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Category Archives: People

‘Wapiti Are the Stupidest Brutes’—An 1874 elk hunt with the Earl of Dunraven

Most early Yellowstone National Park tourists came from the adjacent territories, because getting to the park was too expensive for those living far away. But a few wealthy adventurers from distant places found the time and money to make the long trip. Hunting, which was perfectly legal until the Army took over administration of Yellowstone Park in 1886, was a prime attraction.

‘Today’ co-hosts Geist and Roker discuss upcoming trip to Yellowstone

When NBC’s “Today” broadcasts a live, 3-hour morning show from Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday, millions of viewers around the country will get a chance to learn about grizzly bears and geysers, gray wolves and wilderness survival. But like many “Today” viewers, some of the show’s anchors have either never visited Yellowstone, or done so only briefly, and years ago.

The story behind the 1870 naming of Tower Falls in Yellowstone

Historian and writer M. Mark Miller recounts how a suspicion about a tribute to a girlfriend lies at the heart of the story behind how Tower Falls in Yellowstone National Park was named.

10 fantastic Instagram photos of Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks

The U.S. Department of Interior has been showing off your public lands and wildlife over the last several months with an amazing collection of photos on the agency’s Instagram feed. While there’s no doubt America’s national parks and other wild places lend themselves to terrific snapshots, the quality of images on the Interior Department’s Instagram feed is surprisingly fantastic.

White House marks National Park Week

With National Park Week running from Monday through Friday, April 22 to 26, the White House blog took note of the annual tradition by reposting a video from President Barack Obama’s 2009 family vacation to Yellowstone National Park. According to the White House, Obama first visited Yellowstone “on a summer-long cross country trip he took as…

The first written description of Yellowstone geysers in 1827

By the early 1800s, trappers were scouring the Rocky Mountains for beaver. Evidence of their travel is sketchy, but we know that trapper brigades reached the Yellowstone plateau by 1826. An anonymous account of a trapper’s adventures in what is now Yellowstone National Park was published in The Philadelphia Gazette and Advertiser.

Diverse range of historic vehicles have traveled roads of Yellowstone Park

How visitors have traveled in Yellowstone and other national parks has tended to reflect the culture and technology of the times. The National Park Service’s collection of historic vehicles in Gardiner, Mont. includes 30 vehicles, ranging from stagecoaches to buses to trucks and even a fire engine.

The collection, believed to be one of the largest of any National Park Service Unit, is not available for viewing by the general public, although the Park Service plans to someday exhibit the collection if funding becomes available.

A Cloudburst of the rarest jewels: Fountain Geyser described in 1905

I ran back a few steps, then turned a caught my breath; for at that very instant, up from the pool which I had just beheld so beautiful and tranquil, there rose on great outburst of sublimity, such a stupendous mass of water as I had never imagined possible in vertical form. I knew that it was boiling and that a deluge of those scalding drops would probably mean death, but I was powerless to move.

How I Got That Shot: Three Musketeers

While it is not unusual for a grizzly mom to have two cubs in Yellowstone National Park, three cubs is pretty rare, and a huge handful for her. Watching over three cubs is a challenge, as wildlife watchers learned first-hand shortly after this photo was taken.

The mother bear had been seen frequently in the area between Mary Bay and Lake Hotel. In fact, she had a regular route that she took in a big circle between those two locations. If you watched long enough, you began to learn her preferred path and habits.

An 1880s tale of catching and cooking a fish on same line in Yellowstone

Many Yellowstone Park tourists have described places where an angler can catch a fish and cook it in a nearby hot spring without taking it off the hook, but few report actually doing it. Henry J. Winser described performing the feat in his 1883 guide for tourists.