Yellowstone National Park ⓘ

The human history of the Yellowstone region extends back more than 11,000 years. The stories of people in Yellowstone are preserved in archeological sites and objects that convey information about past human activities in the region, and in people’s connections to the land that provide a sense of place or identity.

Today, park managers use archeological and historical studies to help us understand how people lived here in the past. Ethnography helps us learn about how groups of people identify themselves and their connections to the park. Research is also conducted to learn how people continue to affect and be affected by these places, many of which have been relatively protected from human impacts. Some alterations to the landscape, such as the construction of roads and other facilities, are generally accepted as necessary to accommodate the needs of visitors today. Information on the possible consequences of modern human activities, both inside and outside the parks, is used to determine how best to preserve Yellowstone’s natural and cultural resources, and the quality of the visitors’ experience.

Historic districts, historic structures, and cultural landscapes built between 50 and 150 years ago are cultural resources that tell the story of how people managed, enjoyed, and traveled through the world’s first national park.

The park’s front country consists of developments that were historically constructed around Yellowstone’s natural features. A figure-eight system of roads provided access to these developed areas and features. Much of the front country contains buildings (e.g., lodges, cabins, employee quarters, ranger stations), roads and bridges, trails, and cultural landscape features and patterns (e.g., overlook structures, vegetation patterns, viewsheds) that are considered historic properties or contribute to the character of a historic district. Historic districts can be comprised of a variety of buildings, sites, structures, and/or objects listed on or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Yellowstone’s backcountry cabins are part of a large network of patrol or snowshoe cabins, based on a geographically strategic patrol operation established during the military administration of the park (1886–1918), and expanded through the National Park Service’s leadership (1918–present). They continue to be used today.

The legal requirement to protect and understand the importance of these resources affects how the park is managed today. So far, 843 structures including roads, bridges, utility structures, and grave markers are listed on or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. Over 600 of these structures are buildings. The park is in the process of evaluating properties for National Register of Historic Places eligibility, including 173 structures on the List of Classified Structures, approximately 127 buildings constructed during the NPS Mission 66 period (1945–1972), and 124 trails. To date, seven (25%) of the park’s cultural landscapes have been inventoried and evaluated for their historical significance.

Unlike other park resources, historic structures and cultural landscapes require cyclic maintenance such as in-kind replacement of roofs and pavement. Alterations are often required to bring historic structures up to safety codes such as strengthening a building so it withstands seismic events. Preserving a historic structure or cultural landscape requires minimizing the rate at which historic fabric is lost and ensuring additions and alterations are compatible with historic character.

National Historic Landmarks (NHLs) possess exceptional value as commemorating or illustrating the history of the United States. The National Park Service is required to exercise a higher standard of care when considering undertakings that may directly or adversely affect NHLs. Fort Yellowstone National Historic Landmark District is located within Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District and continues to be the headquarters for Yellowstone National Park. Historic buildings, structures (Roosevelt Arch, Powerhouse), and sites (parade grounds, cemetery) contribute to the significance of this district.

Yellowstone is also home to five NHLs that are nationally influential examples of park “rustic” architecture—the Old Faithful Inn, the Northeast Entrance Station, and the Norris, Madison, and Fishing Bridge museums.

Did other national parks exist before Yellowstone? Some sources list Hot Springs in Arkansas as the first national park. Set aside in 1832, forty years before Yellowstone was established in 1872, it was actually the nation’s oldest national reservation, set aside to preserve and distribute a utilitarian resource (hot water), much like our present national forests. In 1921, an act of Congress established Hot Springs as a national park.

Yosemite became a park before Yellowstone, but as a state park. Disappointed with the results 26 years later in 1890, Congress made Yosemite one of three additional national parks, along with Sequoia and General Grant, now part of Kings Canyon. Mount Rainier followed in 1899.

As an older state park, Yosemite did have a strong influence on the founding of Yellowstone in 1872 because Congress actually used language in the state park act as a model. It’s entirely possible that Congress may have preferred to make Yellowstone a state park in the same fashion as Yosemite, had it not been for an accident of geography that put it within three territorial boundaries. Arguments between Wyoming and Montana territories that year resulted in a decision to federalize Yellowstone.

Can I access the collections online? The Yellowstone Research Library’s catalog is available through the Wyoming Library Databases (WyLD) . Archives collection f inding aids may be accessed online. Selected portions of our records have been digitized:

Can I see the collections when I visit? Yes, anyone with a research question may conduct research in the Heritage & Research Center in Gardiner, Montana. An appointment is required for archives and museum collection research. The library is open to the public on a regular schedule. Please see the Archives , Library , and Museum Collection webpages for current hours.

