Where is the line between gnarly and disturbing? It’s a somewhat subjective matter as to whether a photo or video is informative, cautionary, exploitative, gruesome or something else.
Most news outlets have some sort of editorial review or vetting process for content that might be considered inappropriate. But such policies are hardly foolproof. And the boundaries between news and raw footage continue to shift as it becomes easier to post and share digital content.
Before completion of the Nothern Pacific’s transcontinental railroad in 1883, many early Yellowstone visitors often came long distances by stagecoach—and that wasn’t always safe. In 1872 a young Englishman named Sidford Hamp, who had spent the summer working on the second Hayden expedition documenting Yellowstone Park, told about a stagecoach robbery in a letter to his mother.
Most of the earliest Yellowstone National Park tourists came from Montana because that’s where the access rivers ran. The north entrance via the Yellowstone River was 60 miles from the farm town of Bozeman, and the west entrance via the Madison was 90 miles from the gold rush town of Virginia City. Both rivers flow through rugged canyons that made travel difficult. In fact, the Madison Canyon was so bad that early travelers chose to cross the continental divide twice to avoid it. But that was a small sacrifice. Passage over the Raynolds and Targhee Passes was relatively easy. Besides, traveling this route provided the reward of a stop at Henry’s Lake.
While there’s still time before Friday for the volcanic system beneath Yellowstone National Park to explode in a cataclysmic eruption that brings about the end of the world, you probably shouldn’t cancel your weekend plans.
“Yellowstone is not behaving out of the norm right now,” said Jacob B. Lowenstern, the scientist in charge of the U.S. Geological Survey’sYellowstone Volcano Observatory.
That’s probably a relief to most, but it might be a disappointment to the conspiracy theorists, end-times prophets and film producers who in the last few years have postulated or predicted an eruption by Friday.
When the Washburn expedition returned from exploring the upper Yellowstone in 1870, they confirmed the rumors of the wonders there. Interest in the area that is now Yellowstone National Park surged when people learned it really did contain a grand canyon, a giant lake, geysers and petrified forests.
Washburn and his companions returned to civilization in late summer—too late to mount another expedition to the Yellowstone plateau where blizzards could trap travelers in September. But in 1871—a year before the national park was created—a small group of men set off “to see Wonderland.”
Former Sen. Alan Simpson has a message for America’s youth.
“Stop Instagramming your breakfast and tweeting your first-world problems and getting on YouTube so you can see Gangnam Style,” the 81-year-old deficit hawk warns in a new viral video making the rounds online.
It’s the latest effort from one of America’s funniest elder statesmen to reach young people and convince them to take an interest in taming federal budget deficits and reducing the national debt.
A Texas woman is rejoicing after a stranger returned a ring she lost nearly a year ago in Grand Teton National Park.
Toni Leigh Chandler said her faith in humanity was restored after she opened a package containing her Texas A&M University graduation ring, which she lost just before Christmas on a vacation to the Tetons.
A group of professionals and businessmen visited the geysers in 1872—long before the era of hot water heaters. The trip was chronicled by Harry Norton, who published the first Yellowstone travel guide in Virginia City in 1873. Norton called one of his companions, who owned telegraph lines between Deer Lodge and Bozeman, “Prince Telegraph.” Here’s Norton’s description of the Prince’s experiments in geyserland.
Once we made it to Huckleberry Ridge, we found evidence of recent bear presence, with numerous piles of bear scat filled with berries on and along the trail. The Internet description of the hike had indicated that when the huckleberries ripen, the ridge is a favorite feeding spot for grizzly bears, and to this we found evidence of truth!
Today most Yellowstone tourists believe that nature is fragile. They wouldn’t collect a leaf or pick a flower for fear of causing irreparable damage. But early tourists shattered geological features to gather specimens, slaughtered animals for fun, and experimented with geysers.
They reported these things without the slightest embarrassment.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
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