Mountain Architecture: An Alternative Design Proposal CHAPTER II
- Part 3 The impetus that brought about the establishment of
Yellowstone as the world's first National Park (on March 1,
1872) was the protection of the natural "curiosities" and
"wonders" for which it had become widely known, from acquisition
by private speculators anticipating "the demands which tourists
would make to see them." (32) Interest in Yellowstone National
Park was intense, especially among the railroad companies "who
hoped that Yellowstone would become a popular vacation mecca
like Niagara Falls or Saratoga Springs with resulting profit to
the only transportation line serving it." (33) While the
railroads were not allowed to operate within the confines of the
park it was they who supplied the transportation to its
perimeter. Eventually, through a bailout of the ailing
Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, The Northern Pacific
Railroad became the line responsible for the park's internal
transportation and lodging concessions. The Nor