By Beau Davis
It has now been over 150 years since one of the United States’ best ideas came to fruition: the creation of the first U.S. National Park.
In the decades and centuries that followed, more national parks, monuments, and forests would follow; but Yellowstone, one of the most unique areas on the planet, started it all.
It is impossible to overstate it. From now since well before the time of European colonialism in North America, Yellowstone and the surrounding regions have always been pivotal in shaping cultural identities, providing in abundance to local inhabitants, and sheltering vast amounts of otherwise vulnerable wildlife and natural wonders.
That tradition lives on today. Yellowstone National Park (and the areas around it) continues to provide a wide range of economic opportunities centered around tourism, protects and nurtures multitudes of wildlife and geothermic sites, and has arguably become even more important for preserving our national identity than ever before. However, this continual progress has not come without repeated challenges to the park’s mission and the statement adorning the Roosevelt Arch at the North Entrance: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
So, in light of Yellowstone’s 150th anniversary and ahead of the summer season, we thought it would be a good time to present some of Yellowstone’s storied history, current challenges facing Yellowstone, progress the National Parks Service and others have made in furthering the park’s mission, and where Yellowstone may be heading in the future.
History
It was on March 1st, 1872, that veteran and general of the American Civil War, President Ulysses S. Grant, signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. By doing so, we as a nation not only proved that we were capable and willing to save beauty and wonder for posterity, but also paved the way for nations around the world to do the same.
However, perhaps the most well-known example of indigenous people within or concerning Yellowstone National Park would have to be the flight of the Wallowa band of Nez Perce under Chief Joseph in 1877, now known as the Nez Perce War. This band of Nez Perce inhabited what is now known as Wallowa County in eastern Oregon, until the U.S. Army, at the behest of the government and white settlers in the region who wanted to homestead and mine for gold, began drawing plans to forcibly move the Nez Perce onto a reservation in Idaho, away from their ancestral lands, in the spring of 1877.
It was around this time that violent clashes with white settlers convinced Chief Joseph and the other members of the tribe to try and make their way to their tribal allies, the Crow Tribe of Montana. Once there, they could better defend themselves from retribution at the hands of the U.S. Army, and avoid having to live on a reservation.
What followed was undoubtedly one of the greatest military campaigns ever conducted on the continent. Chief Joseph and his band of approximately 250 Nez Perce warriors, 500 women and children, and more than 2,000 horses and other livestock, began a fighting retreat from eastern Oregon through the Idaho Panhandle up into Montana, back down through Idaho, and eventually through Yellowstone itself before heading, once more, north to Montana. The war ended there with the surrender of the Nez Perce at a place now known as Bear Paw Battlefield, in Blaine County, Montana, after the Nez Perce discovered that the Crow were no longer allies. Instead, the Nez Perce attempted to join with the Lakota chief, Sitting Bull, in Canada.
Along the way, the Nez Perce fought U.S. commanders Oliver Otis Howard, John Gibbon, Nelson A. Miles, and Samuel D. Sturgis, who commanded approximately 1,500 soldiers at different battles and skirmishes, including White Bird Canyon, Big Hole, the Clearwater, and Camas Meadows (less than 50 miles North of Rexburg). The current Nez Perce National Historic Trail that follows their movements totals 1,170 miles.
The official incorporation of the park was only six years old at the time the Nez Perce moved through it, so there was no sizeable force in the park itself that was able to stop the swift-moving Nez Perce through the rugged terrain. They entered near what is now West Yellowstone, Montana, and moved east swiftly through the park before exiting near Parker Peak, northwest of Cody, Wyoming.
During the course of the Nez Perce moving through Yellowstone, two tourists were killed, though it is now speculated that these incidents were the exception rather than the rule. There is no indication that Chief Joseph and the other Nez Perce wished to harm more white settlers or tourists than they had to.
Today, many different landmarks and areas, both in and outside of Yellowstone National Park, are named for Chief Joseph, the U.S. Army commanders, and the Nez Perce themselves.
In the early years following the official incorporation as a National Park, there was no such thing as the National Park Service or cars. Instead, remnants of the U.S. Army were put in charge of keeping the park free of trappers, poachers, prospectors and others who sought to exploit the park and its resources. It was a difficult and almost impossible task for the soldiers to patrol the nearly 3,500 square miles (on horseback during the summer and skis during the winter), especially before the construction of outposts and, later, ranger stations.
Today there are many different historical buildings from the time of the U.S. Army’s occupation in Yellowstone, particularly in Mammoth Hot Springs.
