Background
The Marshall-Firehole Hotel was a crude hotel built in 1884 by entrepreneur George Marshall in partnership with G.G. Henderson. It was renamed the Firehole Hotel in 1885 and remained the only hotel in the park interior for years. The hotel complex was like a small frontier town, the precursor of modern tourist communities in and around Yellowstone today.

The Marshall-Firehole Hotel as it appeared circa 1885.

Services included lodging, meals, laundry, hot baths, livery stables, a blacksmith, and a saloon. Several log cabins also housed employees. In 1891, the Firehole Hotel was replaced by the more luxurious Fountain Hotel located a few miles to the southeast. Almost all structures were removed during the next decade. The U.S. Army (Yellowstone's managers until 1916) used some of the frame buildings for years afterwards as a part of its Lower Geyser Basin summer encampment.

The Marshall-Firehole Hotel site as it appears today. Construction of the road at the center of the photo in the early 20th c. was once believed to have destroyed the hotel site.

Previous Archeology
Until recently, the Marshall-Firehole Hotel site was believed destroyed by an early 19th century road barrow pit. An archeological inventory and test excavation at the site in the mid-1990s demonstrated that, while most archeological elements are virtually invisible to the untrained eye, remnants of nearly every element of the hotel complex continue to exist. A shallow depression at the center of the site correlates with the position of the hotel's provision cellar.

A patterned arrangement of stones and wood fragments in the meadow matches the position of a stable. Brick rubble and a rectangular pit at the edge of Hygeia Hot spring are the remains of a bathhouse and its geyserite tub. Concentrations of cut nails and window glass at the south side of the site correspond with the locations of the hotel's blacksmith shop, saloon, a second stable, and two log dwellings.

There are also several archeological features without counterparts on the 1885 map. Among these are two building depressions, fence posts, a cold water pipeline, a wooden hot water pipe extending from the mouth of Hygeia hot spring toward the former hotel location, and fords across the Nez Perce Creek and the Firehole River. One of the more compelling site features is a grave at the north end of the site marked with a marble headstone. This is the resting place for Mattie Culver, wife of winter caretaker E.C. Culver, who was charged with looking after the hotel in 1888.

The hotel site also has an underwater component. It appears that people living and working at the hotel dumped trash in the Firehole River! Unfortunately, artifact hunting by the visiting public is rapidly destroying this portion of the site.

Significance
The Marshall-Firehole Hotel is arguably one of the more important sites relating to the National Parks system's developmental history. This importance lies in the fact that the Marshall-Firehole Hotel site directly addresses one of the National Park Service's fundamental purposes - to provide for the enjoyment of park resources and values by people of the United States. Prior to its construction, tourists traveling through Yellowstone were entirely on their own.

They had to camp since lodging was not available. All their food had to be brought in with them and fresh meat was obtained by hunting Yellowstone's game animals. When the Marshall/Firehole Hotel was built in 1884, the complex was actually a small first facility of its kind built within a National Park strictly to serve tourists as they passed through the park. The hotel site is essentially the granddaddy of modern tourist complexes such as those serving today's Yellowstone National Park tourists at Canyon, Yellowstone Lake, and Old Faithful.

A Threatened Resource
The preservation ethic that now guides the National Park Service was undeveloped in the 1880s and the conservation movement was in its infancy. As a consequence, people living and working at the Marshall-Firehole Hotel used a method of trash disposal that would be extremely unacceptable today. They dumped their trash in the Firehole River immediately next to the site! Nevertheless, this resulted in a rich underwater archeological legacy that can tell modern researchers much about everyday life at this 1880s "tourist town."

Although the land-based portion of the site is not in excessive danger (it is not very visible), the underwater portion is rapidly being destroyed by looters, vandals, or simply casual waders unaware of the damage they are doing by removing part of Yellowstone's history. The problem is compounded by the site's location immediately next to a popular picnic area. Unfortunately, many artifacts are being removed from the river and this, in turn, affects the ability of future archeologists and historians to learn more about the people who lived at this important historic site almost 120 years ago. NEXT >>

Click here for more images from the Marshall-Firehole Hotel/Hotel Archeology site.