The Yellowstone
Net Newspaper Wednesday October 29, 1997 Vol. 1 No. 9 |
||||
|
MORE NEWS The Yellowstone Net Newspaper is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays ARCHIVES DISCUSSION FORUMS Go to Yellowstone Net Home Page Note: In-house stories are signified by the abbreviation YNET. Otherwise, the stories herein are from outside sources, to which proper credit is given.
Publisher / Editor Staff Writers |
Six wolves which recently escaped from a pen inYellowstone have been recaptured. The wolves had originally been held in the retaining pen, which they escaped from on October 15, for having killed livestock. They were recaptured after leaving Yellowstone again, although there was no evidence that they had returned to killing livestock. Recapturing the wolves may have spared them from death, as two known livestock kills is just cause for destroying the wolves under the guidelines of the Wold Reintroduction Program. -------------------- According to a report this week by the Billings Gazette, the leaking sewer plant at Old Faithful may not receive the necessary funding for much-needed repairs. Some $5 million are needed to repair the aging sewer plant, which is threatening to contaminate the underground natural water system which feeds the geysers of the Upper Basin, including world-famous Old Faithful Geyser. Money for repairs on the sewer plant is included in the Interior Bill, which includes the proposed National Park System budget for next year. However, due to the controversy over the buyout of the New World Mine near Yellowstone (see Monday's edition of the Yellowstone Net Newspaper), there is a distinct possibility that President Clinton may veto the bill. -------------------- The Yellowstone fall season is quickly drawing to a close. All the gates to the Park (except the north gate via Gardiner, Montana) will close this coming Monday, November 3. The only campground currently open, Madison, will close on November 2.
|
A Weekly Column Every Wednesday Clint Wilkes will offer a story of interest to everyone who loves Yellowstone and the surrounding area. Some stories will be humorous, others will illustrate a point. You the reader are invited to respond by email to these stories. YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (YNET) -- In this my first column for our newspaper, I can only think of one appropriate topic: Irene Passfield, my favorite person working in the Park.Irene and her husband Bill (the luckiest guy on earth) are mainstays at the Roosevelt Lodge village, having worked there for almost ten years. Irene's presence is everywhere. She manages the gift shop in the Lodge, but can also oftentimes be found riding shotgun on one of the cookout wagons (the Roosevelt cookout is the best meal in the Park!). Bill supervises all the maintenance for Roosevelt village. Their home is a trailer behind the Lodge. Originally from Arizona, Irene and Bill went to work in Yellowstone following Bill's retirement from the oil industry. I met Irene and Bill in the summer of 1994 while I was writing my book, College Guide to Summer Jobs in Yellowstone. They were very helpful and I knew at once that Irene and Bill would be friends forever. I especially enjoyed listening to Irene tell jokes and stories as she rode shotgun on the Roosevelt cookout wagon. In 1996 I was doing a book signing at a Barnes and Nobles. A young man in his early thirties approached my table and asked if he could talk to me for a moment after the event. He mentioned he had worked at Roosevelt, and I was immediately interested. After the signing, we went over to the coffee shop and sat down. He looked and me and said, "Clint, I know you are friends with Irene and Bill. You know, I think Irene is the most wonderful person I have ever met." He then went on to tell me that one day during his summer at Roosevelt (he had worked as a wrangler) he had volunteered to be one of five people needed to take a Red Cross safety course. The morning of the course, he sat down beside Irene. When the literature was handed out, he turned to her and said (as he had done so many times previously in similar situations), "Irene, I lost my glasses. Could you help me out with this literature?" "I had been fooling people forever," this young man said to me in the coffee shop. "But the next day after the Red Cross class that summer at Roosevelt, Irene came up to me and said, 'For the rest of the summer you will report to Bill in the maintenance office every Tuesday and Thursday from 7 until 9 in the morning. I've already gotten approval for you to be his designated assistant on those days. I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU HOW TO READ!' " This young man then related to me how Irene had taught him to read, and how it had changed his life. He was a sophomore in college now, and was planning on becoming a medic. As I watched that young man walk away that day, I wondered to myself how many more lives Irene Passfield has blessed during her many years working at Roosevelt.
|
||
