Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

Introducing the Davis Collection Native and Waiting on the Beehive

Volume 9 Number 4 Nineteenth century American landscape painters romanticized nature, which had become a symbol of national identity. Humans (note fleeing figure in lower left corner) were reduced to disproportionate size or omitted altogether. Con- versely, the dimensions of Giant in this engraving were magnified. “The Giant Geyser” from Picturesque America or The Land We Live In, edited by William Cullen Bryant, New York, Appleton and Co., 1872, p. 314.

Myths, Memories, and Memorabilia

For many people and for many rea- belief. In the process of doing so, he place to Susan Delin Davis since she sons, Yellowstone is legendary. Indeed, differentiates between the feelings of was a child growing up in Bozeman, it might be considered a land of legends. “fear” and “reverence” as they are attrib- . She began collecting Yellow- Some of these myths and stories have had uted to things sacred. stone antiques in 1967. Since then, she a positive influence on how society per- Reverence is an emotion that many and her husband Jack Davis have as- ceives this place. By their very nature, cultures have felt toward Yellowstone. sembled the largest known private col- though, legends may not be well grounded From the American Indians, to the Euro- lection in the world. Among people who in fact and yet, they often contain a sym- American exploring parties, to today’s collect Yellowstone memorabilia, the bolic truth. This could be said of the visitors, Yellowstone is something of a Davis Collection is legendary. It is our famous “campfire legend” about how and mecca, a sacred place. It seems to possess great fortune that, through the efforts of where the national park idea was alleg- the power to provoke us, to impress itself the Yellowstone Park Foundation, the edly born. on our minds and in our hearts, and even park has been able to acquire this ex- Other legends, however, may do harm to transform lives. Mike Green’s article, traordinary cultural resource. “Souve- to the truth. This is the case with the story, Waiting on the Beehive is one such testi- nir” is French for the verb, “to remem- perpetuated over the past century or more, mony. Mike tells us how Yellowstone ber.” In fact, an industry has built up that American Indians were afraid of makes a memory for his family that tran- around the human need to recall its most Yellowstone. In his article Fear or Rever- scends generations. While reviewing this precious moments. The interview with ence? Native Americans and the Geysers article, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the Davises introducing their collection of Yellowstone, Joseph Weixelman pre- such experiences of my own and hope takes readers on a nostalgic stroll through sents another view. As an historian, that our readers will reflect on theirs, as the history of the visitor experience in Weixelman applies the rigors of his pro- well. Yellowstone and calls them to remember fession to chasing down the source of this Yellowstone has been an important their own. RJA Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources

Volume 9 Number 4 Fall 2001 Table of Contents

Fear or Reverence? Native Americans and 2 the Geysers of Yellowstone It has long been assumed that Native Americans feared the geothermal features of the Yellowstone area. Joseph presents another view. by Joseph O. Weixelman

Introducing the Davis Collection 12 The Davis Collection of Yellowstone historic souvenirs, photographs, maps, guidebooks, brochures, and other ephemera is legendary among collectors and is the newest addition to the holdings of the Yellowstone museum, archives, and library. Interview with Susan and Jack Davis

Yellowstone Nature Notes: Waiting on the Beehive 21 Editor A cherished childhood memory and lifelong dream become reality one Roger J. Anderson freezing January morning. by Mike Green Assistant and Design Editors Tami Blackford News and Notes 24 Renée Evanoff and Geysers ¥ Science Conference a Success ¥ Lower Brule Assistant Editors Sioux Tribe Delegation Visits YNP • Queen’s Laundry Bath House Listed on Mary Ann Franke National Register of Historic Places ¥ Park Employees Receive Environmental Kevin Schneider Achievement Award ¥ New Publications Available ¥ Potential for Fossil Finds Alice K. Wondrak on Mount Everts

Printing Artcraft, Inc. Bozeman, Montana Yellowstone Science is published quarterly, and submissions are welcome from all investigators On the cover: Coated specimens (early conducting formal research in the Yellowstone area. Correspondence should be sent to the park souvenirs), encrusted with mineral Editor, Yellowstone Science, Yellowstone Center for Resources, deposits from hot springs and terraces. P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Left to right, horseshoe,1893; inkwell, The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors' and may not reflect either National Park Service policy or the views of the Yellowstone Center for 1889; horseshoe, 1897. William Henry Resources. Copyright © 2001, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, Jackson stereoview of coating speci- History & Education. Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by the Yellow- mens at Mammoth Hot Springs, 1892. stone Association, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to serving the park All part of the Davis Collection; and its visitors. For more information about the association, including membership, or to donate to the production of Yellowstone Science, write to courtesy Susan and Jack Davis. Yellowstone Association, P.O. Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Above: . NPS photo. Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper with a linseed oil-based ink. Fear or Reverence? Native Americans and the Geysers of Yellowstone

By Joseph Owen Weixelman

When two Pend d’Oreille Indians guided trapper Warren Ferris along Yellowstone’s in 1834, he wanted to see the geysers and hot springs he’d heard about at the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous, an annual gathering of moun- tain men held under the auspices of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. He later wrote in his journal: Historical representation of Indians’ timidity at an erupting geyser. Note the I ventured near enough to put my confident stance and lead position of the fur trapper juxtaposed with that of his hand into the water of its basin, but native companions. Possibly portraying the Warren Ferris account (see withdrew it instantly, for the heat of below). From a park guide entitled “Yellowstone National Park: The Land of the water in this immense cauldron, Geysers” published in 1917 by the Northern Pacific Railway. Yellowstone was altogether too great for comfort, museum collection. and the agitation of the water, the disagreeable effluvium continually exuding, and the hollow unearthly years before the first Euro-Americans can perceptions of American Indians is a rumbling under the rock on which I gazed on the Firehole valley, many tendency to regard them as a single cul- stood, so ill accorded with my notions American Indians went to the geyser ture. Native North America can be di- of personal safety, that I retreated basins to pray, meditate, and bathe. Most vided into a dozen cultural regions, each back precipitately to a respectful dis- native peoples revered the land of Yel- with distinctive economic, political, so- tance. The Indians who were with me, lowstone and many treated it as sacred in cial, and religious systems. Yellowstone were quite appalled, and could not by their cosmology. While a sense of fear National Park lies near the junction of any means be induced to approach may have been linked with the geysers three of these cultural regions—the Great them. They seemed astonished at my and hot springs, the belief that this was Basin, the Plateau, and the — presumption in advancing up to the the predominant emotion or indicated a where wide variations in native percep- large one, and when I safely returned, primitive intellect is mistaken. Instead, tions of Yellowstone could occur. Cul- congratulated me on my “narrow es- it is more accurate to say that American tural differences may also be found even cape.”— They believed them to be Indians understood the area to be linked between bands of the same tribe. If it is supernatural, and supposed them to to the powers of their Creator, powers misleading to speak of Indian culture as a be the production of the Evil Spirit. that were difficult to understand and monolithic entity, it is equally deceptive One of them remarked that hell, of could be dangerous. Such a place had to to speak of an Indian fear of Yellowstone. which he had heard from the whites, be properly respected and one could not Different tribes and bands responded to must be in the vicinity. take a journey there lightly. A different the geysers differently, just as they re- impression of native attitudes toward sponded to Euro-Americans differently. Ferris’s report has often been adduced Yellowstone can be arrived at by as evidence that Indians feared Yellow- deconstructing trapper accounts like Native Americans in Yellowstone stone’s geysers, an assumption that was those of Ferris and supplementing them relayed to early visitors to Yellowstone with oral histories, archeological evi- People have inhabited the Yellow- and became the prevailing view among dence, and other sources. stone region for at least the past 7,500 social scientists. However, hundreds of A common problem in Euro-Ameri- years. Although archeological evidence

2 Yellowstone Science has been found of Paleo-Indian presence and Buffalo Eaters (Kucundika). Al- stone. There is one mention of the in the thermal basins, the first written though some early writers depicted the and a few that also place Lakota in the historical record indicates that the native Tukudeka as superstitious, poor, and even region. peoples who resided closest to the Yel- squalid, Richard Bartlett used Osborne Moses Harris, the park’s first acting lowstone region at the start of the nine- Russell’s trapper narrative as evidence superintendent during the period of army teenth century included the Blackfeet, that they lived well by aboriginal stan- administration, tried to prevent Bannock Crow, , and Bannock. The ter- dards despite their lack of horses. They hunting parties from entering the region ritorial boundary for these tribes was hunted bighorn sheep, deer, elk, prong- during the 1880s, but they continued to formed by the high mountain ranges that horn, and bear, and their clothing, hides, hunt in areas around the park into the come together there. and bows were in high demand among 1890s. In 1896, in the case of Ward v. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 rec- other Shoshone bands. The Tukudeka Race Horse, the Supreme Court found ognized Blackfeet lands as those to the left Yellowstone when, under pressure that native hunting rights no longer ex- north and west of the Yellowstone River. from Superintendent Philetus Norris, the isted in the region. By the end of the As fur trappers ventured into this area, agent at Fort sent a party of nineteenth century, native peoples were the Blackfeet were possessive of their Shoshone “to escort the Tukudeka to new seldom seen in Yellowstone. territory and battled Euro-Americans over homes on the Wind River Reservation” the game found there. The same treaty in 1879. Origins of the Frightened Indians Story recognized Crow title to lands to the The Nez Perce, Flathead, Kalispel, south and east of the Yellowstone River. Pend d’Oreille, and Coeur d’Alene were The Euro-American belief that Indi- Fur trapper Edwin Denig identified their also known to travel to the Yellowstone ans were frightened by Yellowstone’s lands as including some “boiling springs” region regularly. According to Yellow geysers fit in with the stereotype of Indi- in the vicinity of the upper Yellowstone Wolf, one of Chief Joseph’s scouts in the ans as “savages” who were scared of and the Crow warrior, Two Leggings, Nez Perce War, they were familiar with natural phenomena such as lightning, spoke of a trip there in his youth. As the Yellowstone country and the “hot thunder, volcanoes, or even spouting European diseases took their toll on tribal smoking springs and the high-shooting waters. The explorers and trappers who numbers, the Blackfeet slowly departed water were nothing new” to them. The heard of Yellowstone’s wonders from from the region and ceded their claims to have traditions of journey- Indians or entered the region with Indian the Yellowstone valley in the Treaty of ing from the plains of northeastern Mon- guides generally did so without any ap- 1855. However, when Yellowstone Na- tana as far as the geyser basins of Yellow- preciation for native religious beliefs; as tional Park was established in 1872, the extreme northern portion of the park (east of the Yellowstone River in Montana) was actually part of Crow territory until a Council in 1883 agreed to cede this moun- tainous land and move the tribal agency eastward. The claims of the Shoshone and Bannock, who lived west of the Conti- nental Divide where the terrain was poorly understood by the treaty-makers, were not formally recognized by the Treaty of 1851, but their presence in the region is well-documented. On good terms with each other, the Shoshone and Bannock hunted from central to eastern , entering the Yellowstone re- gion through the forks of the . The Tukudeka, who became known as the Sheep Eater Indians, lived in the moun- tainous regions of central and eastern and northwestern Wyoming. Once regarded as a distinct tribe, most anthro- pologists now consider them a band of the Shoshone. Other Shoshone bands also Map of approximate tribal territories in and around the Yellowstone plateau, named themselves by what they ate: circa 1850. Map courtesy Peter Nabokov and Larry Loendorf from Restoring Salmon Eaters (Agaidika), Fish Eaters a Presence: A Documentary Overview of Native Americans and Yellowstone (Pengwidika), Dove Eaters (Haivodika), National Park, forthcoming from the University of Oklahoma Press.

