Development of the North Fork Highway

Over 120 years ago, local families and visitors looked forward to summer trips to Yellowstone, just as we do today. But back then, the North Fork Highway did not yet exist.

In the year 1901, accessing the remote east entrance from Cody was more challenging than it is today. Visitors arrived in Cody via the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy railway, which had a steam-powered engine and luxurious sleeper cars. But the train line ended at Cody, so visitors had to arrange a rugged journey on horseback or in horse-drawn wagons to finally reach Yellowstone.

The trip began with fording Sulphur Creek, east of today’s Walmart, and then winding around the south side of Cedar Mountain. Travelers then crossed the South Fork of the Shoshone at the town of Marquette, a site now underneath Buffalo Bill Reservoir. The journey continued along the North Fork and through Wapiti Valley. At the national forest boundary, a wide dirt road built by the federal government in the 1890s made the trek a little easier. Tourists usually traveled with local guides. Cody locals Tex Holm, Ned Frost, and Fred Richard provided horse trips into Yellowstone for groups of up to thirty people. Before the new Sylvan Pass route was passable in 1903, the trips often accessed the park through the Sunlight Basin and Cooke City.

It wasn’t until the construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam, starting in 1905, that a passable road through the tunnels and along the North Fork of the Shoshone was established. At this same time, Henry Ford’s Model A and C automobiles became widely available to consumers. By 1910, the new North Fork Highway, then considered one of the best roads in the state of Wyoming, was bustling with a record number of tourists visiting the park.

Historic Ranches

Today, the paved North Fork Highway is popular with Yellowstone visitors and wildlife viewers, but the route is also full of local history. Historic ranches, some over 100 years old, line both sides of the North Fork of the Shoshone. Many of the ranches grew from earlier hunting camps and family homesteads into more luxurious accommodations by the 1920s.

Going west along Buffalo Bill Reservoir, Mooncrest Ranch is the 5,250 acre ranch on the right side of the highway. It includes the wide valley of lower Rattlesnake Creek, as well as the upper mountainous sections of the creek’s tributaries. Originally called Springdale Ranch by the Newton and Ingraham families around 1901, the new owner, Anna Lucylle Moon, renamed the ranch in 1926. According to Ester Johansson Murray in A History of the North Fork of the Shoshone River, Lucylle developed a cattle operation, and later recalled how she once went to gather her herd after they wandered away in a blizzard. She climbed Rattlesnake Mountain on horseback that day, but when her horse got spooked and ran home without her, she hiked back downhill alone with her dog. On a steep section of snow, she glissaded down the mountain in her boots. As it is today, the Mooncrest Ranch is miles away from the nearest school. Lucylle rented a cabin on Green Creek so that her daughter, Chaska, could attend Wapiti School.

Mummy Cave

Near the UXU Ranch, a much older site, “Mummy Cave,” is on the north side of the North Fork of the Shoshone. Archaeological excavations in the 1960s revealed that the cave was a vibrant seasonal hunting spot along the Shoshone River for more than 9,000 years. At an elevation of 6,300 feet, the arid conditions preserved artifacts that would otherwise have deteriorated. Likely the ancestors of today’s Shoshone tribes, the cave inhabitants left behind stone tools and weapons over many years. Choppers, scrapers, sewing needles, awls, projectile points, and knives were found during excavations. Campfires were built in the cave as early as 9,200 years ago. Beads, cordage, tanned hides, moccasin liners, and basketry were also preserved in the cave.

The preserved remains of a man were found near the back wall of the cave, facing west. Archaeologists estimate that he was 35-40 years old when he died in about 700 AD. He had short, cropped bangs in front, but long hair tied with a band behind his neck. Wrapped in a sheepskin robe that was sewn shut, his body was preserved for 1200 years before being re-discovered by Cody-area explorers before the 1960s. The man’s preserved remains and the artifacts surrounding his body are currently set to be repatriated to the Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation and the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe of the Fort Hall Reservation, but are on hold at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West awaiting further decisions.

Wapiti Ranger Station

The North Fork Highway also showcases the history of protected federal land in the United States. Just west of Wapiti, the Wapiti Ranger Station is the oldest ranger station in the United States. It was built in 1903 within the Shoshone National Forest, which is the oldest national forest in the nation. The forest designation developed from the earlier Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, a 1.2 million acre forest established in 1891. The ranger station is on the National Register of Historic Places and represents “a new era in American attitudes toward the natural beauty of their nation.”

Blackwater Firefighter’s Memorial

Also near the UXU Ranch is a memorial to fifteen firefighters killed in August 1937 while battling a fire in the Shoshone National Forest along Blackwater Creek. It was a hot, 90 degree day and the forest was in dangerous, “tinderbox” conditions. Many of the crew were young men from Texas in a Civilian Conservation Corps crew who had transferred to Wyoming just three months before. Several casualties were Wyoming locals who had worked in the area for years. One of the victims was Alfred G. Clayton, a 44-year-old father of two and ranger for the Shoshone National Forest. He enjoyed history and had written for the Wyoming Historical Society’s Annals of Wyoming. On the day of the fire, Clayton was leading a crew of six men, and all were trapped by the fire and killed. Clayton Mountain, a 10,219 peak south of the memorial, is named for him. Another victim, Rex Hale, was the 21-year-old junior assistant to the technician for the Shoshone National Forest. Today’s campground along the North Fork Highway is named for him. After the tragic fire, five hundred Cody area residents raised money to dedicate the 71-foot long rock memorial we see beside the highway today.

Pahaska Teepee

Pahaska Teepee, Buffalo Bill Cody’s former hunting lodge, is located near Yellowstone’s east entrance. He selected the site in 1901 when he hosted out-of-town friends on a hunting trip near the confluence of Middle Creek and the North Fork of the Shoshone River. A mining claim previously existed nearby, where two locals operated a cabin as a road ranch for people traveling on the North Fork Road into Yellowstone. Cody hired A.A. Anderson, a wealthy New York architect with a ranch above the Greybull River, to design the hunting lodge at Pahaska. The plan was that tourists could travel to Cody by train and stay their first night in town at the Irma Hotel. After a day of riding up the North Fork by horseback to the Wapiti Inn, they would finally arrive at Pahaska, where they had close access to the park’s east boundary.

In December 1909, a Wyoming newspaper noted that the beautiful Pahaska Lodge had “a roaring fireplace at one end, [and a] long table in the center, loaded with juicy elk steak, venison roast, and bighorn stew.” The newspaper mentioned that the scene at Pahaska was reminiscent of “the hunting parties of the ancient barons of Merry England.”

This summer, if you are traveling between Cody and Yellowstone National Park and happen to be a history lover, watch for all of the historic sites along the way. Nearly every mile includes something of historical interest that reflects Cody’s cultural heritage over the past century.

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