Yellowstone National Park History

A massive volcanic eruption occurring about 640,000 years ago was one of many processes that shaped Yellowstone National Park--a region once rumored to be "the place where hell bubbles up." Wonders such as Old Faithful are evidence of one of the world's largest active volcanoes. These spectacular features helped lead to the creation of the world's first national park.

The human history of the Yellowstone area dates back 12,000 years. It was known to the original natives as "Mitzi-a-dazi," the "River of Yellow Rocks," because of the hydro-thermally-altered iron containing yellow rocks in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

Native Americans first claimed the Yellowstone Plateau and lived in the area until the early 1880's. The Sheepeater Indians, a band of Shoshone, lived in the area that is now Yellowstone Park. Tribes used the Yellowstone River Valley trail en route to "buffalo country" on what would become known as the Bannock Trail.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition led by Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark would pave the way for exploration into the Pacific Northwest. Captain Clark's party canoed down the Yellowstone River Valley, a short distance from today's Yellowstone Park, en route to rendezvous with Captain Lewis at the confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. In 1806 a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition named John Colter left the Expedition to join a group of fur-trappers and was possibly the first non-Native American to visit the region and make contact with the Native Americans there. After surviving wounds he suffered in a battle with Crow and Blackfoot tribes he gave a description of a place of "fire and brimstone" that was dismissed by most people as delirium.

Mountain man Jim Bridger later returned from an 1857 expedition to the park's area and told tales of boiling springs, spouting water, a mountain of glass and yellow rock. These reports were largely ignored, however, because Bridger was known for telling tall tales. However his stories did arouse the interest of explorer and geologist F.V. Hayden who in 1859 started a two-year survey of the upper Missouri River region with Bridger as a guide and with United States Army surveyor W.F. Raynolds. The intervening Civil War halted all attempts to explore the region and Hayden would not be able to fulfill his mission to explore the area for another 11 years.

In 1871, Ferdinand Hayden led another expedition that included artist Thomas Moran and photographer William H. Jackson. They brought back images that helped convince Congress that the area known as Yellowstone needed to be protected and preserved.

Hayden and his party examined several geysers and "boiling springs" and named many such as Thud Geyser, Mud Puff, Architectural Fountain, Catfish, the Bathtub, Dental Cup, Punch Bowl No. 2, and Beehive. Examining the mud springs and geysers was hazardous and could be a painful experience, as Hayden discovered:

"The entire surface is perfectly bare of vegetation and hot, yielding in many places to slight pressure. I attempted to walk about among these simmering vents, and broke through to my knees, covering myself with hot mud, to my great pain and subsequent inconvenience."

The most important product of the expedition, in addition to the paintings and photographs, was a 500-page report by Hayden detailing the findings of his party. Hayden presented this report, the photos, sketches, and paintings to Senators, Congressmen, and superiors in the Department of the Interior. He also published articles in magazines with national circulation and spent personal time and effort trying to convince Congress to establish the park.

In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law declaring that Yellowstone would forever be "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people."

President Chester Arthur took a camping tour of Yellowstone in 1883 and brought Yellowstone Park to a new level of awareness among the nation. With increased visitation concern soon started to grow that opportunists were exploiting the park.

In 1886 the Army was given the task of managing the park. The Army remained the steward of the park until control was given to a civilian corps of rangers under the newly-created National Park Service in 1916.

An earthquake on August 17, 1959 with a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale caused major disturbances throughout Yellowstone Park and was one of the largest ever recorded in the North American interior.

The earthquake caused a gigantic tidal wave that rushed over the dam and into the narrow valley below. This 20 ft high wall of water traveled down Madison Canyon which was full of campers and vacationers. Further down the valley, half of a 7'600 foot mountain fell into the valley (44 million cubic yards of solid rock).

House size boulders rolled into the campground killing campers along the way. The rock avalanche caused hurricane force wind to move up the narrow valley blowing away trees and vehicles. The avalanche also damned the river creating Earthquake Lake. Twenty eight people were killed as a result of the earthquake.

The West Yellowstone Earthquake area is located northwest of the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park on highway 287. As you drive through the area there are multiple signs and stops to observe the aftermath of the earthquake. Along the drive you can see the huge fault scarp, cabins that sunk into the lake, Earthquake Lake with trees sticking out of the water, and of course, the huge landslide. There is a visitor's Center built on top of the landslide that is worth visiting.

In July of 1988, several fires started by lightening started to burn large portions of Yellowstone Park. Thousands of firefighters responded to the blaze in order to prevent structures from succumbing to the flames.

Controversially, no serious effort was made to completely extinguish the fires and they burned until the arrival of autumn rains. Relatively few mega-fauna in the park were killed by the fires and since the blaze many saplings have sprung-up on their own, old vistas were viewable once again and many previously unknown archaeological and geological sites of interest were found and cataloged by scientists. The National Park Service now has a policy of lighting smaller, controlled, "prescribed fires" to prevent another dangerous build-up of flammable materials.

Photos courtesy of the National Park Service, Yellowstone Digital Slide File and the U.S. Geological Survey Photo Library