The wind blows gently, lifting the soft puffy clouds of steam into ragged tendrils, and
then, it's still.
Somewhere a bird calls mournfully but is not heard.
The attention of the small group of people is focused on the basin before them, and they
wait in expectation.
Some standing, shifting restlessly, others sitting on logs or ground.
Their chatter is hushed.
To speak or laugh too loudly may cause them to miss the first warning rumble of the event
they have come to witness.
One of the talk is in guttural syllables, strangely accented, and assailing the uncomprehending
years of the others.
Some of the visitors have come from far, far away.
Exclamations rise as the bubbling water in the basin lifts higher.
There is a rushing roar, and with a mighty explosion, the geyser blooms like a white,
hot flower into the sky.
The people stand rapt, eyes filled with awe, at the shrine of natural phenomena.
Warm drops of water from the boiling fountain are blown by the vagrant breeze and fall,
unheated on uplifted faces.
Eventually, the column of steam and water slowly collapses upon itself and is drawn
back into the earth.
All that is left is a gurgling splash, warning that the unknown force below the surface of
the earth is only resting.
It will return again.
The spell is broken and the people move away, relaxed, speaking and laughing freely, discussing
the spectacle they have just seen.
The sounds of voices fade, and only the deep throaty mutter of the geyser remains.
But born on the rising wind is a fragment of speech.
It is held and carried, then gently fades, and becomes one with the ghostly words and
cries from other visitors in other days and in other centuries.
There is frequently heard a loud noise like thunder, which makes the earth tremble.
They state that they seldom go there because their children cannot sleep, and conceive
it possessed of spirits who are averse that men should be near them.
William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which passed just north of Yellowstone in
1806, related an Indian's narrative of a land of wonder.
However, white men were not yet ready to believe the Indian's depiction of this haunted place,
referring to wait for an observation from one of their own kind.
In 1807, John Coulter, a veteran of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was the first white
man to enter the area, traveling alone as fur trader to the Indians.
He left no written record of his impressions, but years later, Washington Irving wrote of
Coulter's health, a volcanic tract with its gloomy terrors, its hidden fires, smoking
pots, noxious streams, and the all-prevailing smell of brimstone.
The name Coulter's health came to be applied to the great hydrothermal basin in Yellowstone.
The region held a fortune in beaver skins, and from 1807 to 1840, fur trappers explored
the land.
Having little else for entertainment but talk, they were the finest of storytellers.
Returning to the settlements, the trappers gave descriptive accounts of their adventures
to a largely disbelieving audience.
Joseph Meek, one of the best known of the early trappers, expressed his amazement.
And behold, the whole country beyond was smoking with vapor from boiling springs and burning
with gases issuing from small craters, each of which was emitting a sharp, whistling sound.
In 1827, a letter from a trapper was the first published description of the area.
It resembles that of a mush pot and throws its particles to immense heights.
The clay is white and pink.
There is also a number of places where the pure sulfur is sent forth in abundance.
One of our men visited one of these whilst taking his recreation.
There at an instant made his escape when an explosion took place resembling that of thunder.
Famed mountain man and guide Jim Bridger was a notorious yarn spinner, and tradition links
his name with many of Yellowstone's tall tales.
His lucid and truthful descriptions of the place where hell bubbled up were labeled as
patent lies by a public that had come to regard the trapper's stories as wild fabrications
of minds too long removed from civilization.
Angered and disgusted by the suspicions cast on his honesty, he retaliated, as did so many
of the other mountain men, concocting the most preposterous stories his imagination
could conjure up.
However, a seed of curiosity had been planted, and others were compelled to take a look for
themselves.
An American fur company clerk, Warren Ferris, and two Indian companions were the first tourists
venturing into the upper Yellowstone country with no other purpose than to see for themselves
the truth of the wild tales told by the trappers.
When dawn broke over the upper geyser basin, Ferris looked out on an unforgettable scene.
On the surface of a rocky plain burst forth columns of water of various dimensions projected
high into the air, accompanied by loud explosions and sulfurous vapors.
The largest of these wonderful fountains projects a column of boiling water several feet in
diameter to the height of more than 150 feet, accompanied by a tremendous noise.
I ventured near enough to put my hand into the water of its basin, but withdrew it instantly,
for the heat of the water in this immense cauldron was altogether too great for comfort.
The agitation of the water and the hollow unearthly rumbling under the rock on which
I stood so ill accorded with my notions of personal safety that I retreated back precipitately
to a respectful distance.
