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

Tales of Yellowstone’s First Tourists The Value of Nature Notes A Wolf-Coyote Face-off Nature on Display

Volume 8 Number 1 A Drop in the Historical Bucket

Have you ever wondered about the first visitors to Yellowstone—how difficult a journey they might have had, and what their impressions would have been of the strange things they experienced? The first party was not unlike that of George Mallory and company when, in their attempt to surmount the world’s tallest peak, they “hiked off the map” into unknown territory—with little of the preparatory whirlwind that can accompany a park visitor today. No pre-drawn “trip-tik”; no reserved lodging or campsite awaiting; no web sites, guidebooks, or CD–roms to suggest “can’t miss” highlights of Yellowstone. In the wake of reports from the Washburn and Hayden expeditions of 1870Ð1871, Clawson, Raymond, and friends set out to explore what was to become the world’s first national park. Lee Silliman shares excerpts of the travelers’ accounts, which perhaps leave us with as many questions as they answer. Thomas Patin paints a picture of how later visitors to the more well-traveled park might stand at an overlook to enjoy the view, and experience what exhibit designers tried to conjure up in a cyclorama display. Was this by design or accident? Will a “magisterial gaze” at the live Yellowstone ever be supplanted by the vicarious visit to the TV travelogue or the multidimensional web site? Or will there always be plenty (perhaps even an excess) of people who must experience the real thing, a place that will never be as static as a museum display? For nearly 50 years, people living and working in the park shared their experiences and natural history observations in Nature Notes. This simple but popular old newsletter spawned many other communiques, and still offers researchers valuable snapshots of Yellowstone’s past. In tribute to its continuing popularity and worth, we reinstitute nature notes as a recurring feature and encourage readers to submit relevant cultural and natural history accounts for inclusion in the ever- growing record of Yellowstone Science. Some future reader will sift through the bucket of accumulated stories to form their impressions of this time and place. SCM Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume 8 Number 1 Winter 2000 Table of Contents

Yellowstone Nature Notes: A Neglected 2 Documentary Resource Historians point out the timeless value documented in the indexed collec- tion of old Yellowstone Nature Notes, as we reinitiate these periodic natural and cultural history observations. by Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey Yellowstone Nature Notes: A Wolf-Coyote 6 Interaction by Betsy Robinson and Steve Gehman

A Ride to the Infernal Regions: An Account of the 8 First Tourist Party to Yellowstone Yellowstone’s first party of tourists described a park both markedly different and recognizably similar to the landscape we know today, leaving historians wishing for more. by Lee Silliman Editor Sue Consolo-Murphy The National Park as Museological Space 15 Design Editor An art historian suggests that Yellowstone and other national parks mimic Renée Evanoff the techniques museums use to display their treasures. Assistant Editor by Thomas Patin Tami Blackford Kevin Schneider News and Notes Printing ¥ Wolves to Stay ¥ Visitors Found Guilty ¥ EIS on Commercial Use of Research Artcraft Inc. Knowledge • Former Researchers Honored • Region’s New Research Coordinator Bozeman, Montana ¥ Geologist Joins Staff ¥ New Discoveries from Yellowstone Lake ¥ Federal Agencies Move on Bison EIS ¥ Rare Plant Found at More Sites ¥ Missing a Beat On the cover: Thomas Moran’s Tower Falls and Sulphur Mountain, 1876 (publication date), chromolithograph. Yellowstone Science is published quarterly, and submissions are welcome from all investiga- Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, tors conducting formal research in the Yellowstone area. Correspondence should be sent to the Editor, Yellowstone Science, Yellowstone Center for Resources, P.O. Box 168, National Park Service. Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. Inside cover: Thomas Moran’s Grand The opinions expressed in Yellowstone Science are the authors' and may not reflect either Canyon of the Yellowstone, 1872. National Park Service policy or the views of the Yellowstone Center for Resources. Department of the Interior Museum, Copyright © 1999, the Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, History & Education. Support for Yellowstone Science is provided by the Yellowstone Association for Natural Washington, D.C. Provided for this issue Science, History & Education, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to serving the by Thomas Patin. park and its visitors. For more information about the Yellowstone Association, including Above: Cover from 1942 Nature Notes membership, write to P.O. Box 117, Yellowstone National Park, WY 82190. drawn by Albert E. Long. Yellowstone Science is printed on recycled paper with a linseed oil-based ink. Yellowstone Nature Notes: A Neglected Documentary Resource

by Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey

The documentary legacy of Yellow- These modest reports were the begin- placed a high value on educational activi- stone is huge: thousands of books; more ning of Yellowstone Nature Notes. It ties, and the Nature Notes program flour- thousands of scientific reports and pa- would become one of Yellowstone’s long- ished for many years. In 1936, Hazel pers; newspaper and magazine articles est, most informative, and certainly most Hunt Voth produced a “General Index to beyond counting; and a still poorly iden- entertaining literary traditions, a tradi- the ‘Nature Notes’ Published in Various tified wealth of other materials, including tion that took a more mature form on June National Parks 1920–1936,” a large vol- unpublished journals; commercial pam- 20, 1924 (none are known to have ap- ume funded by the Works Progress Ad- phlets and circulars; administrative peared in 1923), with the appearance of ministration and published by the Na- records of managers, concessioners, and Volume 1, Number 1, of a typescript tional Park Service from the Park interest groups; and visitors’ letters, post- (apparently mimeographed) newsletter Service’s Berkeley, California, office. By cards, and related memorabilia in almost with the actual title Yellowstone Nature that time, Acadia (beginning in 1932), unimaginable abundance. Between us, Notes. Later writers and researchers seem Crater Lake (1928), Glacier (1927), Grand we have devoted more than half a century to have routinely regarded the 1920Ð1922 Canyon (1926), Grand Teton (1935), Ha- to the study of this overwhelming mass of reports as early issues of Yellowstone waii (1931), Hot Springs (1934), Lassen stuff, and though we both have personal Nature Notes, but the name was not actu- (1932, combined with Hawaii), Mesa favorites, we agree that there is nothing ally used until 1924, when the series also Verde (1930), Mount Rainier (1923), else like Yellowstone Nature Notes. For acquired issue numbers. Rocky Mountain (1928), Shenandoah its bottomless reservoir of intriguing natu- Though it seems likely that Nature (1936), Yosemite (1922), and Zion/Bryce ral history tidbits, its hundreds of short Notes was intended especially for park (1929) had joined Yellowstone in pro- essays and reports on all kinds of engag- staff and other locals, it was available to ducing their own Nature Notes. ing subjects, and its unmatched window a wider audience. The first issue explained National park history enthusiasts may onto the day-to-day doings of earlier gen- that “This is the initial number of a series enjoy knowing that the Voth bibliogra- erations of Yellowstone nature lovers, of bulletins to be issued from time to time phy reveals that Nature Notes added an Yellowstone Nature Notes is unique, price- for the information of those interested in obscure additional element to the long- less, and a lot of fun. It is also a neglected the natural history and scientific features time rivalry between the two “Y-parks,” chapter in Yellowstone’s rich documen- of Yellowstone National Park and the each of which has been championed for tary history. unmatched educational opportunities of- being first at various things. Voth’s Na- On June 14, 1920, Yellowstone’s Park fered by this region. Copies of these bul- ture Notes bibliography dated the begin- Naturalist, Milton P. Skinner, issued a letins will be mailed free to those who can ning of Yellowstone Nature Notes to that brief typescript report containing notes use of them. Write or telephone your first June 1920 report, though Yosemite on flowers, geology, animals, and birds. request to the Information Office at Mam- seems to have launched its Nature Notes Similar brief reports appeared in July, moth Hot Springs, or call there in person, by that name in July 1922, earlier than August, and September of that year, and and your name will be placed on the Yellowstone produced its own similarly in June, July, and August of 1921. In July, regular mailing list.” named version. Advocates and partisans August, and September 1922, these were Nature Notes was not unique to Yel- are free to interpret this chain of events issued more formally, typeset, and printed. lowstone. Many other parks launched however best favors their predispositions. Apparently they were distributed through similarly named newsletters. National Discussing the production of Nature park offices, but may also have been Park Service director Stephen T. Mather Notes by the various parks, Voth noted posted at a few locations in the park. and Yellowstone Superintendent Albright that “publication in some cases has been 2 Yellowstone Science erratic; in some cases it has been sus- engineers in 1913, suggested that a “bu- cial” voice for the park administration. pended . . . .” The sustained production of reau of information” be established to Whether exhorting readers to enjoy wild- any sort of report or newsletter, year after educate visitors. Though we do not know flowers or not feed the bears, staff mem- year, administration after administration, what influence his specific suggestion bers who wrote the articles were treating is very difficult in any bureaucracy, and it may have had, the spirit of that sugges- the pages of Nature Notes as an extension must have been especially so in some of tion was finally acted upon by Superin- of their public contacts in evening camp- these perpetually understaffed national tendent Horace Albright in 1920, when fire programs, along park roads, and any- parks. That makes the steady appearance he hired Skinner as the park’s first “park where else that they worked. At times of Yellowstone Nature Notes until the end naturalist.” Here again some confusion some important management issue, such of 1958 an almost heroic achievement. exists; the label “naturalist” customarily as elk population controversies, would be Through the administrations of six super- means someone who studies nature, but covered in considerable depth. All of intendents, and seven park naturalists and in park jargon, it more specifically means these materials, representing as they did chief park naturalists (they became someone who gives talks, walks, and the park service leadership’s views, make “chiefs” once there was more than one of otherwise conducts interpretive activi- Nature Notes an important source for them; today they are called chiefs of ties. Skinner very quickly created the administrative history, complementing a interpretation), Nature Notes was pro- little monthly nature reports mentioned variety of other materials such as monthly duced faithfully, evidence of consider- above, the precursors to Yellowstone and annual reports, and official corre- able commitment to this form of educa- Nature Notes. But Skinner, who is re- spondence. tion. We would enjoy hearing from any membered now as having a difficult per- At the same time, the shorter notes on readers with more information about the sonality, ceased being park naturalist in wildlife sightings, the “leaves from our Nature Notes program throughout the September of 1922. In June 1923, Frank diaries” and other brief notes, each of parks. It does appear that some central- Thone was named acting park naturalist, which might seem so slight by itself, ized authority must have been taking part, a position he held until late August. It gradually piled up into a formidable mis- because of similarities in design and ap- seems likely that these administrative cellany, providing a surprising volume of proach. We have not yet canvassed many changes may explain the hiatus in the information on many species of park wild- other parks to learn how long they pro- production of the nature reports that year. life. The most popular species, such as duced their own Nature Notes. Edmund J. Sawyer became park natu- bears and elk, were ultimately mentioned Interpretation is a term that still must ralist in 1924 and soon started the actual in hundreds of short notes, some quite confuse many visitors; park staff who Yellowstone Nature Notes. With the fourth informative and all intelligently reported. educate the public have long been called issue, the publication was given a cover Any researcher newly engaged in study- interpreters. Milton Skinner, more or less sheet and more or less assumed the look ing some species of park wildlife would the father of Yellowstone Nature Notes, that it would have for the next thirty-four be well served to start by cruising through had come to Yellowstone in 1895 as a years. Sawyer, some of whose artwork is the excellent indexes that were periodi- walking-tour guide for the Yellowstone in the park’s collection, is probably re- cally issued for Nature Notes. Park Association (a hotel concessioner). sponsible for many of the early illustra- But perhaps the least appreciated as- In the 1920s, he would eventually write a tions in Yellowstone Nature Notes— pect of Nature Notes is its relevance to series of influential books and articles simple little line drawings and marginal social history. The moods and ideals por- about the park’s wildlife and other natu- sketches that became a hallmark of the trayed in these gentle reports, notes, and ral attractions. (Skinner is one of many publication until its final issue. observations—about nature, about life in Yellowstone figures deserving of further Subsequent park naturalists, including wild country, about the place of national study.) Prior to the creation of the Na- Dorr Yeager, who took over in 1928, parks in society—make Nature Notes a tional Park Service in 1916, and even continued Skinner’s approach with few fine source of impressions about social before the creation of the education divi- material changes. Bird and wildlife ob- values, as well as about the day-to-day sion of the park service in 1920, virtually servations, provided by various park staff textures of park residence. We can imag- all interpretive activities were performed or consolidated by the editor, were rou- ine some enterprising graduate student in by park concessioner employees, prima- tinely provided, as was the occasional recreational sociology or environmental rily stagecoach drivers (who gave mile- staff- or park resident-written poem and history using either Yellowstone Nature by-mile commentary) and hotel porters drawing. Reports on geysers and hot Notes or the entire set of series from all (who gave walking tours of the thermal springs appeared regularly. As time the parks to examine changing values and areas), but also by the occasional inde- passed, articles got longer and more and ideas in national parks over four decades. pendent educator or outfitter. Skinner more voices were heard, often with by- In a lighter mood, the senior author of this was not the first Yellowstone interpreter, lines. Articles on park history were added paper used many of the short anecdotes but he was a longtime public educator as early as 1925. Book reviews, hiking and stories from Yellowstone Nature Notes even before the park’s administrators tales, and quotable quotes became regu- as chapters in Yellowstone Bear Tales defined their own responsibilities in the lar features. (1991), a book of readings that repre- field. Yellowstone Nature Notes seems from sented dozens of individuals’ experiences Skinner, while working for the park the beginning to have served as an “offi- with park bears before World War II. Winter 2000 3 Similar compilations about wildlife or general order to cease producing Nature on new developments in the park. The other park lore would probably also be Notes, and no such order was given. Linda library holds one or two of these per year well received. Eade, librarian at Yosemite, tells us that from 1983 to 1992. One of the chief Among the subjects that we have not when Yosemite Nature Notes ceased pub- distinctions between these later permuta- adequately researched is the apparently lication in 1962, it was said to be the tions on the Nature Notes then and the general demise of Nature Notes around result of “rising costs, diminishing man- original is that the latter are progressively the park system. In Yellowstone, it oc- power, and the changing times.” more candid about matters of budget and curred at the end of 1958. The final issue A variant form of the newsletter ap- agency politics. included a report on Firehole thermal peared very quickly. Again, Aubrey The desire for something more like the basin hot spring activity in 1958, and Haines: old Nature Notes never went away. In another on Mammoth Hot Springs by “After I became park historian, I did 1974, Mammoth Subdistrict Ranger Sec- Chief Park Naturalist David de L. Condon. attempt a resurrection in the form of The retary Chris Judson started a new “Nature Former Yellowstone Park Historian Yellowstone Interpreter, which had dur- Notes” by including it in the biweekly Aubrey Haines recently responded to our ing its two-year life the purpose that al- employee newsletter, Yellowstone News. query about the abrupt cessation of pub- ways appeared on the title page: ‘The The first issue, January 25, 1974, encour- lication of Nature Notes after so many purpose of this publication is to provide aged employee contributions and sum- years: scientific and historical data for the use of marized a number of wildlife observa- “Yellowstone Nature Notes died qui- Park personnel engaged in interpretive tions by park staff (including the winter etly with V. XXXII, No. 6 (NovemberÐ activities.’” waterfowl count) who already were in December 1958), and without a hint that The Yellowstone Interpreter was pub- touch with her. Chris maintained a large was to be the last issue. I was in engineer- lished occasionally through 1963 and network of contacts throughout the park, ing at the time, so do not know what was 1964. It was to “appear at random, de- and eventually persuaded a number of behind the decision to stop. There is no pending upon availability of suitable people, including veteran seasonal ranger clue in the header, which solicits articles material, and employees are urged to Wayne Replogle and Gardiner, Montana, and carried the usual statement of pur- contribute articles.” Most of it was writ- tackle shop owner Richard Parks, to con- pose.” ten by Aubrey himself, who was then tribute substantial series of items. On Aubrey suggested that someone may researching The Yellowstone Story (1977), May 16, 1974, she changed the name to just have decided that Nature Notes had his history of the park, and who provided Field Notes, with the hope that this would become “superfluous.” Changing atti- a series of authoritative sketches of his- “better express what we’d like this sec- tudes about interpretive style or the per- torical characters and events. Its intended tion to be. Hopefully it will serve as one haps old-fashioned tone of the publica- audience, park interpreters, was more lim- more avenue of communication, provid- tion may have been factors. In the late ited than that of the original Nature Notes, ing information on what’s happening in 1950s, traditional observational “natural and it is not nearly as well known, though Yellowstone. This is of interest to every- history” was falling out of favor perhaps the writing was of higher quality. It ended body, but will be especially useful to even more than it had been in previous when Aubrey was transferred to another those who meet the public and need to decades, replaced by more rigorous sci- position. keep as up-to-date as possible on many entific techniques. For many years, park Since then, several attempts have been aspects of the park . . . .” It included service naturalists had been jokingly re- made to revive some form of newsletter announcements about new employees, ferred to as “Sunday supplement scien- for Yellowstone’s interpreters. Between observations of wildlife, and reports on tists” for their simple nature lessons, and December 1969 and November 1980, the snow conditions, among many other mat- perhaps the criticisms were part of the interpretive division under chiefs Will- ters. Though Chris moved to Bandelier reason for the end of Nature Notes. On iam Dunmire and Alan Mebane occa- National Monument (from where she re- the other hand, perhaps it was just practi- sionally issued an off-season newsletter, cently provided us with information) in cal needs, or bureaucratic whim, that one usually with a mixture of natural history April 1976, Field Notes continued to ap- day led to a decision (either in the Na- and administrative news. These seem to pear in the employee newsletter fairly tional Park Service or in each park indi- have been produced almost exclusively regularly until November 24, 1976, un- vidually) to invest limited staff resources for communicating with seasonals who der unknown editorship. in other things. So far our inquiries among were elsewhere at the time. The park’s In August of 1995, the Grant Village park service people who recall the period research library has files of these, but of interpretive staff under the leadership of have not yielded many clues about why course because of their intermittent pub- Matt Graves, issued a continuation of the Nature Notes disappeared. Perhaps one lication schedule (never more than two a original Yellowstone Nature Notes (Vol- of our readers may know more. John year) it is difficult to know if the set is ume 33, Number 1), quoting the original Good, who would later serve as complete. During the administration of Nature Notes’ masthead for its purpose. Yellowstone’s chief of interpretation, re- George Robinson, the interpretive divi- This single issue contained articles about calls that in 1959 he was working in the sion produced an occasional newsletter the history of Nature Notes, the newly service’s Washington office, where he known as “Out of Touch,” especially for arrived wolves, elk observation, and swan would have heard if there had been any the faraway seasonals, to keep them posted nesting. A “Leaves from our Diaries”

4 Yellowstone Science section contained reports in the style of appetite for information about the park park issues and social scenes across al- the original Nature Notes, brief observa- grew not only larger but also more sophis- most eighty years of Yellowstone’s his- tions on wildlife sightings of note. As far ticated, all agreed that there was need for tory. Very few modern researchers, as we can determine, no subsequent is- a publication that could do justice to the though perhaps well aware of Yellow- sues were produced, and the effort was growing amount of research conducted in stone Science, have ever heard of its redirected to an annually updated infor- the park. The first issue appeared with “original” ancestor, and are missing a mation book; Yellowstone Assistant Paul as editor in Fall 1992, and it has wonderful opportunity. Perhaps it will Chief of Interpretation Linda Young re- remained a (fairly faithful) quarterly pub- contain nothing of use to your project, but calls that “what began as a sort of Nature lication since then. Sue Consolo Murphy you’ll never know until you look. We can Notes revival turned into what we nowa- assumed the editorship with Volume 4, almost guarantee that you’ll spend more days call the ‘Interpreter’s Handbook.’” Number 3 (summer 1996), and publica- time with it than you expected to. All of A variety of even smaller circulation tion costs are largely covered by a grant the publications mentioned here are in newsletters, such as the South District from the Yellowstone Association with the Yellowstone National Park Research Interpreter’s Newsletter (known during additional donations by readers. Library, in the basement of the Horace part of its 1985Ð1986 run as In contrast with previous publications, Albright Visitor Center at Mammoth Hot “Chautauqua”) have come and gone with Yellowstone Science has been almost en- Springs. the staff who created them. tirely written by the researchers them- We believe that there are a number of By far the most important and durable selves. Except for the news and notes at graduate research or writing projects wait- descendant of Nature Notes appeared in the back of each issue, most of the feature ing to be extracted from Nature Notes. May 1985, with the appearance of a news- articles were submitted by the research- One would be a history of the Nature letter entitled Resource Management, ers themselves, who came from a wide Notes program throughout the National edited and in good part written by Sue variety of universities and other institu- Park Service: who originated it and why? Consolo (now Sue Consolo Murphy), tions. To vary the presentation, most is- How specific were the marching orders resource management biologist with an sues have included one interview with given to individual parks about the pro- interpretive background. Sue, now editor some noteworthy researcher, visiting sci- duction of their Nature Notes? Did man- of both this newsletter and Yellowstone entist, or, in one case, a retiring adminis- agers perceive it as a public educational Science, remembers the plan this way: trator (Bob Barbee). tool, and, if so, how did they use it? Did “The original hope was monthly in A thorough listing of informational it just die a “natural death” in each park summer and bimonthly in winter, and I newsletters about Yellowstone would for local reasons, or was its departure came close to meeting that goal for some have to include quite a few others. One centrally decreed? This sizeable and fas- years. It was [Supervisory Resource Man- especially long-lived and valuable con- cinating documentary resource has much agement Specialist] Stu Coleman who, tribution has been a concessioner’s Com- to teach us, not only about natural history witty weird-humor guy that he was, mentary Newsletter, originated by Gerard but also about the culture of the National named it The Buffalo Chip, beginning and Helen Pesman under the transporta- Park Service and the people who came to with the January–February 1988 issue.” tion division of the Yellowstone Park the parks to enjoy nature. The Buffalo Chip, which has had a Company in 1973. Produced for the We would like to thank Sue Consolo steadily growing mailing and in-house company’s bus drivers, commentators, Murphy and Linda Young, Yellowstone reading list, reports in more depth than and snowcoach drivers, this publication National Park; Linda Eade, Yosemite did previous newsletters on a great vari- has long been a primary source of infor- National Park; Aubrey Haines, Tucson, ety of natural and cultural resource man- mation on natural and cultural history, Arizona; Chris Judson, Bandelier Na- agement projects and concerns. Almost with many extended articles based on tional Monument; and Richard Sellars, entirely staff-written, it has now tracked extensive study by the editors. Lee National Park Service Southwest Re- fourteen years of park management is- Whittlesey assumed the editorship in 1978 gional Office; for helpful suggestions and sues, making it an important source of the and continued it until 1980, when publi- information. month-to-month concerns of manage- cation ceased. It has since been revived ment, and a treasure chest of informa- by Leslie Quinn, and is still regularly Paul Schullery works part-time for the tion. produced. And now that there are literally National Park Service as a writer-editor. The latest and most publicly visible dozen of Yellowstone-related web sites, His Yellowstone books include Mountain chapter in the Nature Notes saga is Yel- any bibliography of Nature Notes de- Time, The Bears of Yellowstone, and lowstone Science. The idea seems to have scendants (whether conscious or inad- Searching for Yellowstone. Lee resulted from conversations in 1990 and vertent) will become a very complicated Whittlesey is Yellowstone’s archivist–his- 1991 among then-superintendent Bob thing. torian. His Yellowstone books include Barbee, then-chief of research John Nature Notes and its children have left Yellowstone Place Names, Death in Yel- Varley, and then-resource naturalist Paul us an impressive volume of information lowstone, and A Yellowstone Album. Schullery. As the park’s many resource- and have revealed a remarkable devotion Paul and Lee are currently collaborating related controversies grew more and more to education of staff and the public. These on a history of wildlife in greater Yellow- heated and complex, and as the public’s obscure publications have also tracked stone. ❂ Winter 2000 5 A Wolf-Coyote Interaction by Betsy Robinson and Steve Gehman

