The following articles were 125th Anniversary
1997 press releases.

Unless otherwise indicated, the articles below
are from the National Park Service,
arranged from latest to earliest.
 

YELLOWSTONE'S CLIMATE AND WEATHER

The soldiers stationed at Fort Yellowstone had a saying: "In Yellowstone there are only two seasons: winter and July." While this may be a slight exaggeration, it is true that Yellowstone's winter is by far its longest season--as many of the park's permanent residents will attest to!

Climate is the long-term combination of atmospheric conditions produced by day-to-day weather. The physical geography of an area has an important influence on the type of climate a region experiences. Yellowstone is primarily a forested, volcanic plateau with an average elevation of about 8,000 feet. Because Yellowstone is located deep within the interior of the North American continent far from the climate-moderating influences of the oceans, one would ordinarily expect such an area at this latitude to have a severe (hot summers and cold winters) and dry climate. However, Yellowstone's high elevation moderates the severity of its summers as well as the amount of precipitation it receives.

Weather observations were first taken at Mammoth Hot Springs by U.S. Army personnel in January 1887. By 1890, these observations were being taken on a regular and consistent basis, continuing to this day. Records taken include temperature, precipitation, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, sunshine, and humidity. The weather station at Mammoth Hot Springs is the second oldest weather observation station in continuous existence in the state of Wyoming. Yellowstone has also participated for many years in a national program to collect snow accumulation data from various locations in the park. This data is used by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly the Soil Conservation Service) to calculate water content amounts in the snow in order to predict spring runoff flows for the nation's rivers.

The weather in Yellowstone is characterized by summer days that are usually mild and nights that are cool. Daytime temperatures range between 70 and 80 degrees F, and nighttime temperature often fall below 40 degrees F. July is the warmest month in the park, but temperatures rarely exceed 90 degrees F. Winters are cold, characterized by daily maximum temperatures that frequently do not rise above freezing. Spring and autumn are transitional seasons between the long, cold winter and the short, mild summer.

The highest recorded temperature in the park was 98 degrees F at Lamar Ranger Station in 1936, although 103 degrees F was recorded at Gardiner, Montana (on the park's northern border), in 1960. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Yellowstone was -66 degrees F on February 9, 1933, at the old Riverside Ranger Station, which was about a mile east of the West Entrance. On that day, bitter cold temperatures were also recorded at Tower Fall (-52 degrees F), Lake Yellowstone (-56 degrees F), Lamar Ranger Station (-57 degrees F), and Mammoth (which recorded a mild -40 degrees F!).

There is a wide variety of elevations in Yellowstone, and the average annual precipitation (which includes rain and melted snow) ranges from as little as 11 inches at Gardiner, Montana, to about 38 inches at Bechler River (in the park's southwest corner). Of course, greater amounts of precipitation occur high in the mountains. Park records indicate that annual precipitation may exceed 70 inches on the Pitchstone Plateau in the west central portion of the park, mainly a result of winter snowfall. Snow accumulation begins in mid- to late October, and snow stays on the ground until late March or early April. The average duration of snowcover is about 213 days for elevations up to 7,000 feet; this duration increases with elevation at the rate of 29 days for every 1,000 feet.

Climate (like weather) is constantly changing, and it does so on several scales. Departures from "normal" are the rule, not the exception. Analysis of pollen found in bogs and shallow ponds in the park show climatic changes on a scale of thousands of years and indicate that Yellowstone has had climatic conditions ranging from arctic to subtropical. Following the retreat of the glaciers (about 14,000 years ago), pollen studies indicate a warming trend followed by a cooling trend. More relevant to humans are the climatic changes that occur on the scale of decades, such as the drought of the 1930s and the high precipitation of the 1940s. These types of trends have occurred for at least the past 230 years, as indicated by tree-ring analysis. The period from about 1870-1900 was considerably wetter than present-day conditions, and in the 1840s and 1850s, dry conditions occurred that were similar to those of the 1930s. The global climate of the 1980s and 1990s has produced seven of the world's warmest years since weather records have been kept. It is not yet clear if this represents a change in climate or is simple a departure from "the norm."

The bottom line for visitors to Yellowstone is that they should expect any kind of weather at any time of year Snow and cold weather can occur in any month of the year here. In fact, one snowstorm on August 25th in the early part of the century stranded a number of visitors at Old Faithful. They decided to turn their "misfortune" into an adventure by celebrating "Christmas in August." That one weather event has resulted in a tradition in Yellowstone, and every August 25th visitors find gaily decorated Christmas trees in hotel lobbies and employees singing Christmas carols. Weather and climate can affect more than just the great outdoors!

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THOMAS MORAN--YELLOWSTONE'S FIRST ARTIST

In today's climate of controversy over federal funding of the arts, it is difficult to imagine that, 125 years ago, Congress was persuaded by art to take the bold step of establishing the world's first national park. But, the pencil and watercolor field sketches of the Yellowstone area by Thomas Moran, a young artist from Philadelphia, so captured the imagination of members of Congress that they were inspired to do just that.

Moran's interest in the area that would become Yellowstone National Park was piqued when he was commissioned in 1870 to illustrate Nathaniel P. Langford's magazine article, "The Wonders of the Yellowstone"--an assignment he boldly accepted without benefit of having seen the place himself. After the job was done, Moran determined that he must travel to the Yellowstone area to see it for himself. An 1871 U.S. Geological Survey expedition led by fellow Philadelphian Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden provided the opportunity.

Survey teams of that era often included artists and photographers. In the days before color photography, the artist could provide an added dimension to the documentation necessary for a successful expedition. Luckily, the Hayden Survey boasted the magical combination of artist Moran and photographer William Henry Jackson. The two collaborated in selecting views and creating the images that brought the near-mythical Yellowstone region to life for the politicians whose support was crucial in fashioning the area into something for which there was no precedent and few comparable models: a national park.

While the 34-year old Moran was a respected painter, engraver, and illustrator, he had never before ridden a horse, had camped but once, and was unaccustomed to the sorts of greasy foods that made up the usual camp fare. But, determined to bear whatever was required to paint the Yellowstone region, Moran impressed and earned the respect of the thirty-some members of the survey with his adaptability, tirelessness, and courage.

Between July 22 and August 9, Moran travelled through what would become Yellowstone National Park, sketching the Gardner River; Mammoth Hot Springs and LibertyCap; Tower Fall; the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with its dramatic yellow, orange, and red walls and its impressive Upper and Lower Falls; Yellowstone Lake; Crystal Creek; Firehole River; the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins; and other scenes. While many visitors to Yellowstone are most captivated by the geysers and other thermal features and wildlife, Moran was clearly most struck by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Tower Fall area. Moran and Jackson devoted more time to the Grand Canyon (including the place now known as "Artist Point") than anywhere else in Yellowstone--four days--and Jackson later wrote that "Moran's enthusiasm was greater here than anywhere else."

When Dr. Hayden and his survey party returned to Washington, he circulated Moran's sketches and Jackson's photographs through the halls of Congress, providing the final push needed by a legislature already excited by the Moran watercolors and woodblock designs used to illustrate survey reports. Doubts about the vaunted wonders of the Yellowstone region vanished in the face of this tangible proof. Jackson admitted that, as Congress considered creating the park over the winter of 1871-1872, the watercolors and photographs made during the survey "were the most important exhibits brought before the [Congressional] Committee." The "wonderful coloring" of Moran's sketches, he wrote, made all the difference. A mere seven months after Moran's work on the Hayden Survey ended--an astoundingly short period of time by today's standards--Yellowstone National Park was a reality.

Three months later, Moran produced a monumental 7' x 12' panoramic, "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone," which was purchased by the Congress for display in the Senate lobby, causing a noted art critic to call it "the only good picture to be found in the Capitol." By this time, friends had begun to call the artist "Tom 'Yellowstone' Moran," and Moran had begun incorporating a "Y" into his initials when signing his works!

Today, Yellowstone National Park is privileged to own 21 of the sketches Moran produced while in the Yellowstone area; two of the artist's sketchbooks, filled with rough drawings and notations; two charcoal drawings; tools he used in his work, including brushes and palette knives; some personal effects; the only diary he kept during his travels to Yellowstone; and, his only attempt at an autobiography.

The first retrospective exhibition of the work of Thomas Moran will open September 28 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibition will include, among many other works, twelve of Moran's watercolors from Yellowstone National Park's collection, the panoramic "Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone" (now owned by the Department of the Interior), and photographs by William Henry Jackson from Yellowstone National Park's photograph archives. After it closes at the National Gallery of Art on January 11, 1998, the exhibition will travel to the Thomas Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where it will be on view from February 8 through May 10, 1998. The exhibit will conclude at the Seattle Art Museum, where it can be seen from June 19 through August 30, 1998.

By the time Moran died in 1926, he had painted a dozen other areas that would become national parks or monuments in the National Park System. But Yellowstone, Moran himself claimed, was "his love" and is a land whose story will forever be intertwined with that of the man who first painted it, a little more than 125 years ago.

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TOURING YELLOWSTONE IN DAYS GONE BY

On September 29, 1869, Charles Cook, David Folsom, and William Peterson ascended a hillside to take one last
look at Yellowstone Lake. The three men had been traveling on horseback through the Yellowstone wilderness for
some time and were now heading home to Montana Territory. The reports of their journey in the press would help
spur further exploration parties, eventually leading to the creation of the nation's first national park. On that day in late
September, the future of the area that lay before the explorers was already plain to Folsom. He wrote: "As we were
about departing on our homeward trip we ascended the summit of a neighboring hill and took a final look at
Yellowstone Lake. Nestled among the forest crowned hills which bounded our vision, lay this inland sea, its crystal
waves dancing and sparkling in the sunlight as if laughing with joy for their wild freedom. It is a scene of transcendent
beauty which has been viewed by few white men, and we felt glad to have looked upon it before its primeval solitude
should be broken by the crowds of pleasure seekers which at no distant day will throng its shores."

When Yellowstone was created in 1872, the only way anyone could see the area was by foot or by horseback.
While a couple of rudimentary roads led to the park, there was no road system within the park one could use to see
the wonders of Yellowstone. In fact, Nathaniel Langford, the park's first Superintendent, refused to issue leases to a
number of entrepreneurs who wished to erect hotels in the new national park because there were no roads to serve
the hostelries--and no money forthcoming from Congress to build them.

Yellowstone remained a park for the horseman until the superintendency of Philetus Norris, who, in 1878, laid the
groundwork for the park's Grand Loop Road, making travel by carriage possible. By 1892, the Northern Pacific
Railroad had completed tracks nearly to the park's northern border, and wealthy tourists flocked to Yellowstone.
They toured "Wonderland" aboard stagecoaches specially built for use in the park by Abbot & Downing of
Concord, New Hampshire. The "Yellowstone Wagons," as this variety of "Concord Coaches" came to be called,
differed from normal Concord Coaches in that all of the seats faced forward to allow sightseeing.

Stage travelers would spend four to five days touring the park spending a night in the fancy hotels at each of the
famous locations. From the railroad terminus at Cinnabar, visitors would board stagecoaches for Mammoth. From
Mammoth they would head south to Old Faithful and then east toward Yellowstone Lake. Descending the final hill to
West Thumb, they would find (rather than the primeval solitude experienced by the Folsom party), a large dining tent
and an 80-foot steamship resting quietly against a pier. After lunch, many of the tourists would board the S.S. Zillah
for an afternoon cruise to the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Iron hulled, multi-decked, and comfortable, this veteran of
the Great Lakes had been brought to Yellowstone in 1891 to provide visitors the opportunity of an afternoon's
respite from the frightful dust that was the norm of stagecoach travel.

During this era, it was generally only the wealthy who could afford to see Yellowstone's sights from the seat of a
stagecoach and stay in the fashionable hotels. The few people of modest means who came to Yellowstone did so the
old fashioned way: they rode their own horses or brought a small wagon to carry their supplies. Eventually, the
freedom to see Yellowstone at one's own speed proved so inviting to visitors that a rancher named Howard Eaton
founded a business to lead patrons on three-week horseback trips around the park, camping at convenient places
along the way. Upon his death in 1922, the trail he pioneered, which parallels the Grand Loop Road around
Yellowstone, was named the "Howard Eaton Trail."

Private automobiles were allowed in the park in 1915, and by the end of 1916 it was evident that the era of carriage
and stagecoach travel had come to an end. That fall, the park's transportation company placed an order with the
White Motor Company of Cleveland, Ohio, for the first of hundreds of touring cars that were to travel the park
roads for decades to come. With four doors along each side, a roll-back canvas roof, and a "gearjammer" (driver) at
the wheel, the White touring cars became for many the "way to see Yellowstone." After World War II private
automobiles began to dominate the roads and eventually became the primary means by which most everyone sees
Yellowstone today. The "Great Yellow Fleet" finally went on the auction block in the early 1960s.

While the Howard Eaton Trail lies forgotten, overgrown, and abandoned along most of its length, visitors can still
enjoy Yellowstone from the back of a horse at corral facilities at Canyon, Mammoth, and Roosevelt, or by taking a
trip with a licensed backcountry outfitter. At Roosevelt Lodge, visitors can ride in a replica of a Yellowstone
stagecoach. And while few see the park exclusively by walking (as did visitor C. Hanford Henderson in 1898),
Yellowstone has more than 1,500 miles of hiking trails that are extensively used and enjoyed by backpackers and
dayhikers each summer and by cross country skiers in winter. Each one of Yellowstone's visitors who walks a trail,
rides a horse, or sleeps in a tent or at a hotel continues the earliest traditions of touring the park and discovering its
wonders.

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THE NEZ PERCE FLIGHT THROUGH YELLOWSTONE (August 26)

For two weeks in the late summer of 1877, Yellowstone National Park was visited by 800 reluctant travelers.
These unhappy migrants (along with 2,000 head of their stock) were members of five bands of the Nez Perce
Indian tribe who had fled central Idaho on an epic flight to Canada.

