A still frame from a video shot by Brad Josephs of a grizzly bear sniffing a camera. (©Brad Josephs)

From Staff Reports

Grizzly bears are among the most popular and watched-for animals in Yellowstone National Park. Millions of visitors each year deploy cameras, binoculars and spotting scopes in hopes of seeing one of the great beasts.

For those that yearn for a close-up, first-hand experience, some new footage by an Alaskan biologist offers an amazing look at what it looks like to be food (or at least a potential curiosity) to a grizzly bear.

Brad Josephs, a naturalist interpreter specializing in bear biology and ecology, was guiding a trip in Alaska when he set up a GoPro camera. The small, rugged video cameras are often used by outdoor sports enthusiasts to capture extreme feats of skiing or cycling. Josephs used a rubber band to strap the camera to a rock.

He captured footage of an older mother grizzly and her 3-year-old cub, according to his website. One of the bears was curious about the camera and gave it a through sniff and overal “mouthing.” The resulting footage is one-of-a-kind, and about as close as most anyone would want to get to an actual set of grizzly bear teeth in the wild.

The Beartooth Highway is a favorite scenic byway among thousands of visitors to the greater Yellowstone area. (photo courtesy of Montana Travel and Tourism)

From Staff Reports

The Beartooth Highway from the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park to Red Lodge, Mont. is scheduled to open at 9 a.m. Friday, according to a statement released Wednesday by the National Park Service.

The scenic, high-elevation portion of US-212 links Red Lodge with the Montana gateway communities of Cooke City and Silver Gate. Spring road clearing and maintenance is conducted by the Montana Department of Transportation and the National Park Service.

Inside Yellowstone, the road over Dunraven Pass linking Canyon Village, Tower Fall and Tower Junction also opens for the season Friday morning.

The two routes were the last sections of road in and around Yellowstone to be plowed this spring, with all other park roads and all park entrances already having opened for the season.

Most seasonal visitor services in the park will be open in time for the Memorial Day weekend.

Saturday also marks the opening of fishing season in the park.  Details are available online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit, by consulting the park newspaper handed out at entrance stations, or by asking the staff at visitor centers and information stations in and near the park.

The National Weather Service forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms for the three-day holiday weekend, with high temperatures in the 50s and low 60s, and overnight low temperatures near freezing.  Spring visitors to the park are encouraged to have flexible travel plans and to be prepared for a wide range of weather conditions.

All communities near and on the way to Yellowstone are open all year, offering a wide range of recreation opportunities, activities, and services for visitors to the region.

Information on lodging, camping, services, and activities near the park in Montana including the towns of Gardiner, West Yellowstone, Cooke City and Silver Gate, is available by contacting their respective Chambers of Commerce or from Travel Montana at 800-847-4868 or http://visitmt.com.  Information on visiting Wyoming including the communities of Cody and Jackson is available from their Chambers of Commerce, or by contacting Wyoming Travel and Tourism at 800-225-5996, or on the web at http://www.wyomingtourism.org.  Idaho travel information is available by calling the Idaho Tourism Division at 800-VISITID or online at http://www.visitidaho.org.

There will be no daytime travel delays or overnight road closures due to road construction during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  Starting Tuesday morning, May 28, visitors should expect construction delays of up to 30 minutes on the road between Tower Fall and Canyon.  This section of road will also be closed every night between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. due to construction.

Updated Yellowstone National Park road information is available 24 hours a day by calling 307-344-2117. Information on current conditions in the park is also available online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/conditions.htm.

An early photo by William Henry Jackson shows elk killed during a hunt similar to one described by the Earl of Dunraven. (Yellowstone Digital Slide File)

By M. Mark Miller

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.

One such traveler was Windham Thomas Wyndam-Quin, the fourth Earl of Dunraven. A fabulously wealthy Irish nobleman, Lord Dunraven hired several men to accompany him. One of them was Fredrick Bottler, a rancher who settled in the Paradise Valley on the Yellowstone River in 1868. Bottler was familiar with Yellowstone’s wonders, and served as an outfitter, guide and hunter for several early expeditions.

Dunraven, who had been a war correspondent for British newspapers, was an astute observer with a droll wit. In addition to his stories about watching geysers and hunting big game, he offers humorous advice on how to pack a mule, and tells about roasting fresh elk meat over a campfire.