The Indians with Ferris were quite appalled, thinking it unwise to trifle with the supernatural.
One of them remarked that hell of which he had heard from the whites must be in that
vicinity.
The three tourists hastily concluded their excursion and went back to earning a living
in the fur trade.
In view of the public at large, Yellowstone was not really discovered until explored by
formal expeditions.
But it was not until after the dark days of the civil war that the region was successfully
penetrated.
In 1869, three gold miners, David Folsom, Charles Cook, and William Peterson, ascended
the Yellowstone.
Equipped with field glasses, stout cord for taking soundings and tying up specimens, a
rocket compass, a thermometer, and blank journals for use as field diaries, they were prepared
to measure, map, and record their findings.
They observed the thermal features near Tower 4, writing, In some springs, the water was
clear and transparent.
Others contained so much sulfur, it looked like pots of boiling yellow paint.
One of the springs was black as ink.
Near this was a fissure in the rocks, and we could hear the water surging below, sending
up a dull, resonant roar, like the break of the ocean surfed into a cave.
The cave seemed nearly filled with mud.
The steam came with such force and volume that it would lift the whole mass against
the roof and dash it out into the open space in front.
Our camp is a half a mile away from it, and yet we can distinctly hear every explosion.
Of Tower 4, they wrote, the ragged edge of the precipice tears the water into a thousand
streamers, changing into the appearance of molten silver, all united together, yet separate.
Tower 4, named by the following washburn expedition because of its volcanic pinnacles that surround
its brink, majestically cascades 132 feet from the Tower Creek.
The rocks at the brink of the falls and in the vertical cliff beneath are coarse breccias
and conglomerates of the Apsaroka volcanic rocks.
Six weeks after the beginning of their journey, the party exited by way of the Madison River,
stopping to admire the ethereal beauty of the riverside geyser at play.
On the shores of Yellowstone Lake, Balsam had recorded a final notation in his diary,
a prophetic thought which would be shared by the two expeditions which would have followed,
leading to a realization of the country's worth and the need for preservation.
This is a scene of transcendent beauty which has been viewed by few white men.
We felt glad to have looked upon it before its primeval solitude should be broken by
the crowds of pleasure seekers which at no distant day will frown its shores.
The Washburn-Lankford-Dome expedition was organized a year later.
Henry Washburn, surveyor, general of Montana Territory and ex-Congressman, and Nathaniel
Langford, a politician and banker, were the leaders.
There were a total of 19 men, including the five-man military escort, under the command
of Lieutenant Christophis Doane.
Unlike the three men preceding them, they were unversed in survival techniques and were
plagued by troubles.
Yet they proceeded with enthusiasm, clambering over cliffs, ascending and descending mountains
and canyons, and peering into the throats of boiling cauldrons.
Washburn climbed a prominent mountain peak south of the Tower Fall and was so filled
with excitement at the view from its summit that the group named it for him.
In this perilous wilderness, one man was lost.
Separated from the party, Truman Everts soon lost his horse and all possessions on it.
He wandered for 37 days before falling into the arms of two scouts sent from Helena by
the returning Washburn party to search for him.
His weight had fallen to 50 pounds and he was near dead, but eventually recovered fully.
Tracing the general route of the 1869 party, the group also inspected the upper geyser
basin, missed by the Fulton expedition, as well as the midway and lower geyser basins.
Many of the geysers bear the names the party gave them.
Old Fatal, Grand, Giant, Beehive, Grotto, Castle, and Giantess.
Their success in publicizing their enchantment and wonder at what they saw resulted in a
congressional appropriation for an official exploration of Yellowstone, the Hayden expedition.
Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, head of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories, was
a physician turned geologist and accomplished naturalist, as well as a leading scientific
investigator of the wilderness and an influential publicist.
This expedition of 20 men entering the Yellowstone country in June of 1871 consisted of accomplished
scientists and physicians.
Accompanying them was a unit of the United States Army Corps of Engineers on a simultaneous
survey.
These two expeditions functioned as one, since their mission was not to make discovery, but
to collect all accurate data possible concerning the entire area.
With the Hayden party were photographer William Jackson, who would make a lasting visual record
of the trip, and Thomas Moran, already on his way to becoming one of the West's most famous
artists.
These two men would, at last, present to the world the first tangible proof of the existence
of Yellowstone's marvels.