The Nez Perce were a peaceful people and had long been considered friendly to the white man. It was through
theircooperation and guidance that the Lewis and Clark expedition succeeded in their exploration mission to
the Pacific Northwest. For many years following that first encounter with white Americans, the Nez Perce had
lived cooperatively and peacefully with settlers and missionaries in their homeland, which included land in
northcentral Idaho, northeastern Oregon, and southeastern Washington. In the 1860s all of that changed. There
was an influx of miners and, later, ranchers to the region, and they pressured the Nez Perce to give up most of
their lands. Some of the tribe's numerous bands agreed to the loss of their land and moved to a reservation in
western Idaho. But, five bands of the tribe resisted, and, eventually, some young warriors in a fit of anger
killed four settlers. The military arrived to restore order and force the recalcitrant bands onto the reservation.
Initially, the five bands tried to surrender by raising a white flag, but the military fired on them, and in the
resultant battle, the military lost. The dissident bands, including one led by Chief Joseph, fled on a circuitous
1,300 mile trek to Canada. The Nez Perce were convinced that if they could just reach Canada they would
find sanctuary and be able to live their lives in peace. However, the military was not about to let them escape,
and General O.O. Howard was sent in hot pursuit.

The Nez Perce entered Yellowstone in mid-August 1877 in the vicinity of the present West Entrance. They
were somewhat familiar with the Yellowstone region as it was along one of the routes they had historically
followed when travelling to the grasslands of Montana in pursuit of bison. The fugitives traveled upstream
along the Madison and Firehole rivers, heading east and then south towards the Old Faithful area. On August
24, near the Lower Geyser Basin they captured 2 prospectors and 9 tourists from Montana who were visiting
the park. While there was no intent to harm these white captives, the Nez Perce did not want them reporting
the tribe's whereabouts to the pursuing army.

Before reaching the Old Faithful area, the Nez Perce left the Firehole River and followed Nez Perce Creek
upstream and across the central plateau of the park. By this time, one of the group of Montana tourists,
George Cowan, had had enough, and in the ensuing shouting match with his captors, was shot and left for
dead (he survived and was later rescued). Eventually, all of the captives escaped or were released. The Nez
Perce continued their trek along the southern edge of Hayden Valley and crossed the Yellowstone River at
Buffalo Ford (also called Nez Perce Ford) and went on to the north shore of Yellowstone Lake. Camping
near Indian Pond, they were almost overtaken by Army Captain S.G. Fisher and his Bannock scouts. Fisher
pursued the Indians up Pelican Creek about 10 miles, but returned to his camp where he had to spend two
days recovering from a stomach ailment.

The Nez Perce headed north, continuing to try and avoid encounters with the military. To this end, the Nez
Perce relied on information from several scouting/raiding parties. Throughout their time in Yellowstone, these
scouting/raiding parties made forays into the surrounding countryside. One of these parties charged a group of
tourists at Otter Creek, leaving one tourist dead. Another looted and burned the ranch of the Henderson
brothers below present-day Gardiner, Montana. Another group of scouts killed a tourist in the doorway of
McCartney's Hotel in Mammoth. And, another burned Baronett's bridge on the Yellowstone River to prevent
the military from following them.

By the time Captain Fisher resumed his pursuit of the Nez Perce, they had moved their camps over the
Pelican Creek divide and were at the headwaters of the Lamar River, which is at the base of the Absaroka
Mountains. Eluding Fisher's pursuit, at least part of the Nez Perce went through the Hoodoo Basin at the head
of the upper Lamar and dropped down to the mouth of the Clark's Fork Canyon and travelled out of the park
toward the Yellowstone River. Another group is thought to have exited the park 10-15 miles south of Cooke
City, Montana.

The Nez Perce had sent representatives ahead to enlist the aid of their traditional friends, the Crows, but the
Crows were unwilling to help. When Crow assistance did not materialize, the Nez Perce continued their flight
north. They were pursued to Snake Creek, Montana (near Chinook), within 40 miles of the Canadian border,
where they surrendered October 5, 1877, after a final battle with the Army.

The flight of the Nez Perce is recognized as an important event in our nation's history. Look for Nez Perce
National Historic Trail signs at the West Entrance and Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone where they mark
the approximate locations of the entrance and exit routes of the Nez Perce.

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THE U.S. CAVALRY ARRIVES IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (August 11)

When Yellowstone National Park was established by Congress on March 1, 1872, as the world's first
national park, there was not yet a National Park Service. In fact, one of the commitments made by
supporters of the park bill during the debate in Congress was that they would make no funding requests for
administering the new park. However, Congress did allow for the appointment of a civilian superintendent to
oversee the park. Unfortunately, during the next 14 years, the various superintendents were unable to control
the rampant poaching of wildlife, the destruction of thermal features and other resources, and the general
unscrupulous nature of the business operators within the park.

In the early 1880s, Senator George Graham Vest of Missouri, a strong defender of Yellowstone for much of
his Senate career, uncovered a scandal in which the wonders of Yellowstone were nearly leased to private
parties who would have charged the public money to see Old Faithful or the Lower Falls of the
Yellowstone. Exposing and disposing of this scandal had required action by Congress, and one result of this
was that many in Congress who considered the national park idea a failure began to suggest that
Yellowstone National Park be abolished. Senator Vest had to use all of his powers of persuasion and
compromise to save the park's appropriation and to garner some better protection for it (in the form of ten
assistants for the superintendent). He did this by agreeing to an amendment demanded by those who saw no
future in civilian administration of the park. The amendment read: "The Secretary of War, upon the request
of the Secretary of the Interior, is hereby authorized and directed to make the necessary details of troops to
prevent trespassers or intruders from entering the park for the purpose of destroying the game or objects of
curiosity therein, or for any other purpose prohibited by law, and to remove such person from the park if
found therein."

Both Senator Vest and Henry M. Teller, Secretary of the Interior, were hopeful that such drastic actions
would be unnecessary. However, Patrick H. Conger, Yellowstone's superintendent from 1882 until 1884,
and Robert E. Carpenter, who followed him in 1884, were unsuccessful in the execution of their duties. Both
men had received their appointments to the superintendency because of their political connections to eastern
Congressmen, and both were completely unsuited for the rough duty demanded of them in the protection of
Yellowstone National Park. Reports, complaints, and rumors about the situation in Yellowstone continued to
reach Washington.

The situation was nearly changed after the Cleveland Administration came into power in Washington in
1884. Secretary of the Interior Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar appointed Colonel David W. Wear, a
retired military officer, to the office of superintendent of Yellowstone. Wear fired nearly all of the assistant
superintendents and replaced them with "stalwart mountaineers" who began arresting poachers and other
wrongdoers. Given time, Wear's superintendency might have proven the turning point. But time had already
run out.

News traveled slowly in the 19th century, and word of Wear's efforts and successes never reached the ears
of an exasperated Congress. The many reports that they had received about the various inept civilian
administrators of Yellowstone led Congress to cancel all funds for the salaries of the superintendent and his
assistants on August 4, 1886. At this point Secretary Lamar took the only course left open to him. On
August 6, he called the attention of the Secretary of War to the amendment that had been passed three years
before, and he asked for his assistance. The Secretary of War directed Lieutenant-General Philip H.
Sheridan to comply with the request. Sheridan, in turn, directed: "Troop M, 1st United States Cavalry,
Captain Moses Harris commanding--station Fort Custer, Montana Territory--be ordered . . . to perform the
duties in the Yellowstone National Park that recently devolved upon the Superintendent of the Park and his
assistants."

The first cavalry riders entered the park on August 17, and by August 20 Captain Harris and rest of Troop
M had arrived in Mammoth Hot Springs. Captain Harris relieved Superintendent Wear of his duties that
day, thus beginning 30 years of administration of Yellowstone by the United States Cavalry--saving both
Yellowstone and the national park idea for the American people.

The Cavalry established a temporary tent camp, Camp Sheridan, under the base of Capitol Hill (near the
present day concessioner horse corrals) by the hot spring terraces. When it became apparent that the
military would be in Yellowstone for a long time, construction of Fort Yellowstone began in May of 1891. The
wooden structures at the southern end of the post were constructed between 1891 and 1897; the stone
structures were constructed after 1908. Between 1891 and 1908 the post grew from one troop of cavalry to
four (approximately 240 troopers). The fort offered the full compliment of structures necessary to
accommodate four troops of cavalry, including: a commanding officer's residence (the present park
Superintendent's home), five sets of officer's duplexes (the one stone and four wooden duplexes along
Officer's Row), bachelor officers quarters with six apartments (the Albright Visitor Center); two single troop
barracks buildings, one two-troop barracks building, a small headquarters, a guard house, quartermaster
supplies buildings, stables, four sets of NCO quarters (the houses on Soap Suds Row), a chapel, and a
hospital (no longer here).

By World War I, the military was needed for other, more pressing national needs, and the growth of the
national parks (there were now more than 30 national parks and monuments throughout the nation)
necessitated the creation of an agency to manage these special places. On August 25, 1916, Congress
created the National Park Service, and soon thereafter the Cavalry left Yellowstone.

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PARK MYTHS: TALES OF IMAGINATION (August 4)

This week we highlight a few of the myths and legends about Yellowstone that have accumulated in the
past 125 years. As with most myths, many of these stories have a grain of truth to them.

For example, Yellowstone National Park has been referred to as "Colter's Hell" since the early 1800s.
While John Colter probably was the first EuroAmerican to enter what is today the park, his "Colter's Hell"
is not Yellowstone National Park. Colter was an early fur trapper who accompanied Lewis and Clark on
their famous 1804-06 expedition to the Pacific northwest and then remained in this area. It is known that
Colter made a U-shaped journey through the region during the winter of 1807-08. He started at the lower
Yellowstone River near the mouth of the Bighorn River (east of Billings, Montana) and traveled south to
the Absaroka Mountains, Jackson Hole, Pierre's Hole (east of the Teton Mountains in Idaho), north past
Yellowstone Lake (probably), and back to the Bighorn River. However, through careful research, we
now know that the colorful name, "Colter's Hell," refers to DeMaris Springs near present-day Cody,
Wyoming.

Another story that has "become fact" through the retelling is that the idea for making the Yellowstone area
a national park came from the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. This expedition spent a number of
months exploring the Yellowstone region in the summer of 1870. As the story goes, the members of the
expedition were sitting around their final campfire at today's Madison Junction on the evening of
September 19, 1870, discussing the wonders they had seen. As related by expedition member (and first
park superintendent) Nathaniel Pitt Langford in 1895, most of the expedition members thought they should
each file claims on the land around the most extraordinary areas in Yellowstone. Then expedition member
Cornelius Hedges finally spoke. In Langford's account: "Mr. Hedges then said that he did not approve of
any of these plans and that there ought to be no private ownership of any portion of that region, but that
the whole of it ought to be set apart as a great National Park, and that each one of us ought to make an
effort to have this accomplished."

For decades after the publication of this account, the story was accepted as the truth about the birth of the
national park idea. However, the truth is that this campfire discussion may never have happened at all.
More than a dozen members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane party kept journals about their travels in
the area, and not one of these journals mentions any such discussion taking place. In reality, Mr.
Langford's account may simply have been an exaggeration of many different general conversations about
Yellowstone that occurred before, during, and after the expedition. One needs to remember that for most
of the first two decades of the park's existence, hotels were not available for visitors to stay in, the roads
were deplorable at best, poaching was rampant, and generally the national park idea was a failure. During
this time, few people wanted to take credit for the park's creation. However, once the U.S. Army arrived
to administer and protect the park and hotels were available for visitors, Yellowstone became a popular
destination, and early promoters of the park and the national park idea--of whom Mr. Langford is one of
the most famous--were proud to boast about their part in setting aside the nation's first national park.

Now for the Yellowstone story that everyone "knows" is true. Every day at Old Faithful, Yellowstone staff
must explain to visitors that Old Faithful Geyser does not (nor did it ever) erupt every hour on the hour!
This myth probably came about because prior to the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake, the average interval
between Old Faithful eruptions ranged between 62 and 64 minutes. This number was close enough to an
hour to propagate the erroneous idea that Old Faithful erupts like clockwork every hour. It is true that the
geyser has always erupted in a regular pattern (generally between 1 and 5 minutes in length), and it has
always shown a pattern of taking longer to "recharge" after a longer eruption than after a shorter one. It is
also true that Old Faithful Geyser's eruptions used to happen more frequently, but the geyser has changed
over time due to earthquakes in the region. While Old Faithful today generally has more longer eruptions
(and hence a longer average interval between eruptions), its predictability is still among the best of all
geysers worldwide. For example, if Old Faithful erupts for 1 minute, you can add 51 minutes to the start
time of the eruption to determine when the next eruption will occur (plus or minus 10 minutes). If the
geyser erupts for 5 minutes, you need to add 95 minutes to the start time in order to determine the next
eruption. So, Old Faithful is faithful, but in its own way.

Lastly, one of the myths that applies to more than just Yellowstone is that places we love will always be as
we remember. Part of the public's distress with the 1988 Yellowstone fires stemmed from the fact that
people want to remember Yellowstone as it was when they first visited. Many who visited after the fires
saw a very different landscape than that which they remembered. But, Yellowstone is not a static
wilderness. We know now that Yellowstone experiences major cataclysmic forest fires every 200-400
years, and while fires change the view we have of the landscape, fires are an integral part of a healthy
ecosystem. As scientists study the ways ecosystems function, they have come to understand that
wilderness ecosystems are chaotic places, and, if we want to preserve Yellowstone, what we must
preserve first and foremost are the chaotic processes that have shaped it for millennia and go on shaping it
today. We have come to realize that in many ways it is precisely because we do not understand these
processes that we call them wild, and it is because we are yet ignorant of how Yellowstone works that we
call it wilderness. One of the many truths about Yellowstone is that by preserving this special place, we
preserve much more than we understand today. Hopefully, one day we will understand.

