Yellow buses return to Yellowstone

LIVINGSTON, Mont. (AP) — The buses are coming! The buses are coming!

The much anticipated return of the yellow touring buses to Yellowstone National Park will begin June 4.

The story of how the buses came back to the park is as intriguing as the buses themselves.

The fleet of eight buses was bought by the Xanterra Co., which runs tours and concessions in Yellowstone, from the Skagway, Alaska, Streetcar Co.

The White Model 706 tour buses, built in Ohio, were made exclusively for the National Park Service. Yellowstone had as many as 98 Model 706s by 1940.

"At least one good thing came out of Cleveland," joked Mike Doran, a driver and guide for Xanterra.

The Yellowstone yellow bus fleet was sold and disbanded in the 1960s.

Eight of the buses had been gathered in the Alaskan panhandle town of Skagway in the 1980s. Skagway is located along the inland passage shipping route, where the town gave historic tours with the 706s until 2001.

The Skagway Street Car Co. began in 1923, when local Skagway Ford dealer, coal delivery man, and undertaker Martin Itjen took visiting U.S. President Warren G. Harding for a tour "To All Points of Interest" in the back of his painted coal delivery truck. Martin continued touring for nearly 20 years.

The tour company is now run by Steve and Gayla Hites.

"We loved those buses," said Gayla Hites in a phone interview. "They were like members of our family."

Skagway needed buses for their tours in the 1980s. The Hites had seen pictures of the Yellowstone buses.

"They were the perfect bus," Gayla said.

They bought their first one in 1987.

Over the next several years, the Hites scoured the country for more Yellowstone buses and named all the buses after the towns where they found them.

For example, the 706 named "Monty" was bought from a Vermont collector.

"We bought Monty the same year the movie came out, so when the bus would fill, the guide would say we have the 'Full Monty,"' Gayla chuckled.

Other buses are named Great Falls, Hollywood, Yellowstone (from West Yellowstone), Cripple Creek, Mason City, Little Rocky and Big Rocky.

The Hollywood bus was featured in the film "Big Trouble in Little China" starring Kurt Russell.