Yellowstone Science Interview: Aubrey Haines

Yellowstone History: 125 Years and More to Tell

Photo courtesy Aubrey Haines.

Aubrey Haines was a , en- The Early Days logging company wanted to exchange for gineer, and Yellowstone’s first historian Forest Service timber. That winter we before his retirement in 1969. He has had YS: Could you start by reviewing your moved down into the Puyallup Valley a long and distinguished career and has job background—where you came from, and built roads for the state forestry orga- written many books about this and other and how and when you first got interested nization. In the spring they sent us to the parks, including The Yellowstone Story, in Yellowstone? northwest corner of Mount Rainier Na- Volumes I and II, which tour and tional Park, where they put me on relocat- interpreters still rely upon as the most AH: I was ready for college in January ing foot trails that were steep, rough, and comprehensive telling of park history and 1933, and since I saw the forest industry mostly in the wrong places. legend. He continues to write; one of his as the way to go at that time, I entered the One day in June 1934, District Ranger current projects is Tales from the University of Washington during the John Rickard asked, “Would you like to Yellowstone, a compilation of what Depression, with the intent of preparing be a fire lookout?” It didn’t take a mo- Aubrey called “the minutiae of historic myself for a job as a forest engineer in the ment to answer “yes!”, and I had a sum- happenings here.” Pacific Northwest—building roads and mer job for $4 per day. Since I was to be At Yellowstone’s Fourth Biennial Sci- bridges for logging companies. on duty every day of the week, that ence Conference, held in October 1997 at The first summer after going to school, amounted to $120 a month, which was a Mammoth Hot Springs, the sponsors in- I found a job cutting hemlock cord-wood fortune in that day, believe me. In the stituted what they intend to become a for the Port Townsend paper mill—at a rainy seasons and late summer they’d regular feature of the park’s conference dollar and six bits a cord, peeled!—but have me on trail work and telephone line series—the Aubrey Haines Luncheon and soon heard there was going to be a Civil- work, things like that—good experience. Lecture, honoring a significant contribu- ian Conservation Corps, and they were I worked there every summer through tor to the study and documentation of looking for young men who didn’t have 1938. Yellowstone history. Aubrey was present much to do—who did, in that day? As The year before I graduated, the fire for the first of these tributes in his honor, forestry students could join up as dispatcher, Al Rose, sent me a letter: and was interviewed during the confer- “leadmen” for $1.20 per day, I went for “There’s going to be a Civil Service ex- ence by the editor and the former editor/ that, and spent the summer of 1933 at amination for park ranger—be sure to go sometime park historian, Aubrey’s suc- Skykomish, Washington, on survey and down and take that.” I did, and after cessor, Paul Schullery. classification of logged-over lands the graduation I went back up on the Shriner

Fall 1998 9 Peak lookout. About mid-summer came a letter from a Hawaii Volcanoes Na- tional Park offering me a ranger job. I got on the wire and Al Rose put me in touch with Superintendent “Major” Owen Tomlinson. He said, “Don’t take that one—you’ll get another chance.” About a month later came another letter, this time from Yellowstone. Tomlinson said, “Take that one—that’s good!” So that fall after work was over, I passed the physical and oral exams, got me an old car—an old Nash Twin 6 off the lot for $65—and went to Yellowstone. YS: It was the first time you’d ever been here? Aubrey Haines in his ranger-patrolman uniform next to car number 106 in AH: I grew up in and Washington June of 1940. Photo courtesy Aubrey Haines. and had never been farther than Spokane. I arrived at the park December 8, 1938, and was waiting in front of the “Temple