What did Lawmakers think the Park would be?
Student interview with Whittlesey [1]
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"The decade following the Civil War was not a time of notable government foresight. The public domain was being chopped up and parceled out as fast as possible, and with all manner of corruption. The idea of saving a piece of land for future generations--was quite odd, not only to legislators but to much of the public. . . . Not a word about the aesthetic (much less spiritual) value of saving the land or of making it available to the diverse recreational needs of the national public; it all came down to cash." --Paul Schullery 2)
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"By 1872, the very corruption that plagued the East appeared to threaten this fairy-tale land. Within a year of the expedition's entry into Yellowstone, the Northern Pacific Railroad was surveying the region with an eye to laying track to bring in tourists and business. Indeed, Jay Cooke of the Northern Pacific had arranged for Moran to travel with the Hayden expedition. Scribner's Monthly gave the surveyors' report of Yellowstone top billing in its issues of May and June 1871 in an article with illustrations by Moran, promising that the Northern Pacific would soon enable tourists to come to the great natural wonder of the continent. But once private interests took possession of the land--either by buying it or by inducing employees to preempt it under the Homestead Act--they could charge tourists whatever they wished to see the wonderful sights of Yellowstone. In part, Northern Pacific money had encouraged the exploration of the region, but by 1872 its interest no longer sounded benevolent. Many Americans were starting to wonder if the West was just another place to make money." [3]
Stagecoach Tourism (1872)
"The period of 1872 until 1886 becomes the crucial period in the founding of Yellowstone National Park as fact. The Northern Pacific Railroad had played an influential role in creating Yellowstone National Park, and it hoped now to win the rights of accommodating visitors to the Park. It also hoped to win land rights in the park, and construct a railroad line inside the park. All seemed to be falling into place for the Northern Pacific when on May 10, 1872, the Department of the Interior named Nathaniel Pitt Langford Yellowstone National Park's first superintendent. Langford had been friendly to the Northern Pacific and had advertised the line in his lectures on Yellowstone.
Two things, however, kept the Northern Pacific Railroad from profiting in Yellowstone during Langford's nearly five year term as Superintendent.
Two things, however, kept the Northern Pacific Railroad from profiting in Yellowstone during Langford's nearly five year term as Superintendent.
- "First. . . the line could not be completed over territory which by treaty belonged to the Sioux and which the army insisted on enforcing until it could do otherwise.
- "Secondly, while the railroad waited, financial disaster struck the nation in the Panic of 1873. Jay Cooke went into bankruptcy, and the railroad line could not begin new construction until 1879. By then, the United States had forced the Sioux permanently into reservations." [5]
Railroad Tourism (1883)
"Yellowstone National Park became important to the Northern Pacific Railroad as a destination for its passengers just as California’s state park at Yosemite was an important destination for the Union Pacific Railroad’s passengers. The Northern Pacific took advantage of the fact that the more affluent American families had changed their habits of vacationing and had begun to spend recreational time together as families. The railroad men could see that hotels in the Park would suit eastern families of some wealth, and dude ranches in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming would attract even more visitors to the Park area." --Bill Hoy and Phyllis Smith [8]
"We have reached the axis point of the history of the founding of Yellowstone into both law and fact, and the axis point not only involves the signature of President Grant but also the act he chose to sign. One should note that the act makes explicit the protection of the natural wonders under the administration of the Department of the Interior, but does not say that the Department of the Interior could not lease out the land to businesses for the purpose of making profit. As long as the profit did not disturb the natural wonders, mineral deposits, and wildlife, the Secretary of the Interior could allow a business such as the Northern Pacific Railroad to build the accommodations in the park, or even a railroad into the park." [10]
Preservation
"Political winds on behalf of conservation of park wildlife began to stir when George Bird Grinnell made an expedition to Yellowstone in 1875. Because of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, the military policy in regards to the Native Americans was to kill all the bison herds and thereby force the Native Americans into the reservations. The policy was so swift and successful that the bison became nearly extinct." [14]
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"Yellowstone remained a pocket where wild bison roamed, and its protection under the act making Yellowstone National Park became important to enforce for naturalists like Grinnell. Enforcement, however, at that time was impossible. There was nobody to enforce, and they had no power to enforce. When the Northern Pacific Railroad eventually obtained a ten year lease for large amounts of land and a monopoly on Park accommodations, Grinnell began lobbying for a restriction on the Northern Pacific and and an increase in the land under the domain of Yellowstone National Park." [16]
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How do we protect it?
