The Fires of 1988

As I stand in the foyer of the massive structure known as the Old Faithful Inn talking quietly with the first visitors of the day starting to gather, I wonder how this day will unfold. These are the first of the crowds that come each day for the four tours of the iconic old building. Many more visitors will come though to see for themselves the building that sits adjacent to the famous Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. This is a special day for me. Today is September 7, 2018 and it is 30 years—to the day—that we almost lost the Old Faithful Inn.

Chatting with these early-morning visitors before the first tour begins, I remember the first day I visited this fascinating building, only five years prior. I recall the sense of majesty I felt. It was as though she were speaking directly to me.

But on September 7th, 1988, she almost lost her voice. That day could have been such a fateful day—not only for the Old Faithful Inn but for the many people from all over the globe that have visited the Inn over the years and fallen in love with it. Fire could have been the end of that historic building.

The Inn with collectors’ historic touring cars lined up out front (2016)

Forest fires are an inherent part of nature, and Yellowstone has always been a fire-based ecology. Fires are a good thing. They open up the canopy and give new organisms a chance to grow. The fire also releases nutrients back into the soil.

The summer of 1988 was extremely hot and dry. Lightning is the usual cause of fires. Those fires are observed, and fought only when they come near Park structures. In contrast, the National Park Service fights most human-caused fires. Eleven of the first 18 fires of that season had gone out on their own but, by mid-July, because of the extreme dry conditions, even natural-caused fires were fought. Fire fighting techniques were mostly ineffective.

In July, a careless woodsman in a National Forest west of the Park failed to sufficiently put out his cigarette. That blaze, the North Fork Fire, became the largest in the Park that summer. It progressed north and eastward.

By early September the fire’s southern end got going again and came right into the Old Faithful Village. Then, on September 7th, right up to the iconic Old Faithful Inn. The amazing feats of so many firefighters—as well as Inn staff who refused to leave—keeping water on the Inn and preventing blowing embers from taking hold, kept the Old Faithful Inn safe. It wasn’t until rain and snow finally arrived in mid-September that the advance of the fires was stopped. Over a third of the Park burned that year.

This coming summer of 2019 will mark 115 years the Old Faithful Inn has been standing. Construction of the Inn began in June of 1903. The work of about 50 craftsmen continued through winter, and she opened for business in June of 1904. One year later! An amazing undertaking. The architect was Robert Reamer, 29 years old and primarily self-taught.

Made of Lodgepole Pine, the Inn rises seven stories—just under 77 feet high. Its massive fireplace is made of—and the Inn itself rests upon—the prolific volcanic Rhyolite rock of Yellowstone. When architects and those in the building industry visit the Inn, they marvel at how Reamer pulled off this incredible feat in the early 1900s without the type of equipment they have available to them in current-day buildings.

Robert Reamer’s tree house (he apparently didn’t get to have his until the Inn). Also known as the Crow’s Nest.

The morning of September 7, 2018 had been more emotional for me than I had expected. Had the firefighters been unable to save that beautiful old building in 1988, I would not have the relationship I have with her today. I thought of Karen Reinhart’s book in which she refers to the Inn as the “sentinel guarding the valley below.” I would not have the joy of seeing that beautiful building standing so tall from wherever I am in the Old Faithful Geyser basin.

Instead, I now enjoy the delight of watching first-time visitors’ reactions as they enter and their eyes go up, up, up to the rafters of the building. I would miss the joy of seeing their mouths drop in complete awe of a building that has stood for over a century.

Tom Swafford plays his fiddle at the Inn July 2018:

Yes, it would have been a terrible loss had the Old Faithful Inn burned that fateful day in the summer of 1988. Most especially, in my heart, I realized that day that I would have never heard her speaking to me and to the many others who visit every summer. Her voice would have been forever silenced.

I am blessed and privileged to be able to do the Inn tours, but most especially on that particular day in September of 2018—thirty years to the day that we almost lost her.