Editing Yellowstone National Park (section)

== History ==
The park is roughly bisected by the [[Yellowstone River]], from which it takes its historical name. Near the end of the 18th century, [[Coureur des bois|French trappers]] named the river ''{{lang|fr|Roche Jaune}}'', which is probably a translation of the [[Hidatsa]] name ''{{lang|hid|Mi tsi a-da-zi}}'' ("Yellow Stone River").<ref name="Macdonald">{{cite web |last=Macdonald |first=James S. Jr. |title=History of Yellowstone as a Place Name |date=December 27, 2006 |url=http://www.yellowstone-online.com/history/yhtwo2.html |access-date=December 14, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121184552/http://www.yellowstone-online.com/history/yhtwo2.html |archive-date=January 21, 2013}}
</ref> Later, [[Mountain man|American trappers]] rendered the French name in English as "Yellow Stone". Although it is commonly believed that the river was named for the yellow rocks seen in the [[Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone]], the Native American name source is unclear.<ref name="naming">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone: A Brief History of the Park |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |url=http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/Yell257.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080414040117/http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/upload/Yell257.pdf |archive-date=April 14, 2008 }}</ref>
[[File:Yellowstone National Park by Wellge, 1904.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Detailed [[pictorial map]] from 1904]]

The human history of the park began at least 11,000 years ago when Native Americans began to hunt and fish in the region.{{r|AB 2023-11-02}} During the construction of the post office in [[Gardiner, Montana]], in the 1950s, an [[obsidian]] point of [[Clovis culture|Clovis]] origin was found that dated from approximately 11,000 years ago.<ref>{{cite book |title=Homeland: An archaeologist's view of Yellowstone Country's past |author=Lahren, Larry |publisher=Cayuse Press |year=2006 |page=161 |isbn=978-0-9789251-0-9 }}</ref> These [[Paleo-Indians]], of the Clovis culture, used the significant amounts of obsidian found in the park to make cutting tools and weapons. [[Arrowhead]]s made of Yellowstone obsidian have been found as far away as the [[Mississippi Valley]], indicating that a regular obsidian trade existed between local tribes and tribes farther east.<ref name="Janeski">{{cite book |last=Janeski |first=Joel C. |title=Indians in Yellowstone National Park |publisher=University of Utah Press |year=1987 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn=978-0-87480-724-0 }}</ref> When the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]] entered present-day Montana in 1805 they encountered the [[Nez Perce (tribe)|Nez Perce]], [[Crow Indians|Crow]], and [[Shoshone]] tribes who described to them the Yellowstone region to the south, but they chose not to investigate.<ref name="Janetski">{{cite book |last=Janetski |first=Joel C. |title=Indians in Yellowstone National Park |publisher=University of Utah Press |year=1987 |location=Salt Lake City, Utah |isbn=978-0-87480-724-0 }}</ref>

In 1806, [[John Colter]], a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, left to join a group of [[Fur trade|fur trappers]]. After splitting up with the other trappers in 1807, Colter passed through a portion of what later became the park, during the winter of 1807–1808. He observed at least one [[Geothermal activity|geothermal]] area in the northeastern section of the park, near [[Tower Fall]].<ref name="Haines">{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Aubrey L. |title=The Lewis and Clark Era (1805–1814) |website=Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1a.htm |year=2000 |access-date=November 14, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015000223/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1a.htm |archive-date=October 15, 2006 }}</ref> After surviving wounds he suffered in a battle with members of the Crow and [[Blackfoot]] tribes in 1809, Colter described a place of "[[fire and brimstone]]" that most people dismissed as delirium; the supposedly mystical place was nicknamed "[[Colter's Hell]]". Over the next 40 years, numerous reports from mountain men and trappers told of boiling mud, steaming rivers, and [[Petrifaction|petrified]] trees, yet most of these reports were believed at the time to be a myth.<ref name="Haines2">{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Aubrey L. |title=The Fur Trade Era (1818–42) |website=Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |year=2000 |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1b.htm |access-date=November 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015000323/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1b.htm |archive-date=October 15, 2006 }}</ref>

