Yellowstone National Park has a rich, detailed history extending over hundreds of years. Today, the park is known internationally as a prime destination for people seeking a unique, outdoors experience. But back during the late 1700s, the idea of a Yellowstone, neigh a national park, was ridiculous.

Although the Native Americans already viewed Yellowstone as sacred, the first written account of the region didn’t come until 1797, when a British explorer David Thompson uses the phrase “Yellow Stone” in his notes while visiting a Mandan village on the Missouri river. More European notice took place on September 8th, 1805, when Governor James Wilkinson of the Louisiana Territory mentioned a river called “Yellow Stone” in a letter to the Secretary of War. The letter also talked about an expedition, but no records remain. However, Governor Wilkinson had obtained a map of the Missouri River and headwaters drawn on buffalo pelt, which described a “volcano on Yellow Stone River.” It was sent to President Thomas Jefferson, who kept it in the Rotunda at the University of Virginia. Unfortunately, the map was reported as lost in a fire along with the Rotunda.

Despite the popular myth, Lewis and Clark never visited Yellowstone National Park collectively, but one expedition member did. John Colter was one of the first to see Yellowstone in all its glory, when he stayed with Native Americans in Yellowstone Park after the expedition. When he told his findings to others, they dismissed them as “mad hallucinations.” Since then, he has been remembered as one of the first mountain men and has a bay, a peak and a pass bearing his name (Colter Bay, Colter Peak, Colter Pass). A newspaper article published in 1827 in a Philadelphia newspaper was also dismissed as a tall tale. Over the next five years, trappers such as Joe Meek and Daniel T. Potts would rave about Yellowstone’s “fire and brimstone” but these accounts would also be dismissed. In 1834, a clerk of the American Fur Company named Warren Angus Ferris visited Yellowstone and was the first person to use the word “geyser” to describe the thermal features. Coincidentally, he was also the first tourist, having visited purely for curiosity. Yellowstone would continue to be a favorite stomping ground for trappers and mountain men until 1863, when a group of prospectors led by Walter Washington deLacy went to the southern portion of Yellowstone Park,, where they discovered more thermal features. Others came to the park for varying reasons, such as trapping, gold and property. In 1870, William H Clagget, the Montana delegate to Congress, learned that two men had come and tried to fence off the principal geysers for their own gain. This was a motive to make Yellowstone a national park, which had been put forth several times and was shot down each time until 1872, when President Ulysses Grant signed Yellowstone into the world as the first national park.

At that point, Nathaniel Langford, an outspoken proponent of the national park idea, was appointed the first superintendent, and decided to do a thorough search of the Park with the Hayden Survey party. Starting in 1873, over a period of nine years, the government sought to make it easier for visitors to reach the park. The Northern Pacific Railroad built a train station in Livingston, Montana, which connected to the northern entrance in the early 1880s. This eventually led to a connection from the Union Pacific Railroad Company in 1908, which lasted until the 1960s. Despite the growth and understanding in Yellowstone, there was still trouble. Poaching and vandalism of natural resources led to the U.S. Army to arrive in 1886 and build Camp Sheridan (later called Fort Yellowstone) at Mammoth Hot Springs, among other permanent structures. Also, Lt. Daniel C. Kingman came up the “Grand Loop” plan that became the main roadway in the park. In 1890, two hotels, the Lake Hotel and the Fountain Hotel, by Yellowstone Lake and near Old Faithful respectively, were built, with the Fountain Hotel not destined to last. In 1894, the Lacey Act was passed to protect the wildlife of Yellowstone (excluding wolves and coyotes). Also in 1894, an expedition was made to count the number of bison. What they found that winter was that the bison’s numbers were dwindling rapidly, eventually leaving fewer than 100 in the park. The expedition also witnessed huge herds of elk and bands of mountain sheep, deer and antelopes. In addition, they also found footprints of mountain lion and bears.