of Truth” [an employees’ nickname for “Pahaska Bill’s got your groceries.” It When we came down the hill on our the green-roofed Corps of Engineers’ worked fine. return that morning we saw two ski men building in Mammoth Hot Springs, a.k.a. coming across Round Prairie, and as they the “Pagoda”] at 8 o’clock in the morn- The “Phantom” got closer we could see they had rifles. ing, when W. Leon Evans came over to Headquarters had sent Lee Coleman and open up. He put up the flag and said, YS: Did you have skiing experience Frank Anderson to rescue us. But instead “Well, we’ll have to swear you in.” So he before, or law enforcement training? of coming into Yellowstone, Durand took me up to T. Paul Wilcox, the judge. AH: No, no. I didn’t know a darned thing turned the other way. I got a manual and a 45 pistol and was told about it. They didn’t tell me what was YS: Did they ever catch him? what kind of extra clothes I might need. going on, but I soon found out I was there AH: They got a force of about a hundred They said, “Tomorrow we’ll send you because they were blocking the road in men up on Rocky Fork River, and he over to the East Gate to replace Walt case the “Phantom” showed up again. He killed two more there—they even had the Gammill.” And that was all the indoctri- was an unidentified person who pilfered National Guard there with a field piece to nation there was. cabins in the southeast corner of the park shell that place. But he got out and cor- Since Sylvan Pass was closed by snow, during the summer and fall of 1938, and, nered a rural mailman and used his ve- I drove around to the East Entrance by probably, was Earl Durand, the man who hicle to go into Powell where he held up way of Cody. The last two miles (from killed four officers in a wild spree of the bank. The townspeople were alerted Pahaska Tepee to the gate), the snow on lawlessness in and around Powell, Wyo- when he fired a few shots in the ceiling, the road increased from a skiff to over a ming, in the late spring of 1939. and that brought everybody; they came foot, but my old car chewed its way in. YS: So your job was to sit there and just with their guns. He was going to leave, Walt was surprised and said, “Gee, I left check every day, and provide an obstacle. pushing the teller ahead of him out the my car down at Pahaska!” The next day AH: I had nothing to do except to make door, and they shot the teller and prob- Dave Condon, the District Ranger, got sure that nobody went in or out, so if he ably wounded Durand; anyway, he went stuck in a GMC pickup about halfway did go in, at least they’d be able to send a back inside and killed himself. from Pahaska. We went down and shov- patrol after him. I was recalled from the YS: It sounds relatively boring around eled him out and brought in the snow- East Entrance about Valentine’s Day of this place since! shoes and extra lantern gasoline, stuff 1939, and made several ski patrols in the AH: It was a fun place for a young fellow. like that. I should have taken my car out interior of the park that spring. On one, right then, but I didn’t do it. In a couple of Tiny Semingsen and I had gone up to Accumulating Yellowstone Tales days we got heavy snow. So, I just took Round Prairie and over the ridge to the the oil out of the crank case and put the cabin on Cache Creek, and it happened YS: When did you start getting interested battery in the station, and figured I was that we came out the same day that Durand in history, and when did that become there for the winter. That wasn’t bad. I made his escape after killing the first two your job in the park? had a telephone line to Cody and I could officers. They thought he was going to AH: On another interesting patrol, I went call there for what I needed in the way of fade into the mountains there, directly with Verde Watson from West groceries. Somebody’d bring them up opposite of where we were on the bound- Yellowstone into and to and they’d give me a ring and say, ary, and maybe hole up in a park cabin. Canyon, then back around to Mammoth.