After an 1856 exploration, mountain man [[Jim Bridger]] (also believed to be the first or second European American to have seen the [[Great Salt Lake]]) reported observing boiling springs, spouting water, and a mountain of glass and yellow rock. These reports were largely ignored because Bridger was a known "spinner of yarns". In 1859, a U.S. Army Surveyor named Captain [[William F. Raynolds]] embarked on a [[Raynolds Expedition|two-year survey]] of the [[South Central Rockies forests|southern central Rockies]]. After wintering in Wyoming, in May 1860, Raynolds and his party—which included geologist [[Ferdinand V. Hayden]] and guide Jim Bridger—attempted to cross the [[Continental Divide]] over [[Two Ocean Plateau]] from the [[Wind River (Wyoming)|Wind River]] drainage in northwest Wyoming. Heavy spring snows prevented their passage but had they been able to traverse the divide, the party would have been the first organized survey to enter the Yellowstone region.<ref>{{cite web |last=Baldwin |first=Kenneth H. |title=Enchanted Enclosure-Historic Roads in the National Park System-Chapter 2 – The Raynolds Expedition of 1860 |year=1976 |publisher=Historical Division, Office of the Chief Of Engineers, United States Army |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/baldwin/chap2.htm |access-date=May 7, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111209153504/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/baldwin/chap2.htm |archive-date=December 9, 2011 }}</ref> The [[American Civil War]] hampered further organized explorations until the late 1860s.<ref name="Haines3">{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Aubrey L. |title=The Exploring Era (1851–63) |website=Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |year=1975 |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1c.htm |access-date=November 14, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061015000255/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee1c.htm |archive-date=October 15, 2006 }}</ref>
[[File:Hayden.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Ferdinand V. Hayden]] {{nowrap|(1829–1887)}}, an American geologist who convinced Congress to make Yellowstone a national park in 1872]]

The first detailed expedition to the Yellowstone area was the [[Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition]] of 1869, which consisted of three privately funded explorers. The Folsom party followed the Yellowstone River to Yellowstone Lake.<ref name="Haines4">{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Aubrey L. |title=The Folsom Party (1869) |website=Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |year=2000 |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee2b.htm |access-date=October 9, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070611045003/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee2b.htm |archive-date=June 11, 2007 }}</ref> The members of the Folsom party kept a journal and based on the information it reported, a party of Montana residents organized the [[Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition]] in 1870. It was headed by the surveyor-general of Montana [[Henry D. Washburn|Henry Washburn]], and included [[Nathaniel P. Langford]] (who later became known as "National Park" Langford) and a U.S. Army detachment commanded by Lt.&nbsp;[[Gustavus Cheyney Doane|Gustavus Doane]]. The expedition spent about a month exploring the region, collecting specimens, and naming sites of interest.<ref>{{cite book |last=Langford |first=Nathaniel P. |author-link=Nathaniel P. Langford |title=The Discovery of Yellowstone Park—Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870 |publisher=[[Frank Jay Haynes]] |location=St Paul, MN |year=1905 }}</ref>

A Montana writer and lawyer named Cornelius Hedges, who had been a member of the Washburn expedition, proposed that the region should be set aside and protected as a national park; he wrote detailed articles about his observations for the ''Helena Herald'' newspaper between 1870 and 1871. Hedges essentially restated comments made in October 1865 by acting Montana Territorial Governor [[Thomas Francis Meagher]], who had previously commented that the region should be protected.<ref name="Haines5">{{cite web |last=Haines |first=Aubrey L. |title=Cornelius Hedges |website=Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |year=2000 |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee4a.htm#hedges |access-date=October 9, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610131353/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/haines1/iee4a.htm |archive-date=June 10, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Others made similar suggestions. An 1871 letter to Ferdinand V. Hayden from [[Jay Cooke]], a businessman who wanted to bring tourists to the region, encouraged him to mention it in his official report of the survey.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Nelson |first=Megan Kate |date=November 22, 2022 |title=Kevin Costner's Yellowstone Doc for Fox Has a Lot of Wrong Ideas About History |url=https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/is-kevin-costners-yellowstone-documentary-good-history-not-so-much.html |access-date=November 23, 2022 |magazine=Slate Magazine |language=en |archive-date=November 22, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221122234328/https://slate.com/culture/2022/11/is-kevin-costners-yellowstone-documentary-good-history-not-so-much.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Cooke wrote that his friend, Congressman [[William D. Kelley]] had also suggested "[[United States Congress|Congress]] pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park forever".<ref name="Cooke">{{cite web |title=The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone |website=American Studies at the University of Virginia |publisher=University of Virginia |url=http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/RAILROAD/ystone.html |access-date=May 16, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001170402/http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA96/RAILROAD/ystone.html |archive-date=October 1, 2013 }}</ref>