Wednesday, May 5, 1999, dawned partly cloudy and cold on Yellowstone’s northern range. At 6:30 a.m. we watched two grizzly bears foraging, one at the base of Specimen Ridge and the other north of the Lamar River. We then made our way to Slough Creek to look for the Rose Creek wolf pack. At about 7:00 a.m., we joined a small group of friends at an overlook above Slough Creek where they were watching six members of the Rose Creek pack. The wolves had made a kill the previous night along the banks of Slough Creek and were resting after feeding. The kill was at the bottom of an embankment, out of sight from where we were standing. Two of the wolves made their way northwest over a ridge and out of sight, leaving three wolves lying on a sage-covered hillside about one-quarter mile from the kill. At approximately 7:30 a.m., the alpha male, #8, appeared carrying a chunk of meat and made his way west to where the other wolves were lying. Two of those wolves joined him and they slowly made their way up the ridge and into the trees, disappearing from view. The remaining black wolf, one of last year’s pups, walked over to the kill and fed for approximately 10 minutes. The wolf then walked a short distance to a shallow pond and drank some water. At that point, a coyote appeared along the shore of the pond and approached the wolf. We all tensed and waited expectantly for the wolf’s reaction. Wolves and coyotes are competitors, and we have witnessed wolves chasing and harassing coyotes. Also, wolves have killed a number of coyotes in the park since the wolves were released in March of 1995. The wolf looked at the coyote, which continued to approach. When it got within 20 meters of the wolf, the coyote assumed the “alligator gape” posture, with tail tucked, back arched, and mouth gaping open. The wolf stood its ground and continued to watch the coyote. The coyote then did a surprising thing—it adopted a playful attitude which we have seen many times before among dogs. The coyote dropped down on its front legs, tail out and wagging, seemingly inviting the wolf to play. The wolf continued to watch, and the coyote repeated the display. After the second time, the young wolf responded and trotted off after the coyote.

6 Yellowstone Science For the next five minutes, the coyote led the wolf through the sagebrush, back and forth, up and down. A pattern emerged, with the coyote running ahead at a faster pace than the wolf, then waiting for the wolf to catch up and get within 10 or 20 meters before running ahead again. There never appeared to be menace in the situation, and the wolf never appeared to actually pursue the coyote with any seriousness. Several times the coyote and the wolf stood face to face at a distance of less than 10 meters. All the while it seemed to those of us observing that the coyote was leading the wolf somewhere, and had a motive. After about five minutes, the coyote had led the wolf to the top of a small rise where another coyote appeared, and the situation changed very quickly. The two coyotes abruptly turned on the surprised wolf, chasing it and trying to bite its hindquarters. The wolf ran away at full speed, with its ears back and tail between its legs. The two coyotes pursued for several minutes as the wolf dodged through the sagebrush and finally escaped up the ridge and out of sight into the trees, at which point the coyotes broke off the chase. It appeared to those of us watching that the entire thing had been a setup, and that the first coyote deliberately waited until only one wolf remained in the area. It then lured the wolf to the vicinity of the second coyote. Perhaps there was a coyote den in the area and the coyotes wanted to drive off the lone wolf, or perhaps the coyotes were merely bullies. We’ll never know the real story, but this time the coyotes turned the tables on the wolves.

An original drawing by Harold J. Broderick that appeared on the cover of a 1946 issue of Nature Notes.

Betsy Robinson and Steve Gehman are self-employed wildlife biologists based in Bozeman, Montana. Steve has worked on various research projects in greater Yellowstone since 1984. Betsy has worked on several bird and mammalian research projects since 1992. They lead natural history tours in the western United States and Alaska and have instructed college-level field ecology courses for the Wildland Studies program of San Francisco State University. Currently their non-profit research and education organization, Wild Things Unlimited, is focusing on an ecosystemwide survey of wolverine, fisher, and lynx. Winter 2000 7 A Ride to the Infernal Regions: An Account of the First Tourist Party to Yellowstone

by Lee Silliman

Photo by William H. Jackson taken in 1872 of Mary’s Bay, Yellowstone Lake, on the east shore of the lake showing a beautiful “L” curve. YELL 36086. NPS archives.