10 Yellowstone Science work; they enclosed several miles of coun- said. So they sent me to Cody, where I try where they thought they could pen took an engineering exam and passed it, some and feed them hay—it was a silly and they said, “You’re an engineer now, idea, actually. Anyhow, I had a natural a civil engineer.” interest in history, and events like that The next two years I spent on topo- began stacking up in my memory. But I graphic mapping of what is now Grant didn’t write anything until I came back Village and construction of sewer and after the war. water lines for the Canyon Hotel and I went (in June 1941), because a young Campground. By fall 1948, Mission 66 unmarried ranger wasn’t anywhere near [an effort to upgrade roads and visitor as important as the young people around facilities across the NPS] was shaping Cody and Powell who worked the oil rigs up, and office rumor had it that the West- or herded cattle. I thought I’d be gone a ern Office of Design and Construction year and then come back. It turned out to was going to take over all engineering be four years in the Corps of Engineers work in the park. So I asked for a year’s type-mapping roads. But I did return be- leave of absence to turn my bastardized fore the end of the war, after I was dis- engineering background into a profes- abled in the New Guinea campaign. It sional degree. My request was denied, so was lucky for me, because that’s when I I resigned. We moved to Missoula, where met my wife, Wilma. I got a Master of Science degree, fol- YS: How did that happen? lowed by a year’s work toward a doctor- Sgt. Haines in the Corps of Engineers, AH: I had a little gas, not much, to do ate at the University of Washington. Our 1942. Photo courtesy Aubrey Haines. some looking around. I drove down to funds were exhausted by that time (1950), Gardiner one evening and then up the old so I returned to Mount Rainier as a district By that time I’d been able to order in road. When I got almost to the top, there ranger. some ski boots and necessary equipment. was a little drift of snow in the road in At Madison Junction, there was a little which I stalled the car. As it vapor-locked, A Historian in the Making cabin used by the naturalists in the sum- I stepped out to wait and let it correct mer. There Verde told me about the scouts itself, and there on the bank were two YS: But that was still long before you who had brought a body from South girls sitting on a rock, watching. I talked were Yellowstone’s historian. Where did Entrance to Mammoth. He thought it was with them a bit, and as the next day was you learn to do history, to do research? Phillips, who had died at Old Faithful Sunday, I asked, “Would you like to go AH: I got very good training at the Uni- from eating vegetation that turned out to over and look at the Petrified Trees at versity of under Dr. Paul C. be water hemlock, but he was confused Specimen Ridge?” You see, nobody could Phillips, one of Montana’s really fine on that; this was a Yellowstone tale with travel around, and I guess anything was historians; I took many of his courses. I many versions. They supposedly stood fun. So we went out there, a nice little trip, got a lot of personal attention from him. the box with the dead man in it beside the and I took an interest in Wilma Smith; she He was the one who said, “Why don’t you window and the scouts played a game of was the superintendent’s secretary at the edit ’s Journal of a Trap- cards, and this lasted into the next morn- time. A year later I stole her! I think Mr. per.” So I began. In fact, while in Seattle ing. The sun warmed it and the box began Rogers didn’t mind too much; he walked working on my doctorate, I completed to shake a little, and somebody said “Wait her down the aisle at the chapel. Our the editing of the journal but I never did a minute Bill, we’ll come out and let you children were born here too; this place the dissertation. out.” Later, I found the real site of that was home to us for a long time. When I came back to Yellowstone in June 1906 happening—at Fountain Station. Wilma and I married, we had quarters 1956—strangely, by transfer into the very But anyhow, we went on up Nez Perce over the north side of the museum. same engineering position I had resigned Creek, where we ate lunch. We sat down YS: So you were at work as a ranger from eight years earlier! in front of a white panel with green letter- again, with a lot of general duties? YS: But you were beginning your histori- ing on it, which was the place where the AH: Since I was having trouble with cal research on the side. Did you think of Cowan party of Helena tourists had been malarial fever recurrences, I was used in it as a contribution to the knowledge captured during the Nez Perce war (at the fire cache that summer of 1946. It was about Yellowstone? present Cowan Creek). a bad fire year, and I got rid of most of my AH: No, it was a hobby interest. But it When we got into Hayden Valley, stick- chills and fevers on the fire line! Chief soon got to where I began writing about ing out of the snow were remnants of a Engineer Phil Whohlbrant had two assis- Yellowstone. The very first thing was massive log fence. Verde said, “This was tant engineers, but had lost one to the war The Bridge that Jack Built, which was the an old dairy ranch for the hotels.” That effort and had been unable to fill the Baronett Bridge at the mouth of the Lamar. was not true; it was an attempt to save the position. So he asked me, “Would you And Lon Garrison, who was superinten- buffalo back in the 1890s, which didn’t like that engineering job?” “Yeah!” I dent after 1956, felt the park needed a