He wrote several books about his travel adventures. Here’s his description of elk hunting in Yellowstone from The Great Divide, one of his most popular works.

We wound our way towards the head of the valley, half asleep, for the day was very hot. Before long, I jerked my horse on to his haunches and slid quietly off. The others followed my example without a word, for they too had caught a glimpse of the dark brown forms of some wapiti (elk) feeding quietly in the wood. Bottler, in his enthusiasm, seized me violently by the arm and hurried into the timber, ejaculating at every glimpse of the forms moving through the trees.

“There they go! There they go! Shoot! Now then! There’s a chance.” At the time he was dragging me along, and I could no more shoot than fly. At last I shook myself clear of him, and, getting a fair, easy shot at a large fat doe, fired and killed her.

Wapiti are the stupidest brutes in creation; and, instead of making off at once, the others all bunched up and stared about them, so that we got two more before they made up their minds to clear out. There was a fine stag in the herd, but, as is usually the case, he managed to get himself well among the hinds out of harm’s way, and none of us could get a chance at him.

Bottler and I followed his tracks for an hour, but could not come up with him; and, finding that he had taken clear up the mountain, we returned to the scene of action. There we found the rest of the party busily engaged in cutting up the huge deer. One of them was a hind, in first-rate condition and as fat as butter. We were very glad of fresh meat, and, as the ground was very suitable, determined to camp right there, and send some of the flesh down to the main camp in the morning. We pitched our Lilliputian tents at the foot of one of a hundred huge hemlocks, set a fire, and proceeded to make ourselves comfortable for the night.

We were all smoking round the fire—a most attentive audience, watching with much interest the culinary feats which Bottler was performing—when we were startled by a most unearthly sound.

Bottler knew it well, but none of us strangers had ever heard a wapiti stag roaring before, and it is no wonder we were astonished at the noise. The wapiti bellows forth one great roar, commencing with a hollow, harsh, unnatural sound, and ending in a shrill screech like the whistle of a locomotive.

In about ten minutes this fellow called again, a good deal nearer, and the third time he was evidently close to camp, so we started out. Advancing cautiously, we presently, through a bush, distinguished in the gloom I saw a body and antlered head of a real monarch of the forest as he stalked out into an open glade and stared with astonishment at our fire.

He looked perfectly magnificent. He was a splendid beast, and his huge bulk, looming large in the uncertain twilight, appeared gigantic. He stood without betraying the slightest sign of fear or hesitation; but, as if searching with proud disdain for the intruder that had dared to invade his solitude, he slowly swept round the branching spread of his antlers, his neck extended and his head a little thrown back, and snuffed the air.

I could not see the fore sight of the little muzzle-loader, but luck attended the aim, for the bullet struck high up the shoulder; and, shot through the spine, the largest wapiti stag that I had ever killed fell stone-dead in his tracks.

It was early in the season, and his hide was in first rate condition, a rich glossy brown on the sides and jet black along the back and on the legs; so we turned to, cut off his head and skinned him; and, by the time we had done that and had packed the head and hide into camp, it was pitch dark, when we were ready for supper and blankets.

Read more tales of early travel in Yellowstone, like this excerpt from Dunraven’s The Great Divide, in M. Mark Miller’s Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales.

Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk speaks Monday to tourism business leaders in Cody, Wyo. (Ruffin Prevost/Yellowstone Gate)

By Ruffin Prevost

CODY, WYO. — Federal budget cuts required under the Congressional sequester will result in relatively minor cuts in services this summer for visitors to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. But park managers say they are not optimistic about the financial outlook for next year and beyond.

“I think we’re looking at long-term reductions over time, and we’re planning for this to continue into the next fiscal year,” Grand Teton Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott told a group of Cody, Wyo. tourism business leaders Monday.

Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the park’s annual budget this year is down approximately $4 million from its recent peak, and “it may be the new normal” as Congress focuses on reigning in spending.

Grand Teton National Park Superintendent Mary Gibson Scott speaks Monday to tourism business leaders in Cody, Wyo. (Ruffin Prevost/Yellowstone Gate)

Scott and Wenk spoke at an annual National Parks Day luncheon, a 60-year tradition that sees park managers offer a preview each spring of their outlook on everything from visitation trends to road repairs.