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THE AUTOMOBILE COMES TO YELLOWSTONE (July 28)

In May of 1902, acting Yellowstone superintendent Major John Pitcher received disturbing news. It was
rumored that a local resident by the name of Henry G. Merry was going to drive his 1897 Winton
automobile to park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs to discuss his displeasure with regulations
that prohibited automobiles from entering the national park. Incensed by the thought of such a possible
breech in regulations, the major stationed two mounted cavalrymen at the gate to prevent such an
act. On June 2nd Mr. Merry and his Winton came through the gate at a breathtaking 25 miles per hour,
and the noise that the vehicle generated so scared the horses that they bolted and ran the better part of
a mile up the road before the soldiers could regain control and give chase. At headquarters, Mr. Merry
was arrested and informed that he would have to pay a fine before he and his vehicle would be banished
back to Gardiner. But the tide of progress could not be turned, and the inevitable was not long in coming.

In the years prior to the arrival of automobiles in Yellowstone, the park was mainly visited by the wealthy.
During the era of the stagecoach, a tour of the park was generally beyond the means of anyone except the
upper middle class and the wealthy. The few who did come in private wagons and "camped out" were
referred to as "sagebrushers." These visitors were looked down upon and were not permitted access to the
restaurants and hotels. With the popularization of the automobile after the turn of the century, Americans
began to take to the roads to see their country--and the national parks were one of the first places they
wanted to go.

Automobiles were allowed into Mount Rainier National Park in 1908, General Grant (now Kings Canyon)
National Park in 1910, Crater Lake National Park in 1911, Glacier National Park in 1912, Yosemite and
Sequoia National Parks in 1913, and Mesa Verde National Park in 1914. Throughout these years, the
transportation companies in Yellowstone were able to keep the "infernal machines" out of the park by
pointing out that the one-lane roads would have to be shared by the autos and the 400 horse-drawn vehicles
(which translates into nearly 1400 horses!) that they operated--a sure recipe for trouble! But, finally, in April
1915, Secretary of the Interior Franklin K. Lane announced that automobiles would be allowed into
Yellowstone beginning August 1st. The park's superintendent, fearing congestion at the gate, let the first
vehicles into Yellowstone on July 31st. Permit #1 was issued to Mr. and Mrs. K.R. Seiler of Redwing,
Minnesota. Mr. Seiler paid $5 in order to drive his Ford "Model T" into Yellowstone. In those days, no
mechanics or auto parts were available inside the park, so the automobilist was required to show that he
carried a good stock of spare fluids and parts and that his brakes were good enough to assure that the
vehicle could skid to a stop!

Within a few years after admitting the automobile into Yellowstone, large yellow signs with black arrows (or
often simply arrows painted on rocks or barns) were seen along America's northern coast-to-coast highway.
These signs pointed the driver to Yellowstone. The Yellowstone Trail, as the road was called, ran from
Plymouth, Massachusetts, through Chicago and Minnesota's Twin Cities, to Yellowstone and on to Seattle,
Washington.

It is also fitting to note that Yellowstone's first automobile permit went to a Ford "Model T." Henry Ford's
mass-produced vehicle was responsible for getting Americans on the road, and Yellowstone was an early
popular destination. With the arrival of that "Model T" on a pretty July evening so long ago, Yellowstone took
a giant step forward in genuinely becoming a park "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

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AUGUST EVENTS SET TO CELEBRATE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK'S 125TH ANNIVERSARY
(July 18)

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Michael V. Finley announced today that plans for the August
commemorative/celebratory events in honor of the park's 125th anniversary have been determined and
are listed below.

August 1: In a brief program beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 1, the newly installed bison
exhibit, Where the Buffalo Roam, will be dedicated. Refreshments will be served after the ceremony.
Location: Canyon Visitor Center.

August 17: This event will honor protectors of Yellowstone and will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday,
August 17. The theme was originally focused on the military's contribution to the park, but has since
been broadened to include the opportunity to honor all the protectors of Yellowstone. A military band
will be present as well as military reenactors. The program will also include the dedication of the newly
installed Fort Yellowstone self-guided tour. Location: Mammoth Hot Springs Parade Ground (across
from the Albright Visitor Center).

August 25: Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 25, this program will take a retrospective look
at the park's first 125 years and a contemplative look forward to its next 125 years. Invited speakers
will present their thoughts on the value of Yellowstone and the importance of the national park idea.
Because the actual date of Yellowstone's establishment is March 1, the August 25 date was chosen for
this event because it is the establishment date for the National Park Service. Location: Old Faithful
(outside, near the Old Faithful Lodge).

Superintendent Finley invites everyone to attend these events and to help celebrate "125 years of the
best idea America ever had." Additional details of each event will be released as the event date
approaches.

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YELLOWSTONE VISITATION (July 21)

In 1929, Stephen Tyng Mather, founder and first Director of the National Park Service, was in
Yosemite National Park trying to convince concessioner D.J. Desmond to build a hotel in Yosemite
Valley. Desmond demurred, concerned that lack of visitation to the parks would mean empty rooms
and possible bankruptcy. Mather's response was incredulous: "Why, look at those cars! There must be
close to two hundred of them. Where's your imagination, man? Some day there'll be a thousand!"

During the early years of the national parks, their remoteness and the nature of their hotels and
transportation companies resulted in the well-to-do being the main visitors to the parks. One of Mather's
priorities after Congress created the National Park Service in 1916 (44 years after the first national
park, Yellowstone, was established) was to make the parks more accessible to all citizens. Besides
believing that it was the right thing to do, Mather understood that greater visitation would result in the
parks having a larger constituency. And larger constituencies meant an easier time getting budgets
through Congress.

Mather could not have anticipated just how successful his campaign would be. Some years before, a
railroad agent had been brooding over the statistic that Americans were spending four hundred million
dollars a year visiting Europe, and he came up with a slogan for a new campaign: "See America First."
The creation of the National Park Service and the admission of automobiles to the national parks
coincided beautifully with this campaign. Prior to 1916, Yellowstone was welcoming about 20,000
visitors each year. In 1923, the year after it's semicentennial, 100,000 visitors came to the park. The
number of annual visitors rose dramatically after World War II, and visitation continues to rise. One
million visitors came to Yellowstone in 1948, two million in 1965, and three million in 1992.

The impact of this dramatic increase in park visitation has begun to show in many places, both in the
natural and cultural areas of the parks as well as in what visitors believe the quality of their experience is.
Many of the complaint letters that the park receives each year include comments on the crowded
conditions, traffic jams, and lack of anticipated quiet and solitude. Natural resources are impacted by
the increased number of people on trails, vehicles pulling off the roadways, harassment of wildlife
(unintentionally for the most part, but still an impact to wildlife). Cultural resources are impacted, too.
One of the most frequently asked questions during the tours of the historic Old Faithful Inn is why guests
are not permitted access to the roof observation platform. In 1904, the year the Inn opened, 13,727
visitors came to Yellowstone; in 1997, many more than that number come in a single day. The
free-hanging stairs to the roof would not survive such an impact if visitors were allowed to use them.

In Stephen T. Mather's day, the problem was that not enough people visited the national parks. Today
the problem is just the opposite. In the first 62 years of its existence, a total of 3 million people visited
Yellowstone National Park, and now just 63 years later that number come every year. Whether or not
the parks are "overvisited" is a concern that managers face today. Some people believe the parks are
being "loved to death," and studies have been initiated to define and quantify impacts and evaluate them.
The input of visitors and all concerned with the future of our national parks is encouraged and
welcomed.

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QUAKE SHAKES UP GEYSER ACTIVITY (July 14 -- Michael Milstein, Billings Gazette)

No one could argue that Yellowstone National Park's geysers aren't wondrous sights. But imagine most of the park's best-known geysers, plus many hot springs that usually bubble quietly, all erupting at once. Anyone who had been standing in the geyser basins along the Firehole River at 11:37 p.m. on Aug. 17, 1959, would not have had to imagine it. On that date, one of the most powerful earthquakes to rock North America in modern times struck near Hebgen Lake west of the national park and, almost simultaneously, turned Yellowstone's dancing waters wild.

Viewing the quake's effects

Former park geologist George Marler surveyed the geysers as soon asdaylight allowed the following morning.

"Scores of hitherto quiescent springs with no previous record of geyser activity were either boiling or showed clear evidence of having erupted," Marler wrote in a scientific paper later published by the U.S. Geological Survey." Large fragments of sinter scatteredaround the craters of some springs indicated a major increase of activity and forceful eruption."

It was one of the most dramatic examples of the way seismic activity can force changes in Yellowstone's famous hot springs and geysers, a principle that would prove itself again and again in later years-- and which today offers geologists a possible tool for predicting earthquakes.

The 1959 tremor is now widely known as the Hebgen Lake Earthquake. Its magnitude was first estimated at 7.1, but was later revised upward to 7.5, making it the strongest earthquake that has shaken the Yellowstone region in modern times. Outside the national park, the temblor turned a peaceful summer night into tragedy.

A massive slide of 80 million tons of rocks and other debris in the Madison River Canyon west of Hebgen Lake buried and killed 19 people. Including those fatalities and others killed by falling rocks and other quake-related violence, the earthquake's entire death toll was 28.

Great quake-induced cracks split roads and mountainsides. Automobiles caught by loosed rocks looked like crushed sardine cans. Houses tumbled into the waters of Hebgen Lake.

In Yellowstone Park, the quake caused damage, but the only reported injury was to a woman who hurt her ankle jumping out of bed. At the massive, log-lined Old Faithful Inn, a stone chimney crashed into the dining room, which only a few hours earlier had been filled with visitors.

Roads, buildings damaged

The earthquake caused an estimated $2.6 million in damage to park roads and $1.7 million worth to buildings. Crews clearing rocks off park road near Madison Junction freed a bear that had apparently become trapped within fallen rocks and timber. But the quake's most striking effects were within the park's geyser basins, fueled by heat from the same subterranean hot spot that twists and torments the earth in ways that cause such massive earthquakes.

Nearly 300 geysers erupted immediately after the Hebgen Lakeearthquake, and, of those, 160 were springs that had no previous record of eruption, Marler found. He counted 334 park thermal features that were more active after the earthquake than they had been before.

In the Lower Geyser Basin, Morning, Clepsydra and Fountain geysers had been known to erupt in sequence, one after the other. All three erupted simultaneously after the earthquake and erupted continuously throughout the next day.

Incredible geyser activity The earthquake's "jarring served as a trigger to start discharge from hundreds of springs," Marler wrote. "Had this happened in the daytime, the spectator would have witnessed geyser activity on a scale never even closely approximated since Yellowstone's discovery. Even so, during the days following August 17, a spectacle without precedent was observed."

A new geyser erupted 100 feet high from a fissure near Fountain Geyser and was promptly named Earthquake Geyser. Several days later, a steam explosion along the same fissure created another outlet for water and steam, and Earthquake Geyser's activity declined in succeeding weeks. Today it is no longer considered a geyser but is visible as a spring, spouting only a slight bit of water.

Seismic Geyser is also a creation of the 1959 earthquake, but its last known eruptions were in 1974.

Geologists believe that the earthquake rattled the underground plumbing that supplies hot water to Yellowstone's geyser basins. The shaking may have increased pressure on water in some of the conduits, driving water out of the ground like a squirt gun.

It may have also rearranged the minute cracks believed to make up that hidden plumbing system, sending water to surface features that had
previously had little or none.

"Throughout the basins there was evidence that the earthquake had acted like a giant hand which suddenly applied enormous pressure to the rocks beneath the hot springs, forcing water from their conduits in a manner comparable to the squeezing of a sponge," Marler wrote.

Supporting evidence was the earthquake-caused cracks that appeared in the mineral deposits of many geyser basins. Nearly two miles worth of cracks appeared around Firehole Lake. Robert Smith, a geophysicist at the University of Utah, now says that earthquakes are a necessary element for geyser systems because the quakes open fractures that funnel hot water to the surface.

Seismic influences on Yellowstone geysers would reappear in 1983, when a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit Borah Peak, Idaho, about 240 kilometers from Yellowstone. Park geologist Roderick "Rick" Hutchinson at the time recorded changes in the geyser basins that were more subtle than those triggered by the Hebgen Lake quake 24 years earlier.

A total of 37 thermal features exhibited changes after the quake.

"In 15 cases the physical changes of vent enlargement, rupturing of the siliceous sinter sheet, or extensive wash may be long-term or permanent," Hutchinson wrote in a report.

One of the clearest changes was a sudden lengthening in the interval between eruptions of Old Faithful, which had been similarly affected by the 1959 earthquake.

The effects of the distant Borah Peak Earthquake on Yellowstone have since interested geologists and geophysicists looking for signs of impending earthquakes. Because geyser systems such as those in Yellowstone appear to be sensitive to seismic activity, the researchers suspect, watching the geysers may provide details about temblors that hit many miles away.

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YELLOWSTONE'S ROADS -- RIBBONS OF ACCESS TO THE WILDERNESS (July 14)

On August 30, 1878, a horse-drawn wagon pulled onto the sinter shelf near Old Faithful in the Upper
Geyser Basin. While it is true that Native Americans, mountain men, prospectors, explorers, and some
hardy park tourists had already visited this area, park superintendent Philetus W. Norris (the leader of
the crew of men accompanying the wagon) was well aware that this was the first wheeled vehicle to
penetrate so far into Yellowstone's wilderness.

When Yellowstone was created in 1872, many in Congress were skeptical of the entire idea of national
parks. But, these skeptics were convinced to create the nation's first national park, in part, by the
promise that no budget would be necessary to run it. Park proponents believed that enough funds would
be generated by leasing land to concesssioners to provide all the money necessary for road construction
and maintenance. However, the difficulties inherent in operating businesses that have no roads to them
resulted in the failure of the park's first superintendent, Nathaniel P. Langford, to build any access roads
into the park.

