Gardiner was officially founded in 1880. The area has served as a main entrance to Yellowstone National Park since its creation in 1872. Yellowstone National Park Heritage and Research Center, which opened May 18, 2005, is located in Gardiner and houses National Park Service archives, Yellowstone museum collections and reference libraries.[4][5]
The name "Gardiner" derives from Johnson Gardner, a fur trapper who operated in the area in 1830–31.[7] He named the lush headwaters valley of today's Gardner River "Gardner's Hole". Originally named "Gardner's Fork", the river took on Gardner's name, although prospectors and explorers who visited the area later in the century were unaware of the trapper Johnson Gardner. In 1870, when the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition passed through the area, they began calling the river "Gardiner," a phonetic error. Hiram M. Chittenden (1895) and Nathaniel P. Langford (1905) confirmed this spelling in their accounts of the expedition.[8]
McCartney's hotel
When the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 passed through the Gardiner area, they encountered two men, named J.C. McCartney and H. R. Horr, who had laid claim to 320 acres (1.3km2) and established a ranch and bath house on the Mammoth terraces near Liberty Cap. These entrepreneurs eventually established a primitive hotel at Mammoth, and were not evicted from the area until many years after the park was established.[9] McCartney also went by the name "Jim Gardiner" and received messages, consignments and such destined for guests of his hotel addressed to "Jim on the Gardiner".[citation needed]
History
Pre-contact
Evidence shows that Native Americans have lived and hunted in the Gardiner area since at least 11,000 years ago.[10] In the Nez Perce War of 1877, the United States forced all the Nez Perce people who formerly lived on the Yellowstone Plateau, which includes Gardiner, onto reservations.[10]
Early Gardiner
Between 1860 and 1880, the confluence of the Gardner and Yellowstone Rivers (exactly where Gardiner is located today) was settled by prospectors and entrepeneurs interested in placer claims and the local hot springs.[10] Gold was discovered along Bear Gulch in 1865, and claims caused a large rise in new settlers.[10] Along with prospecting the rivers themselves, new settlers would arrive and start ranches in order to make a living supplying them.[10] A notable homesteader was James C. McCartney, who had initially built a hotel near Mammoth Hot Springs, but due to his relationship with park officials and shifting park policies relocated to Gardiner in 1879.[10]
Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872.[10] Settlers now also started businesses catering to early park visitors and the U.S. Army, facing the park and located very closely on the park's north boundary.[10] Gardiner's future location was well-placed for this.[10]
Notable services the town provided to coal miners, gold miners, and soldiers nearby were drinking, gambling, and prostitutution.[11] Early on, the small town of Gardiner was described in one account as "a veritable Shantyville... an ideal squatter town, with the rudest houses."[11]
Early 1900s postcard showing Gardiner
In the early 1880s, the Northern Pacific Railroad announced a planned branch line to Yellowstone Park near Gardiner.[11] In 1883, the Northern Pacific Railway had completed the extension of their Park Branch Line from Livingston, Montana to Cinnabar,[12] a new town north of Gardiner[12] that grew up around the rail line terminus.[10] The terminus would have been in Gardiner itself, but land disputes made that impossible until 1902.[10] Despite this, Gardiner continued to grow, spurred on strongly by the speculation that the railroad terminus would eventually arrive.[10]
On February 9, 1880, a territorial post office was established just outside the park boundary.[8] Park County was created in 1887, and county officials both hired a constable and built the first jail in Gardiner.[11] Unfortunately, this jail burned down in 1898, making it impossible to lock up drunks and criminals.[11]
Gardiner Jail (the second one)
The first trains finally arriving in Gardiner in 1902, filled with tourists, arrived to views of prostitutes showing off in front of the train windows.[11] According to a local newspaper account, "Monday night there was almost continuous yelling and shooting from midnight to daylight. Women of ill-fame live in the central part of town and exhibit themselves daily on the streets in bedroom wrappers and make a show of themselves in doors and windows on arrival of the train."[11] A new jail was ready by mid-September 1903.[11]
The arrival of the railroad caused the town to flourish, continuing to serve tourists and local soldiers.[10]
Later, as automobiles became more important, the town adapted to serve them.[10]
Modern history
Railway service at Gardiner station was eventually discontinued[10], specifically in 1948.[citation needed] Its role was taken on by the state highway passing through the town.[10]
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10km2), of which 3.8 square miles (9.8km2) is land and 0.1 square miles (0.26km2) (2.32%) is water.
As of the census of 2000, there were 851 people residing in Gardiner. The population density was 224.9 inhabitants per square mile (86.8/km2). The racial makeup of was 97.30% White, 0.35% African American, 1.41% Native American, 0.24% Asian, 0.12% from other races, and 0.59% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 0.47% of the population.[18]
There were 435 households, of which 22.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.0% were married couples living together, and 51.5% were non-families. 43.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.96 people and the average family size 2.73.[18]
In 2000, 20.8% were under the age of 18, 2.9% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 28.0% from 45 to 64, and 7.8% who were 65 years of age or older.[18]
The median income for a household was $30,125, and the median income for a family was $46,071. Men had a median income of $30,240 versus $17,614 for women. About 8.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.8% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.[18]
The CDP is in both Gardiner Elementary School District and Gardiner High School District,[20] the two components of the Gardiner Public Schools school district.[21]
A library in Gardiner opened in the 20th century.[22]
Infrastructure
Gardiner Airport is a public use airport located two miles (3.7km) northwest of town.
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