” :.s^ vpum s ■ ' I v.K... PAGE TWO MONTANA OIL AND MINING JOUR*AL Saturday, September 3, 1938 I Millions of Tourists From All WWlkssa of Life Have Passed Under Roosevelt Arch* Gardiner Entrance to Yellowstone National Park By ELNO _____ At Gardiner MaJ. John Pitcher, mill- m : the hide tanned as a memento of harter and was kind fix two ILLIONS of peopie from evary tary superintendent of Yellowstone $20.000 he would never see again. section of „the *l°be haw pHwd park, with Capt. F. O. Johnson and «spy thereafter and the calf oTS through the great Roosevelt 25 mounted men of troop C, third; But it Is an iU wind that blows m years 1888 and 1889 were The arch at Gardiner daring the cavalry, met the presidential train, m body good, and the Indians erf Montana cattle business had two things In its M made considerable money In the spring favor in digging itself out of the rut— past S5 yean as they entered “My dear major, I am back In my à - sIliKy skinning cattle that bad starved or much of the loss of the winter of 1886- Yellowstone park. They have been j own country!” was Toddy’s spontaneous frozen to death. bums and princes, hitchhikers and greeting. f -Pspil 87 had fallen cm the shoulders of the titled nobility, plain John Jones and To the president was assigned Bob, ! S- ‘Swr-ft Montana cattlemen had lost $6.üCW,- eastern invertors, and most of the 000 but, contrary to expectations, the family from Hometown, V. S. A, apd j splendid mount belonging to a private w 4 Montana banks had enough money In- ’ loss did not cause the price of beef vested In the then booming Montana royalty and Its retinae from the world’s | 0f B troop—the Gray troop, since all to rise that spring. Prices went steadily capitals. There have been lesser pap- 1 man were mounted on gray horses— min» to balance their cattle losses. ts from the farthest and least civil-; 0f the third cavalry. ilp downward as every cattleman shipped Pierre Wlboux was one of those who Kd corners of the earth. I After mounting, Teddy paused to ad- i his cattle in an attempt to cover his took the lead to building up depleted losses. By the fall of 1887 prices were herds. With money borrowed from aris­ 1 Ü Most of those millions have raised ; dress a few words to the gathered ; Hi so low that one shipment of Montana tocratic relatives In Prance, he bought their eyes to the inscription above the throng. In closing he pointed to a cow- H cattle brought Just $2.50 per hundred up the stock of several ranches that keystone; “For the Benefit and En- boy In a white sombrero and said: “II HI and the average price of cattle on the were quitting business and within a Joyment of the People.” They have | have worked with you, like that fellow H Chicago market for the year was $3.15. few years was in the cattle business on commented upon its democratic sym-1 over there. I believe In you. I wish you i EH No cattleman made money from a greater scale than ever before. From boUsm. But very few of them, perhaps, the best of luck and unbounded pros- ; B cattle in 1887. Bankruptcies followed the Running Water Land & Cattle Co., have paused to consider what might j perlty.” one another In fast succession as such he purchased 20,000 head, and from the be the history of the arch and all that ; Then, with Major Pitcher riding at j I big outfits as the Alec Swan ranch Powder River Co., 10,000 head. it represents; even fewer are aware of j hb Ttirrup, the president dashed away ■ in Wyoming and the Niobrara Cattle the pageantry, brief though it was, as- into the park, with his party following 11 Throughout Montana the cattle In­ soda ted with the construction of the on horses and in ambulances. With all Co. went under. In the spring of 1886 dustry made a spectacular recovery and the Niobrara had had 39,000 nat cattle by 1890 there were more cattle on great entrance gate—pageantry of a I arrangements completed, the people of valued at $1,000,000. In the roundup type seldom seen In these days of motor Mammoth, then called Fort Yellow- V Montana cattle ranges than before the i of June, 1887, they had 9,000 head. The catastrophe. This time the business was i cars, which each year enter the park stone, awaited his arrival. But Teddy big Gibb Bros, spread went out of by the thousands. took matters Into his own hands. For ROOSEVELT ARCH established on a sound basis and the business and Theodore Roosevelt, who slip-shod, sometimes even criminal K The lives of pioneer trappers, humble two hours or more he chased antelope At Gardiner entrance to Yellowstone park. Photo courtesy John Haberstroh. had been ranching at Med ora, Dakota workmen, hardy frontiersmen, the and other game between Gardiner