Fall 2001 3 was the accepted view among Euro- Americans at the time, Indians were re- garded as pagans and heathens. Accord- ing to George Horse Capture, deputy assistant director of the National Mu- seum of the American Indian, mountain men wandered through the region “carry- ing few possessions, but a lot of cultural baggage.” Therefore, it is necessary to question the primary sources on which historians rely. Euro-American chroniclers seldom named their sources or the tribal affilia- tions of the Indians mentioned, or indi- cated how they obtained their informa- tion. George Horse Capture told me that although trappers depicted Indians as wild and without rules, it was the trappers who often came West to live away from the rules of their society, while native tribes lived in complex cultures with well- developed, albeit unwritten, laws. An- thropologists have also demonstrated the ordered nature of American Indian life in numerous studies. The first reference to the possibility that Indians feared the Yellowstone re- gion appears in the expedition journals of . Under the heading, “Notes of information I believe correct,” Clark included information he received in 1808 from George Drouillard, another fur trader. It contains the following text:

[A]t the head of this river the Indians give an account that very frequently there is a loud nois [sic] heard like thunder which makes the earth tremble—they state that they seldom Frontispiece for the book entitled, The Story of Man in Yellowstone by go there because their children can- Merrill D. Beal, published in 1949 by Caxton Printers, Ltd. Depicting an not sleep at night for this nois and unknown fur trapper taken aback by an erupting geyser. His particular conceive it possessed of spirits who emotional reaction—fear? awe? surprise?–can’t be known with certainty are averse that men should be near either. them. and Russell stayed with a Tukudeka en- drew a map for the Fort Laramie Treaty Although Drouillard’s report indicates campment, but none of them commented Council with Bridger’s help, and that that these Indians avoided the area, he on native beliefs about Yellowstone. The may explain why he wrote, shortly after explained that they did so because of their most renowned trapper associated with attending the treaty conference: belief that Yellowstone was home to spir- Yellowstone, , repeated the its they did not wish to upset. He does not story that the geysers frightened the Indi- The hunters and Indians speak of it directly state that they were frightened by ans, but he was notorious for embellish- with a superstitious fear, and con- these spirits, but implies that they re- ing his tales with artful fabrications of sider it the abode of evil spirits, that spected them. petrified forests containing petrified birds is to say, a kind of hell. Indians sel- Daniel Potts, Joe Meek, and Osborne singing petrified songs and rivers that ran dom approach it without offering Russell, who were among the first trap- so fast the friction heated them. The Jesuit some sacrifice, or at least without pers to enter the Yellowstone area, all left missionary, Pierre-Jean DeSmet, never presenting the calumet of peace to written accounts of the thermal basins, visited the Yellowstone region, but he the turbulent spirits, that they may be

4 Yellowstone Science propitious. They declare that the sub- and Looking Glass were the most tradi- and Ferris; 2) official reports regarding terranean noises proceed from the tional Nez Perce bands in following na- the exploration and establishment of the forging of warlike weapons: each tive religious practices. park, particularly those of Lt. Doane, eruption of earth is in their eyes, the Harry Norton’s 1873 guidebook on Superintendent Norris, and General result of a combat between the infer- Yellowstone stated that “there exists Phillip Sheridan; 3) later non-official nal spirits. among [Indians] an unconquerable su- documents, including books on the perstition that the great Manitou here “Sheepeaters” and a letter from the su- This anecdotal myth seems to derive displays his anger towards his red chil- perintendent of Wind River Agency; and more from the pagan Greeks than with dren.” Thirteen years later, in Through 4) notes from his fieldwork among American Indians. Although the Indians the Yellowstone Park on Horseback, Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation DeSmet was referring to had no indig- George Wingate repeated Norris’s de- between 1948 and 1958. enous knowledge of metallurgy or weap- scription of the Indian fear of geysers While Indian fear of the Yellowstone ons forging, Bridger had once worked as almost verbatim. Hiram Chittenden, who region continued to be mentioned in guide- an apprentice to a blacksmith in St. Louis, wrote the first history of Yellowstone in books into the 1980s, some historians and would have heard such stories from 1895, found it strange that “no knowl- following Chittenden doubted this inter- other smiths. He received no other educa- edge of that country seems to have been pretation. Since the late 1940s archeolo- tion, was reputed to have an excellent derived from the Indians.” However, he gists have located lithic scatters, tim- memory, and was said to be superstitious believed that Indians avoided the region bered lodges (or wickiups), and other himself. for practical reasons, because if they had debris indicating aboriginal campsites Subsequent exploring parties readily superstitions about it, there would have throughout Yellowstone, including ther- accepted the idea that Indians feared the been “well authenticated Indian tradi- mal areas at the Norris, Midway, and geysers, but their sources were nameless tions of so marvelous a country.” Lower geyser basins. (In the early years mountain men. David Folsom, in the of the park, many arrowheads and arti- Folsom-Cook-Peterson exploring party Twentieth Century Views of Indians facts were removed or purchased by visi- of 1869, heard from trappers that Indians in Yellowstone tors as souvenirs.) Of the more than 400 believed the region to be the abode of evil former Indian campsites that have been spirits. Nathaniel P. Langford, who helped An assumption that Indians were located in the park, more than 40 are near organize the 1870 Washburn expedition, frightened of Yellowstone had become areas of thermal activity. Archeologist met Bridger in 1866 and believed some of prevalent by the 1930s. A 1929 book Carling Malouf, who identified occupa- his tales of spouting geysers might be written by Superintendent Horace tion sites around Mammoth, along the true. He makes no note of talking with Albright with Frank Taylor suggested Firehole River, and behind the Old Faith- Indians, but later wrote in his expedition that Indians both feared the geysers and ful Inn, rejected the “Indian fear” hypoth- journal, “The Indians approach [the Yel- found the land to be inaccessible and of esis in 1958. Writing in 1974, historian lowstone region] under the fear of a su- little utility. The most recent validation Aubrey Haines believed that the Indians perstition originating in the volcanic for the idea that the Indians feared the who possessed a fear of geysers were only forces surrounding it.” Likewise, Lt. geysers appears in the work of Ake those “whose contact with whites had Gustavus Doane, who accompanied the Hultkrantz, the Swedish historian who is developed a conception of an under- Washburn expedition, doesn’t mention largely responsible for its widespread world.” his source, but noted in his journal that acceptance among anthropologists. In a Hultkrantz did revise his argument in “[t]he larger tribes never enter this basin, 1954 article in Ethnos, Hultkrantz main- 1979, taking into account archeological restrained by superstitious ideas in con- tained that the Indians’ fear of going to evidence that seemed to contradict his nection with the thermal springs.” Yellowstone was so strong it constituted belief that the geysers were taboo to the After Norris became park superinten- a religious-emotional taboo that could be Indians, but he maintained his original dent in 1877, he repeatedly referred to the overcome only in times of distress. He thesis while downplaying native fear of Indians’ “superstitious awe of the hissing regarded their reticence in providing in- “the less dramatic hot springs.” Though springs, sulphur basins, and spouting gey- formation about the region as evidence of somewhat skeptical, anthropologist Joel sers” in his annual reports to the Secre- an Indian belief that even mentioning the Janetski repeated most of Hultkrantz’s tary of the Interior. When the Nez Perce names of the places where geysers ex- thesis in his 1987 book on the Indians of retreated through Yellowstone during the isted was dangerous. The Ethnos article Yellowstone. War of 1877, Norris believed they chose later became a chapter in Hultkrantz’s this route out of desperation and because 1981 book, Belief and Worship in Native What the Indians Knew they had “acquired sufficient civilization North America. and Christianity to at least overpower Hultkrantz based his research on Chittenden and Hultkrantz were their pagan superstitious fear of earthly sources which, by his own admission, are among those who based their conclu- fire-hole basins and brimstone pits.” How- not rich, being mostly Shoshone. These sions about Indians in Yellowstone on a ever, the Indians who fled from sources include: 1) the accounts of early perception that while the Indians gave and Idaho under Chief Joseph, Little Bird, trappers and explorers, primarily DeSmet geographical information to explorers,

Fall 2001 5 Yellowstone map depicts Native American trails and campsites, and their proximities to the park’s geother- mal areas. Map courtesy J. Weixelman, geothermal data provided by Yellow- stone’s Spatial Analysis Center, and digital treatment by Tami Blackford.

Bannock Trail ● Campsites Other Trails Geothermal Areas Possible Trail Lakes Park Boundary Rivers

they did not mention Yellowstone’s won- ser Basin with “a friendly band of Indi- end, the Blackfeet name for the area, ders. More recently, however, historians ans” in 1865. That same year, Father “Many Smokes,” comes from the fact have found evidence of how Indians Francis Kuppens visited the sights of that when they first saw the steam from shared their knowledge with Euro-Ameri- Yellowstone, including its geysers, in the the geysers, they thought it was smoke cans that suggests otherwise. In 1805, the company of Blackfeet. from an enemy camp. Other recorded Governor of Louisiana Territory, James Hultkrantz claimed that Indians Indian names for Yellowstone include Wilkinson, learned about the Yellow- avoided the thermal basins and few In- “Burning Mountain” and “Summit of the stone headwaters and a “volcano” nearby dian trails went there, but despite its rela- World.” But these names for the Yellow- from a map drawn on a buffalo hide by an tively severe climate and demanding to- stone region are not noticeably different unidentified Indian. Sometime after his pography, the Yellowstone region actu- from those used by American Indians return to St. Louis in 1806, Meriwether ally had more trails than other parts of elsewhere. The Wyandot name for the Lewis wrote that, according to Indian Wyoming. Like Indian trails elsewhere, Missouri River translates as “muddy sources, the Yellowstone River had “a they followed the river valleys and there- water” and their name for the Kansas considerable fall . . . within the mountains fore came close to the geysers and hot City, Missouri, site translates as “the point but at what distance from it’s source we springs at West Thumb, Mud Volcano, where rock projects into the Muddy Wa- never could learn.” While reconnoitering and in the Firehole valley. Many of these ter.” The called the Smoky the route for a road from Fort Walla English names associated with Yellow- Hill the “Bunch of Trees River” and the Walla to Fort Benton in 1863, Capt. John stone today are not exactly enticing, yet Solomon River, “Turkey Creek.” Closer Mullan learned from Indians of the exist- Hultkrantz regarded Indian names for to Yellowstone, the Crow called the ence of “an infinite number of hot springs Yellowstone as evidence of their fear, Stillwater River, “Buffalo Jumps Over at the headwaters of the Missouri, Co- stating that such names were “soberly the Bank River” and the Clarks Fork of lumbia, and Yellowstone rivers, and that descriptive” and did not reveal their emo- the Yellowstone, “Rotten hot geysers, similar to those in Califor- tional attitude toward the region. Lodge River.” The National Park Service nia, existed at the head of the Yellow- The Shoshone referred to the Yellow- uses Blackfeet names for places within stone.” George Harvey Bacon, a Mon- stone region as the place where “Water- Glacier National Park including “Chief tana prospector, went to the Upper Gey- keeps-on-coming-out.” According to leg- Mountain” and “Two Medicine Lake.”

