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$20 million Old Faithful Snow Lodge opens its doors 1st full-service hotel built in Yellowstone National Park since 1911 By RICHARD WESNICK Editor Of The Gazette YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK - Capping nearly nine years of feasibility studies, planning, project development and construction, Amfac Parks & Resorts and the National Park Service Saturday officially opened the new $20 million Old Faithful Snow Lodge. As snow fell gently but steadily outside, officials of the National Park Service, the state of Wyoming and Amfac gathered in the beamed lobby of the 100-room hotel to dedicate the first full-service hotel built in Yellowstone since 1911.
Old Faithful Snow Lodge replaced the old Snow Lodge, which was originally built to house park employees and which was torn down with construction of the new lodge. The new Snow Lodge is within 200 yards of the historic Old Faithful Inn, which was built in 1903 and 1904. U.S. Rep. Barbara Cubin, R-Wyo., was unable to attend the dedication but sent a letter in which she described the new Snow Lodge as "another fine gem in the crown jewel of national parks." Yellowstone Park Superintendent Michael Finley said the new Snow Lodge was the result of close cooperation among Amfac, the Park Service, A&E Architects of Billings and Groathouse Construction of Laramie, Wyo., to maintain "a delicate balance between man and nature." Finley said there has been considerable debate over what is necessary and what is appropriate to maintain that balance in national parks. The Park Service is under a congressional mandate to guard national parks against unregulated intrusion by man. The Park Service must ensure that public access is limited to what is necessary without infringing on nature. He said that although the Snow Lodge is a multiple-season facility, it has a long association with winter use because it is one of only two hotels open year-round in the park. The other is at Mammoth. The current debate, Finley said, is not whether winter use should be allowed but how it should be regulated. Finley, who has been park superintendent since 1994, said the goal also is to provide a park experience that is "cleaner, quieter, safer and inexpensive so that a visit to Yellowstone Park is not a Gold Card experience." Funding for the new Snow Lodge came entirely from Amfac Parks & Resorts, which operates hotel and camping facilities under a contract with the National Park Service. Amfac invests 20 percent of its gross receipts to improve facilities and operations in the park, the highest percentage of any national park concessionaire. Even with the investment of 20 percent of gross receipts, the project was still short of the total cost of the Snow Lodge, so Amfac committed another $6 million in exchange for consideration on future franchise fees. Construction began in 1997, and the first phase of the lodge opened in July 1998 with 52 guest rooms, a family dining restaurant and lounge. Stephen W. Tedder, Amfac's vice president for national parks, described it as "a true labor of love ... it was not the vision of one person but the vision of many." Tedder said the project involved many sleepless night, "... not like Sleepless in Seattle but sometimes more like a nightmare." He congratulated Jim McCaleb, general manager of Amfac in Yellowstone National Park, for "acting as a referee who was also a participant in the long fight" to bring the project to completion. McCaleb said the Snow Lodge was a return to the tradition of exquisite architecture and craftsmanship exemplified by the nearby Yellowstone Inn. Up until the construction of Yellowstone Inn, most park hotels looked like railroad hotels everywhere in the 19th century. The Snow Lodge marks a return to "rustic and beautiful design that compliments but doesn't compete with nature." Jim Bos, president of A&E Architects, said another key goal in designing the Snow Lodge was creating rustic park architecture that wouldn't upstage Old Faithful Inn. Ken Groathouse, president of Groathouse Construction, said his company " ... didn't go into this thinking it was just another project. But, after the second winter, we began to wonder just what we had gotten into." There was a period, he said, when workers spent more time shoveling snow than working on the Snow Lodge. Working through two winters in Yellowstone posed significant challenges, Groathouse said. "Amfac said there was a seven-month building season but it looked more like four months," he joked. "It even snowed on July 6." Barry Cantor, director of engineering for A&E, said the original projections placed the construction phase at two years and, in spite of hardships and challenges, it came in just one day over that projection. One of A&E's architects, Marybeth Haynes, worked on the scene throughout the entire project, along with one of Groathouse's project supervisors. Because of the climate and environmental considerations, the cost of construction in the park is about 11/2 times what it would cost to build elsewhere such as Billings or Bozeman, Bos said. The building had to be designed to handle seismic activity and heavy snow - Yellowstone Park registers about 1,000 earthquakes a year, and that fact had to be taken into consideration during the design and construction. The building also was designed for a snow load of 150 pounds per square foot. At one point recently, an estimated 25 tons of snow slid off the roof. Bos was especially proud of the interior design and decor and the work of regional artists. "It is very evident that there is a wealth of talent in our immediate area." Evident throughout the building are heavy timbers that were rescued from older buildings and used as pillars and beams. Massive wood pillars in the lobby and elsewhere on the first floor came from a dismantled sawmill owned by Aloha Lumber Co. out of Pacific Beach, Wash. Aloha supplied lumber and cedar shingles for the original Old Faithful Inn. All of those factors led the Western Design Institute of Cody to present the Cody Award for Western Design to Amfac and the National Park Service. Michael Patrick, chairman of the institute, also recognized McCaleb as "the driving force in the shaping of the new Snow Lodge project as one emphasizing rustic design and for having furnishings, for the most part, created by craftspeople - not factories." Patrick said the Cody Award is usually presented to individuals whose life's work is exemplary of Western art and design. Gene Bryan, chief legislative officer and vice president of the Wyoming Division of Tourism and Travel, said the Snow Lodge " ... continues a tradition of fine hotels in Yellowstone Park ... the world's first national park, the world's first national monument and the world's first national forest."
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