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Yellowstone Science a Quarterly Publication Devoted to the Natural and Cultural Resources

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Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources A Lifetime of Geologic Discovery Mammoth Hotel Strike Fossil Beetles Volume 5 Number 4 In Old Infancy This year marks the 125th anniversary The scale of time in which scientists the lands and resources we continue to of Yellowstone, first national park in the work ranges vastly, affecting each value, we hear more discussion about world. I thought first how this issue pre­ researcher's perspective. So also do the how to factor humans into our mission to sented stark contrasts in how researchers time frames within which humans view conserve parks "unimpaired for future define and document the history of the such things as the vegetation ofthe north­ generations." "old" park. While we wonder today if the ern range, patterns in weather and geyser As Brit Fontenot points out in his ar­ unceasing wetness of 1997 is an aberra­ eruptions, and fluctuating numbers of ticle, Yellowstone is not-and, even in tion or the start ofa new trend-possibly animals that influence their attitudes about its infancy, was not-isolated from hu­ the result ofElNiiio or global warming- · whether or how we should manage park man influences and societal trends af­ Scott Elias reminds us that over "just" the resources. fecting the rest of our nation and other last 125,000 years, conditions and plant Perhaps I had underestimated how environments. This October, we cel­ and animal species were often quite dif­ strong the cultural-natural connections ebrated the cultural-natural connections ferent from those in Yellowstone's more are, or should be, among our· scientists with our fourth biennial scientific confer­ "recent" climate history-the last 14,500 and managers. How humans view their ence. Historians, writers, ethnographers, years-reconstructed through studies of own role over time in relation to the archeologists, biologists, geologists, and fossil beetle data. environment also influences their atti­ others met to discuss People and Place: Changes in the park climate, and other tudes about landscape management. Na­ the Human Experience in Greater things, come up again in our interview tional park policy is often portrayed as Yellowstone. with geologist Irving Friedman, who dis­ attempting to exclude human influence We are eager to present more articles cusses dating lava flows and monitoring from the landscape. Too often, the park is on greater Yellowstone's cultural re­ geysers and hot springs. In a fortuitous described as a model (to emulate or not) sources, and encourage relevant submis­ accident, Dr. Friedman's geologic work for natural resource conservation. Only sions, just as we continue to seek new turned out to also be of great value to in recent years has it begun to gain wide­ information from natural scientists. And cultural resource managers. But, think­ spread recognition for its role in cultural we encourage researchers and managers ing only ofthe contrast between the scale resource preservation. And organization­ in both fields to discuss the connections of geologic and human history in greater ally, we still tend to view natural and between their disciplines. We know that Yellowstone, I was surprised to find that cultural resource research and manage­ it takes time to write such material. But, the park archeologist was quite familiar ment efforts as separate (and sometimes for students of greater Yellowstone, who with obsidian hydration dating and its conflicting). Yet, as we learn more about operate on human, not geologic, time applications in her field of study. how prehistoric and historic humans used scales, we think it would be worth it. SCM Yellowstone Science A quarterly publication devoted to the natural and cultural resources Volume 5 Number 4 Fall 1997 Table of Contents Reconstructing Yellowstone's Climate History 2 Data from fossil beetle assemblages and. a primer on geology remind us that Yellowstone's prehistoric environment ranged from glacial cold to summers hotter than the historic 1988, and that climate continues to influence which species thrive. by Scott A. Elias Yellowstone Seen Through Water and Glass 9 His studies of obsidian led to a technique used by archeologists to date cultural artifacts; through monitoring chloride in park rivers he hopes to help protect geysers from changes associated with development. Interview with Irving Friedman Striking Similarities: Labor Versus Capital in 15 Editor Yellowstone National Park Sue Consolo-Murphy In the park's 125th anniversary year, a historian reminds us that Art Director Yellowstone, a cultural icon, was and is not a wilderness isolated Renee Evanoff from noutside" events. Associate Editor by Brit T. Fontenot Sarah Broadbent Assistarzt Editor News and Notes Mary Ann Franke Printing • Yellowstone Signs Bioprospecting Agreement • Grizzly Bear 19 Artcraftlnc. Production, Mortalities Up Again in 1997 • Noted Limnologist Dies • MSU to Host Research Symposium • Decline in Spotted Frogs • Bozeman, Montana Bison Exhibited, Mugged• And More On the cover: Autumn in the Yellowstone Scien"f~?i_s_·-f;ijµ'.Sb·½\Uarte~if:_~~fsllbnus·siotis are we1Co~:¢ii~?m-~-l inv~figators .. Boundary Creek thermal area conduct_inJ~ formaf'ff~"_e_~§[tl!r the·'_'ello__\VS,(~n,'e>:~fa,_--_ ~ditorial -_~orrcsp'o~<%~~-e.