Accounts of the wonders to be found at tory from across the country, they sought a writer on the editorial staff of The New- the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, the curious and the sublime that subse- Northwest, a weekly newspaper published long regarded as trapper and prospector quent legions of visitors have been drawn in Deer Lodge, Montana Territory. Grow- hyperbole, became more seriously enter- to ever since. ing up in Wisconsin, he attended tained when attested to by the esteemed Waynesburg College in Pennsylvania and members of the Washburn-Langford ex- The Party sought his fortune in the newspaper busi- pedition of 1870. Montana Territory ness in Kansas, Colorado, and Montana. newspapers and word-of-mouth, as well Rossiter W. Raymond: While accounts In addition to owning newspaper inter- as some nationally circulated periodi- of the trip do not reveal who organized ests, Clawson became involved in Idaho cals, spread the party’s intelligence that the party, a reasonable conjecture is that mining ventures.2 He eventually settled descriptions of the Yellowstone region— Raymond, being the most educated and with his wife and son in central Idaho in far from being exaggerated—had, in fact, well-traveled member, was its de facto the late 1870s. been understated. To dispel all doubt, in leader when decisions were demanded. Raymond described Clawson as a the summer of 1871 Congress dispatched Fellow party member C. C. Clawson re- shrewd reporter, “interviewing people a scientific exploration party under the ferred to him as “Professor.”1 Raymond’s against their will, following with an in- leadership of Ferdinand V. Hayden, chief duties as U.S. Commissioner of Mines tent nose the trails of scandal, picking up of the U.S. Geological and Geographical and Mineral Statistics from 1868 to 1876 scraps of information around the doors of Survey of the Territories. The exploits brought him west on frequent inspection public offices . . . .” Raymond went on to and renown of the Hayden Survey have tours. His 1871 trip to Helena and Vir- compliment him for taking notes “in se- long been acknowledged. ginia City, Montana Territory, was a pre- cret as a gentleman should,” for being a Before Hayden’s party had left the tense to enable him to see the real object “jolly companion,” and for his culinary future park, however, another group— of his desire: the mythical environs of the skills in the preparation of “dough-gods” hithertofore mostly unknown and the sub- Yellowstone headwaters. Raymond wrote and “bull-whacker’s butter.”3 ject of this discussion—conducted a a lengthy account of this sojourn, which Clawson’s 17 installments describing sightseeing excursion to “Geyserland” in was published in contemporary periodi- the Yellowstone trip appeared in the New August of 1871. Because their avowed cals and in his 1880 book, Camp and Northwest from September 9, 1871, to goal was to retrace the steps of the previ- Cabin, Sketches of Life and Travel in the June 1, 1872, under the titles “Notes on ous year’s Washburn expedition—this West. A widely traveled man with a dis- the Way to Wonderland; or A Ride to the time to enjoy the sights, rather than ex- tinguished career, Raymond sentimen- Infernal Regions” and “In the Region of plore new territory—these six men are tally referred to his 1871 trip to “Wonder- the Wonderful Lake.” Each section must considered Yellowstone’s first known land” as the high point of his life. have been penned not long before its tourists. Meeting up in Montana Terri- Calvin C. Clawson: C. C. Clawson was publication, for in the last installment, 8 Yellowstone Science published three months after President A photo (1800s) of Grant signed the park into law on March Sawtelle’s ranch near 1, 1872, Clawson facetiously whined that Henry’s Lake, Idaho. he could not preempt and thereafter sell YELL 33378. NPS ar- a mountain of brimstone in Yellowstone chives. because “the Park Bill put an end to the negotiations.” August F. Thrasher: A. F. Thrasher was an English-born daguerrean photog- rapher and owner of the “Sun Pro” Gal- lery in Deer Lodge, Montana. Drifting into the state from the California and Idaho gold camps in 1868, Thrasher was mind with a general knowledge of what is magnificent spouters and pools. Except an itinerant photographer whose peregri- going on in the world about him.”6 for Thrasher and Sawtelle, who stayed to nations took him to the many fledgling Anton Eilers: Not much is known about photograph the canyon, the rest of the post-Civil War mining camps that had Raymond’s assistant and fellow mining party struck southwest over Mary Moun- sprouted up in southwestern Montana. engineer. He must have filled a niche, for tain back to the Firehole River and up- Raymond praised Thrasher, “He invests Raymond wrote that regarding character stream to the Upper Geyser Basin. After the profession of photography with all and accomplishment, “what one of us enjoying the latter, they descended the the romance of adventure . . . . If there is lacked another was sure to have.”7 Firehole and Madison rivers to Virginia a picturesque region where nobody has City and dispersed homeward. been, thither he hastens . . . .”4 The Group’s Itinerary Gilman Sawtelle: Gilman Sawtelle, the Encounters With Wildlife first settler of the Henry’s Lake region, The group (six men, eight horses, one 15 miles west of present-day West Yel- mule, and one dog) departed on August Mid-nineteenth century Western trav- lowstone, was the party’s local guide. 10, 1871, from Virginia City, one of elers were accustomed to shooting wild- Sawtelle’s ranch, 60 miles from the settle- Montana Territory’s more populated and life as their larder or whim dictated, and ments at Virginia City, was an outlier of vigorous cities. Up the Madison Valley Clawson’s party was no exception—es- civilization on the periphery of the Yel- they traversed, crossing the Continental pecially considering the fact that no legal lowstone Plateau, where he was visited Divide via Raynold’s Pass to reach strictures against it were in place in 1871. by many travelers. Raymond described Sawtelle’s ranch on Henry’s Lake for a The park’s 1872 founding act contained a him as “a stalwart, blond, blue-eyed, three-day respite. Via another low pass vague directive for the Secretary of the jovial woodsman,” and his accompany- they returned to the Madison River and Interior to “provide against the wanton ing dog, Bob, “an excellent spirit and a progressed to the East Fork (Gibbon River) destruction of the fish and game found companionable soul.” confluence, where they saw their first within said park,” but it would be 20 Josiah S. Daugherty: A prominent busi- geyser. Continuing up the other branch, years before effective checks against kill- nessman and citizen of Wabash, Indiana, the Firehole River, the wanderers came to ing park wildlife were in place. While Daugherty the Lower Geyser Basin, which they erro- traveling up the Madison River outside toured neously supposed was the Upper Geyser the park, Clawson lamented that “as yet Utah, Basin as described by Nathaniel Langford we had taken no game—not even a Idaho, in his Scribner’s articles. The thermal chicken killed or a fish caught—and there Montana, features amazed them, but did not fit with was a stife among us to see who would get and Wyo- Langford’s descriptions. For reasons un- the first blood.” An eagle was their first ming Ter- fathomable, they bypassed the Upper victim: ritories in Geyser Basin in a brash, two-day thrust to 1871, pur- reach Yellowstone Lake on a miserable “In a short time the eagle hunters portedly to route blazed by one of Hayden’s scouting made their appearance, with their improve parties. Their toil was rewarded with the hats bedecked with trophies in the his health. beauty of the lake and the thermal fea- shape of eagle feathers, and an eagle His inclu- tures of the West Thumb Geyser Basin. hanging to the horn of each saddle, sion in this They moved north to the lake’s outlet and while the wings dragged the ground. first tourist followed the Yellowstone River down- The old one showed fight when she party to Yellowstone enabled him to re- stream to the Grand Canyon, where they saw the hunters approaching, and turn with “many rare specimens of min- encountered Lt. Gustavus Doane of the settled down by the nest to protect erals and fossils.” An 1884 biographical Hayden Expedition. He informed them her young. After several shots from sketch praised him for his business acu- that they had inadvertently detoured a rifle, she was disabled, and Mr. men, and for not neglecting “to store his around the Upper Geyser Basin with its Raymond climbed the tree as far as Winter 2000 9 possible, threw a rope over the limb, their survey of 168 historical accounts of cifically looped back to see them. Like- and shook the two young ones out, visits to the Yellowstone Plateau prior to wise, the majestic Lower Falls of the then brought them to camp. They 1882.13 They found that 90 percent of the Yellowstone and its incomparably col- were monsters of their age, and remarks relating to wildlife were claims ored and sculpted Grand Canyon have after admiring them a while, we of abundance. As C. C. Clawson wrote, transfixed millions of visitors with their turned them loose to shift for them- “Elk in bands flew away at sight of us or sublimity. Of the two, Clawson penned a selves.8 stood in groups until the crack of the rifle mere eight terse lines! What did grip Mr. admonished them that they stood in dan- Clawson? ” gerous places.”14 The first feature to endear itself was the Before we condemn them for a crime Madison Canyon. Waxed Clawson, “For against nature, let us ask ourselves what Notes Upon the Scenic Wonders wild canyons and grand scenery, the we are perpetrating today with no com- Madison River is not equaled by any punction that our great-great-grandchil- C. C. Clawson’s responses to the sce- stream of its size in the mountains.” He dren will find odious. As Henry Louis nic wonders of Yellowstone were atypi- went on to describe the volcanic pali- Gates, Jr., phrased it, “History is, in no cal. Whereas many visitors to the park sades which hem this river at its second small part, a chronicle of formerly ac- would place Old Faithful Geyser and its canyon just outside the park: “The moun- ceptable outrages.”9 On the whole, how- companion thermal features in the Upper tains of rock run thousands of feet in the ever, the party apparently restricted itself Geyser Basin as the defining, requisite air, and form picturesque sights com- thereafter to shooting elk and fowl to Yellowstone experience, Clawson de- pared with the smooth, tame valley in augment their food supplies. voted a scant seven tepid lines to their front.” Probably not one in a hundred Clawson noted that Yellowstone was a description—even though they had spe- modern tourists stops for a minute’s con- virginal hunting and fishing ground, “where elk and moose and deer and bear have maintained their rights to this their Eden since the day they were given pos- session.”10 Raymond concurred, “The forest and the wave alike teem with legged and winged game.”11 Clawson corrobo- rated other early travelers’ observations that wolves were native to the Yellow- stone Plateau. On their first night at the lake, when Clawson drew night guard duty, the horses were uneasy.

A band of hungry wolves sat “upon a point some distance away and howled and yelped a most heartrending war song that seemed to terrify even our dog, who was a wolf hunter by profession. But with my back to a geyser and the dog and Ballard [a single-shot rifle] in front of me, I gazed into the dark dismal woods and dared either devil or wild beast to ‘tackle me.’12

