National Park Lodges: Architectural Wonders and Intermountain Tourism

Starting in the late nineteenth century, railroads provided one of the most efficient forms of transportation to visit national parks in the Intermountain West. While many parks had the potential to become a popular tourist attraction, very few contained quality food and lodging that appealed to the railroads’ upper-class audience. As a result, various rail companies became concessionaires, who formed agreements with organizations such as the U.S National Park Service and the U.S Forest Service to provide food and lodging on federal land. As concessionaires, the railroads invested vast amounts of money to develop tourist attractions at national parks and monuments. When new spur lines reached increasingly remote destinations and resorts expanded, the railroads constructed new hotels to entice potential guests. The success of concession companies at the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Atchison-Topeka Santa Fe Railway inspired competition in the industries of transportation and tourism, encouraging other rail companies to establish their own resorts. For this reason, rail companies came to play a significant role in the early development of tourism and architecture at national parks.

National park lodges attracted the tourism industry’s best customers: upper class travelers. Because long train trips and expensive resorts made tourism a costly endeavor, the railroads primarily appealed to those who could afford to finance a trip. As a result, the design of resorts in the United States and Europe also served as a guideline for many national park lodges. For example, many of America’s early national park lodges took inspiration from the distinct architectural style of Swiss chalets. The railroads’ new hotels also contributed to the development of rustic architecture, a type of architecture that sought harmony between buildings and their natural environment. In national parks, this building style often utilized unrefined materials like natural stone and wooden logs to connect a structure with its environment. By using a distinct architectural style, the railroads drew increased attention from tourists at their new hotels. In this way, the design of rustic buildings served as a marketing tactic for the railroads. The success of this unique strategy helped to set a precedent for functional rustic architecture in American national parks.

Today, many national park lodges remain open under the management of new concessionaires. While organizations like the National Park Service renovated national park lodges in the Intermountain West to accommodate modern tourists, many structures retain important attributes such as original architectural features and interior design details. These characteristics comprise the historic character of a building. As a result, numerous historic lodges have become an iconic part of the national park experience.