On April 21, 1915, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane authorized private automobiles to enter Yellowstone National Park. By the end of that first season nearly 1,000 automobiles carrying 3,513 people had come into the Park, and there were conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. These conflicts were resolved by prohibiting horses on the Park roads beginning with the 1917 season.
From the founding of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 until the automobile era which started in 1915, tourists used wagons to see the Park. The Yellowstone National Park Transportation Company, incorporated in 1892, was the first official coaching company in Yellowstone National Park. This company brought tourists into the Park from the northern entrance where they arrived via the Northern Pacific Railroad.
In 1898, the Monida & Yellowstone Stage Company, commonly known as the Red Line, received a franchise to bring passengers from the railroad station at Monida, Montana and the west entrance to the Park. The company used 103 coaches and 319 horses in bringing guests to the Park. The need for this service ended in 1909 when the Union Pacific Railroad completed its connection to the Park’s west entrance.
Shown below is the display of wagons in the Museum of the Yellowstone in West Yellowstone, Montana.
According to one display:
“There were four transportation companies that were franchised to give tours through Yellowstone National Park, two of which were connected to the hotel systems and two that were linked to camping companies. All of these stagecoach companies played a large role in inventing and promoting tourism in the western United States.”
In 1899, the Wylie Permanent Camping Company received a franchise to offer tourists an inexpensive way to see the Park by using their permanent tent camps rather than staying at the hotels. Just at the end of the wagon era in 1913, the Shaw and Powell Permanent Camping Company received its franchise. After the 1916 season, no stagecoaches were used in the Park.
Shown above is a Weber freight wagon. Weber was one of the leading freight manufacturers until it was purchased by International Harvester. According to the display:
“Prior to 1915, almost all goods that reached the West were bounced across a trail or dirt toad via freight wagons. A common sight, such wagons carried supplied to stage coach companies, camping companies, and hotels in Yellowstone.”