This excursion party offers testimony” that Yellowstone abounded with wild game prior to the onslaught of subse- quent visitors. Some people have con- tended that Yellowstone was essentially devoid of mammals (especially elk and wolves) until the late nineteenth century, when white hunting pressure “pushed” the remnant animals up into the moun- tains. This claim was effectively refuted Photo taken by William H. Jackson in 1871 of the Grand Canyon, looking down by Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey in from over the lower Falls, west side. YELL 36070. NPS Archives. 10 Yellowstone Science templation of the pleasures of this can- calm and still as death in the the norm among whites in Montana Ter- yon, in their determined pursuit of the evening sun. The like of Yellow- ritory then. His references to them indi- geyser basins upstream. Perhaps a lei- stone Lake has not yet come under cate that white people still assumed the surely day-long horseback ride through the eye of or within the knowledge Yellowstone headwaters was a prime lo- the Madison Canyon, as opposed to a 45- of civilized man. The curious and cale to encounter their darker-skinned miles-per-hour passage entombed in a marvelous sights that encircle it, enemies. This presumption contradicts steel and glass conveyance, enabled the wondrous beauty of the mighty the myth propagated by some Yellow- Clawson to deduce that “here is another peaks that overshadow it as they stone travelers that Native Americans great field for artists; and photographers stand arrayed in gorgeously painted dreaded and shunned this spirit-haunted and landscape painters will here find garments of red and purple and highland of geysers, hot springs, and cold. food for the camera and easel.” yellow like gigantic sentinels Earliest among such sources was fur trap- Clawson wrote of the varied and some- guarding the precious treasure en- per Warren Angus Ferris, who visited times dangerous thermal features of the trusted to their care and keeping; Yellowstone in 1834 and reported that Lower and Midway geyser basins, but its romantic shores, fringed with his Pend d’Oreille Indian companions the curiosities which in some would ig- forests of richest green, which the “were quite appalled, and could not by nite wonderment elicited from Clawson frosts of winter or the heats of any means be induced to approach them only guidebook descriptions. For exhila- summer cannot fade; the unequaled [the geysers] . . . they believed them to be ration of spirit the author would have to beauty of its outline—all unite to supernatural and supposed them to be the wait until the party topped the divide enveil it in an unnatural, indescrib- production of the Evil Spirit.”20 A careful between the geyser basins and Yellow- able appearance; unlike any other evaluation of the historical record reveals stone Lake: spot or place seen or heard of—as that the supposed Native American fear if not of this world—something of Yellowstone’s geysers was complex Sitting on our horses we gazed spiritual, beyond the reach of pen and, at best, only half true.21 “and gazed in silent wonderment at or tongue. The eye must behold the But fear of encountering Indians on the outstretched world below. We glory thereof to believe; this 1871 trip was pervasive and well were beyond the flight of the Muses And even then, founded. According to Rossiter Raymond, . . . . We could not help feeling that Doubting, looks again.18 their party numbered only six men be- we were lifted up BETWEEN cause a recent raid by Sioux Indians into HEAVEN AND HELL, for while Clawson concluded his impassioned” the Gallatin Valley had unnerved many the seething, sulphurous lakes were portrayal of the lake—which he envi- would-be participants. “When the criti- on each side and far beneath us, the sioned as the center of a forthcoming cal day arrived, there was an amazing placid sky hung in grandest beauty national park—by contrasting its present pressure of business in the usually some- above us.16 serenity with its past geologic turmoil: what dull town [Virginia City], which hindered every one of our distinguished Clawson went” on to note that since four It is hardly possible to realize friends from starting,” Raymond noted great rivers—the Yellowstone, Missouri, “that it was once a VOLCANO OF sarcastically.22 Snake, and Green—debouched from the WONDERFUL MAGNITUDE, Raymond was perhaps unfairly ridi- highlands of this massive volcanic pla- so great, in fact, that it hurled forth culing the settlers’ fear of Indian attack teau, his ken literally encompassed the from its terrible maw rivers of lava when traveling far from the mining camps, apex of North America. “This will be one and mountains of fiery substance, for Montana in 1871 was still a battle- of the most interesting features of Won- which, intermingling as they fell, ground between the races. Blackfeet dep- derland when Congress shall have set formed these richly colored peaks redations had been checked only a year aside one hundred square miles here as A that stand to the south and south- prior by the Baker Massacre, while the WORLD’S PARK, which it no doubt east.19 Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Nez will.”17 Perce War were still five and six years When Clawson looked upon the vast While Yellowstone’s” magnetic renown into the future, respectively. As Clawson’s ultramarine expanse of Yellowstone Lake has always included its rare geothermal narrative demonstrates, precautions lying below him to the east, he effused spectacles and plentitude of wildlife, many against Indian encounters were standard with poetic timbre: tourists, like Clawson, leave the reserva- operating procedures then, and for good tion thoroughly enthralled with the sub- reason. “ We were at last rewarded for all limity of Yellowstone Lake. Guards were posted every night during the trouble and dangers of the jour- the trip to secure the camp against a ney, when, from a high hill, on The Party’s Attitude Toward Native surprise attack by Indians or a marauding which was an open space in the Americans bear. Clawson professed, “In the moun- timber, we looked down and out tain countries man has three great en- over the grand and beautiful water, C. C. Clawson displayed an antagonis- emies he is liable at times to meet with, all clear as glass of finest finish, lying tic attitude toward Native Americans— of which I acknowledge I fear exceed- Winter 2000 11 ingly, especially at night. They are the have to be laid aside during winter on rattlesnake, bear, and noble Red Man.” I am inclined to think that in the account of frost.” Upon observing that He mused that at least an Indian’s silent “first place that homely habitation geyserite waters precipitate and adhere tomahawk to the brain would be a pain- was none other than a lover’s re- firmly to submerged objects, Clawson less and swift deliverance, “for you lose treat, constructed by some bashful suggested the making of grindstones by your life without being aware of it.” Still, red son of the forest . . . in antici- throwing round disks of wood into hot he slept with his head against a tree as a pation of taking unto himself a springs, but bemoaned that, “freight is safeguard against having his hair dusky partner for life . . . . There rather high at the present to make this “‘snaked’ off in the midst of pleasant used to be a custom, among the branch of business profitable.” He also dreams.”23 native Americans, for a newly- suggested—perhaps facetiously?—the Indian sign was noted on the Madison married couple to take a jaunt of a possibility of employing geyser water for River near present-day West Yellowstone, month to some beautiful lake or embalming. “It is much pleasanter to where a large grove of quaking aspens river, where the bride would be ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ with the was marked with a well-executed deer allowed to accompany her hunter thought that you are going to be em- cut into the bark, presumably to advertise to the fishing and hunting grounds, balmed, petrified—turned into stone— good hunting thereabouts. That same day, and take part in the excitement of than to crumble back to mother earth.” “we stopped on the Madison, near where the chase.27 He jested that we would soon see “the the eight Indians made a camp while on ancient Egyptian mode of preserving the their flight with the twenty-seven head of Clawson also” conjured up the notion dead not only equaled but eclipsed.”30 mules stolen down on the Snake [River] that “the region of the Wonderful Lake is Clawson’s most fanciful, humorous the year before.”24 The most direct con- moreover the ‘Happy Hunting Grounds burst was reserved for the Fountain Paint tact with Indians occurred outside the of the Red Man.’ It answers his descrip- Pots of the Lower Geyser Basin, which park, on the party’s homeward ride down tion of it exactly. Here he expects his he dubbed “the Cosmetic Fountains.” He the Madison River. Discovering a dozen spirit to wing its way when it leaves the postulated that the economic value of the Indian warriors laying in ambush for them body. A land he pictures in his imagina- oil springs of Wyoming would “sink into on the opposite bank, the party (reduced tion is abounding in choicest grass for his insignificance when compared with the to four men by then, since Thrasher and favorite ponies and fish and game of everlasting fountains of Cosmetic,” the Sawtelle stayed to photograph the Grand endless quantity and delicious quality. It latter of which would enrich the treasur- Canyon) cinched their animals tightly is his heaven.” By contrast, Clawson ies of Montana. (Did he think the territo- and galloped toward Virginia City. “On imagined that the thermal basins of the rial boundaries had been moved? There they came like demons, but the water was Firehole River were the antithetical In- was agitation among Montanans to re- between us.” In a 10-mile race the Yel- dian hell. “On the other side of the great adjust their territorial boundary to in- lowstone tourists outdistanced their pur- hill, in the Geyser Basin, where the bunch clude Yellowstone. Then, and for many suers. “I shall never forget how nicely we grass is ever short, no fish, game lean, and years thereafter, access to Yellowstone fooled those Indians,” bragged Clawson.25 ponies lank is the ‘Unhappy Hunting was possible only through Montana, but The Indian threat was real. In fact, Grounds,’ made ready for his enemies . . . the effort was in vain.) On he babbled Clawson, whose scalp might well have there their spectral forms, on skeleton about this cosmetic mineral deposit: been lifted by pursuing Indians, was, by cayuses, continually chase, through the the standards of his contemporaries, fairly alkali swamps, by boiling lakes and sul- But in a year or two the natural mild in his damnation of Native Ameri- phurous pits, the fleeing phantom deer.”28 “production manufactured under the cans. More vitriolic in comparison was Perhaps Clawson’s conjecture of happy immediate supervision of Dame the editor of the New North-West, who and unhappy Indian hunting grounds in Nature herself (who is supposed to opined two years earlier that the Indian the park was based upon unmentioned know what is best for her daugh- was a “base, bloodthirsty, cruel, treacher- dialogue with Indians or “common knowl- ters), will be all the rage. The same ous being,” whose extermination was the edge” among area frontiersmen. quantity that now costs $2.00 can be most expedient solution to the racial en- delivered at your doors for five cents, mity then gripping the territory.26 Commercial Uses of Yellowstone (half white and half pink) perfumed Another incident revealed both the viv- with Extract of Bumblebee, with a idness of Clawson’s imagination and the C. C. Clawson viewed the unusual ge- picture of a geyser in full blast on presumed omnipresence of Indians ology of Yellowstone through the lens of one side of the bottle and on the throughout the Yellowstone Plateau. Not a former prospector. At first sight of a other the inscription far from the shore of Yellowstone Lake, thermal area near present-day Madison This is the stuff we long have the tourists chanced upon a small, dilapi- Junction, with its rivulet of hot water sought dated log hut with a collapsed roof. While discharge, he lamented, “It is enough to And wept because we found it Clawson could entertain the possibility make the heart of a miner ache to see so not.31 that it was used by white trappers or road much clear hot water running to waste agents, when so many banks of good ‘pay grit’ ” 12 Yellowstone Science Real or imagined commercial uses of Yellowstone had the journey’s photo- Where are Thrasher’s prints and nega- Yellowstone were subsumed under the graphs taken by A. F. Thrasher survived tives of Yellowstone in 1871? As a pro- compelling need to declare the newfound and been widely disseminated. Thrasher’s fessional photographer Thrasher must wonderland a national park. Throughout images could have rivaled those of Will- have realized the commercial value of his rambling narrative Clawson assumed iam Henry Jackson, whose national fame these earliest photographs of Wonder- that Yellowstone would become a plea- was established when his extensive pho- land—pictures which he so painstakingly suring ground for America and the world. tographic views of Wonderland were dis- wrought from the wilds and rigors of the For example, he expected that the shores played to Congress and the public during upper Yellowstone—yet none are extant of Yellowstone Lake would become a the debate over the park bill. Clawson’s today (except for one purported image resort locale favored by newlyweds, who narrative detailed Thrasher’s conscien- described below). The crescendo of in- “wish to get away from the bustle and tious efforts to photograph Henry’s Lake, terest in Yellowstone’s wonders would fuss of home to spend the first sweet Yellowstone Lake, and the Grand Can- have created a demand for Thrasher’s month of their new life alone among yon of the Yellowstone. (Did he photo- images in Montana Territory and beyond. ‘Nature’s wild, enchanting bowers,’ out graph the geyser basins?) Had he printed and distributed a goodly of reach of the clatter and bang of the No dilettante, Thrasher had his mule number, some likely would have sur- charivari.”32 The December 23, 1871, heavily laden with the accoutrements of vived to the present. issue of the New North-West (three months wet plate photography: fragile glass plates, One Thrasher picture of Yellowstone before the park bill was signed into law) processing chemicals, portable darkroom, potentially exists. According to Mary contained an unsigned editorial—strongly heavy camera, and tripod. Each image Horstman, Forest Historian for the Bit- bearing the literary fingerprints of C. C. required an on-the-spot darkroom ses- terroot National Forest, a county histo- Clawson—describing the wonders of this sion to coat the plate with the light-sensi- rian in Wabash, Indiana, examined a newly realized “Arcana Inferne.” It con- tive emulsion. Little wonder then, that he Thrasher Yellowstone picture in the pos- cluded: often entered camp late at night “weary, session of the elderly widow of Josiah S. hungry, irate, but victorious.” Cohort Daugherty’s grandson. Unfortunately, the No soul has permanently Raymond devoted two pages of his mem- print could not be produced when “shrouded itself from the world oirs to the indefatigable efforts by Horstman visited the woman in the late within its weird confines: But to it Thrasher to “wrastle” with the views. In 1980s. will come in the coming years thou- fact, so “entirely unmanageable” did At least one person held expectations sands from every quarter of the Thrasher become with his time-consum- that A. F. Thrasher’s Yellowstone quest globe, to look with awe upon its ing photography that the party split up at would achieve memorable results—his amazing phenomena, and with pen, the Grand Canyon, with Sawtelle remain- mother, who, as an 80-year-old resident pencil, tongue and camera publish ing to assist Thrasher, while the other of Grass Valley, California, wrote the its marvels to the enlightened four crossed the Central Plateau to take in following poem for the Virginia City realms. Let this, too, be set apart by the Upper Geyser Basin. Raymond ex- Montanian of March 28, 1872: Congress as a domain retained unto tolled Thrasher’s perseverance in “pur- News of my wandering son, whose all mankind, (Indians not taxed, suing with tireless steps the spirit of beauty first essay exempted), and let it be esto to her remotest hiding-place!” 34 Through Wonderland its treasure perpetua. In the September 23, 1871, issue of the to survey New North-West, the following brief item By fire arrested, were resumed If this essay” was not composed by appeared under “Local Brevities:” again. Clawson, it surely expressed his earnest Mid dangers drear from savage sentiments. Perhaps this editorial was “ Mr. A. F. Thrasher’s outfit col- beasts and men. written by Clawson’s superior, James H. lided with a fire near the Geysers: To seek for boiling springs and Mills, the newspaper’s editor and pub- Result, outfit destroyed, save nega- geysers grand lisher, who also ventured into Yellow- tives and camera: Sequence, he has Amid the perils of that far-off land. stone one year later. Like Clawson, Mills returned to complete the series of And reproduce them in their bright published his narrative serially in the views. array New North-West.33 Its stylistic and ebul- With pencil sharpened by the god lient manner equals, if not excels, that of This cryptic” report was corroborated of day. C. C. Clawson. by Raymond: “He got ‘burned out’ by a forest fire, losing everything but his nega- Yellowstone was first photographed in The Missing Photographs of A. F. tives [Raymond’s italics] and that after 1871 by four individuals, yet only the Thrasher returning to Virginia City, and procuring images by William Henry Jackson (who a new outfit, he posted back again, this accompanied the government’s Hayden Perhaps C. C. Clawson and his “Ride to time alone, to ‘do the rest of that country, Survey) were widely disseminated to the the Infernal Regions” would have been or bust.’”35 Thrasher died within four public which so hungered for them. A more than a footnote to the history of years of the trip. Chicago photographer named Thomas J. Winter 2000 13 Hine accompanied U.S. Army Captain nizance that Yellowstone’s commercial the peculiar effect the exceedingly John W. Barlow’s reconnaissance of Yel- potential would be best managed through light air (barring the hurricanes) lowstone, but his negatives were de- the mechanics of public ownership. Most has upon the respiratory organs, stroyed in the Chicago Fire of 1871. Re- telling, however, was their poignant, the wild and fascinating scenery— cently, seven Hine prints were identified emotional response to this place where all may have something to do with in the Print Room of the New York His- “the gates of the Infernal Regions were this strange feeling taking posses- torical Society, including the first known not only ajar but clear off their hinges,” as sion of the stranger.37 photograph of Old Faithful in eruption. A Clawson emphatically phrased it. How Bozeman photographer, J. Crissman, also fitting it is that Wonderland’s first tourist Lee Silliman is a teacher,” curator, accompanied Barlow, but his pictures could verbalize the elixir that still perme- writer, and photographer who special- were not widely distributed and were ates the air and imbues itself upon the izes in large format imagery. He is the often misattributed to others. Three men— visitor: photo archivist for the Powell County Thrasher, Hine, and Crissman—were Museum and Arts Foundation in Deer poised to exploit their presence in Yel- Those who may hereafter visit Lodge, Montana. His one-man photo ex- lowstone on the eve of the park’s birth, “this strange land will bear me out hibitions include “The Other Yellow- but fate turned its hand against them.36 in the assertion that a peculiar stone,” “Yellowstone: Then and Now,” sensation takes possession of the “Jewels in the Crown: Yellowstone’s The First of Many visitor which cannot be dispelled, Thermal Features,” and “Dancing Wa- that he feels he is in a land akin to ters: The Lakes, Streams, and Waterfalls These first six Yellowstone tourists spirit-land. Why this feeling, I am of Yellowstone.” This article is an had much in common with the succeed- unable to explain; but it being the abridged version of a lecture he pre- ing multitudes: an appreciation of the old pleasure grounds of the ab- sented at the park’s 4th Biennial Science unique and awe-inspiring geological phe- origines for many ages, and the Conference, on “The Human Experience nomena that undergirds the region’s ap- place designated by them as the in Greater Yellowstone,” in 1997. peal; an awareness of the varied wildlife eternal abiding place of the spirits Silliman is preparing C. C. Clawson’s heritage native to the plateau; and a cog- of their departed good, as well as narrative for publication. ❂