 In 1903, several important events took place. First, President Theodore Roosevelt visited the park and was awed by the beauty and wildness, which inspired the Roosevelt Arch, also built in 1903. Second, the railroads made it easier for tourists to reach Yellowstone, taking them there by the carload. Finally, the Old Faithful Inn, one of the most beloved structures in Yellowstone National Park, was built during the winter season. Since its conception, it has remained relatively unchanged, except for a renovation aimed to be finished in 2008. More notoriety was gained for the park in 1912 when National Geographic did a feature on America’s National Parks, with the magazine recommending five and a half days to see the Park. Three years later, in 1915, a Model T Ford becomes the first car to pass through the gates of Yellowstone. From that point, visitation to the Park would soar due to the convenience. But obstacles such as the Park’s fragile ecology would begin to make their mark on Yellowstone.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson made his mark by signing in the National Park Service, which forever changed the administration of the national parks. Two years later, the U.S. Army withdrew from the Park by order of the government. In 1922, the Park celebrated its golden anniversary, with ceremonies held at “historically significant” locations in the park, such as the junction of the Gibbon and Firehole rivers, where the idea for a park was supposedly thought up by the Washburn-Langford expedition. From that point, the park went under various changes, such as an expansion of its east boundary and northwest corner in 1929, and the Norris Geyser Basin museum opened in 1930. Over the course of the 1930s the Beartooth Highway is built, allowing travelers to go 67 miles through winding, steep roads, going from Red Lodge, Montana into the Park via Cooke City and Silver Gate.

In 1951, a travel study by the Wyoming State Highway Department valued the value of park traffic to the economy at around $19 million. Four years later, Wyoming tried to purchase Yellowstone’s concessions based on the study. After protests from Montana and Idaho, the proposal was eventually shot down. Also, Mission 66, which was a massive effort to expand Yellowstone’s roads and trails begins. Also during the 1950s, Canyon Village is constructed to keep up with the number of visitors. The park also begins to control the elk population out of fear of their numbers. Along with the elk, the Park stopped its policy of stocking park waters for fisherman in 1958. One year later, a massive earthquake kills 28 people, and changes thermal activity, causing activities never witnessed before.

Starting in the 1970s, Yellowstone begins to transform from recreational playground to ecological treasure whose preservation is an absolute must. The 70s also saw more steps being made to restore ecological balance without sacrificing tourism. Yellowstone’s 100th anniversary was celebrated in 1972 and in 1974 Fishing Bridge (which opened in 1902, built by Hiram Chittenden) was closed to fishing in order to protect the cutthroat trout, a native species. Two years later, Yellowstone became a Biosphere Reservee and was also designated a World Heritage Site in 1978. Exactly ten years later, the Yellowstone Fire of 1988 burns some 1.4 million acres of Yellowstone in the summer and early fall. Over $120 million was spent trying to stop the flame, with the help of 25,000 firefighters. One year after the fire finally died, Yellowstone came under harsh criticism for its fire policy, despite the fact that many new plants and wildflowers began to grow from the charred ground.

In the 1990s, discussion of the ecosystem begins raging, with much controversy over the next five years. The 90s brought increased winter use of Yellowstone and also brought talk over bison slaughtered outside park boundaries. Snowmobile emissions began to be measured and were estimated to be more than Los Angeles’ pollution.

Amid the controversy, grizzly populations continued to grow, and in 1995, Yellowstone took ten wolves from Alberta, Canada, and released into Yellowstone. Today, their population is estimated in the hundreds. Yellowstone also earns the title “World Heritage Site in Danger.” In 1997, tragedy struck when some 1,100 bison were killed due to fear that they carried brucellosis. In the midst of it all, Yellowstone hosted a 125th-anniversary celebration.

The year 2000 brought two different ecological changes. One, Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world, erupted after a number of years. And second, fires began to threaten Yellowstone National Park, but did much less damage than the Fire of ’88. Also, officials in Yellowstone announced intentions to ban and/or restrict snowmobiles in the Park. Controversy over snowmobiles continued when the number of snowmobiles was capped, with emission restrictions enforced, and licensed guides mandated. Finally, in 2005, the wolf reintroduction is seen as a success by the public and by biologists. At the same time, the federal government sought to remove the grizzly bear from the Endangered Species list, and the Bush administration continued to weaken the nation’s environmental laws and protections, causing alarm by environmentalists everywhere.

Sean Reichard enjoys fly-fishing when he's not exploring the Park.