Fall 1998 11 former Army Bachelor’s Officers Quar- ters, or ‘BOQ” [today the Albright Visitor Center] building from the late 1920s on. I started gathering records, and soon tumbled to the fact that the military record here was unique. You see, the Army is not supposed to govern people within the limits of the U.S. in times of peace; that is something that civil government is sup- posed to handle. But Yellowstone was here before any of the civil government around it, and so when the states were formed, each state—Idaho, , Montana—was required to admit that they did not have jurisdiction in Yellowstone. So here was Yellowstone, not a civil entity in the sense of having civil govern- ment and jurisdiction established within it. The federal code covered serious things Baronett Bridge across the . Photo by William H. Jackson, 1871. like murder and all the felonies, but when NPS photo archives. it came to rules and regulations, they were unenforceable, and therefore you couldn’t make a case out of minor things, historian. I was transferred from engi- and cavalry Lt. Doane], Lee Parsons, like killing an . This was a big prob- neering to the naturalists’ department in found a transcript of missing Cook- lem. December 1960, as the park’s first histo- Folsom information copied in the front of Fortunately, Missouri Senator George rian. Washburn’s diary. How marvelous! Lee Vest, a post Civil War legislator, had seen YS: The park had never had a historian is a good researcher, and he writes well. the wisdom of attaching a rider to another before? I’ve been pushing him to get his informa- act saying that in case of necessity the AH: In the Army days, Captain Hiram M. tion in print. He has the means to turn out superintendent could call on the Secre- Chittenden had written The Yellowstone a first-class book on Washburn. And he tary of War to provide troops. So as soon because he had a strong history interest. must do it! as civil management of the area broke But that’s all the park had in the way of a YS: What other things would you like to down in 1886—Congress had failed to history. And Garrison was getting re- see in print? fund Superintendent Wear’s administra- quests from school children and others AH: The park needs book-length bio- tion and he couldn’t run the park—Cap- interested in the park who wanted infor- graphical studies of Washburn, Langford, tain Moses Harris’ First Cavalry was mation. In the morning I’d go to the office and Superintendent Norris (the book by brought in from Miles City, Montana, and there’d be letters and a note, “Aubrey, Judge Don Binkowski is not a satisfac- and Harris became the first acting mili- would you answer these for me?” When tory treatise, though he had ample re- tary superintendent. I got that out of the way, I could gather search material), and less extensive works From then until the end of the Army archival material or read up, or chase on Walter DeLacy and John H. Baronett. administration in 1918, the U.S. Cavalry some facet that I was trying to unravel; I The study of the old Buffalo Ranch John created a unique collection of records— usually had half a day free to research and Tyers [assistant park naturalist in the it’s a large one, amounting to about two write. 1970s] is working on should be very tons. It’s the only such record of the I found chunks of the Folsom-Cook- helpful in its examination of the human Army as a civil governing agent, in spite Peterson diaries [from one of the early side of that operation—who was there of the fact that that is not their role. expeditions to what is now the park, in and how they fed the buffaloes out there Yosemite’s record wasn’t quite the same, 1869] scattered around here and there, in the winter, how they culled them and because Army occupation was not con- and I thought, where is the whole diary? gave them their shots, and where they tinuous, and state law remained active in I never did find it. But I finally put to- moved them around in the 1930s. Yosemite. But that’s a moot point; be- gether a kind of montage, published as cause those records were destroyed. Valley of the Upper Yellowstone (1965). The Importance of Yellowstone’s Mili- Somebody said, “Let’s clean the place It’s interesting that now there’s another tary Record out.” And they loaded them into pickups, chunk that I didn’t know of before. This hauled them to the dump and set fire to lad who discovered the long-lost diary of YS: Did you start a museum collection, or them. Only Yellowstone’s military H.D. Washburn [from the 1870 expedi- were there some beginnings already? records remain intact. tion he co-led with Nathaniel P. Langford, AH: There was a small museum in the YS: The Park Service has a terrible repu-