The arrival of Superintendent Norris in 1878 was the first of many turning points for public access to
Yellowstone. Norris was able to convince Congress to provide funds for the new park, including money
for the construction of roads. The funding was not lavish by any means, leaving historian Aubrey Haines
to remark that it was a "marvel" that Norris "accomplished so much with so little." During Norris' tenure,
the miles of roads in Yellowstone increased from 32 to 153 (and trail mileage jumped from 108 to 204).
However, the term "road" was loosely applied to these early paths in the park, as tree stumps were
routinely cut off just low enough for a wagon to pass over and side hills were graded either minimally or
not at all. But, at least there was now a way to passably get into the new park. By the time
Superintendent Norris left the park in 1882, the beginning of today's Grand Loop Road system was
clearly recognizable.

In 1883, the Congressional bill that provided funds for Yellowstone dictated that "the balance of the sum
appropriated to be expended in the construction and improvement of suitable roads and bridges within
said park, under supervision and direction of an engineer officer detailed by the Secretary of War for
that purpose." Thus, began the long association between the military, beginning with the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, and Yellowstone National Park. The Corps of Engineers assigned Lieutenant Dan
C. Kingman to Yellowstone. He arrived in the park August 13 and immediately set to work hiring
construction crews and planning road improvements. While accomplishing many things, he is best
remembered for providing a new and easier route south from Mammoth Hot Springs, which bypassed
the old route over Snow Pass in favor of a lesser grade through the canyon of Glen Creek. His original
wooden trestle that made the route possible has been replaced several times (the current concrete
bridge dates from 1977). Today, the canyon is referred to as the Golden Gate.

After Lieutenant Kingman was transferred to other duties in 1887, work on the park's roads languished
for a few years until the arrival in 1891 of Yellowstone's greatest road builder, Lieutenant (later Captain)
Hiram M. Chittenden of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Chittenden's time in Yellowstone spanned
two decades and included two different tours of duty. He completed the figure-eight shaped Grand
Loop Road system begun by Norris and Kingman and still used in the park today. Chittenden also
constructed a road over the top of Mount Washburn that was used by stagecoaches and, later,
automobiles until the end of World War II; since that time the road has been one of the most popular
hiking trails in Yellowstone. His construction of a concrete bridge over the Yellowstone River at the
Grand Canyon, accomplished with a single pouring of concrete during a period of 48 hours, has been
called by some the greatest engineering accomplishment in the history of the park.

Unfortunately, the maintenance of the park's roads has been an enduringly difficult task. Long winters
with heavy snow accumulations and severe cold followed by rapid spring melts have battered park
roads from historic times to the present. Because many of Yellowstone's current roads are simply
pavement placed over the older wagon roads, no proper road base work or drainage design was ever
done. Consequently, Yellowstone's roads were not meant for today's types, weights, size, and numbers
of vehicles. Current road rebuilding efforts in the park are part of a multi-year plan to improve and
completely reconstruct the main park road system. Because of sensitive resource issues, short
construction seasons, and the need to keep the roads open for visitors during construction, this road
rebuilding process will go on for many years. While it is true that construction delays often try visitors'
patience, this work is part of a process that for 125 years has kept Yellowstone National Park
accessible to the public.

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THE BEARS OF YELLOWSTONE (July 7)

In the early 1960s, if you and yourfamily had visited Yellowstone National Park, you probably would
have seen bears begging for food along the roadside. In fact, you might have been caught in one of
the frequent traffic jams where people were photographing the spectacle of visitors feeding bears.
Today in Yellowstone, feeding bears is prohibited, but one of the most frequently asked questions is
still, "Where can I see a bear?" Many people do see a bear (from a safe distance) behaving like a wild
bear should, and they consider it a thrill of a lifetime.

Although Yellowstone was originally designated a national park to protect the area's geothermal features
and scenic wonders, bears quickly became one of the park's primary attractions. For hundreds of years,
bears roamed this area, eating mostly roots, berries, insects, ground squirrels, and pine nuts. In spring,
they fed on fish and the carcasses of winterkilled bison or elk. Then humans arrived. As early as 1888,
some black bears had lost their wariness of humans and were gathering to feed on garbage piles near
park hotels. Within a few years grizzly bears were also frequenting park dumps in search of food. The
dumps soon became popular tourist attractions. In 1891, the acting park superintendent reported that
bears had become very troublesome at all hotels, camps, and other places in Yellowstone where human
food or garbage could be found, and that it might become necessary to occasionally remove bears that
became too destructive. In 1910, the first accounts of black bears begging for human food handouts
along park roads were reported. By the 1920s roadside "panhandling" by black bears for human food
handouts was common. Similar behavior in grizzly bears was not reported.

As park visitation and the number of bear-human conflicts began to increase, park managers became
more concerned with the situation. Between 1931 and 1959, an average of 48 park visitors were
injured by bears and an average of 138 cases of bear-caused property damage were reported each
year. The high incidence of bear-caused human injuries was thought to be due to changes in bear
behavior caused by the availability of human food and garbage. In short, bears were not behaving like
wild bears, and the consequences to humans as well as to bears were unacceptable.

In 1970, Yellowstone initiated an intensive bear management program with the objectives of restoring
the grizzly bear and black bear populations to subsistence on natural foods and reducing bear-caused
human injuries and property damages. As part of the program, regulations that prohibited the feeding of
bears were strictly enforced, all garbage cans throughout the park were made bear-proof, and all
garbage dumps within the park were closed. The 1970 bear management plan was highly successful in
reducing the number of bear-human conflicts occurring in the park. Following implementation of the
program, the number of bear-inflicted human injuries and bear-caused property damages in the park
declined significantly. Today, an average of fewer than one bear-inflicted human injury and only 12
bear-caused property damages are reported each year.

Due to high numbers of human-caused grizzly bear mortalities, loss of habitat, and geographic isolation
from other grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 states, the grizzly bear in the Yellowstone ecosystem
was listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1975. Since that time, the
grizzly bear population has improved. The average annual number of female bears with cubs has nearly
doubled, and the average litter size has also increased. The grizzly bear population in the Yellowstone
ecosystem is now very close to meeting all of the population requirements set by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service for delisting. A conservation strategy is currently being developed for grizzly bears in the
Yellowstone ecosystem. The conservation strategy will detail the habitat and population management
and monitoring methods that will be used if and when the population is removed from the threatened
species list.

For many generations, people have been fascinated with bears. Nearly every child has some type of
"teddy bear" in his or her young life (the teddy bear was created in the early 1900s after a story was
written about Theodore Roosevelt--sportsman, conservationist, and President--not shooting a small
black bear cub while on a hunting trip). The opportunity that Americans still have in Yellowstone to see
grizzly--and black--bears is extraordinary. While it is exciting to see a bear in the park, for many it is
enough to just know that there are places left in this nation where wild, free-roaming animals live as they
did before our technologically advanced and highly mobile society displaced them from their original
home ranges. Making a place for bears requires some sacrifice, lots of understanding, and a willingness
to learn. If we succeed, the fact that the bear can survive and prosper in the greater Yellowstone region
will say much about us as a nation.

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FOURTH OF JULY AT FORT YELLOWSTONE (June 30)

July 4th, Independence Day, is one of the most important dates in our nation's history. Today,
Americans celebrate Independence Day with parades, concerts, picnics, fireworks, and other festive
events. The communities of the early West were no exception to this tradition. The first known official
celebration of Independence Day in the Yellowstone region was held in Livingston, Montana, in 1883,
not long after the tracks of the Northern Pacific Railroad were finished in the area. The first 4th-of-July
celebration in Yellowstone National Park occurred in 1887, the year after the U.S. Army arrived in the
park to protect and administer it for 30 years until the National Park Service was formed.

The Independence Day celebration that year was a simple affair that included the raising of the flag at
Camp Sheridan (subsequently replaced by Fort Yellowstone) and a speech by E.C. Waters, later the
operator of the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company. "We . . . gather today to pay our kindly respects to
the dear old flag," intoned Waters, "and . . . may it ever be protected in this National Park by as gallant
a commander and troops as today are its protectors." The festivities continued at Gardiner with horse
races.

The record is incomplete concerning what festivities occurred in subsequent years, but big celebrations
are known to have occurred at Mammoth Hot Springs (site of Fort Yellowstone) in 1901, 1903, 1913,
and 1916. It is likely that celebrations of some type occurred at the fort every Independence Day, but
often festivities held in nearby Gardiner, Jardine, Cinnabar, Horr, Aldridge, or Cooke City
overshadowed those at the fort. Celebrations also occurred in Livingston and Bozeman, and persons
from Fort Yellowstone often rode the train north to attend those celebrations.

In 1901, Livingston's newspaper, the Enterprise, reported that "at Mammoth Hot Springs the
celebration was one of the best held" in the region with "a large crowd being present to witness the many
novel and interesting features." Those "features" included horse races, foot races, speeches, and other
events. The 1903 celebration at Fort Yellowstone was reported by the Gardiner Wonderland
newspaper. The festivities included relay races, horse races, broad jumps, a hammer throw, shotput,
wood sawing, tug-of-war, and pie-eating contests. In the ladies' egg-and-spoon race, there was an even
division of prize money "as neither contestant could show any egg at the finish." After dark fireworks
were displayed from the top of Capitol Hill, and a gala ball was held in the hotel with music supplied by
the Theodore Thomas orchestra of Chicago. The newspaper also noted that "early in the morning the
big Transportation coaches and the teams appeared on the streets fully and handsomely decorated."

The 1916 Fort Yellowstone celebration was reported to be "an old-fashioned and delightful
celebration." Newspaper accounts noted that "it was participated in and enjoyed alike by the savages
[concession employees] from the camps at Willow Creek and Swan Lake, the swatties [soldiers] from
Fort Yellowstone, and the dudes [park visitors] from all over the world. The big event of the day was
the baseball game between the hotel [employees] and the soldiers. At noon there was a salute of 48
guns which was heard for miles around."

Today, the 4th of July in Yellowstone is celebrated in a more low-key fashion. Fireworks are not
allowed in national parks, and big, organized events are difficult to conduct when there are as many as
30,000 visitors in the park on a given day in July. Normal park activities such as ranger-led nature walks
and campfire programs continue, often with a patriotic theme. For many visitors, it is a family tradition to
meet in the park to celebrate our nation's birthday. For many, the chance to come to Yellowstone and
see and smell a geyser's steamy plume or hike a high-country meadow glowing with wildflowers or
catch a brief glimpse of a grizzly bear or wolf or herd of bison is a fine way to celebrate the birth of our
nation, a nation that has given the world its best idea, national parks.

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THE HISTORY OF CONCESSIONS IN YELLOWSTONE (June 23)

While National Park Service employees protect both the visitor and the resources of Yellowstone, provide
information to the visitor through interpretive programs, and maintain park facilities, the job of serving the
visitor's basic needs for food, clothing, and shelter is accomplished by park concessioners. These private
corporationsare licensed by the federal government to conduct business inside national parks.

Prior to 1872 when Yellowstone was established as the first national park, there were already business
entrepreneurs operating in the area. In1871, James C. McCartney and Harry Horr opened a hotel at Mammoth
Hot Springs for the benefit of invalids who hoped the geothermal waters might help relieve their various
afflictions. The qualities of McCartney's Hotel, as it came to be called, were described by one traveler in 1874
as being "in an inverse ratio to the gorgeous description contained in the advertisements of the Helena and
Virginia [City, Montana Territory] newspapers." However, this traveler was willing to allow that the hotel was
"the last outpost of civilization--that is, the last place where whiskey is sold. . . ."

Following establishment of the park, the federal government controlled and licensed the businesses
operating in the park. The early concessioners found Yellowstone a difficult place to do business. With
few roads and a short summer season, making a living wasn't easy. Some concessioners were men of
vision, who could see that being good to the park and its patrons was good for business and a recipe for
success. Others were unscrupulous scoundrels who attempted to use money and influence to gain leases
to the land around all the major attractions in the park with the intent of making the public pay money to
see the sights. Fortunately, these schemes failed.

Through the years, Yellowstone has had some outstanding concessioners, one of whom was Frank Jay
Haynes. He received his first concession license in 1881, and he and his son, Jack Ellis Haynes, were
Yellowstone's official photographers until the latter's death in 1962. Through most of these years the
Haynes Photo Shops were a familiar and helpful business along Yellowstone's roads, and the Haynes
Guide, published and updated nearly every year from 1890 to 1966, remains (in many people's
opinion) the best guidebook ever published about Yellowstone National Park.

The hotel operation in Yellowstone has always been the park's largest concessioner. The first grand
hotel, the National Hotel at Mammoth Hot Springs, was constructed in 1883 by the Yellowstone Park
Improvement Company. Through a number of bankruptcies, consolidations, and changes, this
concession was acquired by the Huntley, Child, and Nichols families, who were all related. By 1936,
the company was called the Yellowstone Park Company, and it operated until 1979 when the
government purchased all the hotel facilities in the park. Today's Amfac Parks and Resorts, Inc., leases
the hotel facilities from the government and carries on the tradition of providing fine accommodations
and transportation to the traveling public.

Hotels alone cannot cater to all the public's needs, and there have been general stores in Yellowstone
since the earliest days. The Klamer store at Old Faithful was a successful business in the early years of
this century when Mrs. Klamer decided to sell the store and retire in the spring of 1915. She offered to
sell the store to the Child family (owners of the park's hotels), and, although they declined, they informed
one of their trusted employees, Charles Ashworth Hamilton, that he would have their financial backing if
he wished to purchase the Klamer store. After discussing the purchase with Mrs. Klamer at Old
Faithful, Hamilton wrote her a check for $5,000 as a down payment. Unbeknownst to Mrs. Klamer,
Hamilton had less than $300 in his checking account. Upon conclusion of the deal, he rode as fast as his
horse could take him to Mammoth Hot Springs, secured his backing from the Child family, changed
horses, and rode all night to the bank in Livingston, Montana, in order to deposit the funds necessary to
cover his check. Thus began one of Yellowstone's most successful business ventures, Hamilton Stores,
Inc. Possessing sound business acumen and a knowledge of how to serve the public well, C.A.
Hamilton prospered and bought or built all other general stores in Yellowstone during the ensuing
decades, including the purchase (by his heirs) of the Haynes Photo Shops in 1967.