=== Park creation ===
{{See also|Expeditions and the protection of Yellowstone (1869–1890)|Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant|Columbus Delano}}
[[File:Yellowstone 1871b.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|alt=An old contour map showing mountainous terrain and a large lake|Ferdinand V. Hayden's map of Yellowstone National Park, 1871]]
In 1871, eleven years after his failed first effort, Ferdinand V. Hayden was finally able to explore the region.{{r|AB 2023-11-02}} With government sponsorship, he returned to the region with a second, larger expedition, the [[Hayden Geological Survey of 1871]]. He compiled a comprehensive report, including large-format photographs by [[William Henry Jackson]] and paintings by [[Thomas Moran]]. The report helped to convince the U.S. Congress to withdraw this region from [[public auction]]. On March 1, 1872, President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] signed ''The Act of Dedication''<ref name="memory.loc.gov"/> law that created Yellowstone National Park.<ref name="grant">{{cite web |title=History & Culture |website=General Grant National Memorial |publisher=National Park Service |date=July 25, 2006 |url=http://www.nps.gov/gegr/historyculture/index.htm |access-date=April 23, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413161106/http://www.nps.gov/gegr/historyculture/index.htm |archive-date=April 13, 2012 }}</ref>

Hayden, while not the only person to have thought of creating a park in the region, was its first and most enthusiastic advocate.<ref name="Merrill, Marlene Deahl 1999">{{cite book |author=Marlene Deahl Merrill |title=Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5im5iAPqy3UC |access-date=June 11, 2012 |year=2003 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-8289-6 |page=208 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103134811/http://books.google.com/books?id=5im5iAPqy3UC |archive-date=January 3, 2014 }}</ref> He believed in "setting aside the area as a pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and warned that there were those who would come and "make merchandise of these beautiful specimens".<ref name="Merrill, Marlene Deahl 1999"/> Worrying the area could face the same fate as [[Niagara Falls]], he concluded the site should "be as free as the air or Water".<ref name="Merrill, Marlene Deahl 1999"/> In his report to the [[Committee on Public Lands and Surveys|Committee on Public Lands]], he concluded that if the bill failed to become law, "the vandals who are now waiting to enter into this wonder-land, will in a single season despoil, beyond recovery, these remarkable curiosities, which have required all the cunning skill of nature thousands of years to prepare".<ref>{{cite book |author=Marlene Deahl Merrill |title=Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5im5iAPqy3UC |access-date=June 11, 2012 |year=2003 |publisher=U of Nebraska Press |isbn=978-0-8032-8289-6 |pages=210–211 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140103134811/http://books.google.com/books?id=5im5iAPqy3UC |archive-date=January 3, 2014 }}</ref><ref name=Chittenden>{{cite book |last=Chittenden |first=Hiram Martin |author-link=Hiram M. Chittenden |title=The Yellowstone National Park-Historical and Descriptive |year=1915 |publisher=Stewart and Kidd Co |location=Cincinnati |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yellowstonenati02chitgoog/page/n101 77]–78 |url=https://archive.org/details/yellowstonenati02chitgoog }}</ref>

Hayden and his 1871 party recognized Yellowstone as a unique place that should be available for further research. He also was encouraged to preserve it for others to see and experience it as well. In 1873, Congress authorized and funded a survey to find a [[Covered wagon|wagon route]] to the park from the south which was completed by the [[The Jones Expedition of 1873|Jones Expedition of 1873]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Jones |first=William A. |title=Report Upon the Reconnaissance of Northwestern Wyoming, Including Yellowstone National Park, Made in the Summer of 1873 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1875 |page=[https://archive.org/details/reportuponreconn00jone/page/n12 1] |isbn=0331948184 |url=https://archive.org/details/reportuponreconn00jone }}</ref> Eventually the railroads and, sometime after that, the automobile would make that possible. The park was not set aside strictly for ecological purposes. Hayden imagined something akin to the scenic resorts and baths in England, Germany, and Switzerland.<ref name="Merrill, Marlene Deahl 1999"/>

{{Blockquote|
'''THE ACT OF DEDICATION'''<ref name="Chittenden"/>

AN ACT to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River as a public park. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming&nbsp;... is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and removed there from&nbsp;...

Approved March 1, 1872.

