National Park Travel Articles

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone remains a place of vast wildness, where nature reigns in all of its beauty and violence. This was never more evident than during a quiet night in August of 1959 when one of the severest earthquakes recorded on the North American continent, struck just west of the park. At a magnitude of 7.5, it sent a 20 foot high wall of water surging down narrow Madison Canyon, caused half of a 7,600 foot high mountain to collapse, and killed 28 people. In Yellowstone, the earthquake affected the function of geysers and hot springs. Slides and boulders blocked large sections of park roads, and phone lines to Old Faithful and West Yellowstone were instantly broken. Visitors were evacuated from the massive Old Faithful Inn as its timbers creaked and groaned, and the great stone fireplace and chimney crashed down upon the dining room floor. This event has since been remembered as "the night the mountain fell". As our country embarked on a decade of social change, revolution, and innovation in the 1960s, the management of Yellowstone also experienced vast change. During the winter of 1963, six snowmobiles entered the park. (This was the start of a new mode of recreation, which has ballooned to over 140,000 winter visitors each year. In fact, the large number of snowmobiles is currently cause for growing concern over the impact they make on Yellowstone National Park. Managers are in the process of finalizing a winter use plan for the park.)

In the 1960s the management of Yellowstone's wildlife became revolutionized. For decades, park managers had actively controlled the park's elk and bison herds. The elk's chief natural predator, the wolf, had long ago been exterminated from the park, and subsequently managers set elk population limits based upon the perceived range carrying capacity. When these limits were reached, the animals were actively killed or culled to reduce the herd size. In 1963, a national park advisory group published the Leopold Report, a document that helped establish the framework for park management, which is still used today. The plan called for a "hands-off" rather than "hands-on" approach to natural resource management. In other words, natural processes, including predation and natural culling of wildlife would be allowed to occur, with as little interference from humans as possible. Stemming from this decision, Yellowstone closed garbage dumps within the park, implemented a new bear management plan, and eventually reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone in 1995 to restore natural balance to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Natural balance also called for recognition of the role fire plays in creating the landscape. Fires in Yellowstone had been suppressed since the arrival of the U.S. Army in 1886. Over eighty years later, the park initiated a natural fire management plan, calling for some natural fires to be allowed to run their courses. The philosophy of natural fire management was severely tested during Yellowstone's Summer of Fire in 1988. During that long, hot summer, 36 percent of the park (793,880 acres) were affected, leading to a major review of past fire management policies and extensive research on fire ecology.

One hundred and thirty years have passed since Yellowstone became the world's first national park, and we continue to learn from past mistakes, as well as from our past successes. Today approximately 3 million visitors from around the world travel to Yellowstone every year. Think of what our country has pioneered-the legacy we have begun! An idea that began in tenuous balance has flowered into far-reaching inspiration. National parks are considered by many to be America's greatest gift to the world; in fact, Yellowstone and the United States National Park System continue to serve as models for other countries as they strive to protect their own natural and cultural treasures. One international visitor expressed what many others feel: "Yellowstone may be located in the United States, but it belongs to the world." As we move forward into the 21st century, new challenges await our national parks and will test our spirit. We must continue to change our way of managing resources as we increase our knowledge of natural systems. Events that are happening in Yellowstone today will soon be classified as "history".

Visit Yellowstone National Park today, and gain a first-hand understanding of why Yellowstone is widely recognized as one of America's treasures.  For more information and to make lodging reservations at Yellowstone National Park, visit www.NationalParkTravel.com.

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