Another historical figure who, perhaps, did more for the image of the park than any other in its history would have to be Theodore Roosevelt. To date, Roosevelt’s two-week excursion in the park marks the most amount of time a U.S. president has spent there. The president and his small entourage spent the trip riding snow sleighs to different geysers, cataloging elk herds, catching and killing what the president thought was a new species of mouse, and dedicating the Roosevelt Arch.
This trip to Yellowstone, combined with Roosevelt’s journeys to Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and other places in the western United States in 1903, all played a major role in the passing of the Antiquities Act of 1906. This act gave Roosevelt and subsequent presidents the power to declare national monuments on federal land which, in turn, prevented these places from development and resource extraction.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of historical occurrences in Yellowstone National Park, but they are among the most well-known. For more historical information on the park, contact the National Parks Service or visit their website.
Yellowstone Today
Today, Yellowstone National Park means so many things to so many different people and groups. The park and the region surrounding it is home to the largest concentration of wild grizzly bears, buffalo, and grey wolves in the entire lower 48 states. One area of the park is the last place in the lower 48 states that you can be 20 miles in every direction from any roads, buildings, or otherwise noticeable signs of human habitation; and, another part of it, in Idaho, still technically has the loophole where, if someone were to, hypothetically, commit a felony, they wouldn’t be able to be prosecuted by the federal government as there are no residents in the area to make up a jury.
Additionally, Yellowstone National Park is one of, if not the most, geothermically active areas on the planet with the highest concentration of geysers and hot springs to be found anywhere. And, of course, Yellowstone has some of the best fly fishing opportunities in the country.
Yellowstone National Park is all of these things and more. However, perhaps Yellowstone’s most enduring legacy is that of a time capsule. Indigenous peoples and generations of other Americans whose ancestors came west in the 1800s can all claim this enduring link to the past. Through exploring Yellowstone in our own way, we can each feel a piece of ourselves resurrected, a vast reach through time to what can never be again. That can be the power of Yellowstone, if you let it. Of course, Yellowstone is not a perfect representation and it can be hard to feel a strong connection to the land when you’re surrounded by throngs of people gazing at Old Faithful or being stuck in an hours-long traffic jam along the park’s roads. However, as mentioned above, Yellowstone can mean so much more.
Current Challenges
Yellowstone National Park, since and before its inception, has faced numerous challenges in keeping up with its mission, and will continue to do so in the future. The proposal of railroads, additional cell phone towers, resource extraction from areas surrounding the park, too many bear-human interactions, the implementation of automobile travel, overhunting vulnerable animals along the boundaries of the park, invasive species, budget restraints, and vastly increased visitation have all dogged the Park Service and the public’s ideas as to what Yellowstone should ultimately be.
Of course, problems such as the first implementation of automobiles in the park (many park managers were vehemently against this idea in 1915), too many bears interacting with humans on a regular basis, and the idea of railroad lines in the park itself are no longer concerns. However, these problems speak volumes to the idea that there will always be conflicting opinions from people or groups for the region as a whole. That being said (while striving to not delve far into the politics of these issues), here are some of the issues most currently discussed.
Over-Visitation
Like many national parks and other places like them, since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, Yellowstone has had more visitors than ever. Last year in particular, the park broke the record for most yearly visits at 4.86 million. This is a staggering number and the strain has started to show on communities outside the park, the infrastructure inside the park, the availability of employees and their housing, the availability of campsites, and the safety of tourists, wildlife, and natural features.
To combat this trend, a reservation system for the entering the park, like in Utah’s Zion National Park, has been discussed repeatedly, and may happen in the future. However, with the pandemic seemingly tapering off and the current high cost of gas, visitation may be on a downward trend in the future.
Nearby Resource Exploitation
Over the past decade, there have been multiple attempts by both foreign and domestic mining companies to extract minerals and other resources, including gold, near the borders of Yellowstone National Park. The most recent was a proposed mine in 2020 to the north of the park, near Paradise Valley in Montana. Before and since then, other mining and logging proposals have been rejected by state and local governments, citing toxic runoff and aesthetic concerns. There are sure to be more proposals like it in the future.
Invasive Species and Possible Over-Hunting
Wildlife management is another concern that has generated some conflict and costly arrangements in recent years. One of these is the introduction of invasive species either intentionally or unintentionally. These include species like Lake Trout, New Zealand Mud Snails, the threat of invasive grasses and weeds, and the recent catch of a nonnative smallmouth bass just north of Yellowstone in early March. However, of all the invasive species Yellowstone managers currently contend with, perhaps the most detrimental (or at least the one that has been given the most attention) is Lake Trout. They were introduced intentionally in Lewis and Shoshone Lakes in 1890. Since then, they have spread into Yellowstone Lake itself and threaten the native Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout by outcompeting for food and also by predation. To combat this, private fishing charters have been hired by the park to remove hundreds of thousands of Lake Trout from Yellowstone Lake every year. Since 1994, more than 3.4 million lake trout have been removed.
