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| MONDAY July 10, 2000 Vol 4, # 41 |
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| MONDAY July 10, 2000 Vol 4, # 41 |
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| Site Search | Support Yellowstone! Discussion Free Internet, Email, More Email Newsletter | |
YELLOWSTONE ROAD
REPORT PUBLISHER EDITOR-IN-
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 PROTECTING YELLOWSTONEby Bruce Gourley Yellowstone is a national treasure which is owned by the American public. Protecting Yellowstone is the responsibility of the American public. This weekly feature will help identify and explore the issues which are crucial to the ongoing, healthy existence of the "Crown Jewel" of America's National Park system. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- A few months ago a sports utility vehicle manufacturer contacted Brattleboro, Vermont-based Cartographic Technologies and asked the following question: what inhabited place in the lower 48 states is the most distant from a publicly maintained road? Susan Boswell, president of Cartographic Technologies, took up the challenge. Pouring over Census Bureau records, Boswell was surprised to discover just how highly built-up America is. And after crunching the numbers, Boswell found the answer: the most remote inhabited place in the lower 48 states is the Thorofare Ranger Station in Yellowstone National Park. Located in the southeastern corner of Yellowstone, the Thorofare Ranger Station is 20 miles away from the nearest road. The station, located near the Continental Divide, consists of a cabin, barn and corral. Ranger Lloyd Kortge mans the station, living in the cabin part of the year. To get to the station, one has to go Yellowstone's East Entrance road and head south by horseback. The shortest route from the East Entrance road is 32 miles by trail. Boswell's findings are important for several reasons. For starters, they reveal that even the remote areas of America are not very remote. In her own words, roads are very pervasive and "uncomfortably close." And secondly, the findings clearly portray what many of us who live and work in the Yellowstone region already knew: despite the traffic jams that clog the roads in the summer months, Yellowstone National Park is yet a wild and untamed wonderland once one steps into the backcountry. (Yellowstone Net provides you opportunity to voice your opinion regarding the various Yellowstone issues to your congresspersons and to editorial sections of magazines and newspapers by clicking here.) |
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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS AND COLUMNISTS Ralph Maughan
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WOLF UPDATE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (NPS) -- Last week Yellowstone wolf team leader Doug Smith picked up a mortality signal for long-time alpha male of the Rose Creek Pack, wolf 8M. Searching afoot, Smith discovered the 6-year-old wolf dead in Slough Creek, pinned under a log. Cursory examination indicated a natural death, probably due to a soft-tissue trauma inflicted by intended prey. During the last nine months, both of the alphas of the Rose Creek Pack have changed. Last fall, famous wolf no. 9F was driven from the pack she founded, probably by her daughter 18F, who is now alpha female. Now 9's former mate in gone too. Back in 1995, no. 8 was the yearling wolf from the Crystal Creek Pack who waited by the Rose Creek pen for the release of no. 9 and her 8 pups. Since last fall there has been great change in the leaders of Yellowstone wolf packs. First, no. 9 left Rose Creek. Last April no. 14F, long-time alpha female of the Soda Butte Pack, was killed by a moose. In May, the Druid alpha female, no. 40F was killed by her sisters and one or more of her daughters. As springtime wore on, no. 5F of the Crystal Creek Pack has slowly left, or been driven, from her declining pack in the Pelican Valley. Now no. 8M is gone. Number 5F and 9F are still alive, however. Tenacious no. 9 seems to have a new litter, and, according to Mike Jimenez, she also has a "large gray" companion. No. 9's probable new pack is in the mountains between Yellowstone and Cody -- the Absaroka Range. (Visit Ralph Maughan's website by clicking here.) |
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| BISON KILLER VERDICT News Brief WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. -- A jury has found Dale Koelzer innocent of illegal hunting when he killed a bison on his property near Duck Creek last September. However, the jury convicted him of wasting the meat by leaving it rotting on the ground. Koelzer was fined $320 and may yet lose his hunting fishing privileges for killing the bison on his property next to Yellowstone National Park. Koelzer continues to be unapologetic about the killing, declaring that he shot the animal because it charged his truck. |
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| PARK WORKER SURVIVES
CAPSIZING News Brief The Billings Gazette has reported that a Yellowstone National Park employee survived a capsizing on Buffalo Bill Reservoir on June 29. Kevin Reinhardt's canoe flipped over and he was in the frigid water for 45 minutes before he was rescued by the only other boat on the lake. Wind-whipped waves were the cause of the accident. Lake waters in the Yellowstone Park region are very cold in the early summer, as they are fed by snowmelt. Over the years, accidents on Yellowstone Lake have led to a number of deaths, many because of hypothermia. All boaters should take necessary safety precautions when plying lake waters in the Yellowstone region. |
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