Dr. Hayden had participated in several expeditions and had been a member of a party attempting
unsuccessfully to investigate the Yellowstone region prior to the Civil War.
Seeing the interest created in the Washburn, Langford, Doane reports, he recognized the
opportunity to reveal Yellowstone in a scientific and orderly manner, aided by favorable public
reaction, and with the support of the railroad interests, proponents of Western exploration
and development, he had secured a Congressional appropriation of $40,000 to carry out his
official survey.
It was a summer of successful exploration for the men.
Geologic features were noted and theorized upon, temperature readings taken in more than
600 hot springs.
Plants and animals were classified.
Old maps were updated and new ones drawn.
Place names were bestowed.
A map of Yellowstone Lake was made with the aid of a small, canvas boat named Annie, the
first one to be built and launched onto the lake.
Notebooks and sketches were accumulated and notebooks filled with daily records of observations.
And always, there were mounted expeditions by some in the party to bring in the game
required to feed so many men.
Professional soldier and scholarly scientist alike had begun to appreciate the quiet joys
of wilderness and its intangible values.
Like the explorers before them, the natural curiosities of Yellowstone impressed Dr. Hayden
and the members of his expedition as being so valuable that the area should be reserved
for all to see.
But time was growing short, gold had been discovered a few miles away and the area would
soon be invaded by sportsmen, souvenir hunters and opportunists.
Dr. Hayden, working with Nathaniel Langford and other interested sponsors, promoted a
bill in Washington in late 1871 to set aside the land as a park permanently closed to public
settlement or exploitation.
The wonders of the proposed park had caught the imagination of Congress and the measure
passed both houses.
On March 1st, 1872, resident Ulysses S. Grant signed it into law.
The world's first national park was now established, a distant entity among territories that would
not attain statehood for another two decades.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, at the tract of land in the territories of Montana and Wyoming, lying near the headwaters
of the Yellowstone River, is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy or
sale under the laws of the United States, dedicated and set apart as a public park or
pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.
When Yellowstone entered into its greatest period of history, that of a wilderness preserved,
it would be almost a half a century of trial and error before the total concept of what
a national park should be would evolve.
Initially, the land and its wildlife had no protection from the onslaught of pillagers.
Vast reaches were unapproachable by the public, to whom it was dedicated, except by the hardiest
traveler.
The park was first administered by a series of five superintendents.
However, as individuals, they were unable to adequately protect and maintain it.
Striving to find a proper course in a new enterprise, the government turned the care
of the park over to the military in 1886.
Military protection and the improvements made under the Corps of Engineers proved to be
of great benefit.
However, the Department of Interior felt the need for an organization to assume control
and to direct policies of management.
In 1916, the National Park Service was created by an act of Congress and signed by President
Woodrow Wilson.
Many of the soldiers resigned from the Army and received appointments as rangers, an active
protection force in the park.
As its conception, a wide range of knowledge of conservation and ecology, new understanding
and sophisticated views of wildlife and forest management has been brought to the National
Park Service.
Courses of physical development have been charted, minimizing the impact of a large
number of visitors on the environment, while allowing them the maximum benefit of enjoyment.
The park has hosted, even before the turn of the century, numerous European dignitaries
and United States presidents.
Perhaps the most colorful and elaborate was the entourage of President Chester Arthur
in 1883, accompanied by a full troop of cavalrymen and a pack train.
The 350-mile journey throughout the park was made entirely on horseback.
Horses were stationed every 20 miles to keep him in touch with the outside world.
President Theodore Roosevelt arrived in 1903 and toured the park by horseback and sleigh.
He assisted in laying the cornerstone of the memorial arch, which bears his name at the
Gardner entrance.
In later years, the presidential parties of Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Franklin
D. Roosevelt would enter Yellowstone through the massive lava stone archway.
It was along the dusty, bumpy road provided by the military corps of engineers that tourists
viewed the park in stagecoach days.
Travelers today can board an authentic Concorde without, however, the entertainment of the
colorful profanity from drivers or the thrill of an occasional holdup by bat.
A typical tour of the park would begin with the tourists properly outfitted in petticoats,
suits, and straw hats.
Even then as now, is always a pleasurable pastime along a trail too quiet adventure.
Some of the tourists avail themselves of optional pleasures, such as a peaceful boat tour of
Yellowstone Lake.
Travelers gained access to the park in 1915.
The camper on wheels offered a new ease and luxury in travel.
The emerald waves were a thrivingcriばいš vibes.