6 Yellowstone Science The Bannock Trail more than anyone else in the twentieth The army had to order some tribes, like century, referred to it as a “great aborigi- the Bannock, to stay out of Yellowstone, Heavy snowfall kept the Yellowstone nal highway.” He saw the frequent split- creating an enmity that has persisted. I area inaccessible much of the year, game ting and rejoining of alternative trail routes found that my efforts to obtain oral histo- was more plentiful at lower elevations, as evidence that the trail was used by a ries were hampered by previous research and the mountains made travel difficult. variety of groups of people for a variety conducted by anthropologists and histo- Yet in the 1840s, after the buffalo were of reasons under varying weather condi- rians who did not respect tribal customs exterminated from the Snake River plains, tions. The Euro-American explorers who and did not receive approval from the the Bannock developed an old trail adja- entered Yellowstone always used Indian elders for what they wrote. As a result, cent to hot springs at Mammoth and near trails. Both the Folsom and Washburn many tribal cultural committees were no the Yellowstone River crossing into a parties used the Bannock Trail. As de- longer willing to cooperate with research- major thoroughfare to reach the buffalo scribed by Lt. Doane: ers. ranges of Montana and Wyoming. By Although the accuracy of oral histo- crossing over the mountains perpendicu- Passing over this high rolling prairie ries may be questioned, especially when lar to the river valleys, the trail avoided for several miles, we struck at length three generations separate the sources war parties of Blackfeet and Lakota on a heavy Indian trail leading up the from the attitudes under investigation, the plains, providing greater safety than river, and finding a small colt aban- there are good reasons to give them as other routes to the Bighorn Basin and doned on the range, we knew that much credence as has been accorded the . Scouting and hunt- they [a party of Crow Indians] were reports of early nineteenth century fur ing parties could access the plains and the but a short distance ahead of us.... trappers. First, the information collected valleys to check on the position of both Descending from the plateau through pertains to overall attitudes and values the buffalo and their enemies while the a steep ravine into the valley, and surrounding Yellowstone rather than spe- rest of the tribe stayed secure in the moun- skirting for a distance of two miles a cific dates or places. One is likely to tains. Estimated by Haines to be 200 swampy flat, we came to the first remember the impressions one’s grand- miles long, it came to be known as the warm spring found on the route... parents leave more accurately than spe- Bannock Trail, but it was also used by the cific events. Second, these tribal elders , Nez Perce, Kootenai, What the Indians Say are familiar with the culture in question Salish, Pend d’Oreille, and Crow, and is and with using oral traditions. In some still visible in places today. The fact that Elders from several tribes have pre- cases, they could infer attitudes from tribes used the Bannock Trail to avoid served the history and traditions of their their knowledge of what their ancestors contact with enemies would suggest that people concerning the Yellowstone re- believed. For example, Oliver Archdale the Yellowstone region was to be feared gion. Because more than a hundred years could explain that if the Assiniboine had less than their enemies. have passed since these tribes were forced feared Yellowstone, they would have gone Wayne Replogle, a Yellowstone natu- to move to lands far from Yellowstone, there to test themselves, given his under- ralist who explored the Bannock Trail there are discontinuities in the record. standing of the culture of which he is a part. Although it is possible that their closeness to their culture might make them want to present it in the most flatter- ing way, the same is equally true when using accounts written by non-Indians. Finally, information gathered through an oral history may be considered par- ticularly reliable when it is corroborated by another, independently given inter- view. For example, George Kicking Woman, a respected elder and religious leader of the Blackfeet nation, reported in 1992 that the Yellowstone region was sacred to the without know- ing that Haman Wise, who was a descen- dant of both the Wind River Shoshone and the Bannock, had made the same point in 1991. The fact that the Shoshone and Blackfeet are traditional enemies and Kicking Woman had nothing to gain by Joseph Weixelman on the Bannock Trail in 1998. The trail is still visible in his statement added to the credibility of places today. Photo courtesy J. Weixelman. Wise’s claim.

Fall 2001 7 What we can learn from these oral packs are used in health resorts today. Yellowstone as Sacred Land histories is that different tribes used The Shoshone at Coso Hot Springs in Yellowstone in different ways. Like California were also known to use hot Many tribes regarded the lands that Hultkrantz’s sources, Wise spoke of both mud for baths. Chief White Hawk, who became Yellowstone National Park as the sacred nature of the geyser basins for had fled with Chief Joseph across the sacred. A Nez Perce historian, Adeline the Shoshone and Bannock, and the prac- park in 1877, told park naturalist William Fredin, recalled her grandparents telling tical use of the hot springs for bathing. Kearns in 1935 that the Nez Perce were about a long trip to Yellowstone to pray, However, unlike Hultkrantz, Wise not scared of the geysers. According to bathe, and sweat. According to Fredin’s claimed that the park’s thermal wonders Kearns, White Hawk “implied that the letter, “it was one place where the Great did not frighten the Shoshone or the Indians used them for cooking.” Stories Spirit existed and we could bathe the Bannock. “The Indians wasn’t scared of among the Crow suggest that they did the body and spirit directly.” She said that the it. This was a valuable place for them. same, and might have drunk geyser water “geysers/hot springs sites were a ceremo- This was more of a spiritual [place]. It to promote good health. nial and religious part in our history” and was something cherished by them…” Some tribes may have gathered pig- the Nez Perce went to Yellowstone to Wise understood the connotation that ments for paints from the minerals in the purify their bodies and souls. “fear” has for Euro-Americans and felt thermal areas. One Yellowstone guide One of Hultkrantz’s sources told him certain that such fear was not a part of his remembered the Indians of the region that “the Indians prayed to the geysers people’s response to the region. Yet, “got most of their colors from the Mam- because there were spirits inside them.” stressing the sacred nature of the region, moth Paint Pots.” Walter McClintock, Another said that his grandfather, he insinuated that there were practices who wrote extensively on the Blackfeet, Tavonasia, and his band “raised their that had to be followed to demonstrate the recorded that they obtained pigment for tents close to the Firehole Geyser Basin... proper respect. Without such practices, yellow paint from “a place on the The men themselves bathed in the gey- one would be in danger of showing disre- Yellowstone River near some warm sers whilst they directed their prayers to spect and paying the consequences. springs.” The Shoshone soaked the horns the spirits.” They approached the gey- The Indian use of hot springs for bath- of bighorn sheep in the hot water until sers, hot springs, and thermal features ing and their construction of tubs to hold they were malleable enough to be shaped. with an attitude of reverence and prayed the water has been documented elsewhere This was perhaps the technique used by to the spirits present for assistance on in the West. According to geologist the Tukudeka to make horn bows. James vision quests. George Marler, Indians were responsible Beckwourth related that the Crow used According to ethnographic accounts, for diverting Tangled Creek to create a the hot springs in a similar way to a vision quest is a special rite for many reservoir at Tank Spring (also called straighten buffalo and elk horns. tribes in which the Indians go alone to the Ranger Pool or Old Bath Lake) in the Lower Geyser Basin. In 1973 he reported that “the degree of mineral deposition [and] the fact that the pond was used for bathing in the 1880s, strongly suggests that it had its origin prior to 1870.” Al- though other archeologists have disputed his claim, Marler considered this basin, which has a diameter of 60 feet, one of Yellowstone’s “most important archeo- logical sites.” One of Hultkrantz’s sources told the story of Nakok, a Shoshone who went to Yellowstone to hunt; when “they arrived at the steaming waters...undressed and bathed, and came back clean.” Wise, who was appointed by the Wind River Reservation Tribal Council “to represent the Tribe concerning all Traditional, Cultur[al], Spiritual, Cer- emonial & Sacred sites, etc,” explained, “This is a natural Jacuzzi for us.... It’s healthy.... There is a lot of value to these springs.” He mentioned that the Shoshone Max Big Man and his daughter, Myrtle, of the Crow Tribe, in front of Giant and Bannock used mud from the mudpots Geyser, 1933. In the 1920s and 30s, Max made presentations to park visitors to clean and purify the skin much as mud about how the Crow lived “in the old days.” NPS photo.

8 Yellowstone Science Yellowstone region also mention prayer and the offering of the pipe. According to legend, Walking Bull, a noted Assiniboine chief, was mystified by the geysers when he came upon them during a personal trek. In a 1991 interview, Otto Cantrell, also known as Chief Bluebird, said that he believed Walking Bull would have sought the geysers’ meaning with prayer, because the Assiniboine believe all things to have meaning, but only the Creator can reveal it. There are stories relating how native peoples set aside their animosities around hot springs in Apache and Ute territory, as well as in Yellowstone. Although this practice may have been more honored in Unidentified Native American family at the Upper Geyser Basin, circa 1930. the breach, the belief that intertribal war- NPS photo. fare was not supposed to be brought to regions containing hot springs supports wilderness to pray and fast, asking assis- lowstone to vision quest or fast because the idea that Yellowstone was sacred tance from the Spirit World. They believe they preferred the region surrounding land to Native Americans. Fredin as- that if the petitioner is sincere and re- Glacier National Park and the Two Medi- serted that at Yellowstone hostilities were spectful, the Spirit World may bestow a cine wilderness. However, George Kick- left outside the area. Wise spoke of Yel- vision or dream carrying the power of the ing Woman maintained that “the lowstone as a neutral ground and con- spirit benefactor. Referred to as one’s Blackfeet don’t bother things like that, if tended that as they came for purposes “medicine,” this may include the power they think they’re sacred to them people, other than warfare, tribes never fought to heal or to foresee future events, or they won’t bother them.” Knowing it was each other here. The Haynes 1890 guide- strength in war. Like Hultkrantz’s sources, sacred to others, the Blackfeet respected book mentions the legend that Obsidian Wise identified Yellowstone as an area Yellowstone, and when traveling through Cliff was neutral ground to all Rocky the Shoshone and Bannock used for vi- the region, they stopped to offer their Mountain Indians. Although Native sion questing; he said that Yellowstone’s pipes in prayer or leave tobacco. Kicking Americans and trappers did fight in the thermal basins contained especially pow- Woman noted that prayers were espe- park, only one account exists of a battle erful spirits in Shoshone cosmology. cially said for a safe journey on the dan- between tribes. It is supposed to have These spirits were revered, and one would gerous trip. taken place on Three Rivers Peak, away be careful not to insult them. They were Chief Plenty-Coups of the Crow told from the geyser basins, and the account powerful, but also potentially helpful. of a medicine man, The Fringe, who cannot be verified. Deference and respect were important. received his power from a hot spring. In Mircea Eliade’s book, The Sacred For example, even when just passing Located in the Bighorn Basin, this was and the Profane: The Nature of Religion, through the region, the Shoshone and probably the large spring at Thermopolis. the French historian of religions observed Bannock offered their pipes in prayer, On the third day of a vision quest, The that “for religious man, nature is never and they left gifts when petitioning or Fringe disappeared on an island in the only ‘natural’: it is always fraught with a thanking the spirit world. Wise explained spring; later he related that his spirit guide religious value...it spontaneously reveals that these gifts were objects of value such took him to his home below where he the many aspects of the sacred.” Accord- as tobacco that was left on the ground or received instruction. After that, when the ing to Kevin Locke, a Lakota Baha’i smoked. This information clarifies the Crow passed this spring, they dropped in well-versed in the oral traditions of his passage in DeSmet’s letter that refers to beads or something pretty for “the dream people, “the pre-eminence of the Yellow- “the calumet of peace to the turbulent father” of The Fringe, and they may have stone basin as a site of particular spiritual spirits” presented by the Indians. Arrow- approached Yellowstone in a similar spirit potency invoking awe, wonderment and heads were left beside or in a hot spring, in the nineteenth century. During his eth- spiritual upliftment for thousands of years Wise noted, “to receive the value of this nographic overview of Yellowstone Na- is indisputable.” Although his claim might spring.” This is a possible explanation tional Park, Peter Nabokov uncovered trouble historians demanding documen- for an arrowhead that Marler found while evidence that The Fringe also came to tation in the European tradition, knowing cleaning a hot spring in the Firehole Gey- Yellowstone to fast. the ways of his people, Locke could see ser Basin in 1959. (The spring is now More distant tribes shared the percep- no other explanation. And this sense of known as Arrowhead Spring.) tion of Yellowstone as a sacred place. awe and inspiration has also been found The Blackfeet did not come to Yel- Stories that place the Assiniboine in the among Euro-Americans who have vis-

