently impressive and required an emphatic statement of arrival at the famous park. Before 1903, trains brought visitors to Cinnabar, Montana, which was a few miles northwest of Gardiner, Montana, where people would transfer onto horse-drawn coaches to enter the park. In 1903, the railway finally came to Gardiner. With the development of the Gardiner train station, the arch was proposed as part of the station ensemble.

Construction

The design of the Roosevelt Arch has been attributed to

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Robert Reamer, who designed the train depot, but documentation is inconclusive. Construction of the arch began on February 19, 1903, and was completed on August 15, 1903, at a cost of around $10,000. The archway was built at the north entrance, which was the first major entrance for Yellowstone. President Roosevelt was visiting Yellowstone during construction and was asked to place the

for the arch, which then took his name. The cornerstone that Roosevelt laid on April 24, 1903 covered a

time capsule A time capsule is a historic treasure trove, cache of goods or information, usually intended as a deliberate method of communication with future people, and to help future archaeologists, anthropologists, or historians. The preservation of holy ...

that contains a

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, a picture of Roosevelt, local newspapers, and other items. Several thousand people came to Gardiner for the dedication, including John F. Yancey, who subsequently caught a chill and died in Gardiner as a result.

Description

The arch is constructed of hexagonal blocks of

columnar basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...

, quarried locally. The arch is high. Two towers or buttresses flank the main archway, pierced by pedestrian passages with heavy wood doors. The arch is flanked by curved walls of the same basalt stone, high, ending in short towers. The quote from the Organic Act is set above the arch in a rectangular slab of concrete. Similar panels flank the arch above the pedestrian doors, with "Yellowstone National Park" on the left and "Created by Act of Congress, March 1, 1872" on the right. Original ambitions for the design included a lake and waterfall, which could not be practically constructed in the semi-arid region and were never pursued. Instead, a small pond was built a little way in front of the arch, with unusual landscaping including sequoias from California. The pond and trees eventually disappeared. The north entrance station was located just past the arch from 1921 until it was relocated a substantial distance to the south in 1961. The arch is listed as a contributing structure to the North Entrance Road Historic District, and was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as part of the district in 2002.Whittlesey, Schullery, pp. 20-21

Construction

Description

Notes

See also