Yellowstone was given birth in the fires of thundering volcanoes,
and the fear of volcanism so violent has to be unparalleled in geologic history.
Almost two billion years ago, forces deep within the earth stirred.
Vast layers of metamorphic rock of gneiss and schist and sedimentary formations began to warp and buckle.
Mountain ranges were uplifted by the fracturing of the earth's crust.
Twenty million years later, the forces relaxed,
but the gigantic crustal disturbances had given rise to another force deep within the earth, intense volcanic activity.
Molten rock surged to the surface.
Sometimes the eruptions were quiet, the lava welling up, overflowing, and cascading down the sides of the volcano.
At times, they were violently explosive,
and mountains that would one day be called the Apsaroka, Washburn, and Gallatin ranges were made massive by the accumulated debris.
Great, tensional forces pulled the region apart and partially broke it into large blocks.
Some blocks sank and others rose along the fall zones, creating steep-sided mountains and canyon lands.
The most spectacular of these was the Teton Falls.
The vertical displacement is estimated to have totaled approximately 18,000 feet,
but erosion has worn down the foreplot so that only 7,000 is visible today.
600,000 years ago, hot volcanic ash and humus spewed from giant fractures in the earth's crust,
covering hundreds of square miles in minutes.
A great smoldering 1,000 square miles of paper appeared in the central Yellowstone region.
The ground had fallen into the enormous underground cavern that was left by the eruption.
The caldera-forming explosion is estimated to have been 200 times greater than that of Krakatoa in 1883,
which was heard as far away as Australia, a distance of 3,000 miles.
Once a land covered almost entirely by mountains, nearly one-third of the total park area
is now characterized by low rolling plateaus, the floor of the ancient crater.
Heat from the enormous reservoir of magma still remains within the earth,
sustaining the spectacular hot water and steam phenomena for which Yellowstone is so famous.
The snows came and stayed, sheets of ice formed in the bitter cold that lay upon the surface of the land.
Yellowstone was glaciated at least three times, but only in the last 100,000 years
had the exterior forces of water and ice had a free hand in shaping the landscape.
From the ice ages came Yellowstone Lake, formed by the melting of glaciers that had blanketed the land.
The melting snows of the Apsoroka Range replenished the lake.
Lying 7,731 feet above sea level, it is the largest body of water in the park, an inland sea covering 139 square miles.
The icy transparent waters of the lake have many moods, moods which change with a calm and storm,
sometimes dancing in joyous freedom and sparkling in the sun, sometimes chill and remote.
The curiosities of this mysterious world are almost eclipsed by the sudden transformation
when you step out to the abrupt rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
At the head of the 20-mile-long canyon, the Yellowstone River glides uneasily out of a dark tunnel of brooding pines,
curls lazily, and drops more than 300 feet.
The lower falls, twice as high as Niagara, plunge into the narrow depths of the canyon,
as if to cool the infernal region below the earth.
The massive cliffs and the brink of the lower falls were formed by the leading edge of a lava flow.
The hard, dense lava has resisted erosion, unlike the softer volcanic glass lava immediately downstream.
The erosive power of running water is well illustrated here,
for water that drained from Yellowstone Lake helped carve the deep 1,500 to 4,000-foot wide chasm.
Perhaps typical of the myriad marvels of Yellowstone,
this canyon is unlike other grand canyons in the world.
It lies wide open to the viewer.
There are no hidden valleys, no mysterious and muted ways, tempting the explorer to the unknown.
Its shadows are in the lowering sun and those cast by an angular dying tree,
its twisted roots clinging tenaciously to eroding life.
This part of the canyon overlies one of the wide ring fracture zones of the Yellowstone caldera.
Its steep 1,500-foot deep walls of crumbling riolite lava,
made soft by hot water and gases filtering through, are an artist's palette of brilliant hues.
Very little change has occurred in the appearance of the canyon since the melting of the glaciers 10,000 years ago.
Little Issa Lake, famous for its anomaly of beautiful golden water lilies,
lies across the 8,262-foot crest of the Continental Divide.
Its waters drain into both oceans, the Atlantic by way of the Mississippi and the Pacific by way of the Columbia River.
Anxious to reach the settlements of the Madison Valley,
the Washburn-Lankford-Done expedition started on horseback into the Firehole Valley.
They were astonished to see at no great distance an immense volume of clear, sparkling water
projected into the air to the height of 125 feet.