Fall 2001 9 ited Yellowstone. , the Bibliographic Essay - For Further landscape painter who accompanied the Reading Hayden expedition, captured this won- derment in paintings and sketches that The sources consulted for this many find inspiring today. study were numerous. Unfortunately, Keeping these insights in mind, the space constraints did not allow for reaction of the Pend d’Oreille to the gey- comprehensive footnotes. The fol- sers in 1834 reported by Warren Ferris lowing sources were consulted in may be interpreted as a spiritual response, general and the editors of Yellow- not fear. When he arrived there with the stone Science can be contacted for Indians, Ferris was reckless in his enthu- the citation to any specific reference. siasm to explore, given the dangers posed Of course, any study of by the thin crust covering the geyser Yellowstone’s history must begin basins. Thus, historians should construe with Aubrey L. Haines’ classic two the attitude of the Pend d’Oreille as wis- volume history entitled The Yellow- dom and reverence. Ferris did not say that stone Story: A History of Our First they were afraid of the geysers, but that National Park (Yellowstone National

they found his actions “appalling.” Be- Photo courtesy J. Weixelman. Park: Yellowstone Library and Mu- cause geysers and hot springs were sa- seum Association, 1977). His earlier cred, they may have considered Ferris’s Joseph Owen Weixelman earned a study, Yellowstone National Park, wantonly approaching them offensive. B.A. in anthropology from the University Its Exploration and Establishment Many see Ferris’s account, according to of Colorado and an M.A. in history from (Washington D.C.: National Park Ser- which one of the Indians “remarked that Montana State University. This article is vice, 1974), was also extremely use- hell, of which he had heard from the drawn from a paper by the author, “The ful. A historiography of Yellowstone whites, must be in the vicinity,” as evi- Power to Evoke Wonder: Native Ameri- history must include Hiram Martin dence that Indians believed geysers were cans and the Geysers of Yellowstone Na- Chittenden’s The Yellowstone Na- the abode of evil spirits. A careful read- tional Park,” that is on file in the Depart- tional Park, edited by Richard A. ing of his quote, however, reveals that ment of History and Philosophy, Mon- Bartlett (Norman: Oklahoma Univer- this was not a native belief. It shows that tana State University, Bozeman, Mon- sity Press, 1964) and other histories the Pend d’Oreille had learned the term tana, and in the Yellowstone National consulted included Eugene Sayre “hell” from Euro-Americans and applied Park Research Library in Mammoth, Topping, The Chronicles of the Yel- it here as a way to communicate their Wyoming. It also draws on a more recent lowstone: An Accurate, Comprehen- thoughts to a non-Indian. version of the paper that was presented sive History (St. Paul: Pioneer Press What emerges concerning Indian atti- by the author at the Fourth Biennial Co., 1888), James M. Hamilton, His- tudes toward Yellowstone’s geysers is a Conference on the Greater Yellowstone tory of Yellowstone National Park complex world view. What is clear is that Ecosystem, “People and Place: The Hu- (Previous to 1895) (Yellowstone the thermal wonders of Yellowstone did man Experience in Greater Yellowstone,” Park: Typed by Yellowstone Library not terrify all, or even most, American Mammoth Hot Springs, October 14, 1997. and Museum Association, c. 1933), Indians. At least some, and perhaps many, Weixelman has worked as a ranger at William Turrentine Jackson, The American Indians revered the region and , Petroglyph Early Exploration and Founding of treated it as they did other sacred lands. National Monument, and Yellowstone. Yellowstone National Park (Austin: Euro-Americans originated the idea that During the summer of 1998, he researched University of Texas, June 1940), and Indians “feared” Yellowstone and it must the Bannock Trail and worked on tribal Merrill D. Beal, The Story of Man in be dispelled to understand the true nature issues related to the park. He is currently Yellowstone (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton of Yellowstone’s Indian past. First and a doctoral student at the University of Printers, 1949). Most of these histo- foremost, many Native Americans treated , where his dissertation is a rians repeated the assertion that Indi- Yellowstone as a special region, a sacred history of Pueblo Indians and their rela- ans feared Yellowstone’s thermal land. They approached the geysers with tionship to the Pueblo heritage parks of wonders, but the more recent ones, reverence and respect, but this did not the Southwest. including Aubrey Haines, questioned preclude them from using the hot waters Yellowstone Science would like to its accuracy. for utilitarian purposes. They came to thank Rosemary Sucec, cultural anthro- The interpretation that Indians pray and to seek inspiration to guide them pologist, and Jon Dahlheim, museum feared the geysers was championed through life. As an area of profound mys- technician, for their assistance in locating by Ake Hultkrantz in “The Indians tery and inspiration, Yellowstone was a photos and writing captions for this ar- and the Wonders of Yellowstone: A special place to its first visitors—as it is to ticle. Study of the Interrelations of Reli- thousands of visitors today.

10 Yellowstone Science gion, Nature and Culture” Ethnos 1 of Wyoming 36 (1964), and Sven Nathaniel Pitt Langford, The Discov- (1954). This article later became a chap- Liljeblad, “Indian Peoples in Idaho,” ery of Yellowstone Park: Journal of ter in Belief and Worship in Native (manuscript on file, Pocatello: Idaho the Washburn Expedition to the Yel- North America, edited by Christopher State University, Aug. 1957). Infor- lowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Vecsey (Syracuse: Syracuse University mation on the Shoshone came from Year 1870 (Lincoln: University of Press, 1981). He divided the Indians Brigham D. Madsen, The Northern Nebraska Press, 1972), Lt. Gustavus who utilized the resources of the Yel- Shoshoni (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Cheyney Doane, “Official Report of lowstone region into three major cul- Printers, 1980) and Virginia Cole the Washburn-Langford-Doane Ex- tural types and this analysis can be Trenholm and Maurine Carley, The pedition into the Upper Yellowstone found in “The Indians in Yellowstone Shoshonis: Sentinels of the Rockies, in 1870,” (Collection 492, Burlingame Park,” Annals of Wyoming, 29: 3 (Oct. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Special Collections, Renne Library, 1957). Hultkrantz based his research on Press, 1964). Information on the Crow Montana State University, Bozeman), sources which, by his own admission, came from Edwin Thompson Denig, and Ferdinand V. Hayden, “The Hot are not rich or diverse, coming mostly Five Indian Tribes of the Upper Mis- Springs and Geysers of the Yellow- from the Shoshone. His analysis of the souri, edited by John C. Ewers stone and Firehole Rivers.” The Ameri- sources appears in “The Fear of Gey- (Norman: University of Oklahoma can Journal of Science and Arts (Feb- sers Among Indians of the Yellowstone Press, 1961), Rodney Frey, The World ruary 1872). Park Area,” in Lifeways of Intermoun- of the Crow Indians: As Driftwood Archaeological and geological re- tain and Plains Montana Indians, ed. Lodges (Norman.: University of Okla- ports consulted include J. Jacob Leslie B. Davis, (Bozeman: Montana homa Press, 1987), Frederick E. Hoxie, Hoffman’s “The Yellowstone Park State University, 1979). Parading Through History: The Mak- Survey,” Archaeology in Montana Other writers who have written on ing of the Crow Nation in America, (Summer 1958) and “A Preliminary Indians in Yellowstone include Joel C. 1805-1935 (Cambridge: Cambridge Archaeological Survey of Yellow- Janetski, with his popular book Indians University Press, 1995) and Peter stone National Park” (Master’s The- of Yellowstone Park (: Nabokov, Two Leggings: The Making sis, Montana State University, University of Press, 1987) and the of a Crow Warrior (Lincoln: Univer- Bozeman, 1961), Carling Malouf’s comprehensive report by Peter Nabokov sity of Nebraska Press, 1967). Infor- two articles in Archeology in Mon- and Larry Loendorf. This last study mation on the Blackfeet came from tana, “The Old Indian Trail” (March, took four years to complete and this Walter McClintock, The Old North 1962) and “Historic Tribes and Ar- article’s author assisted them where he Trail or Life, Legends and Religion on chaeology” (January-March, 1967) could. The study took place in the mid- the Blackfeet Indians (London: and his “Preliminary Report, Yellow- 1990s and their report will go a long MacMillan and Co., 1910) and from stone National Park Archeological way in correcting what is known about Malcholm McFee, Modern Blackfeet: Survey” (Unpublished Paper, Univer- the use of Yellowstone National Park Montanans on a Reservation. Case sity of Montana, Missoula, Summer, by native peoples. Their results were Studies in Cultural Anthropology (New 1958), and George Marler’s Inven- reported by Nabokov in “Reintroduc- York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, tory of Thermal Features of the ing the Indian: Observations of a Yel- 1972). Knowledge of the Nez Perce Firehole River Geyser Basins and lowstone Amateur,” The Aubrey L. came from Lucullus V. McWhorter, Other Selected Areas of Yellowstone Haines Lecture at the Fourth Biennial Yellow Wolf: His Own Story (Caldwell, National Park (Report for the U.S. Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1940), Alvin Geological Survey, 1973, Unpub- Ecosystem, People and Place: The Hu- M. Josephy, Jr., The Nez Perce Indi- lished manuscript, Yellowstone Re- man Experience in Greater Yellowstone, ans and the Opening of the Northwest search Library, Mammoth). Mammoth Hot Springs, on Oct. 13, (New Haven: Yale University Press, And most importantly, oral histo- 1997. In addition, the draft of their 1965) and William E. Kearns, “A Nez ries were collected from the Shoshone, report, American Indians and Yellow- Perce Chief Revisits Yellowstone,” the Blackfeet, and the Assiniboine stone National Park: A Documentary Yellowstone Nature Notes 12 (June- between September 1991 and Janu- Overview, has been accepted for publi- July, 1935). Information on other tribes ary 1992. Copies of these oral histo- cation by the University of Oklahoma came from Robert Spencer, et al. The ries have been deposited with the Yel- Press. Native Americans (New York: Harper lowstone Research Library in Mam- Sources consulted for the Tukudeka & Row, 1977). moth. Other tribal cultural preserva- included Hultkrantz, “The Indians in Primary sources describing the ex- tion officers, historians, and archi- Yellowstone Park” and “The Shoshoni ploration of Yellowstone include vists assisted me through letters and in the Rocky Mountain Area,” Annals David E. Folsom, The Folsom-Cook phone interviews. Copies of these let- of Wyoming 33 (April 1961), David Exploration of the Upper Yellowstone ters and notes have also been donated Dominick, “The Sheepeaters,” Annals in the Year 1869 (St. Paul: n.p., 1894), to the Yellowstone Research Library.

Fall 2001 11 Thomas Lee, Bozeman Chronicle.

Introducing the Davis Collection

Interview with Susan and Jack Davis

Yellowstone devotees throughout the country, and indeed around the world, know the name Davis. The Davis Collection of Yellowstone National Park historic memorabilia has become legendary among the growing numbers of people who collect materials relating to the world’s first national park. Susan and Jack Davis have devoted their lives to acquiring, organizing, researching, and upgrading the most complete privately held collection of park memorabilia known to exist. Recently, the park acquired the majority of the Davis Collection with the help of the Yellowstone Park Foundation and through the generosity of the Davises, who donated thousands of additional items. The foundation’s effort is just another excellent example of the work it is doing to further the goals of Yellowstone National Park. Board member Ron Lerner raised the necessary funds to bring this important part of the Yellowstone story home to the park. With time, the Davis Collection will reside in the new Yellowstone Heritage and Research Center, proposed to be located near the park’s North Entrance. This approximately 32,000 square foot facility will provide an adequate home for Yellowstone’s museum, library, and archival collections and will easily accommodate the Davis Collection, ensuring it is well cared for and made accessible to those wishing to learn more about the park’s history. In October 2001, Yellowstone Science editor, Roger Anderson, and park archivist, Lee Whittlesey, sat down with Susan and Jack to discuss the significance of the park’s recent acquisition of their collection and explore their love for all things Yellowstone.