Wenk praised local efforts in Cody and Jackson, Wyo. to cover costs for plowing snow from park entrance roads after the sequester required a delay in National Park Service plowing efforts.

Despite budget cuts, a contract has been finalized for repairs on a section of badly damaged road near Lake Butte Overlook, Wenk said.

One lane of the road near Nine Mile, between the East Entrance and Fishing Bridge, washed out in spring 2011. Temporary traffic lights that have managed the one-lane passage will remain, and work could begin within about two weeks, Wenk said. Night closures from 11 p.m. until 7 a.m., if necessary, will be limited to no more than two weeks in mid-July.

Scott said road resurfacing north of Colter Bay will mean delays of up to 30 minutes this summer.

She said advance bookings so far this year in Grand Teton are “very strong.”

Scott encouraged residents to review a Snake River management plan that will govern fishing, rafting and other activities on the river and its tributaries.

She also said a main focus in the months ahead will remain finding a way to purchase inholdings within Grand Teton owned by the state of Wyoming. Under a plan negotiated with the state, the Park Service is looking for $91 million to buy a square-mile of state-owned land near Gros Ventre road.

Wenk said he was “cautiously optimistic” that a new winter-use plan to manage snowmobile and snow coach travel in the park will continue to receive consensus support and avoid any late legal challenges. A final rule on winter use should be in place by the end of the summer, he said.

In an effort to help address the ongoing budget issues, Wenk said park managers will continue to examine ways to raise more revenue, including a recent push to revise commercial activity permits in the park. The Park Service has recently increased fees for campgrounds and fishing licenses, he said, and will look at entry fees and other revenue sources, including a larger share of concessions revenues.

“We have to look at the revenue side of what we’re doing,” Wenk said.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer appear recently on the ‘Today’ show.

From Staff Reports

CODY, WYO. — After weeks of planning and a high-profile campaign to build viewership for a scheduled live broadcast from Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone National Park, breaking news meant that ‘Today’ show staff would instead cover the aftermath of a devastating tornado in Oklahoma rather than a live remote segment in the park Tuesday.

Medical examiners in Oklahoma City were reporting late Monday night that more than 50 people, including 20 children, died when a huge tornado ripped through the city.

Megan Kopf Stackhouse, a spokeswoman for the ‘Today’ show, said via email Monday that show staffers were flying from Hawaii to Oklahoma, rather than traveling to Yellowstone, as planned.

Further details on when the show might follow up on plans to broadcast from Yellowstone were not immediately available. With producers and other crew members having already traveled into the park to film segments on wolves, bears and other topics, it seemed likely that the popular NBC morning program would schedule another trip to the park later this year.

Speakimg to a group of tourism industry leaders in Cody on Monday before the ‘Today’ show detour was announced, Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said the town’s efforts to help plow the East Gate of Yellowstone were probably a contributing factor in attracting the ‘Today’ show to Yellowstone.

Destin Harrell, a wildlife biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, second from left, helps bird-watchers find sage grouse last week on a Spring Into Yellowstone excursion east of Cody, Wyo. (Ruffin Prevost/Yellowstone Gate)

By Ruffin Prevost

CODY, WYO. — Despite persistent rains and intermittent thunderstorms from Wednesday through Sunday, organizers of the first Spring Into Yellowstone Festival are proclaiming their inaugural bird and wildlife watching event a success, and have announced plans for a second event next year.

More than 140 people from 14 states and three countries participated in the inaugural Spring into Yellowstone Birding and Wildlife Festival last week, said Barb Cozzens, northwest Wyoming director for the Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Nearly a dozen partners and sponsoring organizations supported the event, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Cody Chamber of Commerce, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Wyoming Game and Fish Department and National Park Service.

Cozzens said a mix of hardcore bird-watchers and others interested in viewing the unique combinations of wildlife and habitat in the Bighorn Basin turned out for the event.

That included about a dozen curious bird-watchers form Michigan, Cody and elsewhere who rallied for a 4:30 a.m. call on Friday to view greater-sage grouse between Cody and Clark, Wyo.

Destin Harrell, a wildlife biologist with the Bureau of Land Management, led the bird-watchers in a pre-dawn excursion to take in the unique and quirky sage grouse mating ritual, wrapping up in May as the male birds strut, cluck, whistle, pop and whoot in search of a female partner.

