John F. Yancey also known as Uncle John Yancey (born c. 1826
Barren County, Kentucky,
died May 7, 1903) was a
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowston ...
concessionaire who operated Yancey's Pleasant Valley hotel near Tower Junction in Yellowstone from 1882 until his death in 1903.
Early life
Very little is known about John Yancey's early life in Kentucky, although it is believed he was related in some way to
William Lowndes Yancey, an Alabama politician and secessionist. Yancey was sixth of ten children and his parents moved to Missouri while he was a young boy where he grew to manhood.
[ He participated in the ]American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
on the side of the Confederacy, but to what extent is unknown. In the 1870s, shortly after the creation of Yellowstone National Park, he turned up as a prospector in the area of the Crevice Creek gold strike on the northern boundary of the park. He apparently made enough money from prospecting to establish a way station on the Gardiner to Cooke City road inside the park in 1882. Owen Wister, who met Yancey during a visit in 1896, described him as a "goat-bearded, shrewd-eyed, lank, Uncle Sam type".
Pleasant Valley Hotel
Pleasant Valley is located just north of the Tower-Roosevelt junction on the Yellowstone River Trail, at . The valley lies adjacent to the Yellowstone River
The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountains an ...
near the site of Barronett's Bridge and the confluence of the Lamar River. The valley was named by Philetus Norris, the second superintendent of the park (1877–82).
In 1882, then park superintendent Patrick Conger gave John Yancey verbal permission to establish a cabin in Pleasant Valley to enable him to provide accommodations and provisions to the stage traveling to and from Mammoth Hot Springs to Cooke City, Montana
Cooke City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Park County, Montana, United States. As of the 2010 census, it had a population of 75. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Cooke City-Silver Gate CDP.
The community si ...
. The mining camps in Cooke City were well established and the route through Pleasant Valley was the only way in and out of Cooke City in winter.[Haines, ''Yellowstone Place Names - Mirrors of History'', pp. 176–78.] A guest of the hotel in 1901 described it thus:
Death
John F. Yancey was 77 years old in April 1903 when he traveled to Gardiner, Montana, to witness the dedication of the Roosevelt Arch
The Roosevelt Arch is a rusticated triumphal arch at the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park in Gardiner, Montana, United States. Constructed under the supervision of the US Army at Fort Yellowstone, its cornerstone was laid down by Pre ...
by President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...
on April 24, 1903. Although Yancey witnessed the dedication and apparently met President Roosevelt during the dedication ceremony, he caught a cold and died in Gardiner of pneumonia on May 7, 1903. He is buried in Tinker's Cemetery in Gardiner,[ within the national park boundaries, approximately northwest of Gardiner on the old Yellowstone Trail road.
Yancey's obituary in the '' Livingston Post'' contained the following:
]
Gallery
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yancey, John F.
1820s births
1903 deaths
People from Park County, Montana
Yellowstone National Park
People from Montana Territory