12 Yellowstone Science Susan Delin Davis graduated worked there for five summers and met JD: The largest single category we have from Montana State University with her husband, so my whole family had a is postcards. That category will be going a B.S. in art, with an emphasis in true love for the place. to the park at a later date, because we graphic design. She was born and YS: I was going to ask, of all the wonder- haven’t been able to catalog it yet. Be- raised in Bozeman, Montana, near ful national parks there are, why you yond postcards, which are about half of the Gallatin Gateway entrance to chose Yellowstone, but it’s pretty obvi- the collection in numbers, we have Yellowstone. ous. Yellowstone’s your backyard. It stereoviews, small and large photographs, Jack Davis was born in Lamesa, was your home, in a sense. guidebooks, maps, and a general book Texas. He studied political science SD: Yes, it was. Going to the park so collection that includes everything from at the University of California at many times while growing up, I devel- literature to children’s books to histories Santa Barbara and environmental oped a lifelong love of Yellowstone. I to narratives to reference books. Bro- science at the University of Califor- started collecting things because my fam- chures and pamphlets are a category of nia at Davis. ily has a collector mentality. My parents their own. There’s a tremendous amount Susan and Jack Davis own Olde saved old things. My sisters and I used to of material, which doesn’t really have a America Antiques in Bozeman, tell them that if they brought anything specific definition, which we refer to as Montana. They have also owned and else old into the house, we were going to miscellaneous publications. Ephemera is operated a building maintenance move! That was when we were in junior a really interesting category and one of company there for 24 years. Collect- high and high school, before we were our favorites. ing Yellowstone memorabilia is an able to appreciate collecting ourselves. YS: Explain what “ephemera” is? avocation for the Davises. They are YS: You must have had a pretty deep JD: Ephemera are printed materials that members of the International Fed- feeling, if it started at eration of Postcard Dealers, and have 17! collected Yellowstone Park antiques SD: My friends even and postcards for more than 34 years. realized it, so they They have also written and published started giving me things. a series of newsletters on collecting My best friend gave me Yellowstone Park antiques and post- a Yellowstone apron. cards. That was one of the first Susan and Jack make their home gifts I was given and it in the foothills outside Bozeman and just grew from there. have two sons, Tate and Wade. When I married Jack, our interest in this hobby exploded! YS: Susan and Jack, tell us a little bit YS: Susan and Jack, about yourselves, your backgrounds, your your collection is num- association with the Yellowstone area, bered at more than and how you got interested in collecting 20,000 items and is rec- Yellowstone memorabilia. ognized as the single SD: I was born and raised in Bozeman largest, and easily one and my parents used to take us to the park of the most significant, as kids all the time. My father was in related to Yellowstone. charge of building the roads at Big Sky in Can you elaborate a little the early 1950s, so we spent a lot of bit on the extent and the summers at the B Bar K Ranch, which is variety of the collection? now the Lone Mountain Guest Ranch. JD: For purposes of When I graduated from high school, I dealing with the collec- spent two summers working in West tion, we’ve broken it into Yellowstone, one summer at the Dairy categories. We came up Queen and the other at the Teepee Motel, with between twelve and but all of my time off was spent in the fifteen, depending on park with friends. how specific you wanted YS: How old were you during those sum- to be, just to be able to mers? manage it and catalog it. SD: 17 and 18. That’s when I started YS: Why don’t you run The Davis Collection contains a diverse amount of collecting, the first summer out of high through some of those Yellowstone-related advertising including this original school. My older sister also worked in categories for us? paste-up of an ad for the Haynes Guide Book, circa West Yellowstone, for Eagle’s store. She 1930s. Fall 2001 13 weren’t meant to last a long time, but for as we could, because we felt that if we that you’re members of the International one reason or another, survived. Some didn’t, it would be a lost opportunity. We Federation of Postcard Dealers and I re- examples of Yellowstone Park ephemera were able to acquire at least examples of call that, for many years, you also spon- are menus, letters and letterheads, some most of the Haynes family collection, sored the National Park Antique and Pa- types of advertising, checks and invoices, which we were very happy about. I think per Show. Could you tell us a little more tickets, labels, stickers, and decals. that’s going to be a very important part of about that and what it entailed? Ephemeral paper reflects a glimpse of our collection going to the park. The last SD: We sponsored the National Park life in the past and sometimes contains category that we would identify would Antique and Paper Show for six years. valuable information not found anywhere be souvenirs, which is a fun category. It’s We felt we’d gone as far as we could as else. probably the most difficult group of items general collectors, so we became dealers Then there are small prints, large prints, to collect of all of the categories. and then put the show on. This gave us the lithographs, and posters. Advertising is YS: Why is that? opportunity to deal more closely with another interesting category. Technically, JD: Because you can find collections of people who could find Yellowstone items it’s two different groups of items. It’s stereoviews, you can find collections of for us. It also brought quite a bit of mate- material that advertises Yellowstone Park brochures, or collections of postcards rial into the area that we probably never and it’s also material that uses Yellow- and small prints, but souvenirs, you gen- would have had access to or seen before. stone to advertise products, such as Yel- erally find one at a time. We spent one Each year, the show gained more favor lowstone whiskey or Yellowstone cof- entire day in an antique mall outside of and importance with the collectors and fee. Original artwork is perhaps the weak- Seattle, and at the end of the day, all we’d dealers in the area and outside the area est category in our collection and it is found was a paperweight. That was our also. We had collectors come in from usually the most expensive to collect. If find for the day. It literally takes years to eight or nine states for the show. Unfortu- we had one Moran or one Bierstadt paint- acquire souvenirs and you never know nately, we had to quit doing it because I ing, it could easily equal or exceed the what you’re going to find, or where you’re had heart surgery, so our hobby was kill- value of all the other 20,000 items in our going to find them. That’s a general ing us! I decided we wouldn’t let that collection. overview of the collection. happen. Shortly after that, the Internet We also have a Haynes-related category, YS: You mentioned that postcards com- gained such favor that I really don’t think which is material that would be related to prise about half of the collection. I know our next show would have been any- the Haynes family or businesses. A lot of where near the quality that we’d been these items came from the Haynes estate. used to having. When Isabel Haynes died in 1993, we JD: If you wanted to identify the Golden tried to acquire and keep as much of their Age of collecting Yellowstone Park an- personal park-related collection together tiques, it would be from 1988 to 1998. The reason for this is that in 1988, the fires sparked worldwide interest in the park and international media coverage. So here’s this very vulnerable entity that could be lost, and suddenly it became valuable. Objects relating to the history of the park, especially images and souve- nirs, became very desirable. So 1988 was a turning point in collecting Yellowstone

