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.