Evening star., 1909-08-21

on T6COTQ. III lsN.0 tE6 year VI tie TOTt-
land exposition, &c. 1873 people visited the
park during the season from June ) to
September -. and if the present inflow
continues the total for this year should
be nearly 3O.S0O or 1000 more than the
highest record. and nearly twice as many
as the average
The following statement shows the
number of visitors annually for the last
five years:
!.a'. ............-.......... -. IN
1905. Observation-Disclosures. I.1S9
isrs S .......'...'.'.. ie'1
,.n %
INEt. up to July 81. H. tZl
The largest day this season was the
last Sunday in July when 12M persons
slept at the several hotels. There is no
way of telling how many people slept in
camps. but they probably numbered as
many more
Transportation Company. whose stages
run in connection with the trains on the
Northern Pacific railroad. had carried
i1GB passengers. which Is exactly the
number they carried during the entire
season of 1908, and more than half as
many as were carried by the stages in
1905. That was their banner year. when
the total of passengers transported was
10,SS1
More people are stopping over the regu-
before.
People Becoming Informed.
The public is gradually learning of the
attractions and the comforts of this
greatest museum of natural history in the
universe. A few pioneers have discov-
cred that the hotels are just as good and
the natural advantages infinitely greater
than they can find in the White noun
%.s~n 4v,~ f1NAy
mountain resort The regular tour of the
park is five and a half days, which gives
an average of half day of travelling and
half a day of sightseeing. and a glimpse
of all the principal wonders but at least
two weeks is necessary to see them prop
erly. and third week might be profitab bly,
employed in sightseeing without reference
to fishing excursions and other pleasures
which the park affords AS people COM
prehend these facts larger numbers will
appreciate the value of this national play
ground.
Before many years. when the plans for
new hotels are carried out. l expect to
see thousands Of people coming in here
to spend the entire summer These same
thousands would be here now IL they
knew what was waiting for them.
In looking over the hotel registers
have been struck by the small number
of visitors from the eastern states, and
particularly from the larger cities of the
country. I have noticed very few from
New York, Philadelphia or Chicago.
Most of the visitors are from the middle
the Allegheny mountains. which seems
very strange. But I suppose the people
there go to the seashore and to Europe
without knowing of the comforts and
pleasures they might find here
Labor Under Delusion.
Another reason that keeps them away,
perhaps, is a mistaken impression that
they would have to trough it, il they
came to the Yellowstone Park. This de-
lusiOn was Illustrated in an amusing man
ner by gentleman who organized an
excursion from Brooklyn. He engaged
accommodations for a party Of ninety
three persons by correspondence with the
manager of the Yellowstone Transporta-
ton Company as early as last January,
and wrote three or four times for assur-
ances that the hotels in the park were
capable of accommodating 80 many
people.
He was not satisfied with the answers
to his letters and wrote Maj. Benson the
military commandant at Fort Yellow
stone Benson replied that the company
was in the habit Of handling very much
larger parties. and that the transporta-
tion arrangements and the hotel accom-
modations were not only ample. but were
as good as could be found anywhere in
the world.
Dut even MILITARY dutHOTlty HOl
convince the Brooklyn gentleman, and he
has asked a friend In Washington to
make inquiries at the Interior Depart
ment and of the senators from Montana.
And then he felt little uneasy in VEN
touring out into this wilderness with his
ninety-three people. He came last week
and he found $50 guests at the first hotel.
He noticed that his party made a very
slight impression and that the park as
well as its accommodations are very large
in comparison.
But people are learning gradually about
the character of the accommodations here,
and when they see how the great crowds
are handled and how they are passed
along the route without the slightest con-
fusion. from hotel to hotel, they cannot
but admire the genius which has devel
oped the methods and the courage and
confidence of the men who have provided
the accommodations.
Ways Of Reaching the Park.
+. There are several ways of getting into
the park The original way is via the
Northern Pacific railway to Livingston,
where branch line runs down to Gardi-
ner, a little town on the very edge of the
park. 1t is not an attractive place. but
you will find there a grand gateway, an
arch of stone with an inscription. For
People" which was composed by Theo-
dore Roosevelt. The gateway was dedi-
Gated by him several years ago.
Gardiner has the prettest rustic rail-
way station you ever saw. 1t was de-
signed and built by Robert c. Raemer, the
architect of the Yellowstone National
Park Transportation Company. entirely
of natural woods. The building is 9J
by 40 feet in size, entirely of logs. The
platform is 100 feet long, with a train
+ shed $50 feet long and II feet high, sup
ported by natural tree trunks. each of
them two feet In diameter. The interior
T of the building is of unfinished lumber
In harmony with the log walls. The
stables and other buildings of the stage
company are of the same type and pre-
sent appropriate and artistic group
as you can imagine.
Transportation Facilities.
To give you an idea of the transporta-
tion facilities in the park. the Yellowstone
Transportation Company has between $40
and 1000 horses employed in hauling its
43l stages. surries. baggage and freight
wagons and other vehicles. not forgetting
an ambulance that Is always reAdy for
the sick disabled.
The company can accommodate 2,:3i pas
sengers with six six-horse coaches, l25
four-horse coaches and various other ye-
hicles carrying from three to eleven pas
sengers each. The stages start every
morning from the Mammoth Hot Springs
Hotel. which is i've miles from the rail-
way station at Gardiner. and make tour
of the park In five anu half days. stop
ping over night at five different hotels
and lunching at two different eating sta
tions Ell route. These coaches have been
making this tour daily for nearly twenty
ave sears. 30 that one naturally expects