Here we are at the Roosevelt Arch, which spans the northern entrance to the park in Gardiner, Montana. This was the original road into Yellowstone, the nation's first national park. In 1903 president Roosevelt felt it fitting to create a monument dedicating the park to the people of America and took the inscription "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people" from the 1872 document that created the park.
Yellowstone is still one of America's most popular national parks. The national park system has grown over the years to 394 parks, monuments, seashores, recreation areas, historic sites, military parks, battlefields and other designated units - the largest national park system in the world. Consiquently many of the visitior are international travelers coming to see the type of open space and animal preserves that may not exist in their own countries. Attendance is down slightly from last year's 3.6 million, but still there were enough visitors to keep our little store quite busy.
This is the town of Mammoth Hot Springs, originally built to house the army when they ran the park from 1886 until the formation of the National Park Service in 1918. The old military buildings today serve as home for Yellowstone's National Park Headquarters. We work at the General Store, the building in the left center of the picture below, between the service station and the Mammoth Hotel's Grill and Restaurant. We work just under 40 hours per week helping customers, scooping ice cream and stocking shelves. We love it and have had the opportunity to meet so many interesting domestic and international travels, as well as host several friends who have visited us over the summer. Truly a memorable experience! (Remember that you can click on any image to see a larger version!)
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