Luxury in the Wilderness: Yellowstone's Grand Canyon Hotel, 1911-1960

So wrote John H. Raftery, editor of the Butte, Montana, Treasure State, recalling his January 1911 trip to the construction site of a hotel near the falls of the Yellowstone. Howard H. Hays, General Agent of the Wylie Camping Company, also journeyed to the site, on skis, in February 1911. In an article published later that summer, he wrote: "Hard by the canyon rim the vast substantial outlines of the new hotel dominate the northerly landscape. I believe I am safe in putting it down that this is the largest resort hotel between New Jersey and California." Other hostelries served the tourists near the falls between 1883 and 1911, but they left much to be desired.