The Northern Pacific Railroad established Cinnabar in 1883 as the last stop on its branch line to Yellowstone National Park, and caused its abandonment when the railroad was extended to the park boundary twenty years later. The town's entire existence was defined by its relationship to the railroad and to the park, and when the railroad moved on, the town had no reason to remain. It is one of the more complete examples in Montana of a community whose fate was entirely determined by a single transportation decision.

The branch line from Livingston to the Yellowstone country was completed in 1883, the same year that the Northern Pacific's main transcontinental line was finished. The railroad's management understood that Yellowstone National Park, established in 1872, represented a significant tourist opportunity, and they built the branch line specifically to capture the traffic of visitors who wanted to see the geysers and hot springs of the world's first national park. The branch line terminated at Cinnabar, a few miles north of the park boundary, because the terrain between Cinnabar and the boundary was too rugged for the railroad's construction equipment to cross economically. The last three miles to the park entrance would have to wait.

For twenty years Cinnabar was the gateway to Yellowstone. Every visitor who arrived by rail, which meant virtually every visitor who did not live within driving distance of the park, passed through Cinnabar on their way in and out. The town that grew up around the railroad terminus had all the characteristics of a gateway community: hotels, saloons, livery stables, outfitters, and the various businesses that catered to travelers who needed to rest, resupply, and arrange transportation for the final leg of their journey. The Yellowstone River ran nearby, and the landscape around the town was spectacular, which made Cinnabar a destination in its own right for some visitors.

The town's most famous resident was not a permanent one. President Theodore Roosevelt passed through Cinnabar in April 1903 on his way to a two-week camping trip in Yellowstone, and the town turned out to greet him with the enthusiasm that small communities reserved for presidential visits. Roosevelt's connection to the Yellowstone country was genuine and deep, and his visit to the park in 1903 was part of a pattern of engagement with the West that shaped his conservation policies. The Cinnabar stop was a brief one, but it placed the town in the company of the presidential itineraries that marked the era.

The extension of the railroad from Cinnabar to the park boundary at Gardiner was completed in 1902 and 1903, and the effect on Cinnabar was immediate and decisive. The passengers who had previously stopped at Cinnabar now continued directly to Gardiner, and the businesses that had served them had no customers. The hotels closed, the saloons emptied, and the residents who had built their livelihoods around the gateway function moved to Gardiner or to other communities along the line. Cinnabar was abandoned within a few years of the railroad's extension, and the buildings that had housed the gateway community were dismantled or left to decay.

The site of Cinnabar was incorporated into Yellowstone National Park in 1932, when the park was expanded by 7,609 acres to the north on the west side of the Yellowstone River. Most of the boundary lands were purchased from willing owners, and the town of Cinnabar had been abandoned long before the park expansion made the question of ownership relevant. The park service eventually undertook archaeological work at the site to document what remained of the town's material culture before a native plant restoration project disturbed the ground.

The Montana-Yellowstone Archaeological Project, a collaboration between the University of Montana and the National Park Service, surveyed approximately 3,000 acres of the boundary lands and confirmed the location of the Cinnabar depot, excavated the blacksmith shop, and identified a likely foundation of a hotel. Historical artifacts recovered from the site included a railroad sign and revolver bullets, the kind of material culture that accumulates around a railroad terminus and a gateway community. The project also documented prehistoric components at the site, including a tipi ring cluster approximately 5,000 years old, one of the oldest known in the Northern Plains, and a series of stone circles and fire pits associated with the Pelican Lake culture that occupied the area approximately 2,000 years ago.

The archaeological work at Cinnabar revealed a site with a much longer human history than its twenty years as a railroad gateway would suggest. The Yellowstone River valley had been a travel corridor and a camping place for indigenous peoples for thousands of years before the Northern Pacific arrived, and the railroad's decision to terminate its branch line at this particular location was not entirely arbitrary. The site had natural advantages that had drawn people to it long before the age of steam.

What Remains Today

Nothing visible remains of the town of Cinnabar above ground. The archaeological work conducted by the Montana-Yellowstone Archaeological Project documented the locations of the depot, the blacksmith shop, and the hotel foundation, but these are subsurface features rather than standing structures. The site is now within Yellowstone National Park, and the native plant restoration work that prompted the archaeological survey has returned the landscape to something approaching its pre-railroad character.

The Yellowstone River still runs through the area, and the landscape around the former townsite is part of the park's northern boundary lands, accessible to visitors traveling the road between Gardiner and the park interior.

Visiting

The site of Cinnabar is located within Yellowstone National Park, a few miles south of Gardiner, Montana, on the west side of the Yellowstone River. The area is accessible via the road from Gardiner into the park, and visitors can view the landscape of the former townsite from the road corridor. The National Park Service's Yellowstone visitor centers in Gardiner and Mammoth Hot Springs can provide information about the history of the Cinnabar site and the park's northern boundary lands.

Gardiner is the nearest town with visitor services and is located at the northern entrance to Yellowstone National Park on US Highway 89. Livingston, the Park County seat, is approximately 53 miles north on US Highway 89 and Interstate 90.