Yellowstone NP - The Army

Not only does Yellowstone have marvelous colorful thermal features and a complete ecosystem of animals, it also has a lot of history. I’ve mentioned some of it earlier but today we visited Fort Yellowstone, built by the army in its 30-year stint of being the only law in the park. When Yellowstone was first made a National Park in 1872, there was no appropriation for staffing to help manage and protect the land. Poachers were stealing what ever they could, souvenir hunters broke off parts of terraces, geysers etc., people were standing on and breaking the geysers, terraces, etc to get a closer view and developers were building tourist camps near hot springs and letting people wash their clothes in the springs.

One man, Henry Yount, known as Rocky Mountain Harry, was hired as a ‘gamekeeper’ in 1880 and began one year of futile attempts to prevent the poaching of animals in the park.

However, as hard as he tried, he soon realized that it was going to take more than one man to patrol an area as big as Yellowstone and to protect all the resources there. When he resigned he told the Superintendent that a Ranger service ought to be formed to do the job adequately. He is considered the first National Park Ranger.

We’ve heard this story before: Congress makes a park and then refuses to appropriate any funds for its administration. So the park superintendent turned to the Army and in 1886, the army began what would be a 32-year presence in the park. At first they treated it as a temporary post and lived in tents and cooked over open fires. Tents in a Yellowstone winter? However, after 5 years they realized that this would be a longer duty than they had thought and began to build homes, barracks, stables, etc. They hired some Scottish stonemasons and constructed building that are still standing today.

The troopers patrolled on skis and horseback. The soldiers considered it a plum assignment, and liked living in the wilderness. There were some cabins that they used as shelters as they patrolled the park and rules to follow when they used and then left the cabin. Note the skis and snow shoes. Most of the rules seem to be designed to prevent mice from getting to the food and nesting.

It certainly wasn’t easy work and they had responsibility for a large territory but most of them had come up from the desert southwest and found this territory much more to their liking. Many had families and they built schools, they attended social functions, watched movies, bowled in the bowling alley and went into Gardiner, the nearby town which had an ‘adequate’ supply of bars and restaurants.

Edwin Kelsey, who served in Yellowstone in 1891, later became the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle. His letters to his niece describe a difficult but very enjoyable life at Fort Yellowstone.

‘December 3, 1898. . . Left here for the Post (Fort Yellowstone) the Sunday before Thanksgiving. I made 26 miles the first day, staying all night at Norris Station. The next morning it was 22 degrees below zero, but I pulled out for the Post, which I reached about two p.m. after a cold hard ride of 20 miles. It is not so much sport riding when the snow is so deep that your horse has to work all the time. Stayed at the Post for Thanksgiving dinner and it was a beaut. Turkey, roast port, sweet spuds, cranberry sauce, oyster stew, chocolate, three kinds of cake, pie, pickles nuts and apples - how’s that for soldiers? . . . There is something about life in the wilderness that fascinates me. I saddle my beast, and go off on long rides through the forest where everything is so quiet that one can almost hear the solitude. . . Dont’ suppose you will hear from me again before Xmas, so I’ll wish you all a Merry one - am sorry that I have no chance to send you my remembrance. One can buy nothing here and as the troop has not been paid for two months, I have no money or I would send it to you to spend with my compliments. Love to all the family and Mable, and regards to friends, Edwin’

One problem with life in Fort Yellowstone was keeping supplies on hand when the fort was so remote. Imagine trying to plan meals and keeping food around when you’re miles from the nearest store in Gardiner. And, Gardiner itself is miles from the nearest supply house. You’d probably learn to make due. The wife of Captain F. J. Arnold wrote:

‘We ordered staples, meats, canned goods, bread, etc. from the Commissary and the order would be delivered and put in the kitchen. For special occasions in the winter, we would put in a special order for turkey and then hang it outside to keep it frozen as we only had a large icebox on the back porch. . . . The soldiers cut the ice in the winter up on Swan Lake Flat, then stored it in the icehouse dug into the side of Capitol Hill. . . . The four-horse freight wagons hauled hay and coal up from Gardiner, and many other supplies came on the market wagon. There were some fresh foods available at Hall’s Grocery store and the Van Dyke’s Meat Market. Clothing and household items were usually ordered by catalog and some things through the PX. Whittaker’s store near the Mammoth Hotel had novelties and many smaller items and they also had the Post Office. There was no delivery so we would either walk, or ski over in the wintertime to pick up our mail.’

The army did a marvelous job of managing the resources in Yellowstone, they protected the thermal features from damage, reduced poaching immensely and made Yellowstone safe for visitors and the tourist industry blossomed, Finally, Congress created the National Park Service and appropriated the money to staff it properly. Thus was born the Ranger Corps and the Army was no longer needed. Today the buildings serve as administrative offices and the homes are rented and leased.

Here are some of the soldiers posing with the bison heads that came from poached bison.