Geysers, geysers, exclaimed one of the company, and spurring their jaded horses,
they soon gathered around an unexpected phenomenon, a perfect geyser.
It spouted nine times during the explorers' stay. They gave it the name of Old Faithful.
With its pronounced symmetry and gracefulness of form, Old Faithful has become the symbol of Yellowstone,
and it's the focal point of most visitors.
Shades of a bygone era linger at the historic Old Faithful Inn.
The inn, as unique as the wonderland in which it stands, was constructed in the winter of 1903-1904.
Massive tree trunks, rough boulders, and gnarled, twisted branches were skillfully fitted together
to form this most striking product of the wilderness.
Yellowstone's geysers are fueled by pools of magma, lying only one in eight-tenths to three miles below the Earth's surface.
They are tremendous sources of heat, sufficient to raise large quantities of water to high temperatures.
The heat supplied to Yellowstone's hot springs is enough to melt one million tons of ice per day.
The mechanism of a geyser eruption begins when the cool underground water in the fractures
and vents below the Earth's surface flows into the geyser's partly empty tubes and chambers.
The water is heated to the boiling point of 212 degrees.
Gas bubbles grow in size and number, clogging certain parts of the geyser tube.
Steam expands, forcing the overflow of cooler water onto the surface.
A preliminary spurt relieves the pressure and starts a chain reaction deeper in the system.
The superheated water flashes into steam, and the geyser surges into full eruption.
When most of the steam has been ejected, the geyser ceases to play.
The water again enters the geyser's channels, and a cycle starts anew.
The word geyser is Icelandic in origin and means to gush forth.
In Iceland, it is pronounced Geyser, and in England, Geezer.
The most conspicuous surface feature of a geyser basin are the raised siliceous center cones
for which geysers discharge steam and water during eruption.
The silica or geyserite is sometimes deposited in lace-like sheets,
sometimes built up into bulbous masses.
Each is unique, all are strangely beautiful.
Castle Geyser's cone of center is believed to be the largest and oldest in the park.
Its upper part is formed by the vigorous eruptions characteristic of geysers.
Its lower has well-defined layers, probably deposited by hot springs.
The underground water, when heated, picks up chemicals which are not readily soluble at ordinary temperatures.
Silicon dioxide and bicarbonate of chloride are odorous.
The unpleasant smell of brimstone, so often described by the early explorers,
results from odoriferous mineral and gas compounds such as sulfur, iron, and boron.
Gases, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and methane are found in most of the waters.
Carbon dioxide accounts for the bubbles found in thermal pools.
Dark and desolate, these lifeless sentinels stand as a mute testimony to the encroachment of lethal waters.
Inundated with the runoff waters of a hot spring or geyser,
the silica-impregnated trunk base, thus petrified, may stand for decades as whitened skeletons.
Non-eruptive thermal pools are not always as spectacular as geyser eruptions,
but dissolved minerals deposited by the water give them a rich coloration.
Under an apparently hard crust, boiling water may be dangerously near the surface.
Brignantly green, delicately blue, bejeweled by the bright red, yellow, and orange patches of algae.
Like organisms that can thrive in its environment, hot springs are magnificently beautiful and often deadly.
The coloration of a hot spring channel is due to the kinds and amounts of organisms present.
In very hot water, the algae are palest yellow,
growing progressively darker as the water flows away and cools.
The organisms living in these hot waters are so perfectly adapted that they are found in no other environment.
Excelsior geyser has not erupted since 1888.
From its gigantic crater, almost six million gallons of 200-degree water cascade daily through its colorful channels into the Firehole River.
To climb the path into the white mist on a wintry day is to seem to enter the sphere of the underworld.
The churning water is heard through the mist that does not muffle its ominous sound.
Glimpse to the patches of drifting steam is the boiling water near, almost too near, it seems.
Its perimeters are stained with the vivid hues of the heat from its origins.
Underneath the feet is the reassuring firmness of the boardwalk and under the hand, the steadiness of its wooden rail.
The phantoms that pass by out of the steam are reassuringly human.
Later, emerging from the warm dampness into the more prosaic world, the air is chill.
Amid that which is bizarre and fantastic are the mud pots, called mush pots by the trappers.
There is almost a comforting resemblance to that part of porridge simmering on a stove.
Water in short supply is thoroughly mixed with clay and other colorful undissolved minerals such as sulfur and iron oxides, resulting in the name, paint pots.
Gases, steam, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide rush from the earth through a fumarole's vent.