12 Yellowstone Science tation about records; they did the same along with that, and finally withdrew the Well, it was done on government time thing with Civil War records long ago— manuscript, and the YLMA (the anyhow. While this incident led to an thousands of documents thrown out. What Yellowstone Library and Museum Asso- earlier retirement than might otherwise did you do to gather up the first archives ciation) took over and found a publisher. have been the case, I was freed to do some at Yellowstone? YS: I remember several of the park staff other good work; it all balances out and AH: I kept running into fragments of this lobbying, saying, “There is no way you no regrets! military record, so I started gathering can cut the heart of that manuscript and them. I had an office upstairs in the turn it into a little book. That would not do Legends Versus Serious Research northwest corner of the BOQ. I assembled service to anybody.” And Al Mebane, the records there and catalogued them. who was chief naturalist at the time, agreed YS: You and your fellow rangers—what The first sizeable lot came from shelves and found John Schwarz and the Colo- kind of reports were you asked to write in the restroom in the back corner of the rado University Associated Press, who that helped contribute to the historic old headquarters [now called the “Pa- published it in conjunction with the former record, whether or not it was intended goda”]; a whole bunch of these letter- YLMA. that way? books—Army records—were stuffed up AH: I finished the manuscript before I AH: A written report on where we went, on an overhead shelf and in the base- retired, at the end of 1969. But you see, it the animals we saw, and what happened ment! Another cache was in the attic at traveled around a long time through the was made following each patrol. There the paint shop, and some were in the attic Service, and thus was not available as one were also reports each month and for of the wooden troop barracks [now the of Yellowstone’s centennial year publi- special incidents. As far as a particular Yellowstone Center for Resources cations, as originally intended. But I ap- interest in history, there was none at that building]…I recovered a number of vol- preciate very much that the park stood by time. But there were a lot of tales around— umes from houses on Front Row where me and published the full manuscript. like the burial at Nez Perce Creek. There people had taken them to look at. Wher- The problem stemmed from the fact that was a tale that a woman had died in ever they could find a place, they’d stuff I questioned the Madison Junction camp- childbirth there at midwinter and the baby them away. I let it be known that I was fire story of the park’s creation, and the had been raised by the father on Eagle interested in the old records, and they world-wide national park movement, Brand milk until the snow was gone in the came in from all around. There were originating from a discussion at that place spring and they could get out. I found Judge Meldrum’s court records. There on the evening of September 19, 1870. later when I got in touch with the family, were the log books they kept out at the [Ed. Note: Historians now generally ac- that’s not the way it was! She was a soldier stations, and the guardhouse cept that the campfire story is more NPS tubercular case—she’d gone in there a records. They kept an account of every “legend” than truth, as evidenced from very ill woman, and the child was 18 stagecoach that came up—the number of the records left by members of the months old. passengers, driver’s name—amazing Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition.] YS: That’s the legend of Mattie Culver, records. So I gathered it all together and YS: It should never have taken eight who supposedly died in childbirth along called it a Yellowstone archive, and it years to get the book out, but the park did the . makes me happy to know that this unique stand by you. AH: That’s right. I made the mistake in collection is now a unit of the National AH: Yes, they did. I turned it over to the first edition of The Yellowstone Story Archives. YLMA as a royalty item—it’s their book. of telling it like the original park tale. The

The “Yellowstone Story”

YS: By the mid-60s, you were being given time to work on the two volumes of The Yellowstone Story. AH: It was after I wrote Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Es- tablishment that Garrison decided he wanted The Yellowstone Story, about 1965. But there were several years where I was gathering my wits historically, collecting information. YS: It was the first fairly comprehensive history of the park? AH: It wouldn’t have been, except that I got balky! The Washington Office wanted a one-volume book and proceeded to Guard mount at in Mammoth Hot Springs, ca. 1910. bobtail my manuscript. I wouldn’t go NPS photo.

