History of the Roosevelt Arch: 10 Fascinating Facts (2024)

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What are 10 interesting facts about Yellowstone National Park? ›

In April 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone for the Roosevelt Arch, a massive, Rustic style monument that symbolically marked the entrance into Yellowstone National Park.

To construct the Arch, hundreds of tons of native columnar basalt were hauled from a quarry in the area. The completed Arch rises 50 feet high and can be seen from miles away.

Designed by famous Yellowstone architect Robert Reamer, the arch stands 50 feet high, its two towers each 12-feet across at their base.

It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first national park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world.

More than 60 mammals live in Yellowstone, The map shows the most likely places to see the big mammals and the checklist below the map gives more information. Remember what you see will vary with the weather, season, and behavior of the animals.

The design of the Roosevelt Arch has been attributed to architect Robert Reamer, who designed the train depot, but documentation is inconclusive. Construction of the arch began on February 19, 1903, and was completed on August 15, 1903, at a cost of around $10,000.

The Memorial marks St. Louis' role in the westward expansion of the United States during the nineteenth century. It commemorates Thomas Jefferson, whose vision opened the West; the inhabitants of the West who helped shape its history; and Dred and Harriet Scott who sued for their freedom in the Old Courthouse.

In architecture, an arch is an opening in a structure that is curved on top and designed to distribute weight. Arches are used in structural engineering (a branch of civil engineering that deals with large buildings and similar structures) because they can support a very large mass placed on top of them.

The arch became known as Roosevelt Arch after President Theodore Roosevelt, who was vacationing in the park, spoke at the ceremony to lay the cornerstone in 1903. The arch is inscribed with a phrase from the legislation establishing Yellowstone National Park: "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

What is in the time capsule that is built into the Roosevelt Arch? ›

THERE IS A TIME CAPSULE IN THERE! We couldn't find an official list of items but apparently there are some U.S. coins from the time, a picture of Roosevelt, some newspapers and a bible.

According to the competition's call for submissions, the new monument was to serve as “a living memorial to Jefferson's 'vision of greater opportunities for men of all races and creeds. '” Speaking of his design, Saarinen said, “The arch symbolized the gateway to the West, the national expansion, and whatnot.”

The arch cost around $10,000, and construction began on February 19, 1903. Construction was finished on August 15, 1903, but there was a famous dedication ceremony on April 24, 1903, where President Theodore Roosevelt laid the cornerstone. It was that event which led to the Arch being named for our 26th President.

With a light opening measured at 306 feet (93.3 meters), Landscape Arch, in the Devils Garden area, has the longest span of any arch in North America. (Four arches in China now outrank Landscape in the claim for largest arch in the world.)

During his very active presidency, Theodore Roosevelt established approximately 230 million acres of public lands between 1901 and 1909, including 150 national forests, the first 55 federal bird reservation and game preserves, 5 national parks, and the first 18 national monuments.

Old Faithful is one of the most iconic symbols of Yellowstone and is likely to be at the top of your itinerary. This world-renowned geyser erupts every hour and a half, so make sure you plan accordingly and get a good viewing spot.

Yellowstone contains the world's greatest concentration of geothermal features. These are natural features that are heated by energy from inside Earth. In Yellowstone that energy is in the form of a dome of magma, or molten rock, that is just below the surface.

Yellowstone serves as the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, one of the last and largest nearly intact natural ecosystems on the planet. Yellowstone has the most active, diverse, and intact collections of combined geothermal features with over 10,000 hydrothermal sites and half the world's active geysers.

The accumulated magma finally punched through 17 million years ago, breaking the ancient slab and resulting in the Columbia River Basalt eruptions. Then began the progression of volcanic calderas to present-day Yellowstone. About 20 years ago, this story might have been dismissed as fantasy.