Water, seeping down to the zone of hot rock, flashes into steam upon contact with the rock.
The sudden increase in volume, nearly 2,000 times, produces the pressure which drives the gases from the vent.
Boardwalks crisscross the perilous steaming earth at Norris Geyser Basin like adhesive tape holding together the thin cover over a subterranean hell.
This is the hottest and most active geyser basin in Yellowstone.
Here, geysers and hot springs exhibit greater change in activity over a short span of time than elsewhere in the park.
It is not unusual for a change in thermal features to take place overnight.
The new feature may last for a few days, perhaps a month, or several years.
Hot water is the life of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces.
They are built of white travertine, a limestone that has been dissolved in hot carbonic acid and forced up through the rocks by thermal pressure.
Once exposed to the open air, the acidity is reduced by the carbon dioxide escaping from the solution and the lime is deposited as travertine.
It is estimated that more than two tons of dissolved limestone is carried to the ground surface each day by the Mammoth Hot Springs water.
Deposits of travertine may extend to a depth of 250 feet.
The center around a geyser basin, in comparison, is only 10 feet or less.
Jupiter and Minerva Springs flow freely, creating the ornate travertine formations.
Wherever hot water glistens on its surface, the formation is brilliantly colored from the great number of tiny living bacteria and algae.
These remarkable springs are noted not only for their striking beauty, but their changeability.
The transition is rapid and up-predictable shifts in water flow occurs from day to day.
When a pool overflows or an edge breaks, the water runs down and begins to form a lower terrace.
Should the flow of hot water cease, the terrace growth will stop.
The formations turn gray and black and begin to crumble away.
The terraces, once described as a mountain turned inside out, are the largest in the world.
The land is still young geologically, soil development is shallow, and pioneer plants are common.
Fire and water, in the form of thermal heat, rain and snow, still dominate the landscape.
Although thousands of years have passed since Yellowstone's violent birth, mighty forces still stir just below the surface.
In 1959, a 7.8 earthquake, one of the most severe on the North American continent, shook the Montana Yellowstone area.
It created three major faults, with vertical displacement running as much as 20 feet.
In comparison, the tensional forces of 10 million years ago lifted fault blocks thousands of feet.
No cataclysm of nature is more terrifying, for in moments, changes take place that bring us to the realization of how infinitesimal we are before the forces of nature.
While the earthquake changed hydrothermal activity within the park, it also sent vibrations to seismographs in New Zealand, and changed water levels in wells as far away as Puerto Rico.
In Madison Canyon, 14 miles west of Yellowstone, 80 million tons of rock fell to form a natural dam. Nine people were killed, 19 are still missing.
In the Grand Teton National Park, only five miles away from Yellowstone,
is a gentle valley. It is rich with green pastures, reflecting blue waters, and in autumn, colorful foliage.
But this wealth of pastoral beauty pays obeisance at the feet of the jagged gray spires that leap and soar to capture and hold the eye.
Such awesome peaks, composed of the gneiss and schist from the Earth's very foundations, should be stolid, immovable.
Instead, as if possessing a life of their own, they are transmutable, changing their appearance with the time of day and from every viewpoint.
The range, only 40 miles long, has over 20 peaks at least 10,000 feet high. The highest is Grand Teton, at 13,766 feet.
In the shadows of the highest crags are snows that never melt, remnants of glaciers from the last ice age.
The range is unique in that it rises abruptly from the valley floor. There are no foothills whatsoever.
The Tetons received their name from early French-Canadian trappers. Approaching from the west and sighting the three sharp, snowy peaks,
they gave them the name of Trois Tetons, three breasts, which was adopted by the trapping fraternity.
The first Americans in the region, being more pragmatic, could find no better name than the Pilot Knobs.
The three peaks became a beacon to guide them through the wilderness.
The valley was named Jackson's Hole by the trappers, a hole being a valley abounding in game.
This was the historic crossroad of the Rocky Mountain fur trade, for it was designed by geography to become a traffic center.
Trappers' trails converged like the spokes of a wheel because it offered the most feasible route across the Rocky Mountain barrier.
For centuries, the Indians had occasionally occupied the area. No tribe claimed the valley as a permanent home,
but Crow, Nez Perce, Shoshone, and Bannock wandered through in summer, following the game animals off which they lived.
It was the Shoshone that earned a special niche in the west's history through a member of their nation, a woman named Sacajawea.
When Thomas Jefferson transacted the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the United States,
he hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the new territory.