I like where they placed the ladder in case of fire and how they braced the chimneys.

Before we left the area, we headed into Gardiner to see the Roosevelt Arch.

We enjoyed our self-guided tour of the fort and its environs but it was time to head back to the RV. Did we hit any ‘bison jams?’ Silly question. Several.

Yellowstone NP - The Terraces

A long road trip today, well, the mileage isn’t so long but the time will be. The park’s speed limit is 45 mph with long stretches at 35 mph and then sometimes we get down to 25 mph. However, it’s not just the mph that makes a trip long, it is the stops for sights. It’s Yellowstone, where else are you going to see some of these things? Ya gotta get out and see what’s there. Just driving by and you miss most of it. The final delay is that there is road construction. Yellowstone gets millions of visitors each year (3,000,000 predicted for this year) and, between the tourists and the weather, the roads take a pounding. We found some construction on one section of the Loop Road which lasted about 1/2 hour. We will take the other half of the loop road home this afternoon to see a new section of the park and avoid that.

Our goal today is what is called the Terraces at the northern entrance to the park. A different kind of thermal feature and - of course, Fort Yellowstone is up there. On the way we passed by Norris Junction, which has some of the hottest thermal features in Yellowstone. We looked back and saw this, steam rising on the horizon.

On the way up we saw Roaring Mountain named for all the hissing fumeroles that cover its side. And, yes, they really hiss. Stand still, wait for the cars to pass and then listen - sure enough, you can actually hear the mountain. But, look at all that steam curling up from the cliff face. There’s lots of activity here.

Further north is the Golden Gate Bridge. No, we haven’t made a wrong turn and ended up in San Francisco. The Golden Gate is a narrow V in the mountains with sheer rock wall on one side and a waterfall and river on the other. Putting a road through this was not easy but in 1885, engineers built a wooden trestle cantilevered out from that wall, with supports below. There have been several versions of this bridge with the latest having been done in 1977. There is one turn-out before the actual bridge and we stopped for the view of the engineering marvel - before we drove on it. Hmmm, sometimes, it’s better not to know.

On the other hand, note the colors and sheerness of the cliff on the side.

Several days later we saw this picture in a museum. It’s a picture of the same area after an earthquake.

Then we drove into the Mammoth area where we stopped at the first turn-out so we could walk the road to the Upper Terraces. Since RV’s and buses were prohibited from taking this narrow one-way road, we thought we could walk it. We walked clockwise since the cars were coming from the other direction. Unfortunately, it is difficult to see how this area is all terraced when we approached it from the top. It would have been much better to have approached it from the bottom to appreciate how tall, how terraced and how much the springs had built the area up. Starting at the bottom, we could have seen the results of the springs and how they formed the terraces. Then, when we got to the top, we could have been in awe that one little spring could have done all that terracing. Thus, my advice - start at the bottom.

For example, here’s the top of one of the most elaborate terraces, Palette Spring. Pretty and the colors are gorgeous but it’s just a colorful pool from the top. From the top, you can’t see the water overflowing and running down the side, forming the massive elaborate terraces.

Now, here it is from the bottom looking up. WOW. That little spring did all that? Look how much water is pouring down. It looks like a waterfall. And, the terraces - layer upon layer.

Here’s another from the top

and from the bottom. From the top, it’s just a colorful pool. From the bottom, it’s terrace after terrace of delicately formed minerals with color splashing through it.

Color all over flowing down the hills.

Beautiful formations and so much different from the springs and pools and geysers that we have seen in the rest of the park. It’s amazing how the 3 ingredients of all of these formations: water, heat and cracks in the the earth’s crust combine to make so many different shapes and forms: geysers, terraces, pools, fumeroles and mud pots. 3 ingredients, an infinite variety of results. Isn’t Yellowstone something else? Here’s a formation called the Liberty Cap after the caps worn by the French Revolutionaries. (And note the virga rain in the background. I’m thinking we might be pounded soon.)

We enjoyed our self-guided tour of the fort and its environs but it was time to head back to the RV. Did we hit any ‘bison jams?’ Silly question. Several.

We also stopped to see the petrified tree. Here’s a picture of it in the past. Note how tall it is. Unfortunately, tourists chopped piece after piece from it. By the way, there were originally 3 here - 2 are gone now.

Here is the one remaining - all fenced in to protect it.

There’s an interesting dance that we touists do here in the park: the ‘Yellowstone two-step’. Not too imvolved and you can pick up the steps in one easy lesson.

Drive the Loop Road

Notice brake lights ahead of you and a long line of cars

Grab the camera, take off the lens cap, turn it on, roll down the window and be at the ready

Check both sides of the road to see what others are looking at

Stick the camera out of the window when you see the - whatever

Take the infamous window pic, only slightly less favored than the ‘selfie.’

And, there you have it, the ‘Yellowstone two-step.’