I guess we were doing too good and now you had to go and make it really hard! I’ve got no clue but I’m thinking and researching.

I’m stumped, but not giving up yet.

I wish I could say I in any way knew any of this. But research skills do pay off. I found all of this wonderful Yellowstone park history in this fantastic electronic field trip from windowsintowonderland.org entitled Yellowstone National Park’s First 130 Years I highly recommend reading the whole story which includes marvelous historical photos.

1. Yellowstone National Park

2. Camp Sheridan near Mammoth Hot Springs

3. Fort Yellowstone

4. 32 years. 1886 – 1918. The National Park Service Act was passed on August 16, 1916.

5. In 1872 with prodding from the Washburn Expedition and the railroad companies for congress to protect these great lands, Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation that, “dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” The world’s first national park had been born!

Unfortunately, things didn’t go very smooth. The land being preserved was so huge (the size of Rhode Island or Delaware) and so remote that they weren’t even sure how to protect it. The concept of the park was so new, nobody had any idea how to proceed. So congress decided to institute a superintendent. No money was allocated by congress to go with the declaration, and the first Superintendent, Nathaniel P. Langford, a member of the Washburn expedition and advocate for protecting the park, had to work elsewhere to make money and ended up only entering the park twice in his five years as superintendent. Political pressure pushed him off and he was replaced in 1877 by Philetus W. Norris. In 1878 congress gave Norris a budget of $10,000 to maintain the park. While it might not have been much, he did the best he could.

In 1878, a scout by the name of Luther “Yellowstone” Kelly said this of the park…

“In the chill mist of early morning, we passed like ghosts along a rude road into the geyser basin . . .the trail had disappeared and we were treading a crust that sounded hollow and was hot to touch. I dismounted and led my horse carefully around the thin places for fear he would break through and scald his legs. . .at this time there were practically no trails in the park aside from game trails, only a rough track connecting the geyser basin with Mammoth Hot Springs.”

When Norris took over there were maybe only 32 roads covering 108 miles. When he left in 1882 there were 5 times as many roads, crude wagon trails, but roads nonetheless, and twice as many trails.

Norris also hired Harry Yount (nicknamed “Rocky Mountain Harry” – pictured ) to control poaching and vandalism in the park. But the park was so large and the poaching and vandalism so rampant he resigned after one terrible and difficult winter saying…

“I do not think that any one man . . .is what is needed or can prove effective for certain necessary purposes, but a small and reliable police force of men. . .is what is really the most practicable way of seeing that the game is protected from wanton slaughter, the forests from careless use of fire, and the enforcement of all the other laws, rules, and regulations for the protection and improvement of the park.”

Yellowstone National Park’s First 130 Years

Norris also hired Harry Yount (nicknamed “Rocky Mountain Harry” – pictured ) to control poaching and vandalism in the park. Yount spent one winter alone in a cabin in the Lamar Valley. He was isolated in a vast wilderness, with deep snow, howling wind, and driving cold. His primary companions were the herds of animals he was to protect and the poachers he was single-handedly charged to control! It was a difficult job for one person and Yount resigned the following fall. In his letter of resignation he wrote:

"I do not think that any one man . . .is what is needed or can prove effective for certain necessary purposes, but a small and reliable police force of men. . .is what is really the most practicable way of seeing that the game is protected from wanton slaughter, the forests from careless use of fire, and the enforcement of all the other laws, rules, and regulations for the protection and improvement of the park."

Today, Harry Yount is considered the very first national park ranger.

Norris was removed from his post in 1882 due to political maneuvering. Three additional superintendents followed, but none proved effective in stopping the destruction of Yellowstone’s magnificent natural resources.

By 1886 the park was in great danger. It was only fourteen years old, had never been adequately financed or maintained, and was no longer protected by virtue of being unknown. Poachers slaughtered the wildlife. Visitors and souvenir vendors chipped away at the geyser cones and travertine terraces. Vandals purposely set forest fires, squatters illegally occupied land within the park, and delicate thermal features became wishing wells-or trashcans. Congress, tired of the ceaseless problems, refused to allocate additional funding.

Under authority given by Congress, the Secretary of the Interior requested help from the Secretary of War for the management of Yellowstone. On an evening in August 1886, 50 soldiers of Company M, First United States Cavalry from Fort Custer, Montana Territory, marched into Mammoth Hot Springs, to begin making “order out of chaos”.

Their most persistent problem was controlling poachers. During the latter part of the 1800s, bison had been nearly exterminated from the American West and the last free-ranging herd had taken refuge in the wilds of Yellowstone. Unfortunately, this was a bit like going out of the fire into the frying pan, as the activities of poachers were a constant threat to these last remaining animals.

In the spring of 1894, some army officers caught a notorious Bison poacher, Edgar Howell, literally red handed. Punishment was relatively nominal, typically little more than confiscating the poachers belongings and banishing them from the park, which rarely stopped them from returning. But the officers were going to at least hold Howell as long as they could back at the guard house.

As luck would have it, en route, they encountered a group of visitors, one of whom was a prominent reporter of the New York magazine, Forest and Stream. Appalled at hearing about the minor punishment Howell would receive for his poaching activities, the reporter wired the story to his editor.

An old saying contends that “the pen is mightier than the sword”. This was certainly the case here! The story caused a national outcry and within two months Congress passed the National Park Protection Act (also known as the Lacey Act) to “protect the birds and animals in Yellowstone National Park, and to punish crimes in said park, and for other purposes.” No longer were the Army’s hands tied-it was now possible to prosecute those who committed crimes against the park’s wildlife.

And that was when Camp Sheridan was constructed and the beginnings of the Yellowstone Park we know today truly became a reality.

The National Park Service Act, passed on August 16, 1916, created the National Park Service and charged the new agency “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”

In 1918, the last of the cavalry finally left Yellowstone and the new agency took over.

Last night I was looking at Yellowstone, as a summer road trip for the kids, didn’t see anything about this – funny how you can be staring right at something and not even know it.

Good detective work, I’m bummed I didn’t come up with anything for this quiz. Next quiz please!

You all are too smart for me. Good job. And I even think I met Harry Yount way back when. :)

Kristen have fun at Yellowstone if you go. Amazingly beautiful country.

Trader Dan, you think you know everybody from way back when you old fogey. I’m surprised you didn’t say that you were one of the first rangers ;)