Yellowstone Launches $250M Road Plan As Altadena Honors Abolitionist

In a week marked by historic preservation and ambitious infrastructure planning, two significant developments have shone a spotlight on America’s national parks and their layered histories. From the rolling hills of Altadena, California, to the iconic landscapes of Yellowstone National Park, efforts are underway to honor the past while preparing for the future.

On January 20, 2026, the gravesite of abolitionist Owen Brown, perched atop Altadena’s Little Round Top, was officially added to the U.S. National Park Service’s Network to Freedom list. This designation recognizes sites with direct ties to the Underground Railroad and the broader struggle to abolish slavery in the United States. Brown, the son of the famed abolitionist John Brown, was himself a central figure in the fight for freedom. He participated in the 1859 raid at Harper’s Ferry—an event many historians consider the first unofficial battle of the Civil War—and spent two decades as a fugitive before settling in Pasadena, California.

Michele Zack, chair of the Owen Brown Gravesite Committee, has spent years campaigning for this recognition. For Zack, the effort is deeply personal as well as historic. She lost her own home in the Eaton Fire and has since written extensively about Altadena’s past. "As I learned more about Altadena, and let’s say the Owen Brothers’ connection, I thought, well, why didn’t I learn this in school?" she reflected, according to local news reports. Zack’s motivation is clear: "We should know our history, and our local ties to the larger national history."

The timing of the gravesite’s addition to the Network to Freedom is especially poignant. Just a day earlier, on January 19, the nation observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The gravesite was also named a Los Angeles County Historic Site, underscoring its significance. Zack remarked, "The significance of having Owen’s gravesite designated now seems somehow especially important. Because of what we are going through in our country right now in terms of immigration and expansionist ideas."

This recognition comes amid a national conversation about how America remembers its past. The Trump administration, for instance, has made controversial moves affecting federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. President Trump signed an executive order ending DEI initiatives and removed the bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office, ending a tradition that began in 2009. The administration also shifted the free national park admission day from MLK Day to the president’s birthday, a move that has drawn criticism from civil rights advocates.

At an MLK Day event in South Los Angeles, LA Mayor Karen Bass spoke to the enduring importance of remembering leaders like King and Brown. "On Martin Luther King’s holiday, we need to reflect on our past, so we can fight for our future," Bass told attendees. For Zack and others, the gravesite is more than a memorial—it’s an invitation. "People should come up here," she urged. "It really is a spiritual experience, and it connects you to this piece of land, and there’s something very deep and profound about visiting Owen’s Brown’s gravesite, and thinking about what he did, and his family’s sacrifices."

As the nation grapples with how best to honor its history, the National Park Service is also looking ahead, tackling practical challenges that affect millions of visitors each year. On January 18, 2026, Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Cam Sholly unveiled plans for a new North Entrance Road during an appearance on the National Parks Traveler Podcast. The announcement comes in response to a catastrophic flood in June 2022 that severely damaged the old North Entrance Route, disrupting one of the park’s key access points.

The proposed project, estimated to cost between $200 million and $250 million, aims to address longstanding traffic congestion issues at Yellowstone’s north entrance. The centerpiece is a ‘center alignment’ route connecting Gardiner, Montana, with Mammoth Hot Springs. According to official National Park Service documents, the new road will incorporate segments of the old North Entrance Road and transform the Old Gardiner Road (OGR) into a multi-use trail. The alignment will circle around and north of Slide Lake before veering west and north to reconnect with the pre-flood North Entrance Road at the North Entrance Station.

Superintendent Sholly explained the process: "After the flood, I asked the team to develop a plan that would look at every possible corridor you could build, a road from here to Gardiner (...). If you had to build a road, where could you build a road up to Mammoth from Gardner? And they came up with about seven different options where a road could be constructed." As of now, the route design is 70% complete, with construction potentially beginning in 2027 and expected to span five seasons.

The public has been invited to comment on the project until February 4, and early feedback has been largely positive. Many visitors have struggled with the current OGR, which, as one Reddit user described, is "so winding that cargo vehicles supplying the park and RVs and big travel trailers need to cross over the median into oncoming traffic to handle the curves (or risk rolling off the shoulder). We were literally stuck behind an RV trying to manage the road because oncoming traffic needs to completely stop and clear the curve for the RV to get around. It happened on 4 or 5 of the curves coming into the park on that road." Superintendent Sholly acknowledged these concerns, noting, "A lot of folks really do like that road, but there’s a lot of people that think it’s too steep, too curvy."

Traffic jams, often caused by wildlife sightings or bottlenecks at popular spots, have long been a headache for Yellowstone visitors. The new road is expected to alleviate some of these issues, though it will be several years before the improvements are realized. In addition to the center alignment proposal, three other alternatives are under consideration: maintaining the status quo with ongoing repairs, re-engineering the OGR to meet current standards, or restoring the old North Entrance Road alignment while converting the OGR into a recreational trail.

Regardless of which alternative is ultimately chosen, the project reflects a broader commitment to balancing preservation with accessibility—an ethos that echoes the efforts underway in Altadena. Whether honoring the memory of abolitionists like Owen Brown or ensuring that America’s treasured landscapes remain open and safe for generations to come, these initiatives remind us that history is not just something to be remembered, but something to be lived and shaped every day.

As the sun sets over Little Round Top and the snowmelt carves new paths through Yellowstone’s canyons, the work of connecting past and present continues—sometimes quietly, sometimes with the rumble of construction equipment, but always with an eye toward the future.