Signed by:
* [[ULYSSES S. GRANT]], President of the United States.
* [[Schuyler Colfax|SCHUYLER COLFAX]], Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate.
* [[James G. Blaine|JAMES G. BLAINE]], Speaker of the House.
}}
[[File:NathanielPLangford.JPG|thumb|left|upright|alt=A middle-aged man in formal attire with a beard|Portrait of [[Nathaniel P. Langford]] (1870), the first superintendent of the park<ref>{{cite book |last=Wheeler |first=Olin Dunbar |title=Enlarge Image Nathaniel Pitt Langford: The Vigilante, the Explorer, the Expounder and First Superintendent of the Yellowstone Park |year=2010 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1-177-37550-4 }}</ref>]]

There was considerable local opposition to Yellowstone National Park during its early years. Some of the locals feared that the regional economy would be unable to thrive if there remained strict federal prohibitions against resource development or settlement within park boundaries and local entrepreneurs advocated reducing the size of the park so that mining, hunting, and logging activities could be developed.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Political Geography of National Parks |last=Dilsaver |first=Lary M. |author2=William Wyckoff |date=May 2005 |journal=The Pacific Historical Review |volume=74 |issue=2 |pages=237–266 |doi=10.1525/phr.2005.74.2.237 }}</ref> To this end, numerous bills were introduced into Congress by Montana representatives who sought to remove the federal land-use restrictions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/nrepa_local_interests_and_conservation_history/C73/L38/ |title=NREPA: Local Interests and Conservation History |last=Wuerthner, 11-15-07 |first=George |date=November 15, 2007 |website=George Wuerthner's On the Range |publisher=NewWest |access-date=February 20, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606200135/http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/nrepa_local_interests_and_conservation_history/C73/L38/ |archive-date=June 6, 2011 }}</ref>

After the park's official formation, Nathaniel Langford was appointed as the park's first superintendent in 1872 by the Secretary of Interior [[Columbus Delano]], the first overseer and controller of the park.<ref name="Chittenden (1904), Page 93">{{cite book |last=Chittenden |first=Hiram Martin |title=Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive |publisher=The Robert Clarke Company |location=[[Cincinnati]] |date=1904 |page=93 }}</ref> Langford served for five years but was denied a salary, funding, and staff. Langford lacked the means to improve the land or properly protect the park, and without formal policy or regulations, he had few legal methods to enforce such protection. This left Yellowstone vulnerable to [[Poaching|poachers]], [[Vandalism|vandals]], and others seeking to raid its resources. He addressed the practical problems park administrators faced in the 1872 Report to the Secretary of the Interior<ref>{{cite web |url=http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/consrvbib:@field(SUBJ+@band(Yellowstone+National+Park--Periodicals+)) |title=Report of the Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park to the Secretary of the Interior for the year 1872 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170115093927/http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Fconsrvbib%3A%40field%28SUBJ+%40band%28Yellowstone+National+Park--Periodicals+%29%29 |archive-date=January 15, 2017 }}</ref> and correctly predicted that Yellowstone would become a major international attraction deserving the continuing stewardship of the government. In 1874, both Langford and Delano advocated the creation of a federal agency to protect the vast park, but Congress refused. In 1875, Colonel [[William Ludlow]], who had previously explored areas of Montana under the command of [[George Armstrong Custer]], was assigned to organize and lead an expedition to Montana and the newly established Yellowstone Park. Observations about the lawlessness and exploitation of park resources were included in Ludlow's ''Report of a Reconnaissance to the Yellowstone National Park''. The report included letters and attachments by other expedition members, including naturalist and mineralogist [[George Bird Grinnell]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.publications.usace.army.mil/Portals/76/Publications/EngineerPamphlets/EP_870-1-22.pdf |title=Number 3-Engineer Historical Studies-Captain William Ludlow's Report of Reconnaissance from Carrol Montana Territory on Upper Missouri to the Yellowstone National Park and Return in the Summer of 1875. |publisher=publications.usace.army.mil |last=Walker |first=Paul K. |date=March 2022 |access-date=March 11, 2022 |archive-date=March 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311122132/https://www.publications.usace.army.mil/Portals/76/Publications/EngineerPamphlets/EP_870-1-22.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[File:Great Falls of the Yellowstone, near view. Yellowstone National Park. - NARA - 517650.jpg|thumb|upright|''Great Falls of the Yellowstone'', U.S. Geological and Geographic Survey of the Territories (1874–1879), photographer [[William Henry Jackson]]]]

