Yellowstone National Park

Pre Human History

Long before any recorded human history in Yellowstone, a massive volcanic eruption spewed an immense volume of ash that covered all of the western U.S., much of the Midwest, northern Mexico and some areas of the eastern Pacific Coast. The eruption dwarfed that of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and left a huge caldera. Yellowstone typically erupts every 600,000 to 900,000 years with the last event occurring 640,000 years ago. Its eruptions are among the largest known to have ever occurred on Earth, producing drastic climate change in the aftermath. The park was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - a deep gash in the Yellowstone Plateau that was formed by floods during previous ice ages and by river erosion from the Yellowstone River.

Human History in Yellowstone NP

The human history of the park begins at least 11,000 years when Native Americans first began to hunt and fish in the Yellowstone region. These Paleo-indians were of the Clovis culture and they used the significant amounts of obsidian found in the park to make cutting tools and weapons. Arrowheads made of Yellowstone obsidian have been found as far away as the Mississippi Valley, indicating that a regular obsidian trade existed between Native American Tribes of the Yellowstone Park Region and tribes farther east.[2] By the time white explorers first entered the region during the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805, they encountered the Nez Perce, Crow and Shoshone tribes. While passing through present day Montana, the expedition members were informed of the Yellowstone region to the south, but did not investigate it.[2]

In 1806 a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition named John Colter left the Expedition to join a group of fur trappers. After splitting up with the other trappers in 1807, Colter passed through a portion of what later became the park, during the winter of 1807-1808, and observed at least one geothermal area in the northeastern section of the park, near Tower Falls.[3] After surviving wounds he suffered in a battle with members of the Crow and Blackfoot tribes in 1809, he gave a description of a place of "fire and brimstone" that was dismissed by most people as delirium. The supposedly imaginary place was nicknamed "Colter's Hell." Over the next forty years, numerous reports from mountain men and trappers told of boiling mud, steaming rivers and petrified trees and animals, yet most of these reports were believed at the time to be myth.[4]

After an 1856 exploration, mountain man Jim Bridger reported observing boiling springs, spouting water, and a mountain of glass and yellow rock. Because Bridger was known for being a "spinner of yarns" these reports were largely ignored. Nonetheless, his stories did arouse the interest of explorer and geologist F.V. Hayden, who, in 1859, started a two-year survey of the upper Missouri River region with United States Army surveyor W.F. Raynolds and Bridger as a guide. After exploring the Black Hills region of in what is now the state of South Dakota, the party neared the Yellowstone region, but heavy snows forced them to turn away. The intervening American Civil War prevented any further attempts to explore the region until the late 1860's.[5]

The Roosevelt Arch is located in Montana at the North Entrance. The arch's cornerstone was laid by Theodore Roosevelt. The placard reads "For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People."

The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the Folsom Expedition of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The members of the Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake and kept a journal of their findings.[6] Based on the information it reported, in 1870 a party of Montana residents organized the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition, headed by the surveyor-general of Montana Henry Washburn. Amongst the group was Nathaniel P. Langford, who would later become known as "National Park" Langford, and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt. Gustavus Doane. The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens, and naming sites of interest. A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a National Park (though most likely not in front of National Park Mountain in 1870 as Langford later claimed), and wrote a number of detailed articles about his observations for the Helena Herald newspaper between 1870-1871. Hedges essentially reinstated comments made in October of 1865 by acting Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher, who had previously commented that the region should be protected.[7]

In 1871, eleven years after his failed first effort, F.V. Hayden was finally able to make another attempt at his exploration of the region. Now government sponsored, Hayden successfully returned to Yellowstone with a second, larger expedition. He compiled a comprehensive report on Yellowstone which included large-format photographs by William Henry Jackson and paintings by Thomas Moran. This report helped to convince the U.S. Congress to withdraw this region from public auction and on March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill into law that created Yellowstone National Park.[8]

"National Park" Langford, a member of both the 1870 and 1871 expeditions, was appointed as the park's first superintendent in 1872. He served for five years, but without salary, funding, or staff, he lacked the means to improve the lands or implement any kind of protection to the park. Without even any formal policy or regulations put into place, he lacked any legal method to enforce such protection were it available to him. This left Yellowstone vulnerable to attack from poachers, vandals, and others seeking to raid its resources. As a result Langford was forced to step down in 1877.

Having traveled through Yellowstone and witnessed these problems first hand, Philetus Norris volunteered for the position after Langford's exit. Congress finally saw fit to implement a salary for the position as well as a minimal amount of funds to operate the park. Langford used these monies to expand access to the park, building over 30 new, albeit crude, roads, as well as further exploring Yellowstone. He also hired Harry Yount (nicknamed "Rocky Mountain Harry") to control poaching and vandalism in the park. Today, Harry Yount is considered the first national park ranger. These measures still proved to be insufficient in protecting the park though, as neither Norris, nor the three superintendents who followed proved effective in stopping the destruction of Yellowstone's natural resources.
It was only in 1886, when the United States Army was given the task of managing the park (see Fort Yellowstone), that control was able to be maintained. With the funding and manpower necessary to keep a diligent watch, the army successfully developed their own policies and regulations that maintained public access while protecting park wildlife and natural resources. When the National Park Service was created in 1916, it would take its lead largely from the army's successful example. The army turned control over to the National Park Service in 1918.

Yellowstone was designated an International Biosphere Reserve on October 26, 1976, and a United Nations World Heritage Site on September 8, 1978.

In 1872, Yellowstone became the first National Park reserve declared anywhere in the world, by President Ulysses S. Grant.

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