Fall 1998 13 what I was looking for and had some idea where it was. I was able to work in the National Archives twice. A lot of mate- rial came from there, probably not as much as is there, but it did the job. YS: In his first year here, when our cur- rent Superintendent, Mike Finley, heard a story—or a reason for not doing some- thing—he’d sometimes ask, “Is that Yellowstone myth, or is that truth?” AH: I think he knows that myths grow around a place like this. We have a myth here, and we have another myth about how the Indians were afraid of the place, which is baloney. Those are the major myths, but not all that have developed around the park’s interesting history. YS: There have been some interesting Above left: , the second superintendent of Yellowstone, served from presentations here at the conference about April 1877 until February 1882. Above right: was hired as the first the Native Americans and their relations gamekeeper in Yellowstone in June 1880. The effort by Norris and Yount to protect with the park. Do you find anything you the ungulates in Yellowstone’s Lamar Valley was the first “game management hear difficult to believe or different from program” undertaken on federal land. NPS photos. what you had previously thought? AH: When miners started prowling the Yellowstone about the time of its explo- second edition corrected that. important documentation. But toward the ration—1869–70–71—the miners and YS: After you retired in 1969, the park end of that period, two of the park’s Sheepeater Indians didn’t mix. So Chief seemed to let the history program that sincere supporters, Hugh Galusha and of the Shoshoni sent word to you’d gotten started languish. I think the Isabel Haynes, made it possible for me to them, “Come down to us.” And many park is finally trying to embark on a more make two visits to St. Paul, first to exam- settled at Camp Augur on the Wind River organized program of cultural resources, ine the Langford papers at the Minnesota in Wyoming; in 1871 the Indian agency and so we have an archivist and some Historical Society, and later the old North- moved to Fort Washakie. Only a few positions devoted to cultural resources, ern Pacific Railway files. went to in Idaho. They were although we still don’t have a full-time When it came to getting out The Shoshoni-Bannock, but they were part of historian again. Yellowstone Story, Superintendent Gar- the same culture, the same people. AH: I was lucky in that they let me rison let me make a tour that included St. They were talking at the conference research. Paul again and Denver and the University about some of those early ideas, that YS: How did you manage? That took a lot of at Berkeley (for early news- pictured Sheepeaters as ignorant or a of travel—you had to go to the historical paper files); Yale University (for Russell pygmy race; it’s not true. The Sheepeaters societies; you tracked down so many ob- and A. Bart Henderson manuscripts); were the “have-nots” of the Shoshoni- scure items. Philadelphia (American Philosophical Bannock people—the poorer people who AH: When I came on duty as historian, Society and Jay Cooke’s records); St. did not have the horse, did not have the Chief Park Naturalist Robert McIntyre Louis (Missouri Historical Society for gun. So they were relegated to making a informed me there were no funds for early exploration and fur trade records); living in the mountains in the old-fash- travel or for purchase of reprints or maps, Tulsa (’s papers); and the ioned way, like most Indians before de- and I worked within that limitation dur- Huntington Library at San Marino, Cali- velopment of the Plains-type culture of ing the first three years. However, I was fornia (for Supt. Norris’ papers). Research the teepee, the gun, the horse, and buffalo able to make day trips by official vehicle at the National Archives and Library of hunting. They had to hunt in the moun- to the Montana State University Library Congress in Washington, D.C., was sepa- tains, and naturally they lived a furtive in Bozeman and to the Montana State rately funded for a documentary on life there. They were not numerous enough Historical Society in Helena, and to man- “Yellowstone National Park: Its Explo- to defend themselves; that’d make a per- age some research in connection with ration and Establishment.” son furtive! assigned trips to Big Hole Battlefield and I have always kept notes—everything YS: Today, ethnographers talk about in- other historic sites in Montana. Tape re- that looked like it might possibly have a terviewing natives about their oral his- corder and 35mm camera along with writ- future use got a 3”x 5” card. So, by the tory and their traditions and the stories ten notes served to capture some very time I started, in large measure I knew they’ve told—was that a technique used