Grinnell documented the poaching of [[Bison|buffalo]], [[deer]], [[elk]], and [[antelope]] for [[Hide (skin)|hides]]: "It is estimated that during the winter of 1874–1875, not less than 3,000 buffalo and mule deer suffer even more severely than the elk, and the antelope nearly as much."<ref name="Punke">{{cite book |last=Punke |first=Michael |title=Last Stand: George Bird Grinnell, the Battle to Save the Buffalo, and the Birth of the New West |publisher=Smithsonian Books |year=2007 |page=102 |isbn=978-0-06-089782-6 }}</ref>

As a result, Langford was forced to step down in 1877.<ref name="langford">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone National Park's First 130 Years |website=Yellowstone History |publisher=National Park Service |url=http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army&nps/page3.htm |access-date=February 28, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109010133/http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army%26nps/page3.htm |archive-date=November 9, 2013 }}</ref><ref name="norris">{{cite web |last=Rydell |first=Kiki Leigh |author2=Mary Shivers Culpin |title=The Administrations of Nathaniel Langford and Philetus Norris |website=A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965 |publisher=Yellowstone National Park |url=http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter1.pdf |date=July 5, 2006 |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930181109/http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter1.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref>
Having traveled through Yellowstone and witnessed land management problems, [[Philetus Norris]] volunteered for the position following Langford's exit. Congress finally saw fit to implement a salary for the position, as well as to provide minimal funding to operate the park. Norris used these funds to expand access to the park, building numerous crude roads and facilities.<ref name="norris"/>

In 1880, [[Harry Yount]] was appointed as a gamekeeper to control poaching and vandalism in the park. Yount had previously spent decades exploring the mountain country of present-day Wyoming, including the [[Grand Tetons]], after joining [[Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden|F V. Hayden]]'s Geological Survey in 1873.<ref>{{cite book |last=Griske |first=Michael |title=The Diaries of John Hunton |publisher=Heritage Books |year=2005 |pages=121, 122 |isbn=978-0-7884-3804-2 }}</ref> Yount is the first national park ranger,<ref name="yount">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone National Park's First 130 Years |website=Yellowstone History |publisher=National Park Service |url=http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army&nps/page6.htm |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109010131/http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army%26nps/page6.htm |archive-date=November 9, 2013 }}</ref> and Yount's Peak, at the head of the Yellowstone River, was named in his honor.<ref>Griske, [[op. cit.]], p. 122</ref> These measures still proved to be insufficient in protecting the park, as neither Norris nor the three superintendents who followed, were given sufficient manpower or resources.

{{Multiple image|total_width=400|align=right|direction=horizontal
|image1= Thomas Moran-Tower Creek, 1871.jpeg
|image2=Travertine Terrace Mammoth Hot Springs Yellowstone National Park Wyoming USA.jpg
| footer = {{font|size=100%|font=Sans-serif|text=Left: [[Thomas Moran]] painted Tower Creek while on the [[Hayden Geological Survey of 1871]]. Right: Travertine Terrace, Mammoth Hot Springs}}
}}

