Yellowstone National Park
Come visit Old Faithful
Yellowstone National Park, part of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, crawls across three states in the U.S. - Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. Treasured as the largest complete ecosystem within the northern temperate zone, Greater Yellowstone’s National Park is known for a few incredible features, including the Old Faithful Geyser, mountain ranges, canyons and many lakes.
Yellowstone includes some of the most interesting stories in American history, from evidence of Native Americans 11,000 years ago to the passing through of famous explorers Lewis and Clark.
The park accounts for some 3,472 square miles of territory, more than twice the size of nearby Glacier National Park. Within this expanse are a few hundred species of mammals, fish, reptiles and birds, many of which are considered either endangered or threatened. Like Glacier, Yellowstone includes its fair share of grizzly bears, wolves and bison. Traversing the park is easier than Glacier as well, with staff offering snow coach or snowmobile transportation during the winter months.
Park History
Although little is known about the peoples who inhabited the Yellowstone region 11,000 years ago, pictograph evidence in the region suggests their presence. More specific to Yellowstone itself, during the building of a local post office in the 1950s a projectile point was discovered, with historians dating it to the prehistoric period. The tool, crafted from the park’s obsidian deposits, was used by these “Paleo-Indians” to produce cutting tools and hunting weapons.
In an exhaustive campaign launched by F.V. Hayden in 1871, a series of expeditions were executed in order to prove Yellowstone worth its current national park status. After a detailed report, including photographs and paintings was produced by Hayden, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill to create Yellowstone National Park in March of the following year.
Despite Hayden’s success, the park’s first superintendent, Nathaniel Langford, was not provided a staff, salary or funding of any kind. Despite this hardship, Langford served for five years in an extraordinarily limited attempt to preserve the surrounding lands. Luckily, that attitude has changed today, largely as a result of the massive influx of visitors every year.
Although Montana contains three entrances to Yellowstone, 96 percent of the park is actually located in neighboring Wyoming.