“These clear, calm mornings are very important for sage grouse, so that popping and whooshing sound you hear will carry, and advertise for a female for them to mate with,” Harrell told members of his group Friday in the pre-dawn twilight east of Cody.

The sage grouse, warranted but not listed as an endangered species, uses more than 1,000 distinct calls in its efforts to attract a mate, Harrell said, as a a mellifluous cacophony of vesper sparrows, sage grouse and other birds greeted the Wyoming dawn along Chapman Bench, an unheralded birders’ paradise that hosts rare shorebirds and endangered sage grouse, plus a few dozen other species.

Harrell’s trip was one of several field trips led by supporting agencies and volunteer organizations focused on the region’s birds, wildlife, geology and history.  Events ranged from guided tours in Yellowstone National Park to expeditions to view grizzly bears in the Shoshone National Forest and to see d grouse on public lands near Cody, Wyo.

“I was pleased to hear that the inaugural festival was a successful event,” said Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead. “Wyoming has so much to offer, and this event is another way for visitors to enjoy our state.”

Luke Seitz, a bird-watcher from the Cornell School of Ornithology who led several field trips aid that the “incredible array of bird life and wildlife on the Absaroka-Beartooth Front absolutely amazes me”

joe Alexander, supervisor for the Shoshone National Forest, said that Spring Into Yellowstone was a “a wonderful opportunity to explore the public lands in the Cody area” via a “unique mix of partners (who) came together to celebrate the abundant wildlife in our area.”

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

“Today” show anchors Willie Geist, left, Natalie Morales, Matt Lauer and Al Roker will broadcast Tuesday from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. (NBC photo by Peter Krame)

By Ruffin Prevost

CODY, WYO. — 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.

The production will require a crew of approximately 70 people, with extensive equipment stationed around Old Faithful. But park managers are pleased at the chance to share information about Yellowstone’s resources and issues with a viewership that includes many who might never get a chance to visit in person.

“This is a great opportunity for us to reach some people who may have a limited understanding of this iconic place, and of our ongoing efforts to keep Yellowstone special,” park spokesman Al Nash said.

Even some of those who have spent most of their lives working in or near Yellowstone would admit to having what Nash politely calls “a limited understanding” of the park’s 2.2 million acres of dynamic landscape shaped by geology, weather and wildlife.

And like many “Today” viewers, some of the show’s anchors have either never visited Yellowstone, or done so only briefly, and years ago.

“About 10 years ago, I went on a fly fishing trip there and was stunned by the beauty of the place,” said Willie Geist, who is a co-host on “Today’s” 9 a.m. hour as well as on MNSBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Willie Geist, left, kisses Al Roker during a “Today” show segment when the two co-hosts were clowning around as part of a Valentine’s Day report on flavored lip balms. (NBC photo)

Geist and “Today” co-host and weather anchor Al Roker spoke by phone Thursday to discuss their 5-day trip across the country next week to visit Yellowstone and other summer vacation destinations, including Hawaii, Chicago, Orlando, Fla. and the Jersey Shore.

Geist returned to Yellowstone earlier this month for a day to shoot a segment where he searched for grizzly bears with Casey Anderson, founder of Montana Grizzly Encounter, a Bozeman bear rescue and education facility.

“You know, part of you is hoping you won’t see a grizzly bear, but we did, so it will be much better for the piece,” which will air Tuesday, he said. “We saw three.”

Roker, who has never been to Yellowstone, said he had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast for Old Faithful, which calls for an overnight low on Monday of 27 degrees.

“It’s going to be, obviously, chilly in Yellowstone, but it’s going to be fun,” he said. “It’s going to be brisk.”

The trip schedule won’t allow for much geyser-gazing or wolf-watching, Roker said, and bringing the family is not a good idea.

“This is work. As it is, it’s going to be a major undertaking to transport the entire ‘Today’ show into five really diverse locations,” he said. “As much as it sounds like a great time, it’s kind of hard to do the show and have your kids in tow.”

“We finish, get on a plane and fly out,” Roker said.

Roker should hope his pilot pays closer attention to Yellowstone’s location on a map than he has.

