Park's Old Faithful Inn marks 100 years

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — That Old Faithful Inn still stands at all amid the park's scarred, steaming landscape is amazing to Lee Whittlesey. The park historian and former ranger can vividly recall the wildfire that threatened to consume the inn, along with the buildings and forest near it, on Sept. 7, 1988.

"I watched with trepidation," he recalls of that dramatic day, when, ultimately, firefighters saved the inn.

It has survived fire, earthquake, the sands of time. And 100 years after Old Faithful Inn first opened, it remains an icon in the national park system and as much an awe-inducing spectacle as the namesake geyser that erupts reliably just outside its windows.

Beginning this fall, work is set to begin on a three-year, multimillion-dollar project that an architect said will likely be the inn's most significant face-lift to date.

Among the plans: stabilizing the structure in the event of another earthquake, such as the one that rocked the inn in 1959 and caused damage; fixing the leaky roof and laying new shingles; and renovating older rooms to bring back such turn-of-the-last century charms as wash basins, said architect Jim McDonald, who is involved with the project.

Probably the biggest challenge, McDonald said, is to do what's necessary in a way that doesn't compromise the inn's overall look or character.

It's that "old time feeling," a sense you're stepping back in time to an era in which men and women dressed for dinner and visiting Yellowstone was an expedition, that helps make the inn so special — and captivating, said Karen Reinhart, a former park ranger who recently co-wrote with Jeff Henry the book "Old Faithful Inn: Crown Jewel of National Park Lodges."

"It breathes history," she said from her home near Emigrant, Mont. "It is a fascinating place and has a fascinating story."

Details on the inn's roots are, she found, rather sketchy, from the number of men involved in the construction from 1903-04 to the amount of materials used, including timber and stone from the park.

"When it was built, it was the most important thing, I would think, going on at Yellowstone," Henry said. "It seems to me that someone would've kept a roster or a journal. And why we can't find that — whether the information was never collected or lost — I don't know."

What is clear is that the inn — for all of its intentional, rustic charm — was actually quite modern at the time. First opened in June 1904 and originally offering about 140 rooms for the wealthy and social elite who stayed, the inn had conveniences such as electricity, heat, plumbing and fine dining, Reinhart and others say.