Gardiner is the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It was named for Johnston Gardiner, a trapper and mountain man who worked along the upper Yellowstone and its tributaries in the 1830s. Early efforts at settlement here were frustrated by the hostility of Crow Indians who hunted the area. A dispute over the located of the townsite also caused a twenty-year delay in getting the railroad into the town. The Northern Pacific came to Cinnabar, a few miles to the north, in 1883, but it was not extended to Gardiner until 1902.Placer gold was discovered at the mouth of Bear Gulch by "Uncle Joe" Brown and two other prospectors during the winter of 1865-1866. "Uncle Joe" is said to have taken $1,800 worth of gold out of the mouth of the creek in May 1866. He put in a system of ditches and erected the first quartz mill. In July 1883, gold was discovered in placer mines with "city limits." Robert "Buckskin Jim" Cutler claimed the diggings and got into an argument with McCartney over ownership and townsites, which delayed bringing in the railroad. The population in June 1883 was listed as 200, with six restaurants, five general stores, two hardware stores, two fruit stands, two barber shops, one newsstand, one billiard hall, two dancehalls, four houses of ill fame, one blacksmith, twenty-one saloons, and one milkman. Since there was no sawmill in the area, the "houses" were tents and log shacks made of hand-hewn logs.President Theodore Roosevelt came to Gardiner in April 1903 to dedicate an arch made of basaltic rock through which travelers could go on their way to the "Yellowstone Wonderland." (from Cheney's Names on the Face of Montana, Mountain Press Publishing Company) The overall height of the arch is 50 feet with an entrance arch of 30 feet high and 20 feet wide. The arch is inscribed with the words, 'For the Benefit and Enjoyment of All People,' a quote taken from the congressional act which made Yellowstone a National Park in 1872. Gardiner is located in southwest Montana, at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. The town is situated in breathtaking Paradise Valley with the Yellowstone River running right through town. Founded in 1880, Gardiner is a center of activity for visitors to the region, serving as the original, and only year round entrance to the Park. Gardiner has survived a rough and tumble existence of gold rushes, the railroad and even destructive fires. A tough little frontier town, it fed and sheltered miners, entertained the early soldiers who operated Yellowstone Park, and learned to host the pioneer visitor. At one time the Northern Pacific Railroad brought visitors to Gardiner where they could meet the stagecoaches that would carry them throughout the park. Gardiner has matured, tempered and grown to meet the needs of today's visitors. It is a good place to spend some rich time in history, in the heart of some of the West's finest country.