Additionally, there has been increased pressure from the states surrounding Yellowstone to curtail the population of gray wolves in order to reduce predation on livestock. This led to the recent change in regulations legalizing aggressive hunting and trapping operations on wolves outside the park’s boundaries. Gray wolves are native to Yellowstone, but were eradicated from the area in the early 1900s. However, in 1995, Canadian populations were reintroduced into the park and have since established numerous packs centered around the east area of the park, especially in the Lamar Valley. It remains to be seen if these new regulations will have a detrimental effect on the population of wildlife inside the park.
Again, this is by no means a complete list of challenges that Yellowstone National Park is currently facing and may continue to face in the future (particularly as different groups have different ideas as to what constitutes a challenge or problem), but they are perhaps some of the most well-known.
Progress and Yellowstone’s Future
The public and the caretakers of Yellowstone National Park have undoubtedly made amazing strides in protecting the park’s mission and keeping it as natural as possible for future generations in our rapidly modernizing world. These include, but are not limited to, managing the park’s wildlife, protecting delicate thermal features, maintaining park infrastructure during the height of visitation, and generally policing the almost 3,500 square miles that the park encompasses.
Wildlife and Thermal Feature Management
Every year, Yellowstone rangers do an amazing job at cataloging, understanding, moving, educating the public, and sometimes culling some segments of the park’s wildlife. Without this crucial work, negative human and wildlife interactions would be exceptionally high and certain populations of wildlife in the park would reproduce over carrying capacity. To do this, rangers and scientists not only tag wildlife with GPS systems to better understand their movements within and outside the park, but also use nonlethal means to move at-risk wildlife, remove nonnative species from the park’s fisheries, and catalogue populations of wildlife to determine if they are sustainable. This work is never-ending and extremely necessary to keep all the wildlife in Yellowstone wild and in as much harmony with one another as possible.
In addition to wildlife management, the National Parks Service has continued to do fantastic work at keeping thermal features pristine and visitors safe. To do this, numerous upgrades on boardwalks and other infrastructure around thermal features is regularly being done and determined to be done in the future. Policing thermal features from public intrusion has kept incidents way down in recent years (though they still occur from negligence and outright disregard of park regulations, regardless of the park’s efforts).
Infrastructure Upkeep and Policing
Even though the federal government has the National Parks Service on the lower list of its budgetary concerns, Yellowstone’s managers have done and continue to do a fantastic job at maintaining and upgrading the park’s system of roads, parking lots, campgrounds, visitor centers, trails, and more. In particular, the road from Canyon Village to Tower Roosevelt is nearing completion after more than two years of work. From this, more and safer parking lots and turnoffs will be available for use this season.
Additionally, the Lewis River Bridge and the Yellowstone River Bridge will be under construction this season, thus improving and preventing further deterioration of these crucial roadways.
Finally, Yellowstone’s rangers have been doing a fantastic job at conducting vital search and rescue operations, medical transport for injured visitors, educating the public on safe wildlife and area interaction, and generally keeping people from doing that they shouldn’t.
All of this put together is a monumental task—and the people in the National Parks Service cannot be thanked enough from the American public at large.
Yellowstone’s Future
A lot has happened in or regarding Yellowstone National Park over the past 150 years, but, thankfully, many things have remained the same. Yellowstone is still a place a wonder and majesty. It is still one of the few tangible links we have to the land in the West. It is still a place where we can once again find our national identity. However, it is up to us and our future generations to keep it that way, regardless of what changes may happen. It is possible that future modes of transportation will have to be considered when interacting with the park. It is possible that new resource extraction and wildlife interaction will threaten the image of what the park is today. And it is possible that Yellowstone may be unable to keep up with an ever-increasing visitation rate in the same way that it does now. This is all possible, and it is certain that some changes will occur regardless of our actions such as climate change, but anything we can do to keep what is vitally important to us as Americans intact in Yellowstone is crucial. Theodore Roosevelt said much the same in his dedication to the Roosevelt Arch:
“The geysers, the extraordinary hot springs, the lakes, the mountains, the canyons, and cataracts unite to make this region something not wholly to be paralleled elsewhere on the globe. It must be kept for the benefit and enjoyment of all of us.”