In addition to Amfac Parks and Resorts and Hamilton Stores, many other concessioners serve the
public's needs in Yellowstone today. Yellowstone Park Service Stations have provided motor vehicle
fuel and repairs since 1947. Yellowstone Park Medical Services operates a hospital at Lake Village and
clinics at Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs. Many smaller concessioners operate as well, from
outfitters offering luxury horsepacking excursions into the park's backcountry to companies offering
snowmobile rentals and snowcoach tours in winter.

The park's concessioners work hand-in-hand with the National Park Service. While different goals
require some discussion on occasion, the ultimate goal of maintaining quality service at reasonable prices
to the visitor is shared by all concerned.

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THE HISTORY OF THE NATIONAL PARK RANGER (June 16)

The history of the National Park Service ranger does not begin with the creation of America's first
national park in 1872. Rather, the first park rangers appeared in 1905, and it was not until 11 years later
that national parks and the national park ranger were unified under one centralized government agency,
the National Park Service.

In 1872, the concept of setting aside large tracts of land as national parks for the "benefit and enjoyment
of the people" was unheard of. Consequently, there was no precedent to suggest a management strategy
for such an entity. For a number of years, Yellowstone struggled without any real administration or
protection--for either visitors or resources. As a temporary measure, in 1886 Congress authorized the
military to take charge and protect and manage Yellowstone and, eventually, other early national parks.
Military management was not the most effective or efficient method for overseeing visitor-use areas such
as national parks, but it did serve to bring order to the parks at a time when it was desperately needed.

By the early 1900s as the number and popularity of the national parks increased, the weaknesses
associated with military management became increasingly evident. Rarely were the commanding officers
given clear consistent management goals or provided with sufficient resources to reach these objectives.
The men serving in the parks, while able soldiers, were not in the parks voluntarily and were not chosen
on the basis of any aptitude or interest in conservation of natural resources. Furthermore, the drain of
money and man-power that the military experienced while administering the parks was becoming
unbearable and objectionable both to the military and private sector alike.

Recognition of a problem and a desire to remedy it did not guarantee a rapid solution, but it did set into
motion a series of events culminating in the transition of park management from military to civilian hands
with the formation of the National Park Service on August 25, 1916. While this date marks the
beginning of park ranger history under the management of a centralized civilian agency, for a more
complete understanding of the origins of the park ranger one must go back further in time.

The first appearance of the term "ranger" (as it applies to American natural reserve areas) was in 1898
when Congress first allocated funds for the protection of existing National Forest Reserves. From these
funds, each forest reserve area was allowed a forest supervisor and a small force of men--first known as
"special forest agents" and later simply as "forest rangers" --to protect these reserves.

In the national parks, rangers were first used in 1898 in three California parks. These parks, like all
others of the time, were managed by the military, however, soldiers were not available year round in
these park areas. The summer of 1898, Inspector J.W. Zevely of the General Land Office was given the
mandate to protect these parks without the benefit of the military. He hired a group of men with money
intended for a neighboring forest reserve. In the fall when the soldiers returned, most of these men were
terminated. The few that remained worked alternately as park scouts when the military was present and
then as forest rangers when the military was absent.

This arrangement continued until 1905 when the National Forest Reserves were transferred to the
Department of Agriculture, eliminating the source of funding for hiring these men to protect the parks
and necessitating an end to the use of the name, "forest ranger." As new funding became available, now
designated specifically for the national parks, the men in the forest ranger positions began to be referred
to as "park rangers." By 1916, when the National Park Service was formed, most of the national parks
were at least partially staffed by park rangers. Within two years after the formation of Service, the parks
were fully staffed by park rangers.

The years following 1916 have been ones of gradual evolution for the role of park ranger. Though the
basic mission remains the same, the duties of today's ranger are significantly different and even more
varied than were those of the early day park ranger. Today, the term "park ranger" refers to a wide
variety of staff positions, from interpreters (the rangers who give campfire programs, nature walks, and
staff the visitor centers) to resource managers (the biologists who study and manage the plant and animal
life in parks as well as the geologists, hydrologists, and various other "'ologists") to protection rangers
(who enforce the regulations and protect both visitors and park resources) to administrative staff. All of
these people who work in our nation's national parks proudly wear the uniform and famous flat hat of
the National Park Service ranger.

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A SENSE OF PLACE (June 9)

People have been traveling through Yellowstone and interacting with it for more than 10,000 years. The
evidence of this interaction between people and nature is not always easy to see. But one type of
evidence that is visible are Yellowstone's historic buildings. There are more than 750 historic structures
in Yellowstone, from turn-of-the-century sheds to stately hotels. Historic buildings are evaluated by
experts, and those that are of exceptional value nationally are designated National Historic Landmarks.
Yellowstone has five National Historic Landmark buildings: the Old Faithful Inn; the museums at Fishing
Bridge, Madison, and Norris Geyser Basin; and the Northeast Entrance Station.

While these buildings may be less known than Old Faithful Geyser, less sought after than a grizzly bear,
and less photographed than a moose, they are an integral part of Yellowstone. The architects of these
buildings were inspired by the park's natural setting, and the buildings were designed to be a part of
nature rather than separate from it. Yellowstone's historic landmark buildings are all a type of
architecture called rustic design, which uses native materials in proper scale and avoids rigid, straight
lines and over-sophistication. This design gives the visitor the sense that these buildings were constructed
by pioneer craftsmen with limited hand tools. The most common native materials used in rustic design
structures are logs, stone, and wood shingles. Rustic design became an important early National Park
Service design philosophy that was used through World War II.

The Old Faithful Inn is the first building that was constructed in a national park using this architectural
style. The enormous log and frame hotel, built in 1903-1904 a short distance away from Old Faithful
Geyser, is a masterpiece in gnarled logs, rough-sawn wood, and massive stonework. The architect
Robert Reamer, working for the Northern Pacific Railroad, was given the mission of designing a building
with an identifiable character. The result was the creation of a special hotel with a sense of place as
identifiable as the park itself. The Old Faithful Inn is one of the few remaining log hotels in the United
States. Its influence on American architecture, particularly park architecture, is immeasurable.

The Madison (1929), Norris Geyser Basin (1929), and Fishing Bridge (1930-31) museums, designed
by Herbert Maier for the American Association of Museums and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller
Foundation, served as the models for hundreds of state and county park structures built in the West and
Midwest during the 1930s Depression work-relief programs. Maier's belief that any building in a
national park was a "necessary evil" forced him to strive hard to make his buildings harmonize with the
surrounding landscape. These Yellowstone museums appear to be placed within rather than upon the
landscape, with the scale and roughness of the buildings a reflection of the surrounding environment. The
buildings seem to have grown of their own accord, with rock walls cropping up out of the earth but
strongly tied to it through the horizontal emphasis of the design.

The Northeast Entrance Station, constructed in 1935, is a classic log entrance station. It is the best
example of its type of structure remaining today in the entire National Park System and is an excellent
example of National Park Service design philosophies. The National Park Service viewed such an
entrance station as a way to introduce visitors to the special place they were about to enter. Through the
entrance station, the National Park Service hoped to both "invite and deter, encouraging use while
discouraging abuse of the park." The building was not only the physical boundary but also the
psychological boundary between the rest of the world and the area set aside as a permanently wild
place. While an entrance station was also considered important functionally for collecting fees, counting
visitors, and providing the first visitor contact in a national park, it was also considered symbolically
important, creating a sense of place and identity.

It can be hard sometimes to see how nature and culture interact, particularly in a place like Yellowstone.
We come looking for nature--we usually don't look to see how nature influences us or how we influence
nature. Yellowstone's special National Historic Landmark buildings can help us see this influence.

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OF RANCHING AND RANGERING -- EARLY WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT IN THE PARK (June 2)

Yellowstone's wildlife have long been the subject of public interest and debate. Today's visitors may not
realize that the park has undergone considerable evolution in wildlife management throughout its history.

While the Yellowstone Park Act of 1872 provided for the preservation ". . . of all. . . natural curiosities
and wonders within . . .," many early supporters believed that the new park would be operated in the
manner of an English game preserve, in which "gentlemanly hunting" was allowed. In the 1880s, George
Bird Grinnell, editor of the influential conservation journal Forest and Stream, appealed to his fellow
sportsmen to support the idea of preservation because parks would serve as a "reservoir" for game that
would seasonally disperse outside and be available for hunters.

In that early era, some commercial hunting and fishing was permitted in Yellowstone to supply the hotels
and lodges. But this was not controlled, and poaching was prevalent. Only after some tremendous
slaughters of park wildlife (such as in the winter of 1875, when nearly 4,000 elk were killed for their
hides in the Mammoth Hot Springs area) did the Secretary of the Interior hire the first gamekeeper,
Harry Yount, to protect park wildlife. One of the first white men to spend an entire winter in
Yellowstone, he resigned in frustration over the difficulty of trying to do his job alone.

In part because of the poaching and wholesale slaughter of park wildlife, the U.S. Cavalry arrived in
Yellowstone in 1886. It was then that the government finally took an active interest in protecting park
resources from rampant overuse. Wildlife biology was in its infancy in that era, and ecology was not yet
defined. A popular notion of the time that was adopted by the Army and carried on by the National
Park Service after 1916 was the characterization of animals as either "good" (deer, elk, antelope, and
bison) or "bad" (the various predator species such as wolves, coyotes, and cougars). National programs
to eliminate predators were embraced by Yellowstone's staff, and by the late 1930s the native mountain
lion and wolf populations were gone from the park. It was only much later after years of scientific study
that the disastrous, long-term effects of such a view of wildlife was recognized.

Efforts were also undertaken to feed the "desirable" animals. Beginning in 1907, the park developed the
"Buffalo Ranch" in the Lamar Valley to raise an imported herd of bison brought into the park to augment
Yellowstone's natural bison population, thought to number less than 100 animals. Ranch staff irrigated
the valley's meadows and harvested hay to feed bison, elk, and other grazers. The Buffalo Ranch was
also the headquarters for wildlife culling operations, which occurred throughout the 1960s. Again, it was
after much scientific study that the manipulation of wildlife in this manner was changed.

Wildlife science first came to Yellowstone when biologist William Rush was hired to study large
mammals in 1928. He and his successors struggled to bring more information about wildlife to park
managers, but felt hampered by small budgets and their lack of status compared to "real rangers."
Nevertheless, they set into place a program of wildlife research that has grown in staff and funding,
particularly since the 1960s. The Leopold Report, credited with sparking a servicewide policy change
that culminated in the park ceasing its-- by then-controversial-- programs to roundup and shoot elk and
bison, also strongly recommended the use of biological research in making management decisions. Since
the 1970s, issues such as wolf restoration, elk grazing, grizzly bear recovery, and bison management
have been accompanied by major research initiatives.

Today the Buffalo Ranch is preserved for its historic values, and it houses the Yellowstone Institute,
which sponsors cooperative educational programs about park wildlife and other resources. And today's
park rangers, who helped to restore native wolves to Yellowstone in 1995 and 1996, continue to
enforce laws against illegal hunting and trapping. They honor one of their own each year by presenting
the Harry Yount Memorial Award to a "ranger's ranger."

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INTERPRETATION: LINKING PEOPLE TO THE PARK (MAy 27)

It can perhaps be said that interpretation began in Yellowstone thousands of years ago. Prehistoric
people knew of and visited this region; they so valued the area's obsidian rock that tools fashioned of
this exquisite volcanic glass were widely traded. No doubt, tales of the steamy land from which the
prized tools originated spread along with the trade.

In the 1800s, the first Europeans to visit Yellowstone contributed to this long tradition of story telling.
Astounded by vistas of boiling springs, erupting geysers, and a spectacular canyon with towering
waterfalls, trappers, mountain men, and explorers often resorted to "tall tales" to both describe this
exotic place and entertain their audiences. When artist Thomas Moran and photographer William H.
Jackson accompanied the Hayden Expedition to the Yellowstone region in 1871, the nation got its first
formally documented images of the legendary Yellowstone wonders. Artistry and education combined
to help convince Congress to establish Yellowstone as the world's first national park on March 1, 1872.

During the new park's early years, vandalism and poaching were rampant. Lacking funds to administer
Yellowstone, the Secretary of the Interior sent in the U.S. Army in 1886 to protect Yellowstone's
wildlife and prevent curiosity seekers from taking home souvenirs hacked from geyser formations and
other park features. Very soon, soldiers could be found at nearly every major park attraction talking to
visitors about the geysers, scenery, and wildlife while enforcing laws both for the safety of people and
the preservation of the park. Those who toured Yellowstone by stagecoach were treated to colorful
(albeit often inaccurate) stories spun by stagecoach drivers eager to entertain passengers during the long,
dusty rides between major destinations.

When the National Park Service was established in 1916, its mission was to both preserve the natural
and cultural resources of Yellowstone and to provide for public enjoyment of the park. Early managers
quickly recognized the importance of educating park visitors to accomplish both aspects of this mission.
A formal education program soon evolved: rustic trailside museums were built, roadside "nature shrines"
explaining various phenomena appeared, and publications to aid visitors in exploring the park were
widely distributed. By the 1920s, park rangers had begun to specialize in educating visitors about
Yellowstone. Rangers offered talks on a variety of natural history topics at campgrounds and lodges,
and organized tours were conducted at many of the most famous park attractions. These formal tours,
talks, and walks became more widely available in the 1950s and 1960s. The term "interpretation" came
into its own as a description of a profession and function grounded in the science of education and
research as well as the art of communication.

