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Train travel to Yellowstone National Park began in 1883 with the completion of a spur line of the Northern Pacific Railroad from Livingston, MT to Cinnabar, MT Located north of Gardiner, the official North entrance to the Park, Cinnabar would serve as the terminus for the NPRR until 1903 when the line was extended to Gardiner and new facilities built.
In 1898 the Oregon Short Line Railroad, a subsidiary of the Union Pacific Railroad, began its Yellowstone service with a connection at Monida, MT, some seventy two miles west of the park. A visit by UPRR officials in 1905 would lead to an extension of the line from Ashton, Idaho to the west boundary of the Park. Finished in late 1907, the new line began service in June 1908.
In 1901 the Chicago Burlington and Quincy Railroad began it’s Yellowstone service via Cody, WY, located some fifty five miles east of Yellowstone National Park.
The Chicago and North Western got into the Yellowstone business in 1921 with connections from Lander, Wyoming. This necessitated a one and one half day drive to reach the park via the South entrance.
The last of the five railroads, the Chicago Milwaukee and Saint Paul, would begin service in 1926 from its new Gallatin Gateway Inn eighty miles north of the park near Bozeman, Montana. It would bring its passengers along the Gallatin River and through the west entrance.
These five railroads would operate their service to the park through 1960. The 1920’s and 1930’s were the biggest years for rail travel to Yellowstone but by the mid-1930’s the private auto was already surpassing rail traffic. After World War II travel by rail dropped dramatically everywhere in the United States. People were turning more and more to their own cars. The Chicago and North Western had not lasted long: they were out of the Yellowstone business by 1932. Of the other four, the Northern Pacific; the Chicago Burlington and Quincy; and the Chicago Milwaukee and Saint Paul lasted until approximately 1953. The Union Pacific Railroad would last through the 1960 season before ceasing operations to Yellowstone. The private automobile had supplanted the age of rail travel to Yellowstone National Park after seventy-seven years.
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