The 32-member expedition, with 18-year-old Sacajawea carrying her infant son and leading the way as guide and interpreter throughout the two-year journey,
ventured into the vast unknown west and onto the pages of history.
In the 1880s and 90s, settlers began dropping out of the wagon trains and homesteading Jackson Hole.
In 1900, the little town of Jackson Hole consisted of four buildings with churches and schools here and there throughout the valley.
Breaking the daily hard work of ranching were barn raisings, all-night dances to a fiddler, and horse-thief chasing posses.
The early settlers, proud of the free-ranging elk herds, protected them as their own.
Citizen committees took up arms against tuskers, a brand of outlaw that killed elk only for their teeth,
and sheep herders that attempted to take over the elk and cattle range.
In winter, some ranchers fed starving herds with precious hay from their own stores.
Today, the Grand Teton Yellowstone National Parks are a two-and-one-half-million-acre refuge for over 200 species of birds and 60 mammals.
The Snake River winds and coils through the valley, a watery serpent in a mountain paradise.
Fishing for trout is only one of the many recreational activities offered by the park.
Jackson Lake, a natural lake, was enlarged by the dam built in 1916 by the Bureau of Reclamation before the area became a national park.
And the Little Chapel of the Transfiguration, completed in 1925, welcomes visitors of all faiths.
Proposals were put before Congress in 1917 and 1918 to extend Yellowstone National Park southward to preserve the valley while still in its wild state.
The measures were bitterly opposed and failed to pass.
John D. Rockefeller, Jr., visiting the valley in 1926, was so impressed and determined to do what he could to preserve it for a national park
that he formed the Snake River Land Company to buy up as much land as possible.
By 1930, his company owned much of the valley.
Grand Teton National Park was established in 1929, but only included the eastern area of the Tetons and the lakes at their feet.
In 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt decreed additional forest land and the Rockefeller Holdings as a national monument.
National monuments can be created by presidential decree, but a national park only by an act of Congress.
It was not until 1950 that the monument was incorporated into the national park.
Yellowstone and Grand Tetons are neighbors on the map, but far apart in spirit.
It is the solidity and mass of the magnificent citadels of the Teton range rearing up like the remotest peaks of the Himalayas that linger in the mind,
in sharp contrast to the steaming fumaroles and bubbling mudpots of Yellowstone.
Yellowstone is the largest of all national parks in the United States.
Its area encompasses 3,472 square miles.
The initial conception of preserving the Yellowstone area as a great national park was primarily concerned with the preservation of its natural wonders.
In those days, little thought was given to the need for preserving our wild animals.
It soon became apparent that the animals, once thought to be unlimited in number, must be protected.
Yellowstone became the world's largest sanctuary for its varied and in some cases endangered wildlife.
Yellowstone's wildlife show could be any visitor's most memorable experience.
Appreciation and enjoyment of the park's wild creatures can be enhanced by a better understanding of how each fits into the intricate web of plant and animal life,
a community in which each plays a vital role in the existence of the other.
One of America's rarest birds, the trumpeter swan, is illuminated against the ripple of dark river water.
Summer is fleeting in the high country of Yellowstone, but the abundant, fish-filled waters are a favorite haunt for waterfowl all year long.
Geese are honking upriver, and the calls of other migrating birds carry across the valleys.
A coyote lopes across a grassy plain. Once, this predator was hunted with the intent of elimination.
Soon, the snow will softly fall from leaden skies, mantling the mountain slopes with white and signaling the change of seasons.
The big horn or mountain sheep seen on rocky, alpine cliffs may be a leftover from an earlier post-glacial time,
when the favorable habitat was much more extensive.
There are six species of ungulates, or hoofed mammals in the park, big horn, pronghorn, bison, moose, mule deer, and elk.
They are accustomed to man's presence and may be watched at fairly close range. However, tolerance should never be mistaken for tameness.
There are three species of the deer family, mule deer, elk, and moose.
In the autumn, huge meadows, deer and elk are on the move, browsing and grazing while they may.
All too soon, food will be in very short supply.
The males of all three species have magnificent antlers, which are used in combat during the fall mating season.
They are shed during the winter.
Elk are the most abundant, and therefore the most conspicuous of the park's large animals.
About 13,000 roam the hills and meadows in summer.
The mule deer, also called black-tailed deer, is the smallest member of the deer family.
He is named for his large mule-like ears and a jaunty black-tipped tail above a white rump patch.
