American Indians known as Sheepeaters eked out a living in what would become Yellowstone more than two centuries ago, and mountain men wandered the park in wonder, much like today's tourists, not long after. But for many current Yellowstone visitors, particularly those who do not live on the left-hand side of the nation, the park epitomizes the lore of the historic West.
It is little surprise, then, that one of the most popular, if not the most popular, paying activities at Yellowstone National Park involves cowboys, horses, campfires and beans.
Welcome to the Old West dinner cookout held from early June to Labor Day at Roosevelt Lodge in the north-central part of the park and offered by Yellowstone concessionaire Xanterra Parks & Resorts.
It's said that 90 percent of the visitors to Yellowstone never leave the asphalt or boardwalks. That must not include the sell-out of 200 people who participate in the dinner on a nightly basis.
On a cool Saturday night in early July, the rain stops just as the horseback riders leave the corrals at Roosevelt. Soon after, the draft horses are hooked to the covered wagons and groups of about 25 climb aboard for the 30-minute ride to Pleasant Valley. The food wagon and cook staff left a couple of hours earlier to get everything prepared so it would be ready when the guests arrive.
The wagons rumble along at a mild pace, allowing visitors to get acquainted before the drivers and wranglers on each outfit break into their routine.
Historic information about the park, wildlife facts and jokes make it a short ride to dinner. After a close-up view of watching a horse heed Mother Nature's call, one of the passengers wonders aloud if it's possible to change things up a bit and have the horse push rather than pull the wagon.
"He just had too many Roosevelt beans," the driver says.
The group breaks into laughter until Mark - the cowboy from Orlando - starts telling jokes at the expense of his wrangler. The laughter resounds from each wagon, making the possibility of a wildlife sighting during the ride remote.
Cookout participants choose one of two ways to reach the historic dinner site. There are one- and two-hour horseback rides for those more adventurous or an option to climb into a covered wagon for a 30-minute ride to Pleasant Valley.
A warm campfire awaits, and cowboy coffee - watch out for the grounds - helps get the tastebuds going while waiting for some other lucky tourist to ring the triangle announcing the all-you-can-eat steak (the record is nine), potato salad, coleslaw, world-famous Roosevelt beans and apple crisp dinner.
Getting to this spot in the park takes either a lot of planning or a lot of luck. Reservations for the lodging and activities at Yellowstone National Park open May 1 for the following year. The Old West dinner is one of the first activities tourists book, and the dinners sell out fast.
Don't give up hope when booking your trip to Yellowstone if the dinner - or any other lodging or activity - is not available.
"I always tell people to keep trying. People change their plans or cancel their trips," said Rick Hoeninghausen, marketing director for Xanterra. "We never really start the day sold out, but we almost always finish it sold out."
People planning a trip to Yellowstone should book what is available on their first call - more spots are available than shown on the Web site - and then keep trying as cancellations come in. If you still do not have a reservation the day of the dinner and you have time, check at the corrals, as openings happen right up until the wagons depart.
As folks make their way through the dinner line, a singing cowboy begins a serenade. Many can't resist joining in - "Where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard. . . ."
Concessionaire staff first floated the idea of the Old West dinner to National Park officials back in the mid-1950s. The Park Service liked the idea, but said the dinner location could not be constructed just anywhere. The facilities had to be built where humans had already made their presence felt.
"The perfect place was decided to be at the historic site of Yancey's hotel and corral in Pleasant Valley," said Leslie Quinn, an interpretative specialist for Xanterra. "The corral was still there, but it was obvious that humans had utilized the area."
John F. Yancey became an illegal squatter in Yellowstone's Pleasant Valley in the early 1880s after noticing a lot of human traffic between the north and northeast entrances of the park due to a bridge built over the Yellowstone River. Yancey built a hotel, saloon and corral and waited for parched and tired customers to start showing up.
Park officials soon arrived and told Yancey he didn't have permission to run a business in the park because he had failed to apply for a concessionaire's license. Yancey filled out the forms and was granted a permit in 1882.
"They say the sheets were only cleaned at the hotel twice a year," Mark the wagon driver explains. "You could always bribe the maid to give you clean ones."
Although the park did not allow alcohol to be sold, Yancey never got in trouble for providing his favorite drink, Kentucky tea - a mix of Kentucky whiskey and a fermented orange liqueur from California.
"Yancey claimed his whiskey glasses had never been profaned by contact with water," Quinn said. "Most folks just took that to mean he never cared to wash the glasses."
Yancey passed away in 1903 of pneumonia he contracted while traveling to the northern entrance to see Theodore Roosevelt dedicate the famous arch at Gardiner, Mont.
Dan Yancey, his nephew, took over the hotel, but it was never the same and "under no mysterious circumstances" burned down in 1906, said Quinn.
The hotel was not rebuilt due to construction of the nearby Camp Roosevelt, which eventually became Roosevelt Lodge.
As dinner settles and the valley falls in the shadows, coats come out and the line for the two portable bathrooms - yes, two bathrooms for 200 people - grows. The jokes and Yellowstone history continue on the return until a pronghorn is sighted and the cameras come out.
Back at Roosevelt, the cowboys take time to talk with the customers and pose for family pictures with the horses sure to show up in the family photo album.
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Contact Brett Prettyman at brettp@sltrib.com or 801-257-8902. Send comments to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
Yellowstone's famous Roosevelt beans
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces
1 onion, diced
1 (16-ounce) can pork and beans
1 (12-ounce) can kidney beans
1 (12-ounce) can lima beans
1 (12-ounce) can butter beans
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mustard
1/2 cup ketchup
Salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. In a frying pan, brown the ground beef and bacon. Drain the fat. Add the onions and saute until soft. Stir in the pork and beans, kidney beans, lima beans, butter beans, brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, ketchup and salt and pepper. Transfer to a baking dish and cook for 45 minutes. Makes 8 to 12 servings.
- Xanterra Parks & Resorts
Roosevelt Lodge, Yellowstone National Park
Why go? The Old West dinner cookout combines good food, entertainment, history and a beautiful setting, well away from park roads and boardwalks. It isn't an intimate setting, with 200 people participating each night, but the covered wagon or horseback rides to Pleasant Valley are done in smaller groups.
How to get there: Roosevelt Lodge, in the north central part of Yellowstone, is the smallest of the lodging areas of the National Park. Roosevelt is 18 miles east of Mammoth Hot Springs, 29 miles west of the Northeast Entrance and 19 miles north of Canyon Village.
What it will cost: The one-hour horseback ride to dinner is $61 for adults and $51 for youth 8-11; the two-hour horseback ride is $72 and $62; the wagon ride is $51 for adults, $41 for ages 5-11; children under 5 are free on the wagons, but are required to sit on an adult's lap and share the adult's dinner plate.
Not to miss: The stories shared by the cowboys are fun and carry historic meaning, even if they are exaggerated a bit. The cowboy coffee is a Western classic.
Weather: Yellowstone evenings can be cool and wet. Bring a rain jacket.
For info: Contact Xanterra Parks & Resorts to make reservations at 307-344-7901 or http://travelyellowstone.com.