·~b~~u1d·bfs_e~tto in the southwest corner of the Editot; Yellowst_~J1}f~tfJ_elfpe;_ ye4owsf6,_ne'._C:!~11:t_Cr fot,ResOU~ces, p;Q\~~x i_6~i YCU8Wst0ne . _ ,_ .;<:\:; -_,;:?:f)r_--: :"'; ·_N,aiip.~~tP~~-!--WY 8'.?19?:- -' , ' "'->_ ·-.. -_ :·;_: ·_ . Yellowstone. See related inter­ The opinions e?{PieSs~J.jii\i~1io1\lsto11t;'SCi~h'.Ct?::are the aU_thOrs.' and·ll!af,fiQt-reflect-either view page 9. Photo by Jennifer National Parws~~)9C'.JjdliCy"'~t the_-_'v_ifWf Of:tfie?yenoW~!Orie C~1icfrJ~r,R~oui:~t · - Copyright © 199i;:"__ilie:.r~r1b·wstOne Ass9Ci~~OI1 f~r Natural-Science, ffi~toryi~__Educatio1,1. Whipple. Above, the cover ofan :;7:-_~<:;:,"~.- . ' ... early Yellowstone ParkAssocia­ Support for Yeli#t~;io'7\J}Cience· iS.proVi.de4JJY the Yellowstone A_ssd_da~"a~-fOr N.iturill tion Hotels brochure (1900s), Science, History &{£4':l~tiO,n; __a_nOn-pr9_fit_:ed}ictitional organization dediC_,at6d.fo servffig_ the see Historical Vignette page 15. park and its visit!)_~_._ f~i_more iidonnation'.afiout the Yellowstone Ass9Ciation, including ~ membersliip,_wri_fo.t~.f\O._Box-117; Yellowstone National Park, Y,Y ,82190. ~ Yellowstoi,~_Sci~~-~e is printed on re_c~cled paper with a linseed-oil;.based ink. Reconstructing Y~l~t@W'sitone' s .Climate History How Departing Glaciers, Left Their Mark " ofthe researcl! th;t has,liei~fabJi~~ the • •pa,,lii's glaciatand p~l;,~~~Pl"giiJr>his- . tO")ii.(adapted(frOlll ..·· K,JI~,;,Age. lJfs(gry of National I/ . .ihfRod<y c}efoufltains, 1996); air!)PiJ)y9wn1r~~or­ climate shifts during t!¥6'1~( ? ·structionofclimatecharig~JlJg,edon)l'eefle. The following article'\u,rnf' ••:; fossils. ··•:•:' LATE QUATERNARY Pleistocene Epoch Early glaciations Sangamon Pinedale Holocene Interglacial Glaciation Epoch I L7 million 125,000 10,000 Present years ago years ago years ago 2 Yellowstone Science Yellowstone's Last Glaciers ,, ' / I The most recent large-scale glaciations I I of the Rocky Mountain region are the I Bull Lake and the Pinedale, both named I for places in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. During the 1960s, the general consensus among geologists was that the Bull Lake ice advances were the first since the Sangamon Interglacial warm­ ing period, which would mean that the Bull Lake Glaciation began no more than about 110,000 years ago. But evidence from the Yellowstone area has suggested r,-\I otherwise. Rapidly cooling lava forms / obsidian, a natural glass such as that found at Obsidian Cliffs, where molten lava is thought to have encountered Bull \ Lake ice. The rhyolite flows (extruded, .... fine-grained volcanic rock) at Obsidian Cliffs have been dated by obsidian hydra­ -.. tion at about 150,000 years old. On this basis, according to geologist Ken Pierce $ (1979), Bull Lake ice appears to have 0 formed in Yellowstone before the Im Sangamon Interglacial. In most Rocky Mountain regions, Bull Lake moraines extend farther down-val­ ley than Pinedale moraines. In the west­ ern Yellowstone area, Bull Lake ice reached an average of20 km (12.4 miles) Fig. 2. Map of Yellowstone National Park, showing extent and patterns ofmovement farther than the subsequent Pinedale Gla­ ofglacial ice during the last glaciation (from Elias, 1996). ciation. But on the north side of the park, Pinedaleicepushed beyond the Bull Lake Hayden Valley. The two ice limit, obliterating terminal moraines left masses came together and cov­ by the previous glaciation, which appears ered all but the southwestern Years Before Pinedale Glaciation to have occurred after the Sangamon In­ edge of the park, burying its Present in Yellowstone terglacial in some regions and before itin valleys and Central Plateau others. So Bull Lake Glaciation has not region under about 700 m 47,000 been clearly defined as an event in a (2,300 ft) of ice. Early ice advance single interval of time. The relationships between 34,000 The Pinedale Glaciation brought an Interstadial interval glacial and travertine deposits 30,000 immense cover of ice centered along a in northern Yellowstone, par­ Extensive ice advance north-south axis through Yellowstone ticular! y around Mammoth Hot 22,500 Lake in a line about 150 km (93 miles) Major ice recession Springs, were analyzed by Neil I 9,500 long, with ice flowing radially to the Sturchio and other geologists Minor readvance northeast, west, and southwest. Glaciers (1994). They found that some 15,500 from the Absaroka and Gallatin ranges of the travertine deposits are 15,000 L.__ Ice margins retreat and the Beartooth Highlands in the north covered by Pinedale deposits, rapidly filled the Lamar and Yellowstone river some overlie older glacial de­ valleys, then flowed northwest into Mon­ posits, and others lie within 14,000 ~ Park lowlands free of ice tana (Fig.
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