User talk:Mike Cline/Articles Under Contemplation/Yellowstone Park Line

The Yellowstone Park Line was a 54 mi branch line of the Northern Pacific Railway that operated from Livingston, Montana to Gardiner, Montana, the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park, through the Paradise Valley from 1883 to 1946.

Connection with Yellowstone National Park
The Yellowstone Park Line was one of the first branch lines build by the NPR and the first rail line to service Yellowstone National Park. Jay Cooke, the one-time financier of the railway was instrumental in the explorations of the upper Yellowstone that occurred in 1870 and 1871. Those explorations were directly responsible for the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872. Cooke and the Northern Pacific always envisioned Yellowstone as a destination for railway travelers. In January 1883, even before the transcontinental mainline was completed, the Northern Pacific decided to build a branch line to the park from Livingston, Montana.

At the time, the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company which was closely associated with the NPR through its owners Carroll T. Hobart (an NPR official) and began a campaign to build tourist facilities in the park. The first project was a $140,000 hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs.