Yellowstone Park Stagecoach - Livingston, MT - Carriages and Coaches on Permanent Display on Waymarking.com

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Yellowstone Park Stagecoach - Livingston, MT

in Carriages and Coaches on Permanent Display

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 533936 N 5056829

Behind Livingston's Yellowstone Gateway Museum are displayed a number of transportation and agriculture related items, this stagecoach among them, which stands inside the courtyard building.

Beautifully restored, this open stagecoach may well have been one of the stages which carried tourists from the Gardiner railway depot into Yellowstone National Park from the early 1890s to the cessation of stagecoach travel in the park in 1916. This may be a reproduction, but, given its construction and that it carries number 46, we believe it to be an original. These stages were pulled by a pair of teams. The coach is badged as being one of the string of Yellowstone National Park Transportation Company coaches.

In 1882, the Northern Pacific Railroad (NPRR) reached Livingston and soon they added a spur south to Cinnabar, near the north end of Yellowstone National Park. By 1902, the NPRR tracks were extended to Gardiner, adjacent to the north entrance to the park. At the Gardiner railway depot tourists boarded stagecoaches to continue their trip into the park.

Because of a serious stagecoach wreck in 1916 the stages were removed from the park transportation system and in 1917 no more stage coaches ran into Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone National Park Transportation Co.

YPA's transportation privileges were revoked Nov. 1, 1891 after Silas Huntley received the 10-year transportation franchise on March 29, 1891. He had 14 months to begin operations. He brought in his brother-in-law Harry W. Child and Edmund Bach, who together formed the Yellowstone National Park Transportation Co. that was incorporated May 20, 1892. A man named Aaron and L.H. Hersfield were also partners. The YNPTC actually started operations in March 1891 when Wakefield lost his YPA contract. YPA then leased all of their transportation equipment and facilities to YNPTC, who appointed Wakefield President. They bought out the YTC and Wakefield & Hoffman operations for $70,000 in 1892 and were granted exclusive transport of NPRR passengers. The following February they received leases for six parcels of land to erect barns and other facilities. The company was taken over by the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co. in 1898, under Child, Huntley, and Bach.
From Archive Org

Built in 1907 of concrete block simulating rusticated stone, the four room Northside School replaced several smaller wood framed schools scattered about Livingston's north side. Serving as an elementary school until 1971, the building was purchased by the Park County Museum Association in 1976, the Park County Museum opening in the building the next year. Today it is known as the Yellowstone Gateway Museum.

Today made easy to find with a dingy red wooden Northern Pacific caboose on the front lawn, the building is filled with artefacts relating to the early days of Livingston. Behind the building is a fenced yard and another building in which are displayed fire trucks, agricultural equipment, wagons, various machines and other large historic items. One will even find another school at this school, the former Urbach School. A small log building constructed between 1898 and 1904, it was moved to the museum in 2000. Accompanying the school is a Blacksmith Shop, donated and moved to the museum in July, 1997.

The museum is open year round, with reduced hours in the winter months.

Yellowstone Gateway Museum
Discover the history of Park County and its connection to Yellowstone!

As a crossroads of culture, Park County, Montana has served as temporary or permanent home for many: native peoples from as long as 11,000 years ago, fur trappers and explorers, homesteaders, and today's residents. Livingston became a major entrance to Yellowstone National Park in 1883 when the Burlington Northern Railway arrived and established a spur line south toward the park.

The museum is housed in a three-story 1906 schoolhouse that is on the National Register of Historic Places. Four large exhibit rooms: Native Cultures, Expeditions, Pioneer, and Transportation, and courtyard also interpret archaeology, modern-day flint knapping, Lewis and Clark, Yellowstone National Park (including historic vehicles), railroad, veterans' history, women, and more. Museum Explorer's Journal guides families through the museum; new children's exhibits.
From Visit Montana