What if I don't have a research question? Free public tours of the Heritage and Research Center offered during summer 2022 every Wednesday, 4–5 pm, from May 30 to September 5.

Human occupation of the greater Yellowstone area seems to follow environmental changes of the last 15,000 years. How far back is still to be determined— there are no known sites in the park that date to this time—but humans probably were not using this landscape when glaciers and a continental ice sheet covered most of what is now Yellowstone National Park. The glaciers carved out valleys with rivers that people could follow in pursuit of Ice Age mammals such as the mammoth and the giant bison. The last period of ice coverage ended 13,000 to 14,000 years ago. Sometime after that, but before 11,000 years ago, humans were here on this landscape.

Archeologists have found physical evidence of human presence in the form of distinctive stone tools and projectile points. From these artifacts, scientists surmise that they hunted mammals and gathered berries, seeds, and plants.

As the climate in the Yellowstone region warmed and dried, the animals, vegetation, and human lifestyles also changed. Large Ice Age animals that were adapted to cold and wet conditions became extinct. The glaciers left behind layers of sediment in valleys in which grasses and sagebrush thrived, and pockets of exposed rocks that provided protected areas for aspens and fir to grow. The uncovered volcanic plateau sprouted lodgepole forests. People adapted to these changing conditions and were eating a diverse diet including medium and small animals such as deer and bighorn sheep as early as 9,500 years ago.

This favorable climate would continue more than 9,000 years. Evidence of these people in Yellowstone remained uninvestigated long after archeologists began excavating sites elsewhere in North America. Archeologists used to think high-elevation regions such as Yellowstone were inhospitable to humans and, thus, did little exploratory work in these areas. However, recent research in the park has located archaeological sites at high elevations, with several sites over 11,000 feet above mean sea level (AMSL). Today, archeologists study environmental change to better understand human uses of areas such as Yellowstone through time.

More than 2,000 archeological sites have been documented in Yellowstone National Park, with the majority dating to the Archaic period, spanning from about 8,000 to 1,500 years ago. Obsidian from several sources in the park was used as toolstone. Sites contain evidence of an increase in hunting a wide variety of game, including bison, bear, deer, sheep and goats, felines, rabbits, birds, and other small game. Campsites and trails in Yellowstone also provide evidence of early use. Some of the trails used in the park today have likely been used by people since the Paleoindian period.

People seem to have increased their use of the Yellowstone area beginning about 3,000 years ago. During this time, people deepened their reliance on bison hunting. Technological innovations during this period in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem include use of tipis as the main form of shelter, bison jumps and corrals, sheep traps, and evidence of widespread trade across North America. Bow and arrow technology, adopted after 1,500 before present (BP), replaced the atlatl, or spear-thrower, that had been used for thousands of years. The number of radiocarbon dates in the park rapidly increases in the park after 1,500 BP, with a peak between 1,200 and 1,000 BP. This increased use of Yellowstone likely occurred when the environment was warmer, favoring extended seasonal use on and around the Yellowstone Plateau. Archeologists and other scientists are working together to study evidence such as plant pollen, landforms, and tree rings to better understand how the area’s environment changed over time.

Some of the historic peoples from this area, such as the Crow and Sioux, arrived sometime during the 1500s and around 1700 CE, respectively. Prehistoric vessels known as “Intermountain Ware” have been found in the park and surrounding area, and these link the Shoshone to the area as early as approximately 700 years ago.

Greater Yellowstone’s location at the convergence of the Great Plains, Great Basin, and Plateau American Indian cultures means that many tribes have a traditional connection to the land and its resources. For thousands of years before Yellowstone became a national park, it was a place where people hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian, and used the thermal waters for religious and medicinal purposes.

Tribal oral histories indicate more extensive use of the area during the Little Ice Age. Kiowa stories place their ancestors here from around 1400 to 1700 CE. Ancestors to contemporary Blackfeet, Cayuse, Coeur d'Alene, Nez Perce, and Shoshone, among others, continued to travel the park on the already established trails. They visited geysers, conducted ceremonies, hunted, gathered plants and minerals, and engaged in trade. The park's associated tribes report family groups came to lands now part of Yellowstone to gather obsidian, which they used to field dress bison. Some associated tribes used the Fishing Bridge area as a rendezvous site.

The Crow occupied the area generally east of the park, and the Blackfeet occupied the area to the north. The Shoshone, Bannock, and other American Indian tribes of the plateaus to the west traversed the park annually to hunt on the plains to the east. Other Shoshonean groups hunted in open areas west and south of Yellowstone.

In the early 1700s CE, some American Indian tribes in this region acquired the horse. Some historians believe the horse fundamentally changed their lifestyles because tribal members could now travel faster and farther to hunt bison and other animals of the plains.

The Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters, are a band of Mountain Shoshone that lived for thousands of years in the area that would become Yellowstone National Park. Throughout the park, archeological sites reflect use of resources within this landscape by the Tukudika and other American Indian tribes.

Traditionally, Shoshone names were derived from places the bands traveled to or from foods they hunted or gathered. Tukudika (also Tukudyka’a, Tukadika) means “eaters of the mountain sheep.” The Tukudika lived in northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho. Other Shoshone bands bore the names “salmon eaters,” “elk eaters,” and “bison eaters.”

Because the name Sheep Eater can appear to equate this American Indian tribe with the bighorn sheep itself, the term was once considered derogatory. The name Sheep Eater suggests a Shoshone social hierarchy on which the Tukudika occupied one of the lowest rungs: whereas other Shoshone bands were hunting and consuming the “grander” bison and elk, the Tukudika were hunting the “inferior,” elusive, mountain-dwelling bighorn sheep. Contemporary understanding of this name is more nuanced. The name does not signify that Tukudika ate only bighorn sheep; it means, simply, that the bighorn sheep was this group’s primary source of meat. Indeed, the Tukudika’s diet consisted of at least 50% plants, roots, nuts, and berries.

Traveling in extended-family groups, the Tukudika followed the park’s rivers and streams to hunt game, harvest plants, and find suitable campsites. They traveled to higher elevations in the warmer months and stayed at lower elevations during the colder months. According to the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of southeastern Idaho, some Tukudika stayed in the park year-round.

The Tukudika built simple yet versatile shelters composed of curved lodgepole and grass thatching. When situated against a rock face, these newe-gahni (Shoshone houses, houses built to suit a specific purpose) proved sturdy and resistant to the elements. These structures are similar to, but probably distinct from, the wickiup, or conical timber lodge, a structure found throughout the park and associated with several tribes.

When they lived in the park, the Tukudika quarried obsidian ( dupi or tuupi ) at Obsidian Cliff. Working in family groups, tribal members quarried obsidian with shovels made from bison or elk bone. After quarrying the obsidian, the Tukudika worked the material with elk antlers. A cantaloupe-sized rock yielded two to three arrowheads. It is reported that because of its sharpness, obsidian was the primary material for arrowheads and tools.

The Tukudika paired arrowheads manufactured from obsidian and other stone materials with welldesigned, extremely durable hunting bows made from the horns and sinews of bighorn sheep. The Indians soaked the horns in geothermal waters to soften them, then shaped the pliable horns into bows. These highly effective bows were sought-after objects which the Tukudika traded with other tribes throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Northern Plains. Sheepskin was used to make distinctive, high-quality clothing, another desirable trade good from this Native American group.

The Tukudika were skilled hunters. They designed drive lines and corrals to aid in the hunting of bighorn sheep, and they built fish traps of stone and timber. Unlike most other American Indian tribes of the western United States, including other bands of Shoshone, the Tukudika did not adopt the horse. Instead, they continued to hunt on foot, accompanied by dogs ( satii , sadee ). These medium to large dogs resembled both wolves and huskies, and served as both work dogs and companions. Some scholars have speculated that hunting on horseback would have hindered the group’s techniques for alpine hunting. Dogs were used to pull travois (two-pole sleds) laden with game or belongings. Evidence that Native Americans, possibly Tukudika, were buried with their dogs has been found throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

For cooking and storage, the Tukudika crafted bowls and other containers out of steatite, or soapstone, a metamorphic rock soft enough to scratch with a fingernail. Although steatite is a soft stone, it is surprisingly durable. Steatite deposits are plentiful throughout the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, but archeologists have not yet determined whether this material was quarried in the park. Steatite vessels may have been cached and returned to, season after season. The containers may also have been heirlooms or ceremonial vessels transported from site to site. These stone bowls are distinct from Intermountain Ware, a type of pottery made from different clays and tempers and associated with Shoshone groups.

The stories that a culture creates and transmits are rooted in that culture’s traditions, customs, social mores, and belief system. When two cultures encounter one another, misunderstandings and conflicts can arise. In the Rocky Mountain West, some of the first recorded stories of encounter between European-Americans and American Indians came from Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery expedition of 1804–6. Thirty years later, Osborne Russell, then a young fur-trapper, wrote some of the first descriptions of European-American–Tukudika encounters in the park. In 1835, he met a small group of Tukudika in the Lamar Valley, and he portrayed them favorably, if somewhat romantically. Other explorers and trappers were not so open-minded. Many accounts were one-sided, prejudiced, fearful, or even hostile. These stories and reports failed to consider the American Indian tribes’ agency, self-sufficiency, and vast knowledge of Yellowstone’s landscape and resources.