During the 1870s and 1880s, Native American tribes were effectively excluded from the national park.{{r|AB 2023-11-02}} Under a half-dozen tribes had made seasonal use of the Yellowstone area- the only year-round residents were small bands of [[Eastern Shoshone]] known as "[[Sheepeaters]]". They left the area under the assurances of a treaty negotiated in 1868, under which the Sheepeaters ceded their lands but retained the right to hunt in Yellowstone. The United States never ratified the treaty and refused to recognize the claims of the Sheepeaters or any other tribe that had used Yellowstone.<ref name=merchant>{{cite book |last=Merchant |first=Carolyn |title=The Columbia Guide to American Environmental History |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-231-11232-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQQximQsxSgC |page=148 |access-date=August 23, 2020 |archive-date=October 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012122551/http://books.google.com/books?id=QQQximQsxSgC |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Nez Perce band associated with [[Chief Joseph]], numbering about 750 people, passed through Yellowstone National Park in thirteen days in late August 1877. They were being pursued by the U.S.&nbsp;Army and entered the national park about two weeks after the [[Battle of the Big Hole]]. Some of the Nez Perce were friendly to the tourists and other people they encountered in the park; some were not. Nine park visitors were briefly taken captive. Despite Joseph and other chiefs ordering that no one should be harmed, at least two people were killed and several wounded.<ref name=chittenden/><ref name=duncan>{{cite book |last=Duncan |first=Dayton |author2=Ken Burns |title=The National Parks: America's Best Idea |publisher=Alred A. Knopf |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-307-26896-9 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/nationalparksame00dunc/page/37 37]–38 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nationalparksame00dunc }}</ref> One of the areas where encounters occurred was in Lower Geyser Basin and east along a branch of the [[Firehole River]] to Mary Mountain and beyond.<ref name=chittenden>{{cite book |last=Chittenden |first=Hiram Martin |author-link=Hiram M. Chittenden |title=The Yellowstone National Park: historical and descriptive |publisher=The R. Clarke Company |year=1895 |oclc=3015335 |url=https://archive.org/details/yellowstonenati01chitgoog |pages=[https://archive.org/details/yellowstonenati01chitgoog/page/n143 111]–122 }}</ref> That stream was named Nez Perce Creek in memory of their trail through the area.<ref>{{cite gnis|1592026|Nez Perce Creek }}</ref> A group of [[Bannock (tribe)|Bannocks]] entered the park in 1878, alarming park Superintendent Philetus Norris. In the aftermath of the [[Sheepeater Indian War]] of 1879, Norris built a fort to prevent Native Americans from entering the national park.<ref name=merchant/><ref name=duncan/>
[[File:Fort Yellowstone Circa 1910.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.25|alt=A group of buildings with trees and hills in background|[[Fort Yellowstone]] (circa 1910), formerly a U.S. Army post, now serves as park headquarters]]

The [[Northern Pacific Railroad]] built [[Livingston station (Northern Pacific Railway)|a train station]] in [[Livingston, Montana]], as a gateway terminus to connect to the northern entrance area in 1883, which helped to increase visitation from 300 in 1872 to 5,000 in 1883.<ref name="tour">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone National Park's First 130 Years |website=Yellowstone History |publisher=National Park Service |url=http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army&nps/page16.htm |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414205153/http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army%26nps/page16.htm |archive-date=April 14, 2012 }}</ref> The spur line was completed in fall of that year from Livingston to [[Cinnabar, MT|Cinnabar]] for stage connection to [[Mammoth Hot Springs|Mammoth]], then in 1902 extended to [[Gardiner station]], where passengers also switched to [[stagecoach]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Marcy Shivers |last=Culpin |location=Yellowstone National Park |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/02000529_text |title=National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form: North Entrance Road Historic District |date=May 22, 2002 |access-date=April 27, 2020 |publisher=[[National Park Service]] |archive-date=September 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240913130043/https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/NRHP/02000529_text |url-status=live }}</ref> Visitors in these early years faced poor and dusty roads plus limited services, with automobiles first admitted in phases beginning only in 1915. By 1901 a [[Chicago, Burlington & Quincy]] connection opened via [[Cody, WY|Cody]] and in 1908 a [[Union Pacific Railroad]] connection to West Yellowstone, followed by a 1927 [[Milwaukee Road]] connection to [[Gallatin Gateway]] near [[Bozeman, MT|Bozeman]], also motorcoaching visitors via West Yellowstone. Rail visitation fell off considerably by [[World War II]] and ceased regular service in favor of the automobile around the 1960s, though special excursions occasionally continued into the early 1980s.

Ongoing poaching and destruction of natural resources continued unabated until the U.S.&nbsp;Army arrived at [[Mammoth Hot Springs]] in 1886 and built [[Camp Sheridan (Wyoming)|Camp Sheridan]]. Over the next 22&nbsp;years, as the army constructed permanent structures, Camp Sheridan was renamed [[Fort Yellowstone]].<ref name="army">{{cite web |last=Rydell |first=Kiki Leigh |author2=Mary Shivers Culpin |title=The United States Army Takes Control of Yellowstone National Park 1886–1906 |website=A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965 |publisher=Yellowstone National Park |date=July 5, 2006 |url=http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter3.pdf |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930181120/http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter3.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref> On May 7, 1894, the [[Boone and Crockett Club]], acting through the personality of George G. Vest, Arnold Hague, William Hallett Phillips, W. A. Wadsworth, Archibald Rogers, [[Theodore Roosevelt]], and George Bird Grinnell were successful in carrying through the Park Protection Act, which saved the park.<ref>{{cite book |last=Grinnell |first=George Bird |title=The History of the Boone and Crockett Club |date=1910 |publisher=Forest and Stream Publishing Company |location=New York City |pages=10–21 }}</ref> The [[Lacey Act of 1900]] provided legal support for the officials prosecuting poachers. With the funding and manpower necessary to keep a diligent watch, the army developed its own policies and regulations that permitted public access while protecting park wildlife and natural resources. When the [[National Park Service]] was created in 1916, many of the management principles developed by the army were adopted by the new agency.<ref name="army"/> The army turned control over to the National Park Service on October 31, 1918.<ref name="nps2">{{cite web |last=Rydell |first=Kiki Leigh |author2=Mary Shivers Culpin |title=The National Park Service in Yellowstone National Park 1917–1929 |website=A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965 |publisher=Yellowstone National Park |date=July 5, 2006 |url=http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter5.pdf |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930181012/http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter5.pdf |archive-date=September 30, 2011 }}</ref>