1See Mary C. Horstman, Taking Up the Tools: The Early Career of Rossiter Worthington Raymond, 1867–1876 (University of Montana, Master’s Thesis, 1989). 2The Calvin C. Clawson Collection (Manuscript 165) is housed in the Idaho State Historical Society, Boise, Idaho. 3Rossiter W. Raymond, Camp and Cabin: Sketches of Life and Travel in the West (New York: Fords, Howard and Hulbert, 1880), p. 157Ð159. 4Raymond, p. 157. 5Raymond, p. 155, 159. 6History of Wabash County, Indiana (Chicago: John Morris, Printer, 1884). 7Raymond, p. 159. 8C. C. Clawson, “A Ride to the Infernal Regions,” New North-West (Deer Lodge, Montana Territory), September 30, 1871. 9Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “Men Behaving Badly,” New Yorker, August 8, 1997, p. 4. 10 Clawson, January 27, 1872. 11Raymond, p. 169. 12Clawson, January 27, 1872. 13Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey, The Documentary Record of Wolves and Related Wildlife Species in the Yellowstone National Park Area Prior to 1882, (Yellowstone National Park, Division of Research, 1992). 14Clawson, May 18, 1872. For an overview of nineteenth century human influences on Yellowstone wildlife, see Paul Schullery, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1997), p. 68Ð88. 15Clawson, October 14, 1871 and November 18, 1871. 16Clawson, January 13, 1872. 17Clawson, January 13, 1872. 18Clawson, January 27, 1872. 19Clawson, January 27, 1872. 20Warren A. Ferris, Life in the Rocky Mountains 1830Ð35 (Salt Lake City: Rocky Mountain Bookshop, 1940) p. 205. 21See Ake Hultkrantz, “The Fear of Geysers Among Indians of the Yellowstone Park Area” Lifeways of Intermountain and Plains Montana Indians, edited by Leslie B. Davis (Bozeman, MT: Montana State University, 1979); Joel C. Janetski, Indians of Yellowstone National Park, (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1987); and Joseph Weixelman, The Power to Evoke Wonder: Native Americans & The Geysers of Yellowstone National Park (privately printed, July 19, 1992). 22Raymond, p. 154. 23Clawson, September 16, 1871 and October 14, 1871. 24Clawson, November 11, 1871. 25Clawson, June 1, 1872. 26New North-West, August 27, 1869, p. 2, col. 1 & 2. 27Clawson, February 10, 1872. 28Clawson, February 10, 1872. 29Clawson, November 18, 1871. 30Clawson, November 25, 1871. 31Clawson, December 2, 1871. 32Clawson, February 24, 1872. 33James H. Mills, “The Grand Rounds. A Fortnight in the National Park” New North-West (Deer Lodge, Montana Territory), September 28ÐNovember 30, 1872. 34Raymond, p. 156Ð157. 35Raymond, p. 157. 36Consult Montana, the Magazine of Western History, Summer, 1999, p. 2–37, for an extensive discussion of Yellowstone’s earliest photographers. 37Clawson, May 18, 1872.

14 Yellowstone Science The National Park as Museological Space by Thomas Patin

In the early nineteenth century, Ameri- can cultural elites were in the habit of comparing American culture to Euro- pean culture. They felt an “embarrass- ment” of a comparative lack of a national cultural identity based on a long and established artistic, architectural, and lit- erary heritage.1 Nevertheless, it was ob- vious that what America lacked in cul- tural treasures it more than made up for in natural wonders. A perceived missing national tradition found a substitute in the American landscape. By the middle of the nineteenth century, cultural national- ists took pride in the fact that the western environment, especially places like Yosemite, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, were unparalleled. Scenery began to be understood as a form of cultural redemption (see photo right).2 But this redemption could only be ac- complished if parts of the natural world could be converted into cultural heritage. How was such a conversion possible? Only figuratively, of course. This con- version has been carried out through the use of a number of extraordinarily effec- tive rhetorical devices. These devices have been so effective that they have become invisible. I am thinking here especially of conventions of landscape painting and techniques of museum display that al- lowed for the natural world to be pre- sented as a natural culture. My primary concern is with the various techniques borrowed from museums and used again America,” insinuates the museum into Thomas Moran. These images are more in the presentation of nature in the na- the wilderness, produces specific under- than decoration or pretty scenery. They tional parks. Using Yellowstone as an standings of the natural world, and fur- are more like samples of a nation’s heri- example, I want to suggest that national thers the idea that natural wonders are tage. In the same way, the geological parks are essentially museological insti- part of America’s cultural heritage.3 specimens on exhibit were more than tutions, not because they preserve and When F. V. Hayden returned from his rocks. In the Smithsonian, the nation’s conserve, but because they employ many expedition to the Yellowstone region in curiosity cabinet, the watercolor sketches, of the techniques of display, exhibition, 1871, he arranged for an exhibition of a photographs, and geological specimens and presentation that have been used by number of specimens at the Smithsonian worked in a supportive interrelationship. museums to regulate the bodies and orga- Institution in Washington, D.C. These Natural fact was claimed as cultural heri- nize the vision of visitors. Such a strategy “specimens” included photographs by tage through the aesthetic conventions produces a so-called “vignette of William Henry Jackson and sketches by bound up in landscape painting and in Winter 2000 15 the exhibition of geological samples. At the viewer. Cycloramas were once popu- and the regulation of vision were crucial the same time, culturally specific aes- lar forms of entertainment, numbering components of the “viewing apparatus” thetic preferences were presented as natu- around 400 in Europe and America in the set into place at Grand Canyon by the ral fact, since the exhibition and depic- late 1800s, with visitation numbers be- Santa Fe Railroad and the Fred Harvey tions of the natural world seemed to echo tween 1872 and 1885 reaching 200,000 Company.13 art and culture. per year.5 Cyclorama exhibits were con- In Yellowstone, the cycloramic exhi- Of course, nature cannot be enclosed sidered to be extraordinarily realistic, as bition technique is also found at over- within a museum, no matter how many well as morally instructive.6 Many visi- looks, viewing platforms, and viewcuts rocks, photographs, and paintings are used tors to cycloramas have described the at roadside turnouts. As early as 1897, to represent it. It is possible, though, to sensation of being transported to those platforms and sidings were built for tour- enclose nature—so to speak—within the places depicted in them, such as Niagara ists to use to get out of coaches or other logic of the museum by presenting nature Falls, the Alps, volcanic eruptions, or the vehicles at different points on regularly through conventional exhibition tech- Holy Land. traveled routes.14 Starting about 1910, niques. In other words, if you can’t bring The moving panorama combines the “vista cuts” began to be made along roads, nature into the museum, bring the mu- cyclorama with the control of vision used such as one on the West Thumb to Old seum into nature. There are many gen- in dioramas, another popular mode of Faithful road that allows for a view of eral similarities between the ways that viewing scenes in the mid-nineteenth Duck Lake, and another east of Mam- museums and galleries present their ob- century. The moving panorama requires moth Hot Springs used to view Wraith jects of display and the ways the parks viewers to sit as an audience facing one Falls.15 The CCC continued such work present nature to visitors. Most museums direction as the painted scenery passes into the 1930s, clearing stumps and dead and national parks have grand or other- before them in the form of a theatrical trees, building more guardrails, and cre- wise extraordinary entrances. Both insti- backdrop stretched between two rolls of ating more turnouts, viewcuts, and ex- tutions use roads, trails, directional signs, canvas.7 Henry Lewis’ Mammoth Pan- hibit shelters like the one at Obsidian architectural elements, or other means of orama of the Mississippi River, 1849 was Cliff.16 The construction of turnouts and traffic control. Views and vistas are com- painted on 45,000 square feet of canvas viewcuts along the roadways continued monly framed by landscaping or archi- and toured several cities in the east and since the late 1950s. There are numerous tectural elements. In both parks and mu- midwest. The unrolling of this painting turnouts and viewcuts in the park, of seums we find an abundance of signs and took several hours, and quasi-scientific course, but ones that have historically text panels explaining the importance of commentaries, anecdotal material, and exemplified the cycloramic function in- particular items on exhibit. Finally, res- piano music accompanied the images.8 clude those at the Grand Canyon of the taurants and shops are abundant in both Despite the obvious artificiality, pan- Yellowstone, such as Artist Point and places, complete with a selection of re- oramic presentations have been gener- Inspiration Point. productions of the contents. Rather than ally held to be completely convincing.9 In gloss over these similarities, however, I fact, some nineteenth-century visitors would like to be more historically spe- reported experiencing dizziness and sea- cific and examine two typical nineteenth- sickness.10 century methods of display, the cyclo- What I would like to suggest is that the rama and the moving panorama. cyclorama as an exhibition technique has In the cyclorama, viewers stand on a been insinuated into nature in the form of raised circular viewing platform in the the overlook, the viewcut, and some visi- center of a circular exhibition space and tor centers in the national parks, while the look at a dimly lit 360¼ landscape paint- moving panorama has been incorporated Some of the overlooks allow for a ing . These huge paintings are often housed into the parks as roadways. One early nearly 360¼ view of the canyon and its in their own circular buildings. Cyclo- tourist to the Grand Canyon in Arizona surroundings. The view is an elevated ramas are very similar in principle to the explicitly likened his experience on the one, allowing for a view of the depths of IMAX theatre we are all familiar with south rim to standing in the middle of a the canyon, as well as some of the land- today, except they completely surround cyclorama looking at a well-executed scape above the rim. There are, of course painting of mountains and gorges.11 In a many other examples in the park. similar fashion, the windows and As a digression, it is interesting to note “reflectoscopes” at the Indian Watch- how the view beheld by visitors to the tower at Desert View, designed by Santa canyon is similar to that depicted in Tho- Fe Railroad’s architect Mary Colter in mas Moran’s painting of the canyon. 1932, condense, simplify, and separate Moran even provides two “staffage fig- sections of the canyon for viewing as if ures” or “surrogate viewers,” which act they were framed pictures.12 According as stand-ins for the viewers of the picture, to historians Marta Weigle and Kathleen allowing viewers an imaginary imme- A two-layer panorama, London 1798. Howard, a controlled access to the rim diacy and presenting an idea of the scale 16 Yellowstone Science The viewing platform at Tower Falls (top) and the Thomas Moran painting with “surrogate viewers” look- ing at the falls (right). Photos in this article taken by author unless otherwise noted. of the scenery. The overlooks at the can- picture painted from an elevated point. panels. Some items in the scenery are yon explicitly repeat the view depicted The point of view made available from nearby, such as some small trees, rocks, by Moran and beheld by his figures. This such a design produces what art historian and shrubs, and in some instances frame happens elsewhere in the park, most ob- Albert Boime has described as the “mag- the view and help to break up the seem- viously at Tower Falls. At Tower Falls, isterial gaze.” To Boime, this viewpoint ingly unlimited view into smaller seg- the viewing platform is an excellent ex- embodies the exaltation of the nineteenth- ments. These smaller and more immedi- ample of cycloramic presentation, and century American cultural elite before an ate objects also serve to set the remainder there is a reproduction of a Moran paint- unlimited horizon that they identified with of the scenery into a spatial relationship ing with two surrogate viewers in it look- the “manifest destiny” of the American with the viewers and the visitor center. ing at the falls (photos above). nation.17 In the parks, the magisterial gaze The moving panorama has been re- There are also numerous roadside turn- is reenacted millions of times each year. peated in Yellowstone and in most of the outs that are examples of both cyclo- The elevated position of the park visitor national parks in the form of the road ramas and large-format panoramic paint- allows for a commanding view of the system. In the early years of Yellowstone ings, such as the one at Shoshone Point, land, a land that—once seen, claimed, tourism, the Northern Pacific Railroad between Old Faithful and West Thumb, and surveyed—can become part of a (NPRR) suggested in their promotion near DeLacy picnic area (photo below). nation’s heritage. literature a sequence for park visitors: The convention of the cyclorama con- Mammoth, Obsidian Cliff, Norris Gey- tinues to be implemented in national park ser Basin, Gibbon Canyon, Gibbon Falls, construction, especially in visitor centers Lower and Upper geyser basins, Yellow- and viewing platforms. In addition to an stone Lake, and the Grand Canyon of the actual cyclorama painting installed in its Yellowstone.18 Businessman Nathaniel own building at Gettysburg, there is a Langford also proposed roads in the fig- viewing tower at Clingman’s Dome in ure-eight system similar to the NPRR Great Smoky Mountains National Park scheme and similar to what we now have that presents a completely cycloramic in the park. Early park superintendent It presents the Tetons to the south and viewing opportunity. My own favorite Philetus Norris was concerned with pro- the view is framed by trees to either side example of an explicitly cycloramic pre- viding visitors with scenic and interest- (the stumps of trees cleared for the view sentation is atop the Mission 66-era Henry ing views along the roads of the park and are visible if you look for them.) It is M. Jackson Memorial Visitor Center at built the road around the base of Bunsen obvious from the design of the parking lot Mount Rainier National Park. In a large, Peak to provide views of Gardner Can- and the arched rock wall where the view circular viewing room, a 360¼ view of yon.19 I don’t want to suggest that build- is best appreciated, and, if viewers stand dramatic mountainous scenery is pro- ing a kind of moving panorama was the in the prescribed spot, they are offered a vided. The room includes benches, hand- explicit intention of early park promoters framed view of natural beauty as if in a rails, viewing scopes, and information and administrators, only that the moving Winter 2000 17 panorama and the road system performed surely access to scenic and other features. visitors to museums and galleries exhib- similar functions: to make available to Thus [the roads] become principal facili- iting art and other objects. These tech- visitors, or viewers, a sequential presen- ties for presenting and interpreting the niques, along with many other important tation of designated wonders and natural inspiration values of a park . . . .”21 Wirth conventions, have been, in my opinion, beauty. also instructed that roads be fitted to the crucial to the successful conversion of Since the 1950s, however, the project terrain, and that shoulder widths allow natural wonders into cultural heritage. of exhibiting natural wonders has been for turnouts and overlooks at frequent This is constantly suggested in the re- more explicit. In 1958, NPS Director intervals. The current systemwide road peated references to national parks and Conrad Wirth issued his Handbook of rebuilding program provides an opportu- wilderness areas as “treasures” and as our Standards for National Park and Park- nity to explore a more self-conscious “national heritage,” terms more com- way Roads, in which he stated that the implementation of exhibition techniques monly used for works of art in museums. purpose of roads in the national park in the park. system was “to give the public . . . lei- The cyclorama has been reconstituted Thomas Patin teaches art history in the in the form of turnouts, viewcuts, obser- School of Art, Ohio University. He be- vation platforms, and visitor centers, while came interested in this project on a visit the moving panorama has been repeated to Yellowstone while working on his Ph.D. in the parks as roads. To a greater or lesser dissertation on art museums (University extent, these techniques have had the of Washington, 1995.) This essay is a effect of regulating the vision of park revision of a paper first presented in 1997 visitors and managing their physical rela- at the 4th Biennial Science Conference tionship to natural wonders. Park visitors on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.22 have been put into positions not unlike ❂

