Canyon Village, Yellowstone National Park
by Haynes Studios
Text on reverse side:
CANYON LODGE ADMINISTRATION BUILDING AND MAIN LODGE, CANYON VILLAGE, YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
These buildings and five hundred guest cottages represent an investment of more than 5 million dollars. Begun in 1956, the village was in operation on July 1, 1957.
In the 1950s, with an eye toward increasing yearly visitation to the parks in the 1960s and beyond, the National Park Service launched a plan called "Mission 66", a set of proposals that were intended to help the parks meet the demands of the future. In Yellowstone, proposals included removing most of the existing structures in the Old Faithful area, and turning the Old Faithful Inn into a visitor center. Farther north in the park, the closing of the old Canyon Hotel was proposed, with a modern Canyon Village to be built to replace it. Although the plans for the Old Faithful area never materialized, Canyon Village was built in 1956-1957. The new Canyon Lodge was heralded as a model of future park architecture, built to accommodate motorists who, proponents believed, would prefer to drive up to their cottages rather than park in a remote lot and carry their belongings up to their hotel rooms. Embarrassingly, tourists in the late fifties still seemed to prefer the grand old Canyon Hotel through the summer of 1958. But it was declared structurally unsound and in 1959 sold to a wrecking company. Ultimately it caught fire and burned in August 1960.
Since then, Canyon Village has not always been unanimously regarded as the model lodging of the future. Now after over 40 years, a new issue may someday arise: Will Canyon Village be eligible for historic preservation should there ever be a proposal to replace it?
This chrome postcard was produced by Haynes Studios.
REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDED READING
Richard A. Bartlett, Yellowstone: A Wilderness Besieged (University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, 1989).
Winfred Blevins, Roadside History of Yellowstone Park (Mountain Press Publishing Company, Missoula, MT, 1989).
Aubrey L. Haines, The Yellowstone Story (University Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO, 1977), Vols. 1 and 2.
Gwen Petersen, Yellowstone Pioneers: The Story of the Hamilton Stores and Yellowstone National Park (Oak Tree Publications, San Diego, CA, 1985).
Haynes Guide to Yellowstone National Park (Haynes Studios, Bozeman, MT 1959),
Lee H. Whittlesey and the Yellowstone staff, managing editor Marsha Karle, A Yellowstone Album (Roberts Rinehart Publishers, Boulder, CO, 1997).