14 Yellowstone Science paragraph to a page on where each came Gamekeeper Harry Yount was the first paid “scout,” forerunner of the from and his or her training and back- rangers. I always showed my students of Yellowstone history the chimney ground. When he or she leaves you have rocks where the Yount cabin was, out in the Lamar Valley, near Soda Butte, it up-to-date. The same way with build- and told them, “This is the beginning of wildlife management in the United ings—when you tear one down, you want States, right here.” I wish the park would develop that and take credit for it. to be sure you’ve got information on It’s a big thing, and it’s been almost totally ignored. when and why it was built, what it cost, and so forth, and maybe a picture of the when you were a historian? Lamar Valley, near Soda Butte, and told building. AH: No. I understood that to be anthro- them, “This is the beginning of wildlife YS: What are you going to do with all pology, rather than history, but I did find management in the United States, right your records? archeology to be helpful. here.” I wish the park would develop that AH: I’ve been asked that a number of and take credit for it. It’s a big thing, and times, and I refuse to answer, because I Untold Stories: The Minutiae of His- it’s been almost totally ignored. want to use them a while yet! Some of tory The boat industry on the lake is another them are already in the Montana State interesting thing that needs to be put University rare books room. MSU also YS: What else would you like to see the together as one whole story, not several has a copy of most of the archives. While historians work on these days? What do pieces—not just E.C. Waters or Eugene I was in Yellowstone, I’d take a car load you wish you could’ve spent more time Topping, with his sail boat, nor the of the Army records to the library for on? present-day hotel company. “Uncle” Billy microfilming and return what they had AH: One of the things I wish could be Hofer ran the boat business for a while finished. If you have a fire here, MSU has given emphasis is that Superintendent after Waters was put out of the park for a copy all the way through the Army Norris and Harry Yount began wildlife failing to take proper care of the buffalo period. Since that is a unique record, the management in the United States. It failed, he held captive on Dot Island (he was only one of its kind, it just had to have a yes; the early attempts failed! But this is guilty of much more!) A good story there. duplicate somewhere. Jim Hill money, where it happened. Norris intended to YS: Billy Hofer’s career here was so provided by the family that built the Great capture buffalo calves, and to raise buf- long…he left us a lot, more than 50 ar- Northern Railway, financed that copying falo calves you have to have milk. So ticles just in Forest and Stream (see Sa- work. he’d made an arrangement with James rah Broadbent’s article, also in this is- YS: How would you tell today’s park Beattie, who ranched just north of the sue.) and a few letters and photos—he employees to keep documenting history? park boundary near Gardiner in 1877— was a real character. We tend not to think of things that we’re his cattle could forage on park grass if he AH: He was a frontiersman who was a living today as something that’s going to could have milk for the buffalo calves. “white hat” guy. He was a good man. be important in the future. But the Nez Perce, when they came Even Teddy Roosevelt thought highly of AH: Oh! Be careful that you document as through here, killed Beattie’s cattle for “Uncle Billy.” you go along. I believe in a running traveling rations. YS: There is so much more interest in record that has three sections. One of Gamekeeper Harry Yount was the first history now. If a graduate student wanted them is places in the park, one is people in paid “scout,” forerunner of the rangers. I to know who else needs a biography here, the park, and the third is happenings year always showed my students of who would be a good subject? by year, with line entries for events and Yellowstone history the chimney rocks AH: Start with Mike Finley, and then do reference. When a question comes up where the Yount cabin was, out in the a resume on each new employee, from a about something, those quick-reference volumes are a place to go for an answer. Now, with no published annual reports and a rather short record retention, such systematic recording may be all that stands between the historian of tomorrow and a long, difficult newspaper search. Writing the history of Yellowstone’s second cen- tury of existence may be a difficult job— prepare for it! YS: I like what you said during your comments at the luncheon in your honor— about how there’s all kinds of good work to be done before we celebrate the park’s 150th anniversary. AH: You bet! ✺ Bison in show pen on Dot Island, 1906. NPS photo.

Fall 1998 15