Yellowstone’s historic fort gets a facelift

Yellowstone National Park’s extensive assets of buildings, roads and trails are worth an estimated $8.5 billion, which brings massive maintenance responsibilities. 

Currently, park crews are working to rehabilitate the park’s oldest functioning structures. A two-year, $25 million project is underway to stabilize and restore the exteriors of several historic Fort Yellowstone buildings in Mammoth Hot Springs. All are currently used for employee housing. 

The buildings sit in a national historic landmark district that encompasses 35 structures dating to the 1890s and early 1900s. In the early years of the country’s first national park, Yellowstone’s resources were under siege by souvenir hunters, poachers and entrepreneurs setting up tourist businesses, according to the park service. When civilian park superintendents proved insufficient at protecting the hot springs and wildlife, the secretary of the interior tapped the military, and in 1886 Army troops moved in. 

Many structures in the subsequently built permanent post have endured, though the buildings pushing well over 100 years old have been due for some attention. The current project entails structural repairs, roof and exterior rehabilitation, window and door restoration, painting and hazardous materials mitigation, according to the park service. 

The project, paid for through the Great American Outdoors Act’s Legacy Restoration Fund comes amid mounting criticism of federal parks infrastructure funding. Earlier this year, the National Park Service shifted roughly 1,500 park projects, many already approved, to a new “low priority” list, the Associated Press reported in August. 

The projects span more than 200 sites and carry a combined cost estimate of more than $400 million, according to the Center for Western Priorities. They included 45 projects in Yellowstone, according to the Center, which range from contract fees for bison processing to dock repairs and a vault toilet.