The communities north of Yellowstone National Park that were hurt by a significant flood in June have a new lifeline to the park by way of a 1879 stagecoach line., which federal officials described as a once-in-a-1,000-years event, caused the Gardner River to overflow and destroy sections of the park’s main highway entrance from the north. The lack of visitors hurt communities in Park County, Mont., that rely on summer tourism.
. Known as the Old Gardiner Road, it previously consisted of a single lane with few guard rails and was used mainly by bicyclists and occasional four-wheel drive vehicles. The route, built with emergency federal funding, had to be widened and paved to highway specifications to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of visitors each summer who enter Yellowstone through its historic Roosevelt Arch, a stone landmark built in Gardiner, Mont., in 1903. Gardiner and other gateway communities in Park County provide hotels, restaurants and other services for Yellowstone travelers.
Local businesses lost as much as 90% of their revenue after the flooding, as few tourists had a reason to come to the area, said Bill Berg, a commissioner in Park County.
Does the new road actually take people under the arch? - because the old road didn't.