The two co-hosts gamely agreed to a 5-question multiple-choice Yellowstone pop quiz, and both answered incorrectly when asked, “In which state is Yellowstone located?” Geist chose “almost entirely inside Montana,” while Roker picked “split about equally between Montana and Wyoming.” (Roughly 96 percent of Yellowstone is in Wyoming, while 3 percent is in Montana and 1 percent is in Idaho.)

Both co-hosts picked the right choice, “stand your ground,” for the most important question: “What should you do if a grizzly bear charges at you?”

“That’s a rule that sounds easy on paper,” Geist said. “But when they charge you, it becomes a little more  difficult with an 800-pound grizzly bear.”

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

Do you know more about Yellowstone National Park than Willie Geist and Al Roker?

How does your Yellowstone knowledge stack up against “Today” co-hosts Willie Geist and Al Roker? Take our quick, 5-question quiz and find out.

1: Which of these animals is not native to Yellowstone?
a) grizzly bear     b) wolverine     c) mountain goat     d) Yellowstone cutthroat trout
Geist: b     Roker: b     Answer: c

2: What is the combined population of the five gateway towns around Yellowstone?
a) about 2,300     b) about 23,000     c) about 230,000     d) none of the above
Geist: b     Roker: d     Answer: b

3: What should you do if a grizzly bear charges you?
a) stop, drop and roll     b) climb a tree     c) run for cover     d) stand your ground
Geist: d     Roker: d     Answer: d

4: Before the National Park Service was created in 1916, the wildlife and resources of Yellowstone were protected by:
a) U.S. Army     b) Montana Stockgrowers Association     c) Sierra Club     d) U.S. Forest Service
Geist: d     Roker: d     Answer: a

5) Which state is Yellowstone located in?
a) almost entirely inside Montana     b) almost entirely in Wyoming     c) split about equally between Montana and Wyoming     d) split about equally between Montana, Wyoming and Idaho
Geist: a     Roker: c     Answer: b

Total correct answers: Geist-2     Roker-1

“Today” show anchors Willie Geist, from left, Al Roker, Savannah Guthrie, Matt Lauer and Natalie Morales will broadcast Tuesday morning from Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. (NBC photo by Peter Krame)

By Ruffin Prevost

CODY, WYO. — As many as 3.5 million visitors typically pass through Yellowstone National Park over the course of a busy year. On Tuesday morning, more than 5 million “Today” show viewers are expected to enjoy the sights and sounds of Yellowstone with their morning coffee.

All five anchors of the NBC show will be broadcasting from Old Faithful as “Today” goes on the road before Memorial Day to visit five great American summer vacation destinations in five days.

The trip kicks off Monday in Hawaii, before continuing to Yellowstone, Chicago, Orlando, Fla., and wrapping up Friday at the Jersey Shore.

“They are all places people will want to go this summer, and they are all iconic, each with their own personality,” “Today” executive producer Don Nash said by telephone Thursday.

Show anchors Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker, Natalie Morales and Willie Geist will all broadcast together from each of the five locations.

“We’ve never taken all five anchors on a trip this ambitious before,” Nash said. “I know they’re all excited, and the crews are excited.”

Those crews are made up of a small army of about 70 technical, artistic and support personnel required to pull off a live 3-hour broadcast from one of the most remote spots in the country.

Nash said he’s hoping for an eruption of Old Faithful near the start of the broadcast, and expects at least two eruptions from the reliable geyser over the course of the show. Crews have also been working on segments specific to Yellowstone, including ones on grizzly bears, wolves, wilderness survival and federal budget cuts known as the sequester.

One segment will look at the effects expected this summer as a result of the sequester on Yellowstone and other national parks, Nash said.

Rick Hoeninghausen, vice president for sales and marketing at Xanterra Parks & Resorts, the park’s primary lodging and activities concessioner, said the show was also planning a cooking segment featuring staff from the Snake River Grill in Jackson, Wyo., as well as a piece featuring Boy Scouts from Gardiner, Mont.

A ‘big deal’

Hoeninghausen has been working with staffers from “Today” to coordinate lodging, meals, equipment staging and other logistics around Old Faithful. The production will occupy nearly two dozen hotel rooms at Old Faithful, plus more in West Yellowstone, and will use satellite trucks, lights, generators and other equipment, he said.

