Page 71 - PureMontana // 2016

YOU HAVE TO SEE IT to believe it
The United States’ rst national park has a long history steeped in disbelief and myth
Mankind has been amazed by Yellowstone’s natural splen- dor for some 11,000 years, when groups of Native Americans began to hunt in the rich forests and sh the rushing rivers.
European explorers rst stumbled upon Yellowstone’s otherworldly lava ows, geothermal features, and high-el- evation lakes in the early 1800s. John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, defected to join a group of fur trappers and passed through a portion of the future park. When he returned home, he excitedly described a place of “ re and brimstone,” but most people thought he was delirious—his “visions” were nicknamed “Colter’s Hell,” and became the stu of folklore.
In 1869, the adventurous Ferdinand V. Hayden set out on a two-year trip
to explore the northern Rockies with U.S. Army Surveyor Captain William F. Raynolds. But heavy spring snows prevented their passage across the Continental Divide. Had they been able to cross the pass, they would have gazed down on Yellowstone as the rst orga- nized, o cial survey.
e occasional report of Yellowstone’s oddities from intrepid explorers contin- ued to trickle back east over the years. ey did little to dispel the perception that the boiling mud and steaming riv- ers were myth. Finally, after the conclu- sion of the Civil War, a detailed expe- dition funded by three private explorers ventured west in 1869 to prove “Colter’s Hell” as fact or ction.
After a month, they returned west with a de nitive report of the region’s bizarre beauty. ey recommended that Congress should “pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever.”
But the populace still didn’t quite buy it. So Ferdinand V. Hayden, decid- ing he would nally see this place for himself, returned west with government sponsorship on what was later called the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. He came home with large-format photog- raphy and paintings. Almost immedi- ately upon his return, in March of 1872, Yellowstone received its designation as the rst national park in the United States.
BOZEMAN & BEYOND
Yellowstone National Park is known for its technicolor geysers. KRIS WIKTOR
A herd of bison roams protected national park lands.
MARCO PRATI
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