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OLD FAITHFUL: Yellowstone is bringing back its old buses, like this 1937 White Motorcoach, as part of a new mass-transit project that has a green-fuel twist Credit: (photo courtesy Howard E. Haines, Montana DEQ)


Yellowstone is not
only our first national park; in 1922, it was also the nation’s
second-largest bus company (right behind Greyhound), operating a
fleet of 400 yellow convertible buses for visitors who traveled to
the park by rail. But by the 1960s, as automobiles became the
preferred transportation to the park, the yellow buses were phased
out and sold.

Now, Yellowstone park officials
have started to buy the buses back, with plans to reintroduce them
as part of a new mass transit system.

Jim
Evanoff, a park official, hopes nostalgia for the old yellow buses
will lure people out of their cars and encourage them to enjoy the
scenery while reducing traffic and pollution in the park. The buses
will be refurbished and retrofitted to run on alternative fuel, and
park officials hope to have the fleet up and running in a few
years. Contact Jim Evanoff with the National Park Service, at
307/344-2311 or jm_evanoff@nps.gov.

This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Yellowstone goes retro.

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