Examples of Yellow- stone Park ephem- era: Luggage sticker, Lander- Yellowstone Trans- portation Company, circa 1920s. Poster Original watercolor design, The stamp, Panama Haynes Studio Christmas Greeting, Pacific International 1925. The Haynes Studio brought Exposition (San “Yellowstone National Park to all the Francisco), Union world” through their postcards, Pacific Railroad, photographs, guide books, and other 1915. souvenirs. 14 Yellowstone Science items. The next ten years were the Golden go and ferret out something in a box of Age of collecting Yellowstone Park an- miscellaneous material. Now you have tiques because a lot of items came out of this identified piece that goes on the private collections and private estates Internet and numerous people bid on it. and became available on the open mar- YS: So collecting used to be a secret ket, usually at shows, shops, or malls. treasure hunt as opposed to today’s inter- 1998 was the last year that we did the national auction. national park show and it was also the JD: That’s exactly what it was. It was a beginning of the Internet era. The tradi- treasure hunt and it was fun to go and find tional way of buying and selling an- these things. Now it’s become a compe- tiques had begun to change by that time. tition as to what you can acquire and that YS: How do you think the advent of the really doesn’t interest us. There was a lot Internet would have affected your abil- of camaraderie during that time. If you ity to do what you’ve done over the had duplicates of items, you would trade years, had it been in existence earlier? them for pieces that you didn’t have. We JD: If we had had to acquire our collec- still maintain friendships with many col- tion piece by piece over the Internet, it lectors and many dealers, but the nature would not have been possible. Plus, we of buying and selling antiques has couldn’t have afforded it. changed. SD: Up until the Internet, we basically YS: Susan, let’s get back to your time as Arts and Crafts book cover design, bought everything and anything that we a 17-year old in the park. Can you recall Elbert and Alice Hubbard, circa 1920s. came across. Dealers knew that we would the first item that you acquired? Included in the Davis Collection are buy almost anything relating to Yellow- SD: That was 34 years ago, but I think it several first editions, limited editions, stone. So if they got something, they’d was a box of 50 Haynes postcards that I books signed or inscribed by the call us up because we were the only ones purchased at a little antique shop in author, and privately printed books. that were buying in such great quanti- Fromberg, Montana. ties. YS: At what point would you have de- JD: We established a reputation among scribed yourself as a collector? When did dealers throughout the country and in- you make the transition from just buying ternationally, especially after we started a souvenir or a box of postcards, like we our national parks show. So we were all do, to collecting and acquiring as a kind of the magnet for Yellowstone an- real passion? tiques for a period of time. We acquired SD: Probably when I married Jack. He’s a tremendous amount of material, in- a real driven person and I think with the cluding some very important pieces in our collection, like the first known pho- tograph of the Army in the park. We were the first ones to have an opportu- nity to buy that photograph and we didn’t hesitate to do so. SD: That was what the show allowed us to do. The dealers would save Yellow- stone material and offer it to us first. Then, if we didn’t buy it, it would be offered for sale to the public. JD: It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportu- nity, but it might have been the last chance to do that. Today, we wouldn’t be able to acquire a lot of those items because of the competition. YS: Would you say the Internet not only increased the prices but also the compe- Possibly the first photo of the U.S. Army at Mammoth, taken by A.M. tition? Giddings, 1886 (after August 17). Boudoir views, 5.25 x 8.5 inches, JD: Absolutely. There are more collec- such as this are one of the most collectible of small-format photos. tors today than there used to be and they They are early albumen photographs produced from the 1870s through all compete for the same material. So the 1890s. The Davis Collection includes more than 100 Boudoir views it’s not like you have an opportunity to of the park. Fall 2001 15 Assorted stereoviews and a stereo- scope, circa 1870sÐ1920s. The collection contains more than 1,300 Yellowstone stereoviews, including a large number of rare images and several complete box sets. quite rare. There are two main souvenirs from this age (other than early photo- Gallatin Gateway to Yellowstone National Park, Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul graphs and stereoviews), the coated speci- Railway booklet, circa 1930 (left), and a postcard of the Gardiner Gateway to mens and the sand specimens. There are Yellowstone Park (right). Gustave Krollman, circa, 1936. specimens that would even precede these which were pieces of geyserite that were two of us together, our interest in this acquire any of those items since. One taken out of the park. The Golden Age of hobby grew. thing that makes collecting Yellowstone souvenirs and postcards would be from JD: You’ve got to have money to be a Park antiques and memorabilia so inter- around the turn of the century through collector. Prior to getting married, we esting is that Yellowstone is the oldest World War I. The very finest, highest were starting our maintenance business national park in the world. The history of quality souvenirs of the park were sold and didn’t have much discretionary in- Yellowstone transcends different eras of during that time, including hand-painted come. So this synergy created a little photography and printing and souvenir pieces from France and Germany, china more spending money each month. It did manufacturing, including the Golden Age and brass items, plates, paperweights, let- take both of us. It’s an expensive hobby. of Souvenirs. There’s a very wide range ter openers, jewelry, sterling silver pieces, SD: Jack didn’t collect when I married of vintage material relating to this park etc. The people who were traveling him. But I started dragging him to these over a long period of time. By collecting through the park during that time were the places and he liked books a lot. He would Yellowstone antiques, you develop an carriage class. They were primarily well look at books while I looked at every- awareness of social history. If you collect to do people, so this is another snapshot of thing else and the collection bug got him, Glacier Park items, for instance, you miss social history. The souvenirs and artifacts too. almost 40 years of that. There are no early sold in the park during this period reflect JD: It was a two-person job, literally, to albumen (eggshell finish) photographs who was in the park. By the 1920s, you generate the extra income and then to or pre-1890 flat-mount stereoviews, be- could no longer find high-quality Euro- search for these items. cause Glacier was established as a na- pean souvenirs or postcards for sale in the YS: By no means do you appear to be a tional park after these were popular. The park. reluctant collector! only other national park that would ap- YS: That is when the park became democ- JD: No, as Susan mentioned, I collected proach Yellowstone in the diversity and ratized. books prior to marrying her. I had abso- range of antiques and collectibles would JD: Several events happened at about the lutely no money, so I used to clean the be Yosemite. Through our experience as same time to bring an end to the Golden homes of elderly ladies. They would give collectors and dealers, Susan and I are Age of souvenirs and postcards. The Na- me books to clean their carpets and wash convinced that Yellowstone is the most tional Park Service was established in their windows. I had a small collection. collected national park in the world. Much 1916 and the park was opened to motor- When I married Sue, the focus became of the interest in collecting Yellowstone ized transportation. An even bigger event Yellowstone, so suddenly there was a antiques is due to the tremendous range that took place at this time was World theme to the collecting and it became and amount of material that was pro- War I, which forever changed the rela- more organized. duced for the park. tionships of countries throughout the world SD: For a while you collected Glacier YS: Can you explain what you mean by and changed the world’s economy. Sud- items. “Golden Age of Souvenirs?” denly, the souvenirs and postcards sold in JD: I did have a small Glacier collection. JD: First, there was the Pioneer Era, and around Yellowstone were made in I sold it all at one of our first national which technically is pre-1900. Souvenirs (North) America. They were no longer parks shows and I’ve never been able to of Yellowstone from the Pioneer Era are imported from Europe. 16 Yellowstone Science YS: What you’re getting at, then, is if you look at your collection and the history of Yellowstone memorabilia, they really tell the story of the human experience and how it’s unfolded here from 1872 with the park’s creation to the present day. SD: Yes, and that’s why we promoted our collection to the park, because it’s a his- tory of the visitor experience. Up until recently, I don’t think any museum has focused primarily on that aspect of the park’s history. YS: I remember, some years ago, visiting Hand-painted Limoges bowl, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, circa 1910. with you and marveling at the collection you had in your shop. You said, “You should see our house!” say one thing and then I think of about 25 SD: Until just a few weeks ago, it was others in each category. The postcards crammed to the gills with as much stuff as are probably my favorite category. Then we could display. At first, it was mostly you get into dishes where the Limoges just downstairs, and then it crept upstairs china would probably be my favorite. and into all the cupboards, display cabi- Then I think of the Shaw & Powell dishes nets, and shelves that we have. It made for and this Cinnabar piece that we just a very nice, cozy atmosphere. We lived bought. The coated specimens are also with all of our park antiques and enjoyed favorite pieces. We have three; two horse- them for all those years. Our kids would shoes and an inkwell. These are the first remark that it was like living in a museum souvenirs of the park. Tourists would growing up. Once they moved out of the soak objects in the Mammoth Hot Springs house to go to college, then their rooms to coat them with mineral deposits. The became Yellowstone rooms also! The practice was soon outlawed, so these items walls were taken over with pictures and are particularly rare and hard to find. photos. JD: We got a call once from a woman in JD: We’ve tried to keep at least one Chicago who saw our collection on the example of everything that we have pur- television show, FX Collectibles. She chased through the years in our collec- said she had this kind of weird, crazy tion. So the park is literally getting one of thing and she wanted to know if we each item that we have had a chance to would be interested in it. We finally fig- acquire. ured out it was a coated specimen and we YS: You also attempted to swap items in were thrilled. We paid her more than she order to upgrade the quality. asked and it was worth the whole experi- JD: That was a big part of what we tried ence. to do. We were told early in our collect- YS: Was that one of the horseshoes, or the ing, by dealers, to always try and upgrade inkwell? the condition of the pieces we collected. JD: One of the horseshoes. That was a major effort on our part. Many SD: The inkwell was the first coated collectors will acquire one item and then specimen I got. We were in Billings at they don’t acquire that item again. We were constantly upgrading. SD: We had a collector at the house one Northern Pacific Railroad brochures: time looking at a brochure rack filled with Alice’s Adventures in the New Wonder- brochures. He made the comment that land, 1884 (above) and the back and they looked like they had just come off front covers of A Romance of Wonder- the presses, and I said, “It took us years land, 1882 (right). The Davis Collection and years of upgrading these items to get includes numerous brochures and them to this point. They didn’t just start pamphlets, many of which are rare or that way.” hard to find. These brochures are some YS: Do you have some favorite items? of the earliest on the park, containing SD: I’ve been asked that a lot of times. I’ll beautiful lithographic images. Fall 2001 17 one of the antique malls. We had gone ment over that. YS: It’s that chance discovery of some- through the whole place and when I got YS: How about rarest? thing that you truly love. After all your near the very last booth by the door, all of JD: Some of the ephemera are really years of collecting, why at this time have a sudden I yelled, “I found one! I found rare. We recently acquired a circa 1909 you decided to part with the collection? one!” I had found a coated specimen, and Klamer catalog which lists the souvenirs JD: One of the reasons is that we can’t or no one, of course, knew what it was. that were for sale in the Upper Geyser don’t want to compete with many of the They had a tag on it that said “90-year old Basin curio store. This is an important people who are collecting. inkwell.” It looked like a horrible, ugly document because it lists the items that SD: There are quite a few different rea- thing that was covered with rock. tourists could buy at that time, including sons. A major one is that the large num- YS: That’s what astonishes me when I a wide variety of Indian souvenirs and bers of items in our home were getting think of the great volume of material artifacts. This is very interesting and it unmanageable. you’ve acquired over the years. Where raises the question of where these Indian JD: Something had to be done with the do you find some of the rarest items? It’s pieces came from and why they were collection. almost like every piece has its own story. being sold in the park. There are a num- SD: I’ve always wanted it to go to the JD: It does. That’s the thing that’s fun ber of other rare printed items in our park, but I knew they didn’t have any- about collecting. We can almost remem- collection that contain information that where to put it. Then there was the pos- ber where we acquired each item. Al- can’t be found anywhere else. The Klamer sibility of the new Heritage and Re- most. catalog is an example of a rare publica- search Center. My main criteria was that YS: Why do you think some of these tion and is, to me, one of the most inter- the collection stay together. pieces didn’t survive in greater num- esting items we have. JD: We don’t have the resources to cu- bers? YS: And it’s certainly one of the rarest. rate the collection. It was becoming un- JD: If you think about it, here’s a family SD: Another semi-rare item would be manageable and there were very few that purchases a hand-painted Limoges our autographed postcard of places that it could go to be curated. The bowl and they take it on the the Cody Entrance to Yellowstone. federal government is going to be able to through the park. Then they go back to JD: It’s the most expensive postcard we do it. I couldn’t conceive that some of the Salt Lake City and get on a train and go have. individuals that approached us would to Omaha, Nebraska where they end up YS: Signed by… have been able or willing to curate the transferring to New York City. Here’s JD: Buffalo Bill in 1916. We’ve found whole collection. this fragile piece of china. It amazes me out that he gave them away at a rodeo. SD: Also, it’s very nice to be able to that it even survived to begin with. They’re rare, but you’ve got to qualify share it with others who love the park. YS: What do you consider the most his- these things. We’ve heard of another one YS: There must be a lot of personal torically significant, or interesting item that still exists, so now there are at least satisfaction associated with that. in the collection? two. JD: It was a huge relief, actually. There JD: People collect for different reasons, YS: On a personal note, when you look at and they collect different things, and all these items that you’ve assembled they collect in different ways, but if you throughout the years, what do they mean ask about important pieces, I think pho- to you? tographs are probably the most histori- SD: They are a big part of my life. Many, cally significant. We have a photograph many hours were spent hunting for them that is believed to be the earliest photo and living with them. They were like a taken of the Army in the park. Two child, I guess —a really big child— that Thomas Hine stereoviews are also in our took over our lives! The thrill of the hunt collection. His photographs are among is the thing that you don’t get when the first taken of the park. Hine was a buying items on the Internet, the digging photographer who accompanied Captain in a box under a table somewhere and Barlow in exploring the headwaters of discovering an obscure and previously the Yellowstone River in 1871. Three unknown item. weeks after his return to Chicago from YS: Like that all-day spent in Seattle for Yellowstone, all but 16 of his 200 nega- the paperweight. tives were destroyed in the Chicago fire. SD: That’s what the collector mentality Of these, seven were found in the New- is all about. There are some people who York Historical Society Collection. We don’t collect anything. They don’t have have the only other two known to exist that yen to go find something and expe- and we’re donating these to the park. Out rience the thrill of finding it. of more than 20,000 items, the two Hine JD: It has nothing to do with money. It stereoviews are the most important in our has to do with this exciting chance to find Poster postcard by Burlington Rail- collection. I don’t think there’s any argu- something. road, signed by William F. Cody, 1916. 18 Yellowstone Science Original serigraph— Greetings Yellowstone Park, Ralston, circa 1935.

Very rare Wittich Guides to Yellowstone Park, Livingston, Montana, 1889Ð90. was a tremendous amount of work in- viduals that were interested and we were said, “Gee, the collection is not that volved in organizing all of this material. getting to a point at which we had to do important, it’s not worthy of acquiring,” YS: Who in the park, would you say, was something. it probably wouldn’t have happened. If instrumental in seeing that the collection YS: That brings up a point. You probably Mike Finley hadn’t supported the cre- didn’t go to one of these individuals you could have sold this for much more than ation of the Yellowstone Park Founda- mentioned, but came instead to Yellow- you did. tion, it probably wouldn’t have hap- stone National Park where it will reside? JD: We had an offer from an individual pened. If Susan Kraft hadn’t worked SD: The first person that comes to mind approaching a million dollars. We don’t with us as hard as she did and if we didn’t is Susan Kraft, the park curator, then Lee know who it was. have as much faith in her as we did, it Whittlesey, the park archivist, and former SD: His representative was working with might not have happened. If Ron Lerner Superintendent Mike Finley. They are a dealer that we dealt with. hadn’t gone out and raised the money, it the three people we want to mention first JD: It’s public knowledge that we sold might not have happened. So there are a and foremost. We worked with Susan the collection to the foundation for lot of scenarios that took place and it’s Kraft very closely and she helped us $500,000. We’ve also donated additional kind of serendipitous that it happened at tremendously in working with the Yel- items valued at approximately $150,000. all. lowstone Park Foundation. She was the Another donation Susan and I have made YS: What would you like the park to do first one who presented our collection to is the cataloging of about 3,000 indi- with the collection? the foundation at their meeting a few vidual items in our collection, saving the SD: In a perfect world, it would be great years ago. She’s come to our house and park approximately $21,000. We intend to have 95% of it on display, which I showed us how to catalog everything. to work with the foundation in the future know can’t happen. Perhaps revolving JD: We joke that you could call this the to acquire our postcard collection of more displays could be used to share the col- “Susan” collection because of Susan than 10,000 pieces so that our entire lection with people and to get the history Davis and Susan Kraft and I think that’s collection can go to the park. of the human experience out there in appropriate. Susan Kraft was critical to YS: Given all that, why did you part with addition to the natural history. Natural the park’s acquisition of our collection. the collection the way you did? Why is it history is important, too, but that’s what She was, far and away, the most impor- coming to Yellowstone when it could everyone else seems to have centered tant person involved. Lee was knowl- have gone elsewhere? on. edgeable enough that he recognized it SD: It just goes back to the roots of my JD: What we would also like to see the was important. Mike Finley was in a whole life I guess —the love of Yellow- park do with our collection is to use it as position to promote the acquisition of the stone. That’s where I wanted it to go. a base to build their acquisitions even collection and also to support the estab- JD: Logistically, the Yellowstone Park more and we’re willing to work with lishment of the Yellowstone Park Foun- Foundation needs to be credited with them on that. We know other collectors dation, which was critical. But categori- their ability to raise the funds. That was who have material that we don’t have cally, without Susan Kraft’s involvement, a big job. The person who did most of which we want to see go to the park. it might not have happened. We can’t that work was Ron Lerner. Without Ron, Even small collections are important. give her enough credit. the acquisition may not have taken place. Almost invariably, every collection has YS: When did the Yellowstone Park Foun- He deserves a lot of credit for his hard material that is unique only to it. dation get involved? work. There are a number of people SD: Another important thing is the re- JD: Almost not soon enough. There were involved that, without any of them, it search value, to have the collection avail- some other institutions and private indi- might not have happened. If Lee had able to people and also to have it avail- Fall 2001 19 The collection contains more than 1,000 small photographs such as this one of employees and staff at the National Hotel, taken by F.J. Haynes, circa 1883. Images such as these have recorded the human experience in the park since its establish- ment and are some of the most unique and desirable Yellow- stone collectibles. Although less common, large format photos, such as shown at left, are also found in the collection. Golden Gate Bridge looking north, by W. Ingersoll, circa 1880s.