In 1898, the naturalist [[John Muir]] described the park as follows: {{blockquote|However orderly your excursions or aimless, again and again amid the calmest, stillest scenery you will be brought to a standstill hushed and awe-stricken before phenomena wholly new to you. Boiling springs and huge deep pools of purest green and azure water, thousands of them, are plashing and heaving in these high, cool mountains as if a fierce furnace fire were burning beneath each one of them; and a hundred geysers, white torrents of boiling water and steam, like inverted waterfalls, are ever and anon rushing up out of the hot, black underworld.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1898/04/the-yellowstone-national-park/376185/ |magazine=[[The Atlantic]] |title=The Yellowstone National Park |date=April 1898 |last=Muir |first=John |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170312000513/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1898/04/the-yellowstone-national-park/376185/ |archive-date=March 12, 2017 }}</ref>}}

=== Automobiles and further development ===
[[File:Horace colorized.png|thumb|Superintendent [[Horace M. Albright]] and [[American black bear|black bears]] (1922). Tourists often fed black bears in the park's early years, with 527 injuries reported from 1931 to 1939.<ref>{{cite book |author=Jordan Fisher Smith |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OsAgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37 |title=Engineering Eden |date=June 7, 2016 |publisher=Crown/Archetype |isbn=978-0307454263 |page=37 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170211062201/https://books.google.com/books?id=OsAgDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA37&lpg=PA37 |archive-date=February 11, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
By 1915, 1,000 automobiles per year were entering the park, resulting in conflicts with horses and horse-drawn transportation. Horse travel on roads was eventually prohibited.<ref name="cars">{{cite web |title=Yellowstone National Park's First 130 Years |website=Yellowstone History |publisher=National Park Service |url=http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army&nps/page17.htm |access-date=April 1, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414205203/http://windowsintowonderland.org/history/army%26nps/page17.htm |archive-date=April 14, 2012 }}</ref>

The [[Civilian Conservation Corps]] (CCC), a [[New Deal]] relief agency for young men, played a major role between 1933 and 1942 in developing Yellowstone facilities. CCC projects included reforestation, campground development of many of the park's trails and campgrounds, trail construction, fire hazard reduction, and fire-fighting work. The CCC built the majority of the early visitor centers, campgrounds, and the current system of park roads.<ref>Matthew A. Redinger, "The Civilian Conservation Corps and the Development of Glacier and Yellowstone Parks, 1933–1942", ''Pacific Northwest Forum'', 1991, Vol. 4 Issue 2, pp.&nbsp;3–17</ref>