He can be seen anywhere in the park, his bouncing, bounding gait setting him apart from the other ungulates.
The bemused-looking moose may be surprised on the willow flats.
Nothing can equal the thrill of being able to observe wild animals on their home ground.
Here, they simply carry on their lives as if millions of visitors simply do not exist.
The moose is the largest of Yellowstone's deer family, standing six feet tall and weighing from 900 to 1,400 pounds, nearly half a ton.
His large humpback body on stilt-like legs, his big head with pendulous muzzle, make him seem quite awkward.
Despite his ungainly appearance, he can glide smoothly and silently through the forest.
His great size and formidable hooves give him relative security against predators other than wolves and grizzlies.
There are 500 to 700 moose in the park.
The moose are not herding animals. He is usually alone, but occasionally family groups or several bulls may be seen together.
The marshes and shores are favored feeding grounds, for here grow the water plants which he prefers.
In winter, the moose will feed on bark and twigs of willow, birch and aspen, and the needles of fir trees and other conifers.
His long legs enable him to manage quite well in the winter snows.
The massive bison or buffalo, which are among the last purely wild free-ranging herds in the country, is one of the remnant groups of the former tens of millions.
After the turn of the century, there were less than 50 buffalo harbored in Yellowstone.
To prevent inbreeding and extinction, the National Park Service brought in buffalo from Texas and Montana, where ranchers were trying to domesticate them.
Their efforts succeeded, and survival of the species was assured.
One of Yellowstone's greatest thrills is to watch a bear in spring roaming the valley bottoms.
No sight elicits more comment or use of film than a mother bear with cubs.
These seemingly cuddly clowns of the woods are unpredictable and dangerous, as are all wild animals.
Injury and even death have come from encounters between man and bear, for this symbol of American wilderness has lost its fear of man.
Never fail to give these powerful animals their due respect.
Park regulations prohibiting feeding and molesting of all animals are strictly enforced.
Here, man is a visitor, but Yellowstone is their home.
Two kinds of bears reside in the wilds of the park, black bears, probably the best known animal, and the grizzly.
These two species, more than any other wildlife, epitomize the dilemma of coexistence of man with beasts.
The grizzly, the largest and most formidable, is distinguished by the heavy build, with a pronounced hump at the shoulders.
In spite of his size, he can travel at tremendous speed and, for a short distance, outrun a horse.
He is more wary of man and, fortunately, not addicted to the panhandling or clowning traits of the black bear.
Although classed as a carnivore, he is actually like man, an omnivore.
Only in Alaska and western Canada are grizzlies still relatively abundant.
They have been exterminated in all other areas, except for rare exceptions.
The high mountains and wilderness areas of the national parks and forests of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming now support less than a thousand.
Approximately 300 reside within Yellowstone National Park boundaries.
Even in the preserves of the national parks, the black bears and grizzlies are now infrequently seen.
They are not in hiding. They simply are not there.
Humans have proven to be a destructive force to bears.
Enticed by easily accessible sources of food supply, they have, over the years, formed feeding habits that are sometimes impossible to break.
The attempt to return the bears to their natural habitat in the wild has not always been successful.
Sometimes the feeding habits cannot be broken, and the bear must be destroyed to avoid endangering human life.
Others cannot adjust to reorientation and die. Others are sometimes killed illegally.
Both bear and bison are symbols of what man does to our fragile planet.
Extinct, they are a testimony to man's preoccupation with himself and his needs.
Alive, a symbol of understanding and freedom.
As the world's population increases, it becomes more obvious that we must set aside large areas of wilderness so that it and its inhabitants may survive.
More than ever as in the past, there will be the clash of interests.
Those people who are not able to survive will be left to die.
Those who survive, more than ever as in the past, there will be the clash of interests.
Those people whose self-interest opposes the idea of any type of national park or preserve,
and those who realize that we have a responsibility for all forms of life on Earth.
Yellowstone is not only a place of pristine beauty and uncommon features.
It is our national and natural treasure, sometimes moody, sometimes awesome, but always beautiful, eternal, and mysterious,
that occupies a special place in the hearts of all those who have seen it.
It is an innovative concept of conservation that caught the imagination of the world after generations of apathy and abuse.
Of all the benefits from Yellowstone National Park, this may be the greatest,
that scores of nations have preserved areas of natural beauty and historical worth that, like Yellowstone,
must endure unchanged, unspoiled, and unmolested next year, year after, into the next century and beyond.