able for other museums to display. The collection contains more YS: Susan and Jack, you’re the perfect than 25 rare maps including this example of the difference one person, hand-colored, Geological Map two people in this case, can make. When of Yellowstone National Park, you bought your first item, way back from the 1872 Hayden SurveyÐ when, that box of Haynes postcards, did 12th Annual Report. you have any sense of the legacy that you would be creating that you are now leav- ing to Yellowstone National Park? wanted it to go to the park as a whole. collection like this anymore, because you SD: No, I’m sure I didn’t. My roommates YS: That’s got to be a good feeling. couldn’t find it. It takes the time to put it used to say, “What in the world are you JD: When you work with people like Lee together and to collect the pieces because going to do with this junk.” It’s very Whittlesey, Mike Finley, and Susan Kraft, you can’t find them all at once. It just satisfying, personally, to see it going to you realize that not only can you read takes those years and years and hours and the park. I had no idea my hobby was about history, but you can create history. hours. going to turn out to be such a huge thing. Lee has created history, Mike Finley has JD: Susan and I want to state again, for YS: You do realize you’ve created a created history, Susan Kraft has created the record, that we’re thrilled and hon- lasting legacy that’s going to enrich oth- history and we are going to follow in their ored that our lifelong Yellowstone Park ers through their enjoyment, through the footsteps and create history, too. collection is going back to the park, back research opportunities it will provide, YS: You certainly have. to where it came from. and through the increased understanding SD: The collection represents thousands YS: The Davis Yellowstone Park Collec- and knowledge it will bring to countless and thousands of hours of looking for tion is now part of the Yellowstone story. people. things. If you had all the money in the Your generosity and passion have made it SD: That’s why, through the years, I world you couldn’t go out and purchase a so, and we thank you for it. 20 Yellowstone Science Waiting on the Beehive By Mike Green

Six o’clock in the morning, single digit temperatures, the sun still well below the horizon—what were we doing out here? When the alarm roused me from sleep at 5:30 A.M., I was sure I would be alone in my quest to witness one of the great wonders of Yellowstone, but I was mistaken. Two weary eyes peered up at me in the faint light. “Do you want to go, Princess?” I asked. “Yes, Daddy,” she replied. So up we rose, putting on every layer of clothing we had to fight off the biting chill of the early morning air. Little Madeline had always been my number one accomplice in adventure, and this morning was no exception. As we passed and headed into the geyser basin, it was quickly apparent that this was unlike any other time we had been here. Still dark and shrouded by a heavy fog from the myriad thermal features, the boardwalk had an eerie appearance that made me feel like we were in the middle of a scary mystery novel. All around us in the mist were strange sounds and apparitions. Alone, we pressed on, passing the “WARNING—dangerous ice” signs, until at last we reached the perfect spot. Here on the boardwalk was the best view, the closest point, and the place I remembered from so long ago. It was over 35 years ago that I first stood in this spot and gazed in wonderment at the magnificent cone of the Beehive Geyser. It had been the first great adventure of my life. The summer of 1966—a week in Yellow- stone National Park with Mom, Uncle Bill, Aunt Joan, and Grandpa Frank. That was the trip when the bear had almost come through the window; the trip where all the adults turned into kids during the famous shaving cream and deodorant fight in the cabin—a trip filled with wonderful images for a young boy who had never been far from home. The most indelible image of all, though, was standing on the boardwalk, hoping beyond hope that the Madeline Green.

Fall 2001 21 volcanic-looking Beehive Geyser would usually preceded by the Beehive indica- eruption, and still no sign. Could the erupt. I begged Uncle Bill to stay a little tor, a small vent near the cone that spews Beehive be playing with us? It’s been longer so we could see it go off. He tried water and steam approximately 15 min- known to suddenly go weeks or months to explain its unpredictable nature and utes before an eruption. without an eruption. Cold and tired, we the slim odds that we would get to see it. As we waited in the bitter cold, the decided to begin the hike back to the So after what seemed like an eternity, we cone teasingly boiled and steamed away, lodge. As we walked away, I looked over finally moved on. I remember looking but there was no activity from the indica- my shoulder just in case some activity back several times in hopes it would tor. The fog in the basin gave the Old might be seen before we were out of somehow decide to finally erupt. That Faithful Inn a ghostly appearance in the sight, but alas, nothing. As we passed memory had never departed, and the de- distance as its namesake geyser went off Lion Geyser it spat and bubbled and said sire to see the Beehive go from the board- right on schedule. The sun was getting to me, “I’m going off soon,” but as it’s walk was alive and well and had become close to the horizon, but the freezing air another rather unpredictable geyser, I rea- a lifelong dream. was beginning to take its toll. Madeline soned it was best to move on. So there we were, Madeline and I, wanted to see the Beehive as much as I We gradually became two groups, waiting on the Beehive. So much had did, but it was becoming obvious that she with Mamma and Sean out front, Maddie, changed in my life since I had sat there as couldn’t take much more. We paced up Stephie, and I lagging way behind. I sup- a little boy. The Beehive Geyser, on the and down the boardwalk, playing silly pose I didn’t really want to go, because it other hand, hadn’t changed at all. It looked games and telling stories, but after two had seemed so close. We reached the just as I remembered it. One of the glories hours we finally headed for the lodge. We junction on the trail. “Let’s take the long of nature is the timeless and unchanging were both covered with frost from the way back,” I said. Mamma and Sean were beauty it gives us in a world where noth- steam in the geyser basin, and we had to no longer in sight, and this way gave us ing stays the same for very long. Mom chuckle at the sight of ourselves with one last look at Beehive. Maddie and was gone now, and so was Grandpa Frank. every hair decorated by the white icing. Stephanie agreed, so we headed the long Yet in this timeless place it seemed like Disappointed, yet glad to be back in way around Old Faithful and figured we’d only yesterday they had stood right be- the warmth of the lodge, we joined connect up with the rest of the crew back hind me in this very spot. Would this Mamma, Sean, and Stephanie for a nice at the lodge. As we rounded the bend, the finally be our chance to see the Beehive? breakfast in the dining room. It was the geyser basin came back into view, and It was obvious from the snow around last full day of a wonderful winter adven- wouldn’t you know it—Lion Geyser was the cone that it had not erupted during the ture in Yellowstone that had begun on going off. “Just our luck,” I chuckled to night. This sometimes dormant, some- New Year’s Eve. As Madeline and I told myself. Now on the other side of the times active wonder is impossible to pre- the story of our lonely vigil over break- Firehole River, we were much farther dict. Now in an active phase, it was erupt- fast, I think the rest of the crew was quite away but still had a clear view of Beehive’s ing every 12 to 22 hours. It had been convinced that we were a few degrees cone. “Come on, Beehive,” I said several about 15 hours since the last eruption, so short of a thermal feature. Upon further times, Maddie and Stephie echoing my we knew it could be close. Eruptions are discussion, however, we all decided to go words with a winter chill in their voices. out after breakfast for one more try. Now, “Twenty-one hours plus,” I thought to at over 18 hours, it surely must be close, myself. How could we have shown so unless of course it had gone while we much patience and not been rewarded? were eating. I quickly gathered the troops The Beehive had foiled us once again. As and once again bundled up to go “sit” on we headed toward the , the Beehive. the geyser was now at our backs. I kept As we all retraced the steps Maddie thinking that maybe before we were out and I had trodden in darkness earlier that of sight, something might happen. I turned morning, there was a renewed excite- for one last look...nothing. I turned for ment that this, perhaps, was going to be it. another last look...nothing. “We’re al- As we walked the final section of board- most out of sight,” I thought, one final walk and espied the cone, sure enough, it very last look…THE INDICATOR!! hadn’t gone yet! This was surely going to Oh my gosh, the indicator! I couldn’t be the right time to see it go. Nineteen believe it. “Maddie, Stephanie, if we run hours plus, it had to erupt soon. We we might make it to the boardwalk in time waited and watched while an hour rolled to see it go, will you try?” I asked excit- slowly by. We must have walked back edly. They both nodded yes, and off we and forth to Lion Geyser three times, and went. The boardwalk and my dream spot still no sign from the indicator. were now three-quarters of a mile away, Stephanie was getting cold, and pa- and we had about 15 minutes to get there— tience was beginning to run thin. It was easy on my own, but with two little girls, Beehive Geyser finally erupts. going on 20 plus hours since the last this could be a challenge. We began dart-