During World War&nbsp;II, tourist travel fell sharply, staffing was cut, and many facilities fell into disrepair.<ref name="ww">{{cite web |last=Rydell |first=Kiki Leigh |author2=Mary Shivers Culpin |title=Mission 66 in Yellowstone National Park 1941–1965 |website=A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965 |publisher=Yellowstone National Park |date=July 5, 2006 |url=http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter7.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070616094303/http://64.241.25.110/yell/pdfs/history/administration/chapter7.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 16, 2007 |access-date=April 1, 2007 }}</ref> By the 1950s, visitation increased tremendously in Yellowstone and other national parks. To accommodate the increased visitation, park officials implemented [[Mission&nbsp;66]], an effort to modernize and expand park service facilities. Planned to be completed by 1966, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Park Service, Mission&nbsp;66 construction diverged from the traditional [[Log cabin|log cabin style]] with design features of a modern style.<ref name="Allaback">{{cite web |last=Allaback |first=Sarah |title=Mission 66 Visitor Centers |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |year=2000 |url=http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/allaback/ |access-date=February 28, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070311181142/http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/allaback/ |archive-date=March 11, 2007 }}</ref> During the late 1980s, most construction styles in Yellowstone reverted to the more traditional designs. After the enormous forest fires of 1988 damaged much of [[Grant Village]], structures there were rebuilt in the traditional style. The visitor center at [[Yellowstone National Park Canyon Village Lodge|Canyon Village]], which opened in 2006, incorporates a more traditional design as well.<ref name="center">{{cite web |title=Canyon Area NPS Visitor Facilities |publisher=U.S. Department of the Interior |date=August 22, 2006 |url=http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/canyonvc.htm |access-date=April 8, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070505005115/http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/canyonvc.htm |archive-date=May 5, 2007 }}</ref>
[[File:Yellowstone North Gate.jpg|thumb|left|alt=A large arch made of irregular-shaped natural stone over a road|The [[Roosevelt Arch]] in [[Gardiner, Montana]], at the north entrance]]

The [[1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake]] just west of Yellowstone at [[Hebgen Lake]] damaged roads and some structures in the park. In the northwest section of the park, new geysers were found, and many existing hot springs became turbid.<ref name="earthquake">{{cite web |url=https://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1959_08_18.php |title=Largest Earthquake in Montana |website=Historic Earthquakes |publisher=U.S. Geological Survey |date=January 24, 2007 |access-date=March 20, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608215433/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/states/events/1959_08_18.php |archive-date=June 8, 2007 }}</ref> It was the most powerful earthquake to hit the region in recorded history.
[[File:HFCA 1607 NPS 1972 Centennial, NBC Today Show 035.jpg (35a86faa2bbe433c831de71a4c03bb48).jpg|thumb|[[National Park Service|NPS]] staff sitting on the set for the 1972 Centennial for the creation of the first National Park, in a [[NBC Today Show]]. Left to right: [[George B. Hartzog Jr.|George Hartzog]], William Everhart, [[Frank McGee (journalist)|Frank McGee]] and Jack K. Anderson.]]
In 1963, after several years of public controversy regarding the forced reduction of the elk population in Yellowstone, the United States Secretary of the Interior [[Stewart Udall]] appointed an advisory board to collect scientific data to inform future wildlife management of the national parks. In a paper known as the [[Leopold Report]], the committee observed that culling programs at other national parks had been ineffective, and recommended the management of Yellowstone's elk population.<ref>{{cite web |last=Leopold |first=A. Starker |year=1963 |url=http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/leopold/leopold4.htm |title=The Goal of Park Management in the United States |website=Wildlife Management in the National Parks |publisher=National Park Service |access-date=September 19, 2009 |display-authors=etal |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091203014213/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/leopold/leopold4.htm |archive-date=December 3, 2009 }}</ref>

The [[wildfire]]s during the summer of 1988 were the largest in the history of the park. Approximately {{convert|793880|acre|km2 mi2|sigfig=3}} or 36% of the parkland was impacted by the fires, leading to a systematic re-evaluation of fire management policies. The fire season of 1988 was considered normal until a combination of drought and heat by mid-July contributed to an extreme fire danger. On "[[Yellowstone fires of 1988|Black Saturday]]", August 20, 1988, strong winds expanded the fires rapidly, and more than {{convert|150000|acre|km2 mi2}} burned.<ref name="fires">{{cite web |url=http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/fire.htm |title=Wildland Fire in Yellowstone |publisher=National Park Service |date=July 26, 2006 |access-date=February 28, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007110423/http://www.nps.gov/yell/naturescience/fire.htm |archive-date=October 7, 2006 }}</ref>

On October 1, 2013, Yellowstone National Park closed due to the [[2013 United States federal government shutdown]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/yellowstone_national_park/government-shutdown-closes-yellowstone-national-park-impacts-economy/article_8f43dea0-2a2b-11e3-9d26-001a4bcf887a.html |title=Government shutdown closes Yellowstone National Park, impacts economy |publisher=Bozeman Daily Chronicle |date=September 30, 2013 |access-date=November 1, 2023 |archive-date=November 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231101151810/https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/yellowstone_national_park/government-shutdown-closes-yellowstone-national-park-impacts-economy/article_8f43dea0-2a2b-11e3-9d26-001a4bcf887a.html |url-status=live }}</ref>