Yellowstone is no longer remote and untouched by "civilization." Visitation to Yellowstone has grown
steadily and now exceeds 3 million people annually. The task of providing for public enjoyment while
protecting Yellowstone's wonders for the benefit of future generations is more complex and challenging
than ever before. At the heart of meeting this challenge is interpretation and education. While still offering
visitors some of the traditional experiences associated with Yellowstone, park interpreters seek new
ways to bring the park's compelling stories to a wider and more diverse audience. Some of the most
advanced communication technologies available today are bringing Yellowstone's geysers, hot springs,
and wildlife into classrooms around the world. The meaning and value of Yellowstone as well as all
National Park Service units must be conveyed to people who may never visit these places but will
nonetheless cherish them for what they represent of our collective heritage. As we move into the
twenty-first century, the timeless tradition of sharing Yellowstone's stories will always link people to this
special place on the earth.

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THE LIFE IN YELLOWSTONE'S WATERS (May 19)

Yellowstone National Park's fishing season opens on May 24, 1997. Many anglers anxiously await this
annual event; fishing in the park has a reputation that attracts people from around the world. While
fishing has always been a popular pastime in Yellowstone, fisheries management has changed
dramatically since the early days of the park.

Historically, about 40 percent of park waters were barren of fish, including most of the lakes. Native
Americans made do with that situation, and there is evidence (projectile points and notched stones used
as net weights) that those people used the resources of the Yellowstone Lake area nearly 10,000 years
ago. But, in the late 1800s, for many Americans of European heritage, including early park
administrators (the U.S. Army Cavalry) and the U.S. Fish Commission (predecessor to today's U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service), the lack of fish in park waters was unacceptable. Captain Frazier Boutelle, in
charge of the park from 1889-1891 commented, " . . . I hope to see all of these waters so stocked that
the pleasure-seeker in the Park can enjoy fine fishing within a few rods of any hotel or camp."

The goal of park management in that day was to stock as many waters as were reachable. There was
little understanding of native fishes, habitat needs, or ecological integrity in aquatic (or any other)
systems. There were some notable blunders in those early stocking attempts, including the stocking of
warm water fish like perch and bass in the Firehole River drainage. Another stocking target was
Yellowstone Lake. Park Administrator Young advised the U.S. Fish Commissioner in 1908, "I believe
that it would be better to have Yellowstone Lake stocked with landlocked salmon, which would in time
eradicate the wormy trout." Fortunately, these attempts all failed, and stocking as a management tool
ceased by 1959.

Because of the abundance of cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake, the U.S. Fish Commission
established a fish hatchery facility on the lake by 1900 and began to harvest trout eggs for shipment to
other waters (mostly outside of Yellowstone). Yellowstone fast gained a reputation as the world's
foremost "cutthroat trout factory." But, by 1915, some anglers were expressing concern about the
decline in the quality of fishing in the park. The excessive take of eggs, the high creel limits (20 fish per
day), and the growing number of visitors were taking their toll on the park's fishery. In what was a
typical reaction for the era, managers blamed the "depredations of pelicans, gulls, etc." for the decline in
fish numbers. It was not until nearly 50 years later that the art of biology had matured enough to require
managers to look objectively and scientifically at the real problems of the fishery.

When the National Park Service was established in 1916 it was charged, in part, to ". . . conserve the
scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein. . . . " However, it was not until the
1960s that the Park Service moved toward a policy of restoring natural processes in parks in
recognition of this mandate. In the case of fisheries this policy shift culminated in the 1970s when Fishing
Bridge was closed to fishing (where for more than 50 years anglers had stood elbow to elbow with their
rods), anglers were restricted to only 2 fish daily within specific size limits to improve age structure and
reduce annual harvest, and certain waters were closed to fishing entirely or limited to catch-and-release
fishing. As a result, native cutthroat trout grew in abundance and size in Yellowstone Lake, to the benefit
of dozens of species that prey on the fish, including white pelicans, ospreys, river otters, bald eagles, and
grizzly bears.

Today, park managers, anglers, and visitors have renewed concern for the future of the native fishes in
Yellowstone. In 1994, non-native lake trout were confirmed to be in Yellowstone Lake, and control
efforts have begun to try and prevent these large, predator fish from drastically reducing the Yellowstone
cutthroat trout population. Similarly, the native westslope cutthroat trout and the fluvial Arctic grayling
are threatened because of increased competition from non-native trout species. Biologists are working
to restore these rare species to park waters.

Public attitudes about fish have changed through the years, too. In 1994, researchers found that nearly
200,000 visitors enjoyed watching spawning trout in the Yellowstone River. In and outside
Yellowstone National Park, the "wormy cutthroat trout" helps support a multi-million dollar tourism
industry that today emphasizes fishing for fun and returning the fish to its watery habitat, maximizing
public enjoyment and the natural ecological role of this ever-popular park resource.

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LACEY'S LEGACY (May 12)

It was 1887, and William James was desperate. He had been expelled from Yellowstone National Park
for poaching. In that era there were no laws that required jail time for such an offense. Expulsion and
confiscation of killed game were the only penalties for poaching, but the resulting publicity made it hard
for James to find a job. Consequently, on the evening of July 4th, James and a comrade planned a
robbery just inside the park's north entrance.

In the bars of Gardiner, Montana, it was "common knowledge" that the Army payroll was transferred
from the railroad terminus in Gardiner to park headquarters at Fort Yellowstone via stagecoach. James
had decided that this robbery would be easy and would set him up for a long time. However, as so
often happens, a "hitch" developed. The paymaster and his precious satchel passed by the unsuspecting
robbers in a buggy. So, instead of an Army payroll, the stagecoach robbery netted $16 and two exotic
coins, which the robbers took from Judge John F. Lacey of Oskaloosa, Iowa. Judge Lacey would not
forget his experience in Yellowstone.

Until the Yellowstone Park Act was passed in 1872, most resource-related laws of the post-Civil War
era were designed to promote industry and expedite the exploitation of the nation's resources. Not only
did the Yellowstone Park Act set aside a large tract of land as a "public pleasuring ground," but it
directed the Secretary of the Interior to enact regulations protecting the park from "wanton destruction."
Unfortunately, the law did not provide for enforcement of those regulations.

By 1886 widespread poaching and vandalism of park features resulted in the government sending the
U.S. Cavalry to Yellowstone to provide some protection for park resources. Regular patrols were sent
into the park in all seasons to stop poaching and provide an authoritarian presence. Felix Burgess (a
civilian scout) and Sergeant Troike were on just such a winter patrol in Yellowstone's backcountry
investigating a faint sledge trail that appeared to run from Cooke City to Astringent Creek in Pelican
Valley. On the morning of March 13, 1894, Burgess and Troike found and followed a faint snowshoe
track. The tracks led to six buffalo scalps suspended in a tree and then to a newly erected cabin on
Pelican Creek. The scout and the sergeant shortly heard shots and discovered Ed Howell removing the
scalps from five freshly killed bison. Burgess, armed with a pistol, had to cross 200 yards of open
meadow without being discovered by the well-armed poacher or his dog. The surprised poacher
assured his captors that they would not have taken him if he had seen them coming, and punctuated his
sincerity by trying to kill his derelict dog.

On the return trip to Fort Yellowstone with Howell in custody, the patrol came across Emerson Hough,
field correspondent for Forest and Stream magazine. Hough was exploring Yellowstone as part of the
magazine-sponsored "Yellowstone National Park Game Expedition." Hough and his editor, George Bird
Grinnell, were both ardent conservationists, and Hough was incensed by the story of Howell's bison
killing. While the soldiers stood by, Hough wrote a dispatch about Howell's poaching for the soldiers to
telegraph to Grinnell in New York City when they got back to Fort Yellowstone.

Under the laws of the time, the only punishment that Captain George Anderson (the Fort's commander)
could administer to Howell was confiscation of the bison and expulsion from the park. However, Editor
Grinnell published Hough's dispatch in Forest and Stream, and then he and influential friends went to
Washington to lobby for a means to stop such blatant acts.

Less than two weeks after Ed Howell's capture, Representative John Lacey of Iowa, personally familiar
with Yellowstone's lawlessness and now chairman of the House Committee on Public Lands, introduced
the Yellowstone Park Protection Bill: "An Act to protect the birds and animals in Yellowstone National
Park, and to punish crimes in said park, and for other purposes." The bill affirmed that Yellowstone
National Park was under the "sole and exclusive jurisdiction" of the United States and placed it in the
Judicial District of Wyoming. It directed the Secretary of the Interior to protect, "all timber, mineral
deposits, natural curiosities, or wonderful objects within said park . . . and to protect the birds and
animals of the park from harassment and destruction." The bill also directed that a magistrate be
appointed to hear and act on complaints for violation of the Act, to issue warrants, and to determine
whether people charged with felonies should be held for trial in District Court. It set the magistrate's
salary at $1000 per year and directed the Secretary of the Interior to build a jail and an office for the
magistrate. The penalty for violating the Act was a fine of up to $1000 and/or imprisonment for up to
two years and forfeiture of all equipment (including firearms and means of transportation) used during
the commission of any crime. The Act was signed into law in May. Captain Anderson proclaimed that
Howell's crime was "the most fortunate thing that ever happened to the Park."

In an ironic ending to this tale, Captain Anderson caught Ed Howell sitting in the barber's chair at the
Mammoth Hotel in July 1894. Howell was subsequently convicted for "returning after expulsion,"
making him the first person prosecuted under the Lacey Act.

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NATIVE AMERICANS, PREHISTORY, AND YELLOWSTONE (May 5)

By the time the first people came to North America 12,000 years ago, much of Yellowstone was ice
free and easily accessible. The park's archeological record shows that humans have known about
Yellowstone for thousands of years, in fact, the evidence indictes that people identified as members of
the Clovis culture were here by 10,500 B.C.

Historically, the Shoshone, Sheepeaters, Bannock, Crow, Arapahoe, Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet,
Flathead, and Nez Perce peoples spent time in Yellowstone. The persistent myth that Native Americans
were afraid of the geysers and avoided Yellowstone has repeatedly been shown to be false by the
archeological record. While the feelings of early native people are not recorded, the distribution of their
sites around the park, and especially around the geyser basins, show that these areas were used
frequently.

Archaeologists working in the Northwestern Plains and the northern Rocky Mountains have generally
been unable to tie prehistoric archeological sites in Yellowstone to recognized historic tribes. However,
the best identification appears to be for the Shoshone who may have come from the Great Basin to the
intermountain area of Wyoming and Montana as early as A.D. 1,200.

In the 19th century, the earliest EuroAmerican expeditions to Yellowstone recorded that the
Sheepeaters (a band of the Shoshone) were the only year-round residents in what became Yellowstone
National Park. The Sheepeaters made their living hunting mountain sheep and were well known for the
high quality bows they made from mountain sheep horn. By soaking the horn in the park's hot waters,
the Sheepeaters straightened the horn during the bow-manufacturing process. Some of the park's early
historic wickiups (wooden shelters) were undoubtedly made by these people. Today it is known that
many other tribes were drawn to Yellowstone during the warmer months by the rich hunting, fishing, and
stone sources for tools.

We are able to identify prehistoric peoples who visited Yellowstone because of the obsidian tools found
at archeological sites around the country. Obsidian has trace elements in it that make each source of
obsidian chemically unique, just like human fingerprints are unique for individuals. This uniqueness
permits identification of the geological source for obsidian artifacts. Yellowstone has several obsidian
sources, and tools made from Yellowstone obsidian have been found as far away as Ohio. Conversely,
some obsidian tools found in the park are made from obsidian from Idaho and southwestern Montana,
thus leading to the conclusion that these tools were brought into Yellowstone by prehistoric peoples who
lived part of the year elsewhere.

Systematic investigations into the archeological record of the area have taken place only in the past few
years, but preliminary results show the area that is now included in Yellowstone National Park has
attracted people, at least seasonally, to its rich plant and animal resources for thousands of years.

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OLD FAITHFUL INN HISTORY (April 28)

Friday, May 2, 1997, is the opening day of Yellowstone National Park's most famous building, the Old
Faithful Inn. Overlooking Old Faithful Geyser and the Upper Geyser Basin, the Inn has been the most
celebrated structure in Yellowstone since it first opened in June of 1904. The Inn is also a standing
tribute to a great and unsung American architect, Robert Chambers Reamer.

Robert Reamer was born in 1873, just a year after Yellowstone was established as the nation's first
national park. Reamer was a relatively unknown architect when Harry Child, head of the Yellowstone
Park Company, hired him in 1902 to design and build a hotel for the Upper Geyser Basin. There had
been a series of tent camps and cheaply constructed, shoddy hotels at this site during the previous two
decades, and Child wanted to construct a first-class hotel for the wealthy customers who constituted the
bulk of Yellowstone's visitors at the turn of the century.

Fine hotels already stood at Mammoth Hot Springs, Lower Geyser Basin, Yellowstone Lake, and
Canyon. These facilities stood out sharply from their surroundings and reflected the way visitors to
Yellowstone toured the park in those days. Guests would spend a leisurely day marveling at the
wonders of the park and then return to a hotel that looked and felt like one they might find in Chicago,
New York, or Newport. These hotels represented a place of refuge for the night against the frightening
wilderness outside.

Robert Reamer brought a different vision with him to Yellowstone. He believed it was possible to create
a structure that would appear to have grown out of its surroundings, a structure that inside and out
would seem to be an extension of the wilderness. At the same time, he believed that a hotel such as this
could provide all the modern conveniences that any first-class hotel around the world offered. He
believed that hotel guests would feel completely secure while at the same time feel a part of the
wilderness outside.

The Inn was constructed from materials found in the area. Its rhyolite lava foundation stones were
quarried just a few miles from the site, and the lodgepole pine forests that cover Yellowstone became its
walls, ceilings, and framework. The lobby is cavernous and opened to the roof, with all the supporting
beams and braces of lodgepole pine exposed to view. The massive fireplace in one corner of the lobby
has an 85-foot high chimney made from the same rhyolite stone as the foundation. To stand in this great,
balconied lobby as the sun filters through the asymmetrical windows gives one the feeling of standing in
the forest. But with hot and cold running water, flush toilets, baths, steam heat, and electric lights, the Inn
was--and is--a first-class hotel.