22 Yellowstone Science Inn, and thought nothing could have made this any better. I cherish those occasional moments that life gives you. Moments when joy or excitement take away all your cares, all your worries. It had been just such a moment. Sure it was just a geyser, but it was a geyser I’d wanted to see for 35 years. Add to that the tears of joy I saw in my little girl’s eyes, and it becomes a moment I’ll treasure for the rest of my life. For a little while, I had felt young again. For a little while, nothing in the whole world mattered except that mo- ment, that place, and being together to see it. As the three of us walked away, hand- in-hand, I felt a wonderful feeling of contentment. Waiting on the Beehive had been worth every second, every minute, Beehive Geyser is among the largest cone-type geysers in the world, reaching and every year. between 150Ð200 feet high. ing down the boardwalk like we were into my camera as we waited in anticipa- running for the pot of gold at the end of tion. The cone began to churn and boil the rainbow. We could have gone to the more violently with every passing mo- viewing area on that side of the river, but ment. I was seven years old all over again we were now on a . Running soon as the mighty Beehive suddenly burst gave way to walking as we gasped in the forth with a roar, sending a slender stream cold winter air. Stephanie was about to of water and steam over 150 feet into the pass out when I offered her a piggyback air. I reveled with joy at the spectacular ride. Fifty yards later, I was about to pass show nature was putting on before us. I out! Now out of sight of the geyser, we busily snapped pictures, let out a few faced the dreadful thought of missing it good “yahoos,” and thought about my completely. If anyone had seen us at this Mom. I somehow knew she was there point, they would have thought we were too. Stephanie and Madeline were in awe overcome by thermal fumes or some- of the Beehive as it continued its five- thing. Finally, we reached the boardwalk. minute display, looking and sounding Only a few hundred yards to go. Here like a rocket engine. Great clouds of Mike Green, his wife, Bridget, and comes the tricky part. “Careful on the ice, steam rose off the towering plume. It was their three children, Sean (12), Madeline girls, hold my hand now, Stephie...easy truly amazing. I turned to give my geyser (11), and Stephanie (7), live in Lake- now...we made it!” buddy Madeline a big hug and was wood, Colorado, where Mike is the re- There we stood, gasping and out of shocked to see that she was crying. gional sales manager for an automotive breath, but that was okay. We were 20 “What’s wrong, honey?” I asked. “Noth- manufacturer. Their family wanted to be feet from one of the greatest geysers in ing,” she replied. “Why are you crying?” someplace special for the coming of the the world moments from an eruption. If I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. Then it year 2000, and decided to go to Yellow- only Mama and Sean were here. But wait, hit me—all my stories, all those cold stone, one of their favorite places on who’s that running for the lookout across hours together, she was crying out of pure Earth. Besides getting to see Bee- the river? It’s Mamma and Sean! joy. I gave her the biggest hug ever and hive go off, they also got to see Old “How did you know?” I yelled felt my own tears begin to form. Stephanie Faithful’s last eruption of 1999 loudly. “The ranger at the visitor quickly joined in for the best group hug just before midnight, and the first center told us,” she faintly re- imaginable. The Beehive was now in its eruption of 2000 at about one in plied. So now we were all to- bellowing steam phase as it slowly wound the morning. “We will treasure gether, although on opposite sides down from its awesome display. I gave a the memories for the rest of our of the river. With a little time to wave across to Mamma and Sean, looked lives.” Photos courtesy Mike spare, I loaded a fresh roll of film across to Old Faithful and the majestic Green.

Fall 2001 23 NEWS notes Nez Perce and Geysers...& were park staff and external partners, including representatives from the Greater “Indians were never in Yellowstone; Yellowstone Coalition and the Bear Creek they were afraid of geysers.” (2001 sum- Council. The tribe’s director of cultural mer visitor to Yellowstone National Park.) resources and public affairs, Scott Jones, said that they had come with trepidation: In August of 2001, Yellowstone Na- “It’s a little like getting on a broncing bull tional Park consulted with the Nez Perce to come to a place where people don’t Tribe of Lapwai, Idaho, about their an- quite understand why and how it’s sacred cestors’ arduous trek through the park in to us.” In summarizing the visit, Chair- 1877. At that time, as many as 800 indi- person Michael Jandreau told dinner viduals and 2,000 horses crossed some of guests that this was the first time that the the most difficult terrain the park has to Lower Brule Sioux Tribe had “met with offer, eluding capture by the U.S. Army. Dr. Nigel H. Trewin, University of such responsive and caring federal em- During the Nez Perce visit, a round Aberdeen, Scotland, guest speaker at ployees” in his 30 years of working with table discussion was held among knowl- the Superintendent’s International federal representatives. Jandreau has been edgeable park staff (including historian Luncheon. NPS photo. chairman of the tribe for 21 years. Lee Whittlesey, and park ranger John lowstone Lake: Hotbed of Chaos or Res- Lounsbury), author Gerry Green, and el- ervoir of Resilience, in Mammoth Hot Queen’s Laundry Bath House Listed der representatives from the Nez Perce Springs. The conference was interdisci- to National Register of Historic Places Tribe (former chair person Allen plinary in nature and addressed the man- Pinkham, Beatrice Miles, and Clifford agement issues, natural features, and hu- On July 25, 2001, the Queen’s Laun- Allen). The elders are the repositories of man history associated with Yellowstone dry Bath House, built in 1881 and located some of the Tribe’s oral histories and Lake. Session topics included archeol- toward the end of Sentinel Mead- cultural traditions. During the videotaped ogy, climate and environmental change, ows in Yellowstone’s Lower Geyser Ba- session, a lively exchange occurred about fisheries and ecosystem-level functions, sin, was listed to the National Register of American Indians’ alleged fear of gey- and hydrothermal and geologic processes Historic Places, the first Yellowstone sers. Historical motives for the myth were in the Yellowstone Lake basin. structure to be listed in 10 years. The explored, as was the role played by the Nearly 150 people attended the con- building is on the northwestern edge of a first superintendent of the park, Philetus ference, and they included members of mound formed by the active Queen’s Norris, in perpetrating it. Alternative ex- the public as well as scientists, authors, Laundry Spring. Deposition from the planations for particularly the Nez Perce media representatives, and individuals pool’s run-off is gradually encircling the relationship with the geyser basins were from a number of government agencies. bath house. proposed. Elders explained that their an- The bath house was the first building cestors were taught, instead, to be fear- Lower Brule Sioux Tribe Delegation constructed by the federal government less in order to ensure their survival, to Visits YNP for public use in a national park, repre- recognize and understand the potential senting the earliest recognition that pro- dangers in natural phenomenon such as Over the four-day period from June viding for visitor accommodations was a geysers and grizzlies, and, importantly, 19 to June 22, the park hosted an official legitimate use of federal funds within a to be prepared for those dangers. Com- delegation of 29 representatives from the national park. This policy would ulti- mon sense, among other attributes, em- Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of South Da- mately have a tremendous influence on bodied their relationship with the physi- kota. In what is likely a historic moment the national parks, as the infrastructure cal world. The videotape of the round for the NPS, the full contingent of the for public access expanded. The results talbe discussion, which included explo- Lower Brule, including the chairperson, of that policy are seen today in visitor rations of other aspects of the 1877 Nez tribal council, and the elder resource ad- centers, roads, hotels, stores, camp- Perce trek, can be obtained for viewing visory committee, visited the park to see grounds, and supporting facilities. It is by contacting Rosemary Sucec, cultural wolves, tour geyser basins, and meet with also the only building representing anthropologist for Yellowstone National park managers. Acting Superintendent Yellowstone’s early civilian administra- Park, at (307) 344-2229 or by email at Frank Walker, most division chiefs, and tion from 1872 to 1886. The building is [email protected]. other staff met with the group. They dis- associated with Philetus W. Norris, the cussed the bison management plan, the second superintendent of Yellowstone Science Conference a Success reintroduction of wolves, sacred sites, (1877Ð1882). fee waivers for religious and other tradi- In 1964, the park proposed removing From October 8 to 10, 2001, the park tional purposes, and employment oppor- the bath house on the basis that it was hosted its Sixth Biennial Conference on tunities. An end-of-the-week dinner hon- impinging on a thermal feature. Park his- the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Yel- ored the guests. Among the attendees torian Aubrey L. Haines wrote a scathing 24 NEWS¬es Photo by Richard Collier. New Publications Available have past experience in the Mt. Everts region, are participating in the project, The following publications are now and many were able to visit the site in available from the Yellowstone Center summer 2001. Current participants in- for Resources: clude Dr. William Cobban, Paleontolo- ¥ The USGS publication The Quater- gist Emeritus with the U.S. Geological nary and Pliocene Yellowstone Pla- Survey and renowned expert on the Cre- teau Volcanic Field of Wyoming, Idaho, taceous index fossils; Dr. Scott Wing, Queen’s Laundry Bath House, 1999. and Montana, Professional Paper 729Ð paleobotanist with the Smithsonian; Dr. G, by Robert L. Christiansen. Karen W. Porter, senior research geolo- letter to the chief park naturalist con- ¥A limited supply of copies of the West- gist with the Montana Bureau of Mines demning the proposal, and questioning a ern North American Naturalist vol- and Geology; Dr. Jason Hicks, Denver park philosophy that would obliterate a ume 61(3), July 2001, containing the University and Denver Museum of Sci- building that “has historical value of a proceedings from the Fifth Biennial ence and Nature, and expert in paleomag- high order as a unique remnant of an Scientific Conference on the Greater netism; Dr. Thaddeus Dyman, with the important period, and as the very begin- Yellowstone Ecosystem, Exotic Or- U.S. Geological Survey, paleontologist ning of federal construction aimed at serv- ganisms in Greater Yellowstone: Na- and stratigrapher; Dr. Gail Wiggert, Cali- ing the park visitor” only for the purpose tive Biodiversity Under Siege. fornia Department of Energy, trace fossil of restoring a “mediocre” thermal area to ¥ The Yellowstone Bird Report, 2000 by and sediment analysis; and Vince its natural state. It is to his credit that the Terry McEneaney. Santucci, paleontologist with the National bath house remains today, and now, will Printed copies of any of these reports Park Service at Fossil Butte National remain for the future. may be obtained while they last by call- Monument. Other experts have indicated ing (307) 344-2203 or by email at a desire to join in the fieldwork next year. Park Employees Receive Environmen- [email protected]. The bird report and A literature search was conducted to tal Achievement Award the Yellowstone Wolf Report, 2000 by identify all of the known research previ- Douglas W. Smith, Kerry M. Murphy, ously conducted in the Mt. Everts area. Yellowstone National Park employ- and Debra S. Guernsey are also available Previous fossil localities were identified, ees were awarded the 2001 Department of in pdf format on the park’s website at stratigraphic interpretations synopsized, the Interior Environmental Achievement www.nps.gov/yell/publications. and attempts made to locate fossils previ- Award at a recent ceremony in Washing- ously collected from Mt. Everts and held ton, D.C. The award recognizes DOI bu- Potential for Fossil Finds on Mt. Everts in repositories outside the park. reaus, offices, employees, and contrac- A pedestrian inventory of the exposed tors for exceptional achievements or con- Summer 2001 was the first field sea- formations just north of the northern park tributions in a broad range of environ- son of a two-year project to perform a boundary were examined. The signifi- mental discipline areas, including recy- paleontological inventory and assessment cant fossil localities were recorded, pho- cling, stewardship, education, and out- of the stratigraphy and erosion factors on tographed, and documented. Volcanic ash reach. Mt. Everts in the northern portion of was collected in various locations for Yellowstone employees were selected Yellowstone. The complex stratigraphy analysis to identify the age of the deposit. because of their many diverse and out- of Mt. Everts is known to contain fossil- Sediments from fossil leaf localities were standing efforts to integrate environmen- iferous exposures of Cretaceous sedi- collected to conduct pollen analysis use- tally sustainable approaches into their ments, similar to the 70- to 65-million- ful in paleoclimatic reconstructions. mission to protect and preserve park re- year-old sediments in northeastern Mon- Field surveys will provide baseline sources. The award also noted the suc- tana, in which Jack Horner has made geographic data on fossil localities, strati- cessful development of partnerships be- major discoveries of dinosaurs such as graphic data related to the geology of the tween the National Park Service, local Tyrannosaurus rex. A variety of fossil localities, paleontological data related to and state governments, and a consortium types including aquatic and terrestrial the identification of paleotaxa present, of private interests in implementing a plants, trace fossils, invertebrates such as and geologic data related to the deposi- number of successful projects. These in- fresh water snails, and a medium-sized tional environment of the fossiliferous clude the establishment of a regional re- vertebrate animal, interpreted as an units. Investigating fossiliferous units cycling program and composting facility, aquatic reptile or possibly a new type of such as Mt. Everts provides useful infor- the use of alternative fueled vehicles (in- dinosaur, have all been recovered from mation relating to the paleoen-vironments cluding a rigorous pilot test of bio-based Mt. Everts. Strong potential exists for 70 million years ago. This may help sci- fuel for trucks and snowmobiles), the use more exciting fossil finds. entists better understand the cycles and of renewable solar energy systems, and An interdisciplinary team of experts evolution of the modern environment of conversion to the use of environmentally- representing a wide array of geologic and the Yellowstone region. preferred cleaning products. paleontologic expertise, some of whom 25