Tourists require many things besides food and shelter. Yellowstone's policy has favored making these wants attainable. In this field regulations have also modified certain practices common to general business conditions. Franchises have been kept at a minimum, and competition does not exist within a particular camp. However, Park merchants are required to keep their prices in line with the index of the market area.
Motion pictures and other forms of indoor recreation are conspicuously absent, although the lodges sponsor two hours of entertainment and dancing for their guests and the public at large. These also function to keep the employees contented.
A general statement having been made, a brief sketch of Yellowstone's business enterprises would be in order. Frank Jay Haynes, the pioneer photographer, built his first picture shop at Mammoth in 1884. Since that time a Haynes Studio has been a familiar institution in Yellowstone camps. Another Mammoth Hot Springs store was opened in 1889 by Ole Anderson. For a time he was allowed to sell bottles of highly colored Park sand and also specimens coated with calcium carbonate. This store was purchased by Anna K. Pryor and Elizabeth Trischman in 1908. They soon reorganized it into the Park Curio and Coffee Shop. Later they acquired the Mammoth general store and a grocery store near Canyon Junction. The latter had been established by a released Park soldier, George Whittaker.
The first store in the Upper Geyser Basin was built by Henry E. Klamer in 1897. A ten-year franchise for a geyser water swimming pool was granted Henry J. Brothers in 1914. The following year Charles A. Hamilton acquired control of these interests and laid the foundation for a thriving business there. Hamilton also has general stores at Thumb, Lake, and Fishing Bridge, and in 1953 acquired the Pryor interests in the Park.
The Yellowstone Park Service Stations are owned jointly by Hamilton Stores, Inc. and the Yellowstone Park Company. Gasoline, oil, and supplies are available at the lone multi-pump service station assigned to each camp.[256] The public garage business is in the hands of the Yellowstone Park Company. Thus, it is obvious that all of the Park's mercantile business is the concern of three operators, Haynes, Hamilton, and the Yellowstone Park Company. Each operates under the terms of a government franchise and is subject to National Park Service regulation and supervision at all times.