Student interviews with Whittlesey [18]
National Park Service Pledge of Public Service:
"To PROTECT man's right to exult in the presence of superlative wildness and scenic grandeur
To COMMUNICATE to all an understanding of the people and events that shaped these United States To PROVIDE, in the recreational areas, opportunities for varied outdoor recreation of a quality in keeping with exceptional natural and historical values To MAKE the beauty and the history of our Nation's urban parklands a richer and more meaningful part of the life of all Americans To MANAGE the National Park System so that all Americans, now and in the future, may be assured of the privilege of experiencing the serenity of quiet forests and the renewing strength of nature unimpaired of letting their spirits return — through the touch of hammered iron, rough-hewn wall, and treasured relic — to the presence of the men and women who built America of knowing the exhilaration of a rushing river, the feel of sun-warmed beaches and pounding surf, and the high adventure of the great outdoors To SEEK out and foster the protection of the finest of what now remains unprotected of the Nation's natural and cultural inheritance and its outdoor recreational opportunities To JOIN with all people of this and other Nations in conserving and renewing the total environment to keep this world a delight to live in. "[23] |
Student interview with Whittlesey [24]
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The Extraordinary gift of Yellowstone
"The only reasonable hope for understanding how we came to give ourselves the extraordinary gift of Yellowstone is to admit that none of this was simple. Human nature was not on holiday, and the people who created Yellowstone were not exempt from greed anymore than they were immune to wonder; some were scoundrels, some were saints." --Paul Schullery [27] |
- "Interview with Lee Whittlesey, Yellowstone Park Historian," interview by author, October 12, 2012.
- Paul Schullery, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 65.
- Heather Cox. Richardson, West from Appomattox: The Reconstruction of America after the Civil War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), pg. #143.
- Ken Burns, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," PBS, section goes here, accessed November 24, 2012, http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks.
- James S. Macdonald, Jr., "The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr.," The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr., 1996, section goes here, accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.yellowstone-online.com/paper.html.
- Burns.
- Whittlesey interview.
- Bill Hoy and Phyllis Smith, The Northern Pacific Railroad and Yellowstone National Park (Germantown: Keystone Press), pg. #1, accessed February 21, 2013, http://yellowstonerailroads.com.
- Alfred Runte, "IMAGES OF THE WEST: Trains of Discovery," Big Sky Journal, Winter 2011, accessed February 1, 2013, http://www.bigskyjournal.com/articles/big-sky-journal/winter-2011/153/images-of-the-west-trains-of-discovery.html.
- James S. Macdonald, Jr., "The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr.," The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr., 1996, accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.yellowstone-online.com/paper.html.
- George Cole, Phyllis Smith & William Hoy, Yellowstone Public Radio, 2010, accessed January 15, 2013, http://www.ypradio.org/programs/local/realtime.html.
- Ken Burns, "The National Parks: America's Best Idea," PBS, accessed November 24, 2012, http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks.
- Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/cph.3c33890
- Nathaniel Pitt Langford, Diary of the Washburn Expedition: To the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 (St. Paul? Minn.: Nathaniel Pitt Langford, 1905), pg. #xxvi.
- Macdonald.
- Burns.
- James S. Macdonald, Jr., "The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr.," The Founding of Yellowstone National Park into Law and into Fact by James Macdonald Jr., 1996, accessed January 25, 2013, http://www.yellowstone-online.com/paper.html.
- Whittlesey interview.
- Burns.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- "National Park Service Pledge of Public Service," National Park Service, section goes here, accessed March 12, 2013, http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online%5Fbooks/admin%5Fpolicies/pledge.htm.
- Whittlesey interview.
- National Park Service.
- Burns.
- Paul Schullery, Creating Yellowstone (1997).