page_title: John W. Meldrum
section_title: The Commissioner's office and residence
hierarchical_section_title: John W. Meldrum / U.S. Commissioner in Yellowstone / The Commissioner's office and residence
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Commissioners Office, Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstine National Park, December 2009 Built August 1894. (Now a private residence)
context_page_description: Judge John W. Meldrum was a carpenter, a Wyoming politician and the first U.S. Commissioner in Yellowstone National Park, a position he held for 41 years.
context_section_description: John W. Meldrum did not travel to Yellowstone until July 1894 making his way via train, coach, wagon and horseback from Laramie via Salt Lake City, Henry's Lake and the Madison River.  His first night in the park was spent at the Fountain Hotel near the Fountain Paint Pots area of the Lower Geyser Basin.  There he met Captain George S. Anderson, U.S. Army, the current park superintendent.  Meldrum traveled to Mammoth Hot Springs the next day and took up residence and an office in the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.  One of Meldrum's first duties was to supervise the construction of the Commissioner's building, funded by the Lacey Act and designed by a local soldier.  The Fort Yellowstone Historic District application describes the building, which still stands today:
  The first stone building within the district was completed in that year [1894]. The U.S. Commissioner's Jail and Office and U.S. Marshal's Residence (Building 49), which stood alone west of the parade ground, was a one-and-a-half-story rock-faced sandstone dwelling with gable-on-hip roof with through-the-cornice dormers and a full-width porch. The building was funded with the passage of the Lacey Act in 1894, which created a means to arrest, try, and punish lawbreakers. The ground floor of the house contained the jail, office, and living quarters. Bedrooms were situated on the second floor. The building was of a restrained and dignified design, qualities which would typify the stone housing built at the fort in future years.
caption: U.S. Commissioner's Office, 2009 (Now a private residence)
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