I'm trying to find a park I visited 10-15 years ago, but Google searches and ChatGPT can't find it.
What I am confident about:
- The visitor center had the bathrooms downstairs, and a wall near the bathrooms was painted with information about trying to become a national park.
- It started out as a place where troublemakers were sent, but was used as a base to scout and detect invasions from the North.
- It was there for a long time, then the military branches were established and this became a military base.
- There are officer buildings left from when it was a base. I think they were duplexes with a brick wall separating the sides, and some buildings had one side of the duplex removed. A lot of the buildings were white.
- The officer buildings were in a grid layout.
- Several long roads with scenic views.
- At that time, when entering the visitor center to the right it had a display with various taxidermy animals plus buttons to push to hear what they sounded like. To the left was the gift shop.
What I sort of remember, but not positive about:
- I think it became an Army base, and the people became part of the special forces.
- I think it had Fort in the name.
- I think it was close to a mid size city, like 15-30 min drive.
- It was for defending from the North, but it was not on the US/Canadian border. It was much farther south like Oregon-Wyoming line. It stands out as I thought it was pretty far away from the current border.
If anyone has information I would greatly appreciate it.
Found it! The Mammoth Hot Springs visitor center is what we were remembering, and from google search for Albright Visitor Center looking at the pictures the second one is a video and starts out with a plaque showing "Fort Yellowstone has been designated a National Historic Landmark." That explains why searching for National Parks with Fort in the name didn't help. The rest of the details about the Black soldiers and town people probably got merged in my head. Looking through the other pictures it matches the place I remember. The officers houses can be seen along Barracks Street. Maybe the half duplex part was a picture?
Thanks!