Robert Reamer caused a revolution in architecture in national parks that has continued to this day. His
style of architecture, where the building is designed to fit into the landscape, is called "rustic
architecture." Reamer designed many other Yellowstone structures for the Yellowstone Park Company,
and he went on to become a well-respected architect in Seattle, where the Fifth Avenue Theater,
Edmond Meany Hotel, and other structures that he designed are still standing and cherished. Mr.
Reamer died in 1938.

Reamer's vision can best be summarized in his own words, spoken as he reflected on the construction of
the Canyon Hotel, which stood overlooking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River from 1911
until 1960:

"I built it in keeping with the place where it stands. Nobody could improve upon that. To be at discord
with the landscape would be almost a crime. To try to improve upon it would be an impertinence."

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THE ROOSEVELT ARCH, YELLOWSTONE'S HISTORIC GATEWAY (April 21)

"It is a pleasure now to say a few words to you at the laying of the corner stone of the beautiful arch
which is to mark the entrance to this park. Yellowstone Park is something absolutely unique in the world
so far as I know. Nowhere else in any civilized country is there to be found such a tract of veritable
wonderland made accessible to all visitors. . . ." With these words, President Theodore Roosevelt
dedicated the arch at the North Entrance to Yellowstone National Park in a ceremony on April 24,
1903.

When Yellowstone was established in 1872 as the world's first national park, it was remote and nearly
inaccessible. Few tourist had the time or the financial means to travel to Yellowstone. The railroad
companies of the time played a large role in promoting the park and providing access from the major
cities of the east and west coasts. By 1903, the Northern Pacific Railroad line had been extended to
Gardiner, Montana, and the north entrance to Yellowstone was turned into a bustling tourist destination.
From the crowded Gardiner train depot visitors would board stagecoaches and begin their "grand tour"
of Yellowstone's wonders.

Captain Hiram M. Chittenden of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and director of road construction in
Yellowstone, decided that the park's primary entrance deserved a formal gateway to improve and
dramatize the appearance of the train depot's dusty staging area. Working from notes provided by
Chittenden, architect Robert Reamer, designer of the Old Faithful Inn and Canyon Hotel (no longer in
existence), designed and assisted in the planning of the project. Chittenden and Reamer called for
extensive landscaping in the depot area and a large imposing arch built of local columnar basalt. The
arch they designed and built rises 50-feet high in stark contrast to the surrounding area. On both sides of
the arch, 12-foot high walls originally curved around a landscaped pond and garden. The arch, inscribed
with the words: "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People," faced the Gardiner train depot
welcoming visitors to Yellowstone.

By the 1940s train travel was replaced by the automobile. Not just the wealthy could come to
Yellowstone now. Automobiles not only changed who could travel, they also changed how and where
people traveled. Visitors now came through the East, South, and West entrances to the park; the North
Entrance was no longer the primary route into the park. In 1948, train service to Gardiner ended, and
an era of Yellowstone's visitation passed into history.

Today, the Roosevelt Arch still stands, and the words engraved across its face still welcome visitors to
Yellowstone. The arch has become one of the great symbols of the "National Park Idea."

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EARLY VISITORS TO THE PARK (April 7)

As the roads are cleared of their last vestiges of winter snows, and hotels and campgrounds are cleaned
and readied for this summer's visitors, it is interesting to think about how people used to travel to
Yellowstone to see its wonders.

Of course, Yellowstone's earliest visitors were its earliest residents. American Indians lived in the region
for thousands of years, although our knowledge of which tribal groups inhabited the Yellowstone area
and how they lived is scant. The first Euroamerican to visit Yellowstone was probably John Colter, a
member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, who stayed in the West's mountains after the Expedition
returned to civilization in 1806. The exact route of his 1807-08 winter trek will probably never be
known, but the evidence points to him wandering across the future park.

Colter was followed by other mountain men searching the Valley of the Upper Yellowstone for beaver
and other pelts for trading. One of these mountain men, Warren Angus Ferris, became (as far as is
known) Yellowstone's first tourist, coming here not for business but just for pleasure. Concerning his
1834 visit, Ferris wrote:

"I had heard in the summer of 1833, while at rendezvous, that remarkable boiling springs had
been discovered, on the sources of the Madison, by a party of trappers in their spring hunt; of
which the accounts they gave, were so very astonishing, that I determined to examine them
myself. . ."

As tales of the Yellowstone area grew, more people came to see for themselves if the stories were true.
These early visitors to Yellowstone were a hardy breed, resourceful, and self-assured. Travel was by
horse or mule through forests that were often so littered with deadfall (referred to as jackstraw) that one
could only cover two to three miles in a whole day! After the area was set aside in 1872 as the nation's
first national park, visitation "skyrocketed" to around 1,000 people each year. These visitors had to
travel through the park on bridal paths and game trails and sleep on the ground or in tents.

In 1883, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers arrived to begin proper road building, after which overnight
accommodations sprang up throughout the park. In those early days the main bulk of the visitors to
Yellowstone were prosperous citizens of the United States and the nations of Europe. Because travel to
Yellowstone took days or even weeks, only the wealthy had the time and resources to visit
"Wonderland."

At first one had to take the Union Pacific Railroad to Corinne, Utah, and then get on a stagecoach for
the 380-mile ride to Virginia City, Montana's Territorial Capital. There you could hire horses and an
outfit and, perhaps, someone to guide you to the park. Later the Northern Pacific Railroad, having
extended its lines west from Chicago, brought visitors to Gardiner, Montana, along a branch line. There
you would step off the train onto a 36-passenger tally-ho stage drawn by six matching horses for the
ride into the park. For the tour around the park, each guest was issued a linen duster to try to help
maintain their fine clothes amid the heavy cloud of dust kicked up by the stagecoach. It was also the
time when, at certain points during the day, the driver (who would have had a name like Geyser Bob or
Society Red) would stop to inform everyone that the forests to the left were for the ladies, to the right
for the men!

While most folks rode the stagecoaches, there were still some intrepid souls who chose other means of
touring the park. The first bicycle tour of the park took place in 1883, when three members of the
Laramie, Wyoming, Bicycle Club came to visit, and in 1898 an Englishman, C. Hanford Henderson,
toured the entire 140 miles of the Grand Loop on foot in 4 1/2 days!

The grand era of stagecoach travel ended in 1917 when touring cars replaced the stages. The Northern
Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, which had reached West Yellowstone in 1907, both
stopped passenger service in the 1950s when travel to Yellowstone became essentially what we know
today.

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THE HISTORY OF BISON IN YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (March 31)

The history of bison and their management in Yellowstone National Park could be described as cycles
of endless bounty followed by scarcity. Most people know that vast herds of bison, or buffalo as they
are more commonly called, once filled the North American continent. Estimates suggest that as many as
65 million bison roamed North America in the early 1800s. With such seemingly unlimited numbers,
their destiny appeared certain, but, instead, their fate nearly followed that of the passenger pigeon.
Market hunting and poaching all but eliminated this species from North America; by 1890 fewer than
1,000 bison remained.

Yellowstone National Park was not immune to the slaughter. In the 1870s poachers and meat hunters
continued to kill bison within the newly created park. It was not until the arrival of the U.S. Army in
1886, sent to protect all of Yellowstone's resources, that poaching and hunting were brought under
control. Later, in 1894, Congress passed the Lacey Act, which imposed a $1,000 fine on anyone
convicted of shooting bison, and the preservation of this American species was assured.

In 1902, only 23 free-ranging bison were counted in Yellowstone's Pelican Valley, and National Park
Service (NPS) officials doubted that this native herd would survive. Consequently, 21 bison from
private ranches in Texas and Montana were brought to Yellowstone and placed in pens at Mammoth
Hot Springs and managed like cattle. These bison were moved to the "Buffalo Ranch" in the Lamar
Valley in 1907 and were intensively managed there until the late-1930s. In 1936, bison were trucked
from the Lamar herd to the Firehole and Hayden valleys. Bison were now allowed to range freely in the
park and mix with the native herd. With protection from poaching and hunting, the native and
transplanted bison populations increased. In 1954, the park's entire population of bison numbered
1,477. By this time the bison in Yellowstone wintered in three fairly distinct herds, although there is
some overlap between the herds at various times of the year. These herds are called the Northern
(Lamar Valley) herd, the Mary Mountain (Hayden Valley-Firehole River) herd, and the Pelican Valley
herd.

A large bull bison can measure six feet tall at the shoulder and weigh a ton. Bison have massive heads
and a high hump on the shoulders. In winter bison use their head as a snowplow, swinging it back and
forth through the snow to find the vegetation below. Female bison look like the males, although they are
smaller and have more slender horns that point forward. Bison are gregarious and congregate in large
herds. Although adult bison are dark brown with long shaggy hair on their shoulders and front legs,
calves are reddish brown without shaggy hair when born in April and May. Many spring visitors to
Yellowstone go to the Lamar Valley or the Firehole area to view these new calves. Bison mate in July
and early August, and areas like Hayden Valley ring with their bellows and are filled with dust from the
battles between rival bulls.

Management of bison in the park has changed over time. As mentioned earlier, bison were managed
intensively (ranched) for many years in order to increase their numbers and preserve them as a natural
species in the park. In the 1930s, National Park Service policy began to shift from artificial manipulation
of wildlife to the preservation of species in a more natural state. However, bison were still managed,
albeit sporadically, by way of removals (including live transplants to many areas around the nation to
develop new bison herds) until the mid-1960s. In 1968, manipulative management of bison ceased, and
the bison population was allowed to increase or decrease in response to environmental conditions,
particularly winter weather. A parkwide count at this time placed bison numbers at 397. Throughout the
late 1970s and 1980s a series of cool, wet summers produced bountiful grasses for bison to feed on.
Concurrently, a series of mild winters and winter recreational activities (snowmobiles were first allowed
on groomed roads in Yellowstone in the early 1970s; groomed roads cut down on the energy a bison
uses to travel compared to when the bison moves through deep snow) have allowed more bison to
survive the winter. By the winter of 1996-1997, an early winter count placed the park's bison
population at 3,500.

Although the three states surrounding Yellowstone (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho) had had "Boundary
Control Agreements" with the NPS since the early 1970s to assure that any bison moving out of the
park would be killed, it was not until 1982 that Montana instituted a public hunt to control bison moving
beyond Yellowstone's boundaries. Due to public controversy, the Montana legislature halted the public
bison hunt in 1989. In 1990, Montana and the NPS developed an interim management plan in which
state and federal personnel shot bison in Montana to protect private property, provide for human safety,
and protect Montana's brucellosis class-free status. Brucellosis is a disease that can cause abortions in
domestic cattle. Some bison as well as elk carry the bacterium that causes the disease. Although there
are no documented cases of wild, free-ranging bison transmitting brucellosis to cattle in the wild, the
possibility of transmitting the disease exists if cattle would come in contact with infected birthing material
or a new-born calf from an infected animal.

In 1995, as part of a court-approved settlement agreement resulting from a lawsuit filed by the state of
Montana, a new interim bison management plan was developed. Bison entering Montana along the
park's northern boundary would either be captured and shipped to slaughter or shot. Bison entering
Montana along the park's western boundary would be captured and tested; bison testing positive for
brucellosis would be shipped to slaughter. Due to the management removals and winter-kill, the
Yellowstone bison population in March 1997 is estimated to be between 1,200 and 1,500 animals.

A long-range bison management plan and environmental impact statement is being jointly prepared by
the NPS, the U.S. Forest Service, and the state of Montana with the cooperation of the Animal Plant
Health Inspection Service (an agency in the U.S. Department of Agriculture). This plan will evaluate
several strategies for managing the periodic movement of bison outside the park while ensuring
opportunities to view free-ranging bison and maintaining a self-supporting population in Yellowstone
National Park. The plan and the draft Environmental Impact Statement are scheduled for public review
on July 31, 1997.

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LAND OF FIRE AND ICE (March 24)

When someone mentions the word "volcano," what do you think of--Mount St. Helens in Washington,
Kilauea in Hawaii, Mount Etna in Italy? Or do you think of Yellowstone? Although we have come to
expect earthquakes in this region, most of us do not associate a volcano with our first national park.
However, in the past two million years there have been three major volcanic explosions in what is today
one of the most popular vacation spots in our nation. These eruptions were violent, and they devastated
vast areas. Geologists tell us it could happen again--but probably not anytime soon.

No one is quite sure why a volcano would be found in Yellowstone--usually volcanos occur at the edge
of continents where continental plates move by each other or in the middle of oceans where the sea floor
spreads apart. But the earth's crust is very thin at the point we call Yellowstone. Normally, the earth's
crust is about 20-30 miles thick; at Yellowstone, the crust is only 2 miles thick. The hot, melted rocks of
the earth's mantle are very close, indeed.

The volcanic eruptions that occurred in this area are characterized by sudden outpourings of hot gas,
ash, pumice, and rock. These explosions left enormous depressions, which are called calderas. The last
caldera explosion occurred about 600,000 years ago and obliterated most of the physical evidence of
the preceding two caldera explosions. This event is known as the Yellowstone Caldera, and it destroyed
about 1,000 square miles of the central portion of present-day Yellowstone. By comparison, the 1980
eruption of Mount St. Helens blew up less than one square mile, while the largest known historical
volcanic eruption occurred in 1883 on the island of Krakatoa in Indonesia, destroying about 12 square
miles.

Today it is difficult to see much of the original Yellowstone Caldera. Not only does it cover an immense
area, but following the caldera explosion and continuing for the next 500,000 years, there was a series
of lava flows that filled in most of the caldera. This period of lava flow ended about 75,000 years ago.
Since that time the forces of water and ice have reshaped Yellowstone once again.

Yellowstone was glaciated at least three distinct times. During the last glaciation (called the Pinedale
Glaciation), an enormous icefield built up in the Absaroka Mountains southeast of the present-day park
and in the Gallatin Mountains north of the park. Glaciers flowed from these icefields into the
Yellowstone area. The mass of ice centered in what is today the Yellowstone Lake basin and grew to a
depth of more than 3,000 feet. Eventually this ice covered about 90% of Yellowstone. By about 8,500
years ago the ice had all melted. Even though a few snowfields may persist in the highest areas of the
park today, there are no glaciers in Yellowstone.