“There’s going to be a lot of stuff,” he said. “This is a big deal.”

NBC’s “Today” show, hosted by Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer, generates a reported $500 million annually for the network. (NBC photo by Peter Kramer)

Crews are expected to begin staging equipment over the weekend and will set up lights and sets Monday, working overnight to be able to broadcast live at 5 a.m. Mountain Time on Tuesday, he said.

The main anchor desk will be located between the Old Faithful Visitor Center and the geyser itself. Another live broadcast spot will be outside near a stand of trees, with additional broadcast points in the Old Faithful Inn on the second floor balcony overlooking the lobby, and on the second-floor deck, Hoeninghausen said.

Curious Yellowstone fans may be able to watch workers as they set up by keeping an eye on the Old Faithful webcam, he said.

Also watching over the “Today” show production will be National Park Service staff members with Yellowstone’s permitting and public affairs offices, said park spokesman Al Nash.

“When it comes to any kind of a production, whether it’s a one- or two-person news crew that comes in locally or something the size of a three-hour live television broadcast, our basic focus is the same,” Nash said. “Our job is always to protect what is special about Yellowstone and minimize any impact to visitors.”

He said the “Today” crews have been “great to deal with” because they have experience broadcasting from remote locations and “understand our need to protect the place and to minimize the show’s impact to visitors.”

Nash said the broadcast is a rare chance to reach millions of viewers who will learn about key Yellowstone topics directly from park staffers, including grizzly bear biologist Kerry Gunther, Yellowstone Wolf Project leader Doug Smith and geologist Hank Heasler.

News business

Federal laws require the Park Service to charge a fee for commercial productions shot in Yellowstone, Nash said. While news agencies covering breaking events are typically exempt from permitting and fees, NBC will be assessed a fee because of the scope of the production and the demands on staff time, he said.

“But we certainly don’t treat this NBC news-produced program like we would a Hollywood film,” he said.

Whatever the fees turn out to be, NBC probably has room in the show’s budget.

According to New York Times media reporter Brian Stetler’s book “Top of the Morning: Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV,” the “Today” show generates an estimated $500 million in annual revenue for NBC, allowing the network to pay Matt Lauer a reported $25 million per year. Stetler writes that “Today” is the most lucrative property at NBC News, and effectively subsidizes programs like “Meet the Press” and “NBC Nightly News.”

Executive producer Don Nash took one of his first trips as a “Today” producer in 1995, when Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric hosted from Old Faithful. It was around that time that “Today” began an incredible streak of more than 16 years atop the morning show ratings.

But Nash, the producer, said the trip to Yellowstone wasn’t a ratings stunt, despite “Today”finally breaking its streak last year and falling behind “Good Morning America” after the tumultuous firing of co-host Ann Curry.

The “Today” show will broadcast live from 5-8 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21 from Old Faithful. Producers have invited members of the public to turn out in person to watch the production.

Perhaps not coincidental, though, is the timing of the Nielsen ratings sweeps period—a month-long interval that measures ratings for key demographics, and that can mean millions for a lucrative show like “Today.” The May sweeps period ends Wednesday, one day after “Today’s” broadcast from Yellowstone.

The production schedule won’t leave much time for sightseeing, as crews will rush after the broadcast wraps to pack up and fly off to Chicago, but Nash said he is still looking forward to seeing Yellowstone again.

“That park is one of my favorite places in the world,” he said.

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

A Buffalo Bill Cody impersonator waves to the crowd in the town named for him during the 2012 Stampede Parade in Cody, Wyo. (Yellowstone Gate/Ruffin Prevost)

By Ruffin Prevost

CODY, WYO. — As part of its marketing campaign to attract visitors to Cody, Wyo. and the surrounding area, the Park County Travel Council is promoting William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody as “the real Most Interesting Man in the World,” playing on the popularity of a fictitious hero form a series of beer commercials.

“Visit the town he created and land he loved,” says the Buffalo Bill travel ad running in publications read by likely visitors to Yellowstone National Park, including Yellowstone Gate.

After more than a century, the identity of the town and the legend of the man remain intertwined, and are repackaged and presented to visitors and residents as a mix of history and heritage, myth and marketing.

