Roosevelt Arch
1 Roosevelt Arch, Gardiner
Gardiner, MT
The towering basalt gateway to Yellowstone's North Entrance, dedicated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and carved with the promise that the park is for everyone.
The Roosevelt Arch is the grand basalt gateway that has framed the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park since 1903. Two fifty-foot towers of dark local stone are joined by a broad arch, and across the top runs a line from the 1872 law that created the park: For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People. For more than a century it has been the ceremonial front door to the world's first national park.
The arch rose in a practical moment. In 1903 most Yellowstone visitors arrived by train at Gardiner and boarded stagecoaches for the ride into the park, and the dusty staging area needed something worthy of the destination. President Theodore Roosevelt, on a tour of the park, laid the cornerstone that spring before thousands of onlookers, and his name has been attached to the arch ever since.
What Guests Love
- Driving or walking through the massive stone arch on the way into Yellowstone
- The inscription across the top, 'For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People'
- The tie to Theodore Roosevelt and the early days of the national park idea
- Watching elk and the Yellowstone River right at the park's historic front door
Worth Knowing
- This is the North Entrance, one of the few Yellowstone gates open to cars year round
- Gardiner and the entrance area get busy in summer; early or late in the day is calmer
- Elk often graze right in town and near the arch; keep a safe distance
- There is a small pull-off and park to view and photograph the arch on foot
Details
Gardiner, MT
Learn about Roosevelt Arch
A gateway for the railroad age
In the early 1900s, a trip to Yellowstone usually meant a train to Gardiner and then a stagecoach into the park. Gardiner had just built a handsome rustic depot, and park administrators along with local boosters felt the arrival point deserved a proper monument. The idea came from Captain Hiram Chittenden, the U.S. Army engineer overseeing Yellowstone's roads, who designed a rusticated gate to mark the threshold.
Stonemasons quarried basalt nearby and built the arch over several months in 1903, raising two fifty-foot towers spanned by a twenty-foot arch and flanked by low wing walls. The result was monumental and rough-hewn at once, a gate that looked like it had grown from the mountains it guarded.
Roosevelt's cornerstone
On April 24, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt, touring Yellowstone, laid the cornerstone of the still-unfinished arch at a ceremony that drew thousands and a great deal of fanfare. A champion of the young conservation movement, Roosevelt was a fitting figure to bless a gateway to the nation's first national park, and the structure has carried his name ever since.
There is a small irony in the story. After that dedication, Roosevelt never returned to Yellowstone, so he never saw the completed arch that bears his name. Carved across its top is the phrase from the park's founding law, For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People, a line that still sums up the national park idea.
The North Entrance today
The arch still marks the North Entrance at Gardiner, one of the few Yellowstone gates that stays open to vehicles all year. Drivers and walkers pass beneath it on their way toward Mammoth Hot Springs and the park's northern range, one of the best places in Yellowstone to see wildlife.
Gardiner itself is a lively little gateway town on the Yellowstone River, and elk are frequent visitors, grazing on lawns and near the arch as if they own the place. The northern range beyond holds bison, wolves, pronghorn, and bighorn sheep, so the drive through the arch often opens onto animals within minutes.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Gardiner
Mammoth Hot Springs
About 5 miles south
Yellowstone's terraced travertine hot springs and historic Fort Yellowstone, just inside the North Entrance.
Gardiner and the Yellowstone North Entrance
Adjacent
The gateway town on the Yellowstone River, with river rafting, wildlife watching, and year-round access into the park.
Chico Hot Springs
About 30 miles north
A beloved 1900 hot-springs resort in Paradise Valley, famous for its pools and its dining room.