1Runte, Alfred. National Parks: The American Experience, revised edition, Lincoln: Univ. Nebraska Press, 1987, p.11. 2Runte, p.7Ð8, 18, 41. 3The phrase “vignette of America” is paraphrased from the so-called “Leopold Report,” as quoted in Alston Chase, Playing God in Yellowstone: The Destruction of America’s First National Park. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1987, 33. The 1963 “Leopold Report,” a report to the National Park Service from the Advisory Board on Wildlife Management, that was adopted as part of NPS management policy, states that a national park should represent “a vignette of primitive America.” 4Hales, Peter, William Henry Jackson and the Transformation of the American Landscape, Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1988, p. 108; Haines, Aubrey L., The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park, vol I., Niwot, Colorado: Colorado Associated Univ. Press, 1977, pp. 166Ð169. 5Miller, Angela, “The Panorama, the Cinema, and the Emergence of the Spectacular,” Wide Angle, v. 18, no. 2, (April, 1996), 36. 6Parry, Lee. “Landscape Theatre in America,” Art in America, NovemberÐDecember, 1971, p. 52. 7Parry, p. 57Ð58. 8Novak, Barbara, Nature and Culture: American Landscape and Painting, 1825Ð1875, New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995, p. 23; Miller, Angela, The Empire of the Eye: Landscape Representation and American Cultural Politics, 1825Ð1875, Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press, 1993, p. 86. 9Novak, p. 27. 10Weigle, Marta, and Kathleen L. Howard, “’To experience the real Grand Canyon’: Santa Fe/Harvey Panopticism, 1901–1935,” Marta Weigle and Barbara Babcock, eds., The Great Southwest of the Fred Harvey Company and the Santa Fe Railway, Phoenix: The Heard Museum, 1996, p. 16. 11Weigle and Howard, p. 16. 12Weigle and Howard, p. 19. 13Weigle and Howard, p. 16. 14Culpin, Marcy Shivers, The History of the Construction of the Road System in Yellowstone National Park, 1872Ð1966, Denver, Dept. Interior, National Park Service, Rocky Mountain Region, 1994, p. 45. 15Culpin, p. 110. 16Culpin, p. 195Ð196. 17Boime, Albert, The Magisterial Gaze: Manifest Destiny and the American Landscape Painting, c. 1830Ð1865, Washington, D. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991, p. 38. 18 Meyer, Judith L., The Spirit of Yellowstone: The Cultural Evolution of a National Park, Lanham, Boulder, New York: Rowman and Little Field Publishers, Inc., 1996, p. 85. 19Haines, p. 192. 20Culpin, p. 11. 21Culpin, p. 178.

