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Gardiner

Travel Montana

Gardiner Directory Listings

A view from 1939:

GARDINER, (5,287 alt, 350 pop.), is the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Rude old log buildings stand in sharp contrast with newer structures of pink stucco, milled logs, and brick veneer, that are brilliantly lighted at night during the tourist season to attract patronage. In winter Gardiner is almost deserted.

The town was named for Johnston Gardiner, a trapper who worked along the upper Yellowstone and its tributaries in the 1830's. Early efforts at settlement were frustrated by the hostility of the Crow, who hunted in this area. In 1883 the building of the railroad provided the impetus to settlement, but disputes arose over the proposed townsite and the Northern Pacific established its terminal at Cinnabar, 4 miles north. Gardiner became known as "the town that waited twenty years for a railroad," because the line was not extended to it until 1902.

Source: Montana: A State Guide Book; Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration for the State of Montana; September, 1939.