According to Annie Carlson a research coordinator at Yellowstone, the hotel was a ‘cut above the rest.’ which was located just north of Fountain Paint Pot in the Lower Geyser Basin. The three-story structure cost $100,000 to build and could accommodate 350 guests. It boasted 143 rooms, steam heat and baths that used the hot springs water.
“The hotel was fancy given its rustic surroundings, and guests would wear their finest clothes to regular evening balls,” Carlson said.
Fountain Hotel guests could walk among bubbling mud pots and active geysers while enjoying scenic meadows and mountain views. Another popular attraction in the early years was a bear feeding station just behind the hotel. Kitchen staff would throw food and garbage out for the hungry bears, to the delight of guests who watched nearby. Bear attacks had been reported but were infrequent enough that the practice of feeding the bears continued.
Once automobiles were introduced the park, the hotel was no longer needed along the route through Yellowstone since guests could travel farther into the park and would bypass the hotel. As more guests only stopped for lunch, the Fountain Hotel was abandoned in 1917. It burned to the ground a decade later.
“Rangers and others said it was just as well that the hotel was gone,” author Shelli Larios of “Yellowstone Ghost Stories” said. “Because it was haunted.”
The mysterious disappearance of a millionaire’s heir and an invisible guest ringing the service bell are just two of the stories that surrounded the hotel and led to its demise.