The landscape that you see in Yellowstone today is the result of both violent episodes and slow-moving
processes that have occurred over thousands of years. It is often hard for us to comprehend the scope
of geologic time since written human history goes back only 7,000 years and because most of us only
know our family history for three or four generations. Until the fires of 1988, many repeat visitors to
Yellowstone noticed very little change in the landscape. But, this is a dynamic place, and the one
constant that remains true for Yellowstone is change.

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GEYSERS, MUDPOTS, FUMAROLES, AND HOT SPRINGS: YELLOWSTONE'S
HYDROTHERMAL WONDERS (March 17)

". . . and behold! The whole country beyond was smoking with vapor from boiling springs; and burning
with gases issuing from small craters, each of which was emitting a sharp, whistling sound." So wrote fur
trapper Joe Meek in 1829.

The rare, spectacular wonders Meek spoke about along with bubbling mudpots and erupting geysers
are the main reason why the Yellowstone plateau was set aside 125 years ago this month. Back then,
wildlife was considered merely a commodity for food or income, and the wilderness scenery--mountain
ranges, deep canyons, expansive forests, and large lakes--was viewed as an obstacle to travel and
settlement. There was no gold or other precious mineral wealth to be found here, and the climate was
too severe for ranching or farming. In short, Yellowstone was considered worthless--but it did have
some curious hydrothermal attractions that people might enjoy. So, the world's first national park was
created.

What makes Yellowstone's geysers and hot springs so fascinating to many visitors is their dynamic
nature. While some geysers, such as Old Faithful and Great Fountain, have been steadily active
throughout most of the park's recorded history, others are quite rare and irregular. For example,
Steamboat Geyser, the world's tallest geyser when active, has had intervals ranging from 5 days to 50
years; the most recent eruption was on October 2, 1991.

Today, intense "geyser gazing" interest is focused on the Upper Geyser Basin where Giant Geyser is
showing signs of rejuvenation after about 40 years of near dormancy. Since July 1996 there have been
10 major eruptions; the most recent was on February 24, 1997. Each eruption lives up to the geyser's
name: scalding water rocketing up to heights of 195 feet (60 meters) or more (twice the usual height of
Old Faithful), with eruption durations of more than an hour, and a massive flood of hundreds of
thousands of gallons of water cascading off its sinter platform into the Firehole River.

Geysers are--in a geologic perspective--very unstable and short-lived. Violent change can occur at any
time and with little or no warning. The magnitude 7.5 Hebgen Lake earthquake of August 17, 1959,
caused many hot springs to erupt as geysers, destroyed or damaged others such as Sapphire Pool, and
created new thermal features.

Even without earthquakes, Yellowstone's hydrothermal features change. For example, in the 1880s
Excelsior Geyser was hurling desk-sized rocks in eruptions that were 290 feet (90 meters) high and at
least 145 feet (50 meters) across. Excelsior then slumbered for 95 years until September 14, 1985,
when it roared back to life for 47 hours and turned the Firehole River muddy white from bank to bank.
Excelsior has not erupted since. Likewise, Black Opal Pool in Biscuit Basin, a short distance north of
Old Faithful, exploded during the spring of 1925 and ejected thermally cemented sandstone 975 feet
(300 meters) away in a lateral blast. Since then, Black Opal Pool has remained a hot pool.

Norris Geyser Basin is especially dynamic. Nearly every year in mid- to late-summer, the area is subject
to a basin-wide thermal disturbance producing wild fluctuations in temperatures, discharges, eruptive
activity, and water clarity. At the start of one such disturbance, Porkchop Geyser suddenly doubled its
eruption height and, within seconds, "blew-up," scattering rock fragments at the feet of eight surprised
park visitors.

The spectacular changes in Yellowstone's hydrothermal features continue to occur quite frequently.
Whether it is the creation of a violent new mud volcano in the back country or the re-awakening of a
long dormant large geyser, Yellowstone's visitors will be just as amazed and entertained during the next
125 years as they have been in the first.

** This press release was written by Rick Hutchinson, Yellowstone's research geologist, shortly before
his untimely death in his beloved Yellowstone backcountry.

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EARLY EXPEDITIONS TO YELLOWSTONE (March 10)

It is a testimonial to the spectacular nature of the wonders of Yellowstone that three "discovery"
expeditions were required before the American public would believe that such a place existed. Exploring
parties of 1869, 1870, and 1871 each played a role in revealing Yellowstone to the world.

In September of 1869, three prospectors from Diamond City (near present-day Helena), Montana
Territory, headed south to investigate the persistent rumors of unbelievable curiosities near the
headwaters of the Yellowstone River. These men, known as the Folsom-Cook-Peterson Expedition,
spent 36 days exploring and mapping the Yellowstone region. They were astounded by what they saw.
Upon reaching the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Charles Cook said, "it seemed to me that it was
five minutes before anyone spoke." Returning to Diamond City, they wrote a magazine article about their
experiences and made the suggestion that the area be reserved in the public interest.

Excitement about the stories of the Yellowstone area was at a fever pitch when in August 1870 a party
of 19 men, 40 horses, and a dog left Helena to further explore the region. This group, the
Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition, was composed of prominent Montana territorial citizens, and
they spent a month exploring the present park, giving names to many of its features, including Old
Faithful Geyser.

Following the return of the expedition to Helena, Nathaniel P. Langford (an employee of the Northern
Pacific Railroad, which would play a prominent role in advertising the future park) traveled to the East
Coast to give speeches promoting their "discovery." Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, then head of what would
become the U.S. Geological Survey, was in one of the Washington, D.C., audiences. Hayden was
intrigued by Langford's story, and he petitioned Congress for $40,000 to outfit a government scientific
party to explore the Yellowstone country.

The expedition traveled west during the summer of 1871 and spent many months in Yellowstone,
confirming the Washburn party's discoveries, taking scientific readings, and accurately mapping the area.
Hayden's party of about 30 men included an artist, Thomas Moran, and a photographer, William H.
Jackson. Their artwork and photographs played an important role in convincing a skeptical nation of the
wonders of Yellowstone.

In the winter of 1871, a bill was introduced into Congress to set the Yellowstone area aside. On March
1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill that reserved Yellowstone as a public park, "forever
free from settlement, occupancy or sale . . . for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

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ORIGIN OF THE NAME "YELLOWSTONE" (March 4)

"Yellowstone" is the oldest and most important of the park's place names, dating back to the late
eighteenth century. The name was first applied to the 671-mile-long river that begins just south of the
present park and flows into the Missouri River at present-day Williston, North Dakota.

The earliest known appearance of the name occurs on John Evans' manuscript map of 1797. Evans, a
Welshman employed by Spaniards to explore the Missouri River, showed a tributary stream as "River
Yellow Rock." Historian Hiram Chittenden considered the name a translation of the Minnetaree Indian
expression Mi tsi a-da-zi, which was transformed in French to Roche Jaunes (Rock Yellow) or
PierreJaunes (Stone Yellow). Later, in 1798, the French version was Anglicized by Canadian
geographer David Thompson to "Yellow Stone."

Although Chittenden believed that the name "Yellowstone" originated from the colorful walls of the
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River within the present national park, most historians today do not
agree. Their reasoning is that the earlier historic uses of the name referred to the yellowish sandstone
bluffs that border the river for 100 miles or more near present-day Billings, Montana. It is unlikely that
the Minnetaree Indians or the early EuroAmericans knew of today's famous canyon near the headwaters
of the river.

The source of the Yellowstone River is found on the slopes of Yount's Peak, southeast of the park.
Geologist Arnold Hague traveled to the spot in 1887 and reported that the source of the river was "in a
long snow-bank lying in a large ampitheatre on the north side of the [Yount's] peak." The river flows
through Yellowstone Lake, the largest natural freshwater lake above 7,000 feet in elevation in the
United States. The lake is 20 miles long and 14 miles wide, has a shoreline of 110 miles, and is at least
320 feet deep, with an average depth of 140 feet. After leaving the lake, the river flows through four
canyons on its journey to the Missouri River: the Grand Canyon (where Upper and Lower Falls are
found), the Black Canyon, Yankee Jim Canyon (just north of the park boundary), and Rock Canyon
(just south of Livingston, Montana).

Through association with our first national park, the name "Yellowstone" has assumed a significance that
goes far beyond its importance as a place name for a river. The name has become synonymous with
much that is basic to the national park idea.

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YELLOWSTONE IS ESTABLISHED AS THE FIRST NATIONAL PARK (Februray 25)

Yellowstone National Park--some say it is America's greatest contribution to world culture-- the best
idea we ever had. Yet when President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone Park Act on March 1,
1872, the preservation of a park more than 3,300 square miles in size was a radical idea. This was a
time when natural resources were thought to be limitless, and conservation was considered wasteful.
With the signing of the Act, a new era in conservation began.

Historically, in Europe, "parks" were owned by the wealthy elite for their use alone. In early America,
particularly Puritan New England, the attitude toward the value of work resulted in the perception that
idle time led to wickedness, and nature was viewed as frightening and something to be subdued. But in
the 1800s the philosophy of romanticism evolved in Europe and spread to America. Men such as Henry
David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote about nature in a new
way. They described it as wondrous, beautiful, and restorative. In the mid-1800s American cities began
setting aside tracts of land for public parks such as Central Park in New York. Attitudes were changing.

In 1870 and 1871, expeditions were sent to explore the area we now know as Yellowstone National
Park. The members of those expeditions and many other Americans, influenced by this new way of
viewing nature, worked tirelessly to have the Yellowstone Park Act introduced into Congress in
December 1871. Congressional debate focused on the "worthlessness" of the Yellowstone country for
any "useful" purpose. The lack of any known reserves of timber, minerals, or other resources of any
economic value was emphasized. Because most of the area was at or above 7,000 feet in elevation and
received snow during much of the year, agriculture and settlement were considered difficult at best.
Though Congressional opposition was weak, the necessity of preserving a place of such little value was
questioned. In order to secure passage of the bill, supporters promised that no funding from Congress
would be requested for the park's administration. Indeed, Yellowstone received no federal funding until
1877 when it was recognized that without someone in charge, there would soon be nothing left to see as
poaching and vandalism were rampant.

Our perception of Yellowstone has changed dramatically since the Congressional debates of
1871-1872. Today the park is host to more than 3 million visitors each year from all over the world.
While still fairly remote, it is no longer inaccessible. Its geysers, hot springs, waterfalls, and wildlife are
no longer thought to be worthless, but are considered priceless. The park has become an integral part of
our culture and stands as a symbol, not only of American democracy, but also of the importance of
preserving wild places for everyone. As we celebrate Yellowstone's 125th anniversary, we are
reminded of the vision of those early park supporters who believed that Yellowstone's resources should
be preserved not for their economic value but for their intrinsic natural beauty. We are the beneficiaries
of their efforts to have this special place set aside "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK BEGINS CELEBRATION OF ITS 125th ANNIVERSARY (February 20)

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in
Congress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming, lying near the
headwaters of the Yellowstone river . . . is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy,
or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or
pleasureing-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." The signing of that monumental piece
of legislation by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, was the start of the best idea America
ever had--our National Parks. In 1997, we have the opportunity to commemorate and celebrate the
125th anniversary of the establishment of Yellowstone National Park and the beginning of the national
park idea.

Several 125th Anniversary events have been planned, and the public is welcome to attend. Specific
news releases about each event will be provided, approximately two weeks prior to the event. Events
include:

March 1: The official birthday of Yellowstone National Park. The Mammoth Post Office will be offering
a commemorative stamp cancellation from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., and National Park Service staff will be
present to greet visitors, answer questions, and serve birthday cake and punch. Stamped,
self-addressed envelopes can be mailed to the Postmaster at P.O. Box 9998, Yellowstone National
Park, Wyoming 82190 for cancellation.


April 20-26: National Parks Week. Activities will include a March for Parks in Livingston, Montana,
on Saturday, April 26, and special activities in area schools sponsored by the National Park Service and
the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

August 1: Dedication of Bison Exhibit at Canyon Visitor Center. This new exhibit is presented in
cooperation with the Buffalo Bill Historical Center of Cody, Wyoming.

August 17: Military Appreciation Day. The park will recognize the significant contribution of the military
during their 30-year administration of the park from 1886 until the formation of the National Park
Service in 1916. Military bands, reenactor troops, and the dedication of the new self-guided walking
tour of historic Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs will be the highlight of the weekend-long
event.

August 25: National Park Service birthday celebration at Old Faithful. The National Park Service was
established on this date in 1916. Plans call for a special program with national and state dignitaries.

October 12 - 14: Fourth Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem: People
and Place, The Human Experience in Greater Yellowstone. This conference will focus on the human
experience in the greater Yellowstone, with particular emphasis on the changing relationships between
nature and culture and on the challenges of preserving and interpreting the region's cultural heritage.


When President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone Park Act, no one foresaw the worldwide
rippling effect of his action. In the United States today there are 374 unique places where this Nation
preserves its natural and cultural diversity and heritage. Furthermore, the national park idea has spread,
and now more than 140 other nations have modeled their own national park systems after ours.

Superintendent Michael Finley stated, "We are able to celebrate Yellowstone's anniversary today
because of the vision of those who preceded us 125 years ago. Anniversaries are occasions for both
celebration and examination. Only through an evaluation of the road we have travelled and serious
consideration of the values and feelings we presently have about our national parks can we intelligently
consider the direction that we need to head in the coming years. How we meet the challenges today will
determine what we as a people will celebrate 125 years from now."

For further information or questions regarding the 125th Anniversary celebrations, please contact the
Public Affairs office at the above-listed numbers.

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Yellowstone Net is Produced by Bruce Gourley, Russ Finley,  & Tim Gourley.  © 1997-2007 Bruce Gourley.