But a historian overseeing an exhaustive research project into Buffalo Bill’s papers says the real story of how the town came to be is more nuanced and complex than most people might think.

“History is complicated, and often there are not black-and-white answers to the questions of our shared past,” said Jeremy Johnston, managing editor of the Papers of William F. Cody at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.

Johnston spoke Wednesday about the conflicting historical perspectives of Cody and his partner, George T. Beck, in the establishment of the town of Cody.

While the town is named after Cody, who is most widely credited as founding it, some historians argue that co-founder and partner Beck deserves as much or more credit, Johnston said.

Beck and a Sheridan, Wyo. banker, Horace Alger, had been looking into business ventures based on irrigation in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

Carey Act

The federal Carey Act of 1894, sponsored by Wyoming Sen. Joseph Carey, allowed private developers to create irrigation systems in the semi-arid West and sell the water rights to settlers.

The history of William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody is intertwined with that of the Yellowstone National Park gateway town that bears his name. (Photo courtesy of Buffalo Bill Center of the West)

Cody was probably recruited into a plan to do just that by Alger. Beck, Cody, Alger and others founded the Shoshone Land and Irrigation Co. in 1895, Johnston said, in a bid to cash in under the Carey Act, selling water rights in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin.

Popular legend has Buffalo Bill creating the town of Cody as a tourist oasis to help share the wonder of Yellowstone with the world. But the truth is that Cody was founded at the site of a canyon that proved ideal for building a dam that was key to Buffalo Bill’s ambitious plan to irrigate 400,000 acres between the Shoshone River and the Bighorn Mountains.

Most of the early stories Cody told about the town and irrigation project’s initial days ignored the difficult work involved, and “instead focused on the scenic Bighorn Basin and its healthy environs in an effort to recruit settlers,” Johnston said.

Cody told a theatrical and compelling tale of the first time he saw the Bighorn Basin, Johnston said, after an eye infection had left him unable to see clearly.

“While visiting Deadwood (S.D.), a doctor prescribed a whiskey bath for his eyes. He didn’t follow through with that prescription for good reason,” Johnston said.

Cody then set out on a trip for the Bighorn Mountains with bandages over his eyes. Upon reaching the summit, he removed the bandages and looked out over the valley toward what would become the Cody town site. His vision began to return, and Cody later recalled that “no one looked upon a happier or more beautiful valley.”

Dueling hot springs

Buffalo Bill claimed it was water from DeMaris Hot Springs, at the original Cody town site, that healed his afflicted eyes. A later account in a Thermopolis, Wyo. newspaper credited the Big Spring in that town, Johnston said.

Eventually, the irrigation project had to be scaled back, and the town of Cody struggled at times to attract settlers, but it survived and continued to grow.

“Cody was one of the few success stories under the Carey Act,” Johnston said.

“Building a new community is tough. Wyoming is full of ghost towns,” he said.

While Cody and Beck had an adversarial business relationship—Cody doubted Beck’s competence and even sometimes questioned his honesty—the two men had complementary skills. Beck was able to mange the day-to-day details of the project, while Cody had money to invest and unprecedented global fame to promote their new settlement.

The town of Cody probably would have survived if Beck had teamed up with a less famous partner, Johnston said, but it would today be similar to other decidedly less famous Wyoming towns near irrigation projects, like Lovell or Wheatland.

Ultimately, it may be Cody’s fame and continuing status as a mythic Western figure that has meant the most to the town.

“The town probably would have made it, but I don’t think it would be the community we have now,” he said. “We certainly wouldn’t have the spirit of the West that we have today without Buffalo Bill Cody.”

Contact Ruffin Prevost at 307-213-9818 or ruffin@yellowstonegate.com.

The Today show will be visiting Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday.

By Ruffin Prevost

The Today show, NBC’s morning news and information program, will be visiting Yellowstone National Park on Tuesday, May 21. The stop is one of five next week the show’s anchors will be making in spots across the country to highlight America’s best summer vacation destinations.

In preparation, Today show producers asked viewers to share their suggestions for what to see and do in Yellowstone, and what topics to cover during their Tuesday broadcast.

Here are some suggestions with great photographs that viewers contributed via the Twitter social network using the hashtag “#TODAYinYellowstone.” Feel free to share your own ideas in our comments section or using the same hashtag.

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