Yellowstone: An Overview No matter how many times one may visit Yellowstone National Park, the scenery of this place is always new and different. My last photo program of Yellowstone was in 1998. That program can be found on acuri.net ‐ USA ‐ (see in sources). This photo program series was taken between August and September 2019. There are five entrances to the park. The only two entrances that are open year‐round are North and Northeast. The other entrances are open to over‐the‐snow vehicles. They are closed to wheeled vehicles from November through mid‐April. Fees into the park are based on various categories. It covers 3,472 square miles and was established on March 1, 1872. Ninety‐six percent of the park is in Wyoming, three percent in Montana and one percent in . This photo program series on Yellowstone National Park includes nine subject titles. They are Artist Point, Canyon Visitor Education Center, Lamar Valley, Lake Hotel, Mammoth Hot Springs, Midway Geyser Basin, Norris Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. How Yellowstone got its name: "The park is located at the headwaters of the , from which it takes its name. In the eighteenth century, French Trappers named the river "Roche Jaune," which is probably a translation of the Minnetaree name "Mi tsi a‐da‐zi" (Rock Yellow River). Later, American trappers rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone." Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Native American name source is not clear." Famous names and topics to further your learning more about Yellowstone are: "Tribal oral histories indicate more extensive use during the Little Ice Age. Kiowa stories place their ancestors here from around C.E. 1400 to 1700. Ancestors to contemporary Blackfeet, Cayuse, Coeur d'Alene Nez, , and Perce, among others, continued to travel the park on the already established trails…The Crow occupied the area generally east of the park, and the Umatilla occupied the area to the north. The Shoshone, Bannock, and other tribes of the plateaus to the west traversed the park annually to hunt on the plains to the east. Other Blackfeet groups hunted in open areas west and south of Yellowstone." "Sheep Eaters ‐ Some groups of Shoshone who adapted to a mountain existence chose not to acquire the horse. These included the Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters, who used their dogs to transport food, hides, and other provisions. The Tukudika acquired the name "Sheep Eaters" from the bighorn sheep whose migrations they followed. Bighorn sheep were a significant part of their diet, and they crafted the carcasses into a wide array of tools." Explorers included , John Colter, John Bridger, David E. Folsom, C.W. Cook and William Peterson. Early park key people ‐ Nathaniel P. Lanford, Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, and . The timeline of significant events at Yellowstone include:  13,000 to 14,000 years ago ‐ The last glaciers in the area melt.  11,000 years ago ‐ People arrive in Yellowstone.  1400 to 1800 ‐ People camp on the shore of for short periods during warm weather.  Mountain men lived off the land and trapped animals for fur. Depicted are some of the items a trapper may have carried. The trapper era was short‐lived, stretching from the late 1700s to the mid‐1840s when beaver became scarce and fashions changed.  1807 to 1808 ‐ John Colter, after leaving the Lewis & Clark Expedition, becomes one of the first mountain men to explore the Yellowstone area.  1834 to 1835 ‐ Trapper encounters a group of Native Americans.  1869 ‐ The Folsom–Cook–Peterson Expedition was the first formal expedition to Yellowstone.

Lodging for us on this tour of Yellowstone included Old Faithful Inn and Canyon Lodge. We also visited the Lake Hotel and enjoyed lunch there. The facilities are excellent and comfortable. Nature and wildlife have become a delicate balance of preserving this ecosystem to promote sustainability and offer visitors the experience of being able to visit Yellowstone. Fire, a natural process, is not a stranger in Yellowstone's history. There was a catastrophic fire in 1988 that burned 793,880 acres or 36% of the park land. The effects of the fire can be further studied in our sources. Yellowstone National Park has the largest number of mammals in the lower 48 states. Most visitors can see bison, elk, black bears, ravens, pronghorn, coyotes and wolves in the park. There are others that are rarely seen. They are moose, cougar and the wolverine. Plants found in the park include Lodgepole pine, Englemann spruce and Wyoming paintbrush. The park's wildlife includes bears, bison, coyotes, beavers, weasels, wolves, foxes and marmots. Fishing regulations in Yellowstone National Park are structured to strongly support native fish conservation goals…Cutthroat trout, Arctic grayling, mountain whitefish, and other native fishes are important to the ecology of Yellowstone. Birds, such as loons, waterfowl, cranes, and shorebirds, are vulnerable to lead poisoning. While we can do little about natural hazards, we can minimize the effects of lead on these species. Yellowstone National Park bans most lead tackle. (Terminal tackle must be lead‐free. Large downrigger weights used to fish for deep‐dwelling lake trout are permissible because they are too large to be ingested.)” Yellowstone's past, present and future has to do with a super volcano. The eruptions that took place over 630,000 years ago has created a caldera that is 30 by 45 miles in diameter. The geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots made this park a very exciting and dangerous place to be in. Its history has seen people, cultures, flora, fauna and ecosystems challenged and changed. We hope you find this series interesting.

Sources: 1998 acuri.net photo program ‐ https://cdn.website‐editor.net/dcb2270579134da18d99448109d32e03/files/uploaded/Yellowstone.pdf, Guided Tour, "Oh Ranger! Yellowstone National Park" booklet, http://www.ohranger.com/, https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/historyculture/historic‐ tribes.htm, https://www.yellowstonepark.com/park/indian‐country, https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/kidsyouth/history.htm, https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yell/cramton/sec2.htm, https://www.nps.gov/articles/fires‐yell.htm, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2307/3235886, https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/1988fires.htm, https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/fishing.htm, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_fires_of_1988 and https://archive.org/stream/folsomcookpeters162slsn/folsomcookpeters162slsn_djvu.txt. acuri.net John R. Vincenti Yellowstone National Park: An Overview