Going East…..to West –8

Yellowstone National Park

Roosevelts’ Contribution to the cause of Conservation

One third of total land in the United States, more than 700 million acres, is owned by the Federal Government by way of National Parks, National Forests and Grasslands, Wilderness Areas, BLM (Bureau of Land management) land, Defence land and Indian reservations, etc. In the 19th century, the United States acquired land from France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Mexico, and Russia, and annexed the Republic of Texas and the Republic of Hawaii and therefore the Federal Government became the biggest landowner ever. This vast land might have been lost if the dispersal policy of the 19th century had continued. Until the 1890s the Federal Government promoted enterprise or raised revenue by giving away or selling nearly a billion acres of land: to homesteaders, veterans, railroads, the States. In 1901 the conservation movement gained a strong ally in President Theodore Roosevelt and during his visit to the Grand Canyon along with the naturalist John Muir that year, Ted Roosevelt appealed to American citizens to preserve lands “forever, with their majestic beauty all unmarred.” During his Presidential tenure, Roosevelt increased national forests by 150 million acres and established five national parks, more than 50 wildlife refuges, and 18 national monuments, including the Grand Canyon. Perhaps more importantly, Ted Roosevelt made a serious effort to create a conservationist mindset among the Americans and seems to have succeded since it is discernible even today among most Americans, although a century has elapsed.

Yellowstone National Park was already in existence when Ted Roosevelt –the conservationist President arrived at the scene but his equally famous namesake—Franklin D. Roosevelt--, who followed him into the Whitehouse many years later, made a significant contribution in extending the boundaries of the the original  Grand Teton National Park to its present configuration. But more about it later when we come to the Tetons.

Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, comprising of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, seven national forests and two wildlife refuges, is the largest nearly intact natural area in the contiguous (also known as lower 48 states) United States. Bison, elk, bears and eagles once thrived nationwide. Now these and many other species survive in this ‘island of hope.’

Yellowstone National Park

vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/.../Locale/framework.html

* World's First National Park
* 2,219,789 acres (Larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined)
* Wildlife - 7 species of ungulates (bison, moose, elk, pronghorn), 2 species of bear and 67 other mammals, 322 species of birds, 16 species of fish and of course the gray wolf.
* Plants - There are over 1,100 species of native plants, more than 200 species of exotic plants and over 400 species of thermopholes.
* Geology - The park is home to one of the world's largest calderas with over 10,000 thermal features and more than 300 geysers. It has one of the world's largest petrifiied forests. It has over 290 waterfalls with the 308' Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River as it's showpiece.
* Yellowstone Lake is the largest (132 sq. mi.) high altitude (7,732') lake in North America.
* 9 visitor centers
* 7 campgrounds (over 450 campsites)

(Extracted from the web)

Geography of Yellowstone National Park

Approximately 96 percent of the land area of Yellowstone National Park is located within the state of Wyoming. Another 3 percent is within Montana, with the remaining 1 percent in Idaho.The Continental Divide, running diagonally through the Park, separates water drainages leading to the Pacific Ocean to the West and those leading to the Atlantic Ocean to the East and South. The two major rivers in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem – Yellowstone and the Snake River –originate not far from each other but on opposite sides of the Divide. As a result, the waters of the Snake River flow to the Pacific Ocean, while those of the Yellowstone River find their way to the Atlantic Ocean via the Gulf of Mexico.

History of the Park

We have already seen how in 1806, John Colter left Lewis and Clark Expedition and accompanied the two trappers on their way to the beaver-rich Yellowstone River. This association was short and Colter decided to be on his own. As he explored southwards, he entered the present area of the Yellowstone National Park. He is reported to have observed a geothermal area in the Northeastern section of the Park, near Tower Junction(see map above). After surviving wounds he suffered in a battle with members of the Crow and Blackfoot tribes in 1809, he gave a description of a place of "fire and brimstone" that was dismissed by most people as fiction. Over the next forty years, numerous reports from mountain men and trappers told of boiling mud, steaming rivers and petrified trees, yet most of these reports were also not believed.

In May 1860, naturalist F. V. Hayden (see map above-Hayden Valley lying between Lake and Canyon) had accompanied an Army Surveyor Team in its mission to cross over the Continental Divide and enter into the Yellowstone region but the mission had to be abandoned due to heavy snowfall. The United States remained preoccupied with the Civil War and its aftermath for a decade and the first detailed expedition was undertaken only in 1869. Hayden returned to Yellowstone region with a second, larger expedition, the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871. He compiled a comprehensive report on Yellowstone, which included large-format photographs by W.H.Jackson, as well as paintings by Thomas Moran (their respective works are highly respected today). Once this report was accepted by the Government, the necessary legislation followed soon and the Yellowstone National Park came into existence on March 1, 1872. But as we shall see later, the Tetons were not so fortunate and had to wait, firstly for being designated as a National Park (1929), and then even longer for achieving its present size (1950) and probably stature.