18 Yellowstone Science NEWS notes

& the legal protection afforded any particu- NPS to Produce EIS on Commercial lar wolf is clearly known, depending en- Use of Research Knowledge tirely on where the wolf is, not where it might once have been.” As a result of a lawsuit filed by the The court found that the Urbigkits’ Edmonds Institute, et al., a federal judge claims that wolf reintroduction influenced in Washington, D.C., last March sus- an existing population of a distinct sub- pended the 1997 agreement between species “boil down to a disagreement Diversa and Yellowstone National Park over scientific opinions and conclusions (YNP) that allowed the company to sur- . . . [but] simply does not constitute a vey the park’s hot springs for commer- 10th Circuit Court Overturns Order National Environmental Policy Act vio- cially valuable microbes. The plaintiffs to Remove Wolves lation . . . . Agencies are entitled to rely on claimed that the National Park Service their own experts so long as their deci- (NPS) violated the National Environmen- On January 13, 2000, the Tenth Circuit sions are not arbitrary and capricious.” tal Policy Act (NEPA) when they devel- of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver, oped a Cooperative Research and Devel- Colorado, issued its ruling on multiple Visitors Found Guilty of Removing opment Agreement (CRADA) with appeals filed by parties concerned with Natural Features Diversa without first soliciting public the reintroduction and management of opinion or evaluating the environmental gray wolves. The original plaintiffs— On October 13, 1999, Toby P. Brown impacts of the program. In entering into including the Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, (aged 21) and Katrina M. Usher (aged 19) the agreement, the company had agreed and American Farm Bureau Federations of Upton, Massachusetts, and Andrew S. to provide the park with $175,000 in cash and Cat and James Urbigkit—challenged Trick (aged 19) of Beaver Creek, Ohio, and equipment over five years, plus 0.5 to how the U.S. Department of the Interior, pled guilty before U.S. Magistrate Stephen 10 percent of the profits from any Yel- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other E. Cole in Mammoth Hot Springs to the lowstone discovery. agencies used section 10(j) of the Endan- charge of removing natural features from Last summer, the NPS agreed to pro- gered Species Act (ESA), regarding a Yellowstone. The party had dug up and duce an Environmental Impact Statement “nonessential, experimental” population collected over 150 pieces of petrified (EIS) that addresses the CRADA process of wolves in Yellowstone National Park wood around the Petrified Tree, about (agreements developed solely to capture and central Idaho. In December 1997, the three miles west of Tower Junction. revenues that result from commercial use District Court for Wyoming held that On October 8, Tower rangers received of the knowledge derived from research wolf reintroduction rules lessened pro- two visitor reports of two men and a conducted at YNP). Using NPS guide- tection for naturally occurring wolves woman digging in the ground with a lines, research on varied topics has been (such as those migrating south from screwdriver on the slope above the petri- permitted at no charge for decades in Canada, or born in the Glacier National fied tree. A park ranger responded to the Yellowstone with what managers per- Park area) in the experimental population scene and, after observing two people ceive as no harm to the park and great areas. The lower court judge ordered that digging in the area, contacted the third benefit to science. wolves be removed from the reintroduc- member of the group at one of the two tion areas; but he immediately stayed his vehicles the group was travelling in. An Former YNP Researchers Honored order pending appeal. investigation uncovered one bag of about for Book The three court of appeals judges found 100 small pieces of petrified wood in one no conflict between the challenged ex- of the vehicles, and a large number of Two former Yellowstone scientists, Dr. perimental population rules and the ESA, pieces of petrified wood in a small back- Mary Meagher and Dr. Douglas B. Hous- and unanimously reversed the district pack. Several other mineral specimens ton, have won the prestigious Joan Pater- court’s order and judgment. The court and fossils were also found in the car. son Kerr Award for their 1998 book, acknowledged that occasional disperser One of the men said he had taken pieces Yellowstone and the Biology of Time wolves from another geographic area of travertine and geyserite from one of (Univ. Oklahoma Press.) The award, might enter areas in which wolves desig- the thermal areas earlier in the day but given for the year’s best illustrated book nated as experimental populations exist, denied finding the fossils and other min- on the history of the American West, was but determined that “the paramount ob- erals in the park. All of the specimens announced at the Western History jective of the Endangered Species Act were seized and will be returned to their Association’s annual meeting in October [is] to conserve and recover species, not natural setting if possible. 1999. just individual animals.” The opinion also Each individual was fined $750, placed The book features 100 sets of compara- said that “the rules did not present com- on three years probation, and prohibited tive photographs that represent how the plicated law enforcement obstacles . . . from entering the park for three years. Yellowstone landscape has and has not Winter 2000 19 changed over the past 130 years. The intent is for the units to provide resource original images date to the 1870s and managers with high-quality, independent 1880s, many of which were taken by and objective research and technical as- noted photographers William Henry Jack- sistance, and to facilitate interdiscipli- son and F. J. Haynes. Starting in the nary problem-solving at multiple scales 1970s, Meagher and Houston relocated and in an ecosystem context. Participat- the points from which the pictures were ing agencies include the Bureau of Land taken and rephotographed the same loca- Management, the Bureau of Reclama- tions then and, in some cases, again after tion, the U.S.G.S. Biological Resources the 1988 wildfires. They analyzed the Division, the U.S. Forest Service, the photographs to note long-term changes Department of Energy, and the National in vegetation patterns and in other fea- Oceanic and Atmospheric Administra- tures. The authors also describe the park’s tion. soils, vegetation, and geology, and dis- cuss the “agents of change” that shape Another Geologist Joins Yellowstone: climate, fire, humans, and Yellowstone’s Staff other forces still active in the ecosystem. Dr. Meagher began her long associa- Yellowstone is pleased to announce tion with Yellowstone in 1959 and held a the hiring of another geologist, Dr. Nancy variety of research-related positions, in- Hinman, currently of the University of cluding chief biologist. She specialized Montana, Missoula. Hinman, who will in studying bison ecology, and retired in arrive in Yellowstone full-time after the from the transformation of water to steam, 1997 from the former National Biologi- completion of the university’s school year often due to changes in confining pres- cal Service (NBS), now the U.S.G.S. in June, will serve as the park’s geother- sure that result from (and accelerate) fail- Biological Resources Division. Dr. Hous- mal specialist. ure and fragmentation of overlying cap ton studied ungulates in Yellowstone from rock (hydrofracturing). Venting processes 1970 to 1980, and wrote the award-win- New Discoveries from the Floor similar to those that form black smoker ning The Northern Yellowstone Elk: Ecol- of Yellowstone Lake1 chimneys on the ocean floor form the ogy and Management (Macmillan, 1982.) spires in Yellowstone Lake. He subsequently transferred to Olympic Recently completed high-resolution Other features recognized in the July National Park where he studied mountain surveys of the northern part of Yellow- 1999 survey include vents through which goats, salmon, and other topics. He, too, stone Lake show a lake bottom covered deep circulating fluids exhaust onto the retired from the NBS in 1997. with dozens of circular depressions and lake bottom, recent faults, and submerged hundreds of spires and pinnacles protrud- former shorelines. Further analysis of the Region Gets New Research ing from the floor. The circular depres- data and additional investigations using a Coordinator sions are 25Ð800 meters in diameter, have submersible, remotely operated vehicle steep inner walls, and may be the rem- may define the relationships between Dr. Kathy Tonnessen, formerly an nants of explosive events similar to ex- fluid-circulating features, and fish and ecologist and Director of Biological Ef- plosion craters exposed on land nearby. other lake-dwelling fauna. fects for the NPS Air Resources Division, The spires are composed primarily of These surveys were conducted jointly has been named Research Coordinator silica, up to 35 meters high and up to 50 by the U.S. Geological Survey, Eastern for the Rocky Mountain Cooperative meters in diameter. They occur singu- Oceanics, the National Park Service (Yel- Ecosystem Studies Unit at the University larly, in clusters, and in north-south-trend- lowstone National Park), and the Univer- of Montana, Missoula. Tonneson’s pre- ing lines up to 400 meters long. These sity of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. They vious experience includes studying water linear features may sit astride fissures on cover about 20 percent of the lake floor, geochemistry in Sequoia-Kings Canyon the lake floor. In many areas, spires occur focusing entirely on the northern part of and Yosemite national parks and admin- around the margins of circular depres- the lake, which is within the 630,000- istering air pollution research for the state sions. In at least one case, spire develop- year-old Yellowstone caldera. Objectives of California. She has also held affiliated ment appears to have both preceded and of this work include understanding the faculty positions with Colorado State Uni- followed formation of a circular depres- geologic processes that shape the lake versity and the University of Colorado. sion. and how they affect present-day aquatic The NPS has established a network of Formation of both spires and circu- populations, as well as examining this cooperative ecosystem studies units at lar depressions is related to deep-seated modern analog for the deep-fluid circula- universities across the country to provide fluid circulation, and occurred over the tion systems responsible for many im- support to parks in the biological, physi- past 12,000 years. Explosions such as portant types of mineral deposits. Future cal, social, and cultural sciences. The those responsible for these craters result surveys, covering the remainder of the 20 Yellowstone Science lake floor, should demonstrate similari- and only 200 in the Eagle Creek/Bear small plants in a very limited area, there ties and differences within and outside Creek area near Jardine, Montana. Ad- has long been concern about the viability the caldera boundary. justments would be made as more is of the species. Management attention fo- learned through daily operations. These cused on surveying all likely areas within 1Contributors: L.A. Morgan, W.C. Shanks III, zones would be buffered by additional the park for the presence of this unique K.M. Johnson, S.Y. Johnson, W. Stephenson, S.S. zones into which no bison would be per- species. Funding to conduct the survey Harlan, K.L. Pierce, and E. White; U.S. Geological Survey, Denver; D. Lovalvo; Eastern Oceanics; mitted. Cattle would be permitted back in was made available by the Canon U.S.A. and J. Waples and J.V. Klump; University of Wis- the zones 45 days after bison have re- “Expedition into the Parks” grant through consin-Milwaukee, Great Lakes Water Institute. turned to the park. Given that the brucella the National Park Foundation, and an organism survives for only approximately additional Native Plant Conservation Ini- Federal Agencies Move Forward 17 days in spring conditions, this 45-day tiative matching grant from the National on Bison EIS separation would allow more than ample Fish and Wildlife Foundation. time for the organism to expire. The presence of the sand verbena in a In a statement released December 14, In the long-term, the agencies are com- total of four known locations in the park 1999, the NPS, the U.S. Forest Service, mitted to developing and using a safe and lessens the possibility that a single cata- and the USDA Animal and Plant Health effective vaccine in the park until brucel- strophic event or adverse weather could Inspection Service (APHIS) advised the losis is eradicated from the herd. Safety cause the possible extinction of this spe- state of Montana that they were moving studies for calf vaccination should be cies. Determination of whether large sand ahead to complete an environmental im- completed by the winter of 2000Ð2001. verbena mats were composed of one or pact statement (EIS) on the management Studies on vaccine effectiveness, and on more individuals was difficult, but among of the Yellowstone National Park bison a safe and effective delivery mechanism all four sites, a minimum of 8,325 plants herd. Because negotiations with Mon- for the vaccine should be developed by were found, most of which are in the tana reached an impasse, agency officials late 2002. The NPS has agreed to vacci- originally known population. Counts from decided to move forward on their own to nate bison inside the park. The Forest the early 1990s showed approximately complete the EIS and take other steps to Service has adjusted grazing allotments 1,000 individuals. The more recent count protect cattle and minimize the lethal to help maintain critical separation be- suggests that the species is successfully control of bison. tween bison and cattle. APHIS has clearly maintaining its presence as a unique part “We all agree that protecting Montana stated that the federal plan will not jeop- of the Yellowstone ecosystem. cattle is critical,” said Michael Dunn, ardize Montana’s brucellosis-free status Undersecretary of Agriculture for mar- for livestock. Furthermore, the recent $13 keting and regulatory programs, “but we million purchase of lands north of the believe significant adjustments can be park has provided significant additional made to the current bison test and slaugh- potential for bison winter grazing. ter policy.” As the agencies move forward, they “We have spent countless hours com- indicated they would continue working bining the best science, experience, and with Montana on daily bison manage- practicality to protect both cattle and bi- ment issues. son,” said Don Barry, Assistant Secre- tary of the Interior for Fish, Wildlife and Rare Plant Found in New Sites Parks. “Unfortunately, we have reached an impasse with the state and we feel we While conducting a special plant sur- must move forward on our own.” vey along lakeshores during the summers The federal agencies’ proposal is de- of 1998 and 1999, YNP staff discovered signed to address both short-term and three new sites containing the very rare long-term goals, including the eventual plant known as Yellowstone sand ver- eradication of brucellosis from the Yel- bena (Abronia ammophila). Though this lowstone ecosystem. In the short term, it plant is probably noticed by very few would provide spatial and temporal sepa- visitors, its discovery was exciting news Missing a Beat… ration of bison and cattle through a zoned in Yellowstone’s unusual landscape. approach. The proposal would allow bi- Yellowstone sand verbena is a multi- Alert readers may have noted that son outside of YNP only in three very stemmed perennial herb that grows in Yellowstone Science, usually a quarterly limited and well-defined areas west and low mats along sandy lakeshores. Prior magazine, skipped an issue in 1999. north of the park. Only 100 bison would to the discoveries the past two summers, Unexpected delays put us well behind be allowed in the Horse Butte/west bound- only one population was known to exist. our normal production schedule, and, ary area; only 100 in the Reese Creek Because the known population was com- much though it pained us, we decided to area, northwest of Gardiner, Montana; prised of only a few thousand of these omit Vol. 7 (4). Winter 2000 21