and » ivinrslon ^ bookkeeping of former years was re­ territory, gave up the ghost and went placed with more businesslike methods. army, and a president of the United Mammoth, finding a keen zest in ex- Into politics as a surer field of en­ States are symbolized in the massive aminlng the condition of the animals,-! Eastern and foreign investors had at deavor than raising cattle. Hie famous last become convinced that raising structure of native stone. inquiring about game management, 3,000 people watching, spread mortar, I which was a Montana nugget, appro- Marquis de Mores, who had gone Into cattle was not an easy and romantic Plans for construction of the arch and watching the antics of the wilder- and the huge cornerstone was lowered priately engraved “T. R., 1903.” cattle raising on a large scale in Da­ way of becoming rich quick and the were completed in 1902, and in the ness creatures. Into place. i The president was Introduced at kota, threw up his hands in disgust and blind investments of former years spring of 1903 tons upon tons of native From this moment the president was Within the stone is preserved for the Gardiner by J. C. McCartney, a prom- went tiger hunting in India. ceased. It is said that for seme of the basaltic rock had been assembled entirely aloof from the public eye and people of the remote future, should the ; inent Gardiner character who bore the Unfortunately, other western cattle­ cattlemen the bad winter had been a awaiting the late breaking of the the public prints. Such an isolation has arch ever be dismantled, documents sobriquet “Mayor of Gardiner, ai- winter. ; not since been attained by any chief concerning early Montana history and though the town, as now, was untocor- men could not do the same and though salvation, for by exaggerating the ex­ the cattle business was In a bad way, tent of their losses they were able to Pres. Theodore Roosevelt, accom- executive. For 16 days the presidential the history of the park. There are porated. After bidding officers and the fighting spirit of frontier Montana cover up losses Incurred in crookedness panted by Naturalist John Burroughs, trfin sat on sidetracks at Cinnabar, records of a Montana grand lodge con- scouts with his vacation party fare- was still rampant and many of the and management. entered the park on April 8, 1903, for b®1?w Gardiner, and messengers kept yocation; the Masonic code of laws; well, the president rode to his train cattlemen went back to their ranches a late winter tour of wonderland— Teddy in contact with the events of the several coins; a bible; articles written at Cinnabar, where he held a brief re­ to continue the fight against the ele- More than 22,000 different kinds of winter tour so-called because the snows wor*d, but no news of the presidential by Cornelius Hedges In 1870-72, when i ception before departing for the capital, mente. Nature repented her wood have been classified. still were deep throughout the park. party was brought from the park. he was advocating the creation of the Following its creation in 1872, Na-1 bad be- The story of Teddy’s tour and that Teddy, with John Burroughs, was , park; park pictures; a photograph oflthaniel P. Langford, one of the little •» I of the arch are an intertwined narra- accompanied Into the snowy fastnesses ; the president, and copies of the Liv- group who. first advocated the national ; tive. j of the park by the Gray troop and six ; ingston Post and the Gardiner Wonder- park idea, served as the first park ! This was one of the few times in the1 park scouts- of whom Scott McBride I land. The Post and the Wonderland, superintendent for several years with- j history o? moderrT^ Amhriea tint »i was one- McBride was an active and I long ago joined the list of Montana] out pay, devoted to the ideal of keep-I * nr^sident ofthe nnitsd Rtat.« has Promlnent «sure in the park and newspapers which now exist only taiing the park free of exploitation fori ramoletelv Isolated hü^lf from th£ around Gardiner untU recent years. memory. personal profit. He battled long and; nubile view for more thana. few hours^ ,In his own book, “Outdoor Pastimes Following the Masonic dedication ! strenuously to keep out the Bamums ; ~ $*5 » TMdv remsrned In thf Lrir fî^?R! ®f an Amencan Hunter,” Theodore | ritual the president addressed the 1 who would have established admission SSr davs during11 which ttaietae news- : ?oosevelt induded a chapter on “Wil- gathering, expressing his appreciation | gates at Old Faithful, the Canyon, and; •— " "Xlczz Dauere were8deniedanvdirect wor^of1 derness Rt^eTve®: .^i® Yellowstone for the park holiday and the rest and ! other points of interest.