Yellowstone Field Trip

Our field trip for autumn 1997 was to Yellowstone National Park. We concentrated not only on the extraordinary hydrothermal features in the region, but also studied life in extreme thermal environments. It was an amazingly successful outing, considering that it was the longest, most complicated (and most expensive) field trip that the Department of Planetary Sciences has ever attemped. (We didn't lose any people, or even destroy any vehicles . . .)

Click here for our Yellowstone field trip home page, including plenty of images from the trip.

I gave TWO presentations on this trip. (Despite my kicking and screaming, they finally made me do a geology talk, on the subject of rivers and fluvial erosion.)

My story of the history of Yellowstone National Park is presented here:

The National Park

The combination of extraordinary natural features found in Yellowstone National Park is unique on our planet. It may easily be argued to be the most beautiful or impressive place in the world. In fact, many of its features would be considered worth preserving even individually. But put them all together within a few miles of each other, and it is perhaps inevitable that discovery of such a region by an expanding nation would lead to a revolutionary concept in the preservation of natural features by a government for the people it represents.

The (re)discovery of the Yellowstone region by the new Americans moving westward (mostly by fur trappers and prospectors) led to a slow but sure spreading of unbelievable tales about the geysers and other hydrothermal features. It was not until the exploratory expeditions of Folsom in 1869, Washburn in 1870, and Hayden in 1871 that it was firmly demonstrated that (most of) the stories were true, and that Yellowstone was indeed an area unlike any other on Earth.

As word of the amazing geysers, mud volcanoes, canyons and waterfalls was spread back East (supplemented with photographs by W.H. Jackson and sketches by T. Moran from the Hayden Expedition), support for federal protection of this region began to snowball in size.

Various people have been given credit (and more have claimed it) for the idea of a national park. It was certainly discussed during the Washburn expedition, around a campfire one night at Madison. The men were talking about which parcels of land they would each like to make claims on, when one of them, Cornelius Hedges, suggested that instead of staking claims, they should make an agreement to work toward preservation of the region for all people to enjoy. Seeing the sagacity of this idea, the others quickly agreed.

The idea itself was not without precedent. In 1832, Hot Springs, Arkansas had been designated a U.S. reservation, for the use and enjoyment of the people. In 1864, Yosemite valley, with it stunning glacially carved peaks and waterfalls, was ceded to the State of California for protection. But Yellowstone would be a national park (in the Wyoming Territory, it was not then part of any State), and it was this idea of the Federal Government withholding land indefinitely from development or exploitation that made Yellowstone the prototype for all future national parks.

So, by an Act of Congress in March 1872, Yellowstone was created the world's first National Park.

The first Superintendent of Yellowstone Park was Nathaniel Langford, who had been part of the Washburn Expedition. But it soon became clear there were serious problems. The act specified administration of the park by the Secretary of the Interior, through the Superintendent, but was woefully lacking in provisions for enforcement of regulations. As a result, the park was nearly destroyed in its first few years through poaching and vandalism (including the soaping of geysers).

In 1886, following a rapid succession of ineffectual superintendents, the U.S. Army was called in to restore order. A fort was established near the present park headquarters at Mammoth, and for the next 30 years, the superintendents were army officers. Military administration proved to be effective but short-sighted, concerned mainly with things like encroachment by the Nez Perce Indians in 1877, and evicting poachers from the park.

In 1890, three new national parks were created in California: Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant (later Kings Canyon). Mount Rainier National Park followed in 1899, Crater Lake in 1902, Wind Cave in 1903, and Mesa Verde in 1906. Also at this time, avid outdoorsman and soon-to-be-unemployed President Theodore Roosevelt thumbed his nose at Congress one last time by exercising his power to create 'National Monuments' by presidential proclamation. In the last three years of his term he created no less than nine National Monuments. The family of federally protected parks continued to grow.

Our National Park System came of age in 1916 with the creation of the Department of the Interior's National Park Service. The Army (concerned more about the Great World War than poachers) relinquished control of Yellowstone to civilian administration, and park rangers were introduced in the park (although they had already been a feature of the other parks for about ten years).

Since its creation there had often been calls for expansion (and some for contraction) of the area of Yellowstone Park. It was widely agreed that the young and stunning peaks of the Teton range to the south should be protected by the NPS. However, in order to facilitate their passage, bills for modifying Yellowstone's boundaries and for the protection of the Tetons were introduced in Congress separately. Grand Teton National Park was created in 1929, and by 1932 changes had been made to Yellowstone's northern and eastern borders which resulted in a net increase of area to 8983 square km.

In the decades following World War II, as Americans embraced the automobile in ever growing numbers, the National Parks began to see a significant increase in visitors. Roads, bridges, and indeed most of the infrastructure in Yellowstone quickly proved to be outdated, and so a major program of improvement was undertaken in the 1950s and 60s.

In recent years, the NPS has been focusing on preserving a balanced and natural ecology in its parks. The sweeping forest fires in Yellowstone in 1988 have led to a virtual revolution in the handling of natural fires. They are now recognized as an indispensable part of the life cycle of a forest, and most are allowed to burn (unless they threaten human life or property, of course). Another example is the reintroduction of wolves to the park, allowing these predators to coexist with humans and the prey they so enjoy.

The mandate of the National Park Service has always had an air of contradiction about it: to allow and promote access to our nation's greatest natural and cultural treasures, while at the same time preserving them for future generations. To this day it continues to walk a fine line between these two goals.

The creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872 was of course much more than just the preservation of a piece of land for us and our progeny to enjoy. It represented the acceptance of the concept that the land has intrinsic aesthetic value (greater than its monetary value), and was the nascence of an idea that would prove invaluable to nations around the world, that most noble function of government: the preservation and administration of the countryside for people to enjoy simply for its natural wonders.

References:
A.L. Haines, The Yellowstone Story, A History of Our First National Park (revised edition), 1977
R.A. Bartlett, Nature's Yellowstone, 1974

A brief chronology of the National Park story:

1832 - Hot Springs, Arkansas protected as U.S. reservation
1864 - Yosemite valley protected by State of California
1869 - Folsom expedition (David Folsom, Charles Cook, & William Peterson)
1870 - Washburn expedition (H.Washburn, G.Doane, T.Everts, & others)
1871 - First Hayden expedition (F. Hayden, J. Stevenson & others)
1872 - Yellowstone created world's first National Park
1886 - U.S. Army takes over administration of Yellowstone
1890 - Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant become National Parks
1908 - Teddy Roosevelt creates numerous National Monuments
1916 - National Parks Service created; Stephen Mather first director
1929 - Grand Teton National Park created; Yellowstone boundaries adjusted
1932 - Yellowstone reaches present size and shape
1988 - Forest fires ravage much of Yellowstone
1997 - More than 350 units in National Park System