Prior to the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, the military was in the last stages of moving American Indian tribes onto reservations throughout the west. Early park superintendents actively discouraged tribes from visiting the newly established park to hunt or collect resources.

The Tukudika continued to inhabit the Greater Yellowstone area for several years after Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872. By 1900, the Tukudika were incorporated into the Eastern Shoshone tribe of the Wind River Reservation in central-western Wyoming, and into the Mountain and Lemhi Shoshone and Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation in southeastern Idaho. Once confined to reservations, the Tukudika suffered the partial collapse of their traditional lifeways. Although the Tukudika continued to live traditionally for a generation or two after their removal to reservations, they eventually adapted to the ways of these other tribes, whose own cultural practices had already been altered by their earlier removal to reservations. Today, some Tukudika descendants live on both of the aforementioned reservations. Some of these descendants prefer the name Mountain People to Tukudika or Sheep Eater for its emphasis upon place rather than food source.

In the late 1700s, fur traders traveled the great tributary of the Missouri River, the Yellowstone, in search of Native Americans with whom to trade. They called the river by its French name, “Roche Jaune.” As far as we know, pre-1800 travelers did not observe the hydrothermal activity in this area but they probably learned of these features from Native American acquaintances.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), sent by President Thomas Jefferson to explore the newly acquired lands of the Louisiana Purchase, bypassed Yellowstone. They had heard descriptions of the region, but did not explore the Yellowstone River beyond what is now Livingston, Montana.

A member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, John Colter, left that group during its return journey to join trappers in the Yellowstone area. During his travels, Colter probably skirted the northwest shore of Yellowstone Lake and crossed the Yellowstone River near Tower Fall, where he noted the presence of “Hot Spring Brimstone.”

Not long after Colter’s explorations, the United States became embroiled in the War of 1812, which drew men and money away from exploration of the Yellowstone region. The demand for furs resumed after the war and trappers returned to the Rocky Mountains in the 1820s. Among them was Daniel Potts, who also published the first account of Yellowstone’s wonders as a letter in a Philadelphia newspaper. Osborne Russell also published an account of his fur trapping in and around Yellowstone during the 1830s and early 1840s.

Mountain man Jim Bridger also explored Yellowstone during this time. Like many trappers, Bridger spun tall tales as a form of entertainment around the evening fire. His stories inspired future explorers to travel to see the real thing.

As quickly as it started, the trapper era ended. By the mid-1840s, the market for beaver dropped, and trappers moved on to guiding or other occupations.

During 1863–1871, prospectors crisscrossed the Yellowstone Plateau every year and searching for gold and other precious minerals. Although gold was found nearby, no big strikes were made inside what is now Yellowstone National Park.

Although Yellowstone had been thoroughly tracked by tribes and trappers, in the view of the nation at large it was really “discovered” by a series of formal expeditions. The first organized attempt came in 1860 when Captain William F. Raynolds led a military expedition, but this group was unable to explore the Yellowstone Plateau because of late spring snow. The Civil War preoccupied the government during the next few years. Immediately after the war, several explorations were planned, but none actually got underway.

In August 1870, a second expedition set out for Yellowstone, led by Surveyor-General Henry D. Washburn, Montana politician and businessman Nathaniel P. Langford, and attorney Cornelius Hedges. Lt. Gustavus C. Doane provided military escort from Fort Ellis (near present-day Bozeman, Montana). The explorers traveled to Tower Fall, Canyon, and Yellowstone Lake, followed the lake’s eastern and southern shores, and explored the Lower, Midway, and Upper geyser basins (where they named Old Faithful). They climbed several peaks, descended into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and attempted measurements and analyses of several of the prominent natural features.

Ferdinand V. Hayden, head of the US Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, led the next scientific expedition in 1871, simultaneous with a survey by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

The history of science in Yellowstone formally began with Hayden’s expeditions. Hayden’s 1871 survey team included two botanists, a meteorologist, a zoologist, an ornithologist, a mineralogist, a topographer, and an agricultural statistician/entomologist, in addition to an artist, a photographer, and support staff. The Hayden Survey brought back scientific corroboration of the earlier tales of thermal activity. The expedition gave the world an improved map of Yellowstone and visual proof of the area’s unique curiosities through the photographs of William Henry Jackson and the art of Henry W. Elliot and Thomas Moran. The expedition’s reports excited the scientific community and aroused even more national interest in Yellowstone.

Hayden noted that in terms of scientific value, “The geysers of Iceland…sink into insignificance in comparison with the hot springs of the Yellowstone and Fire-Hole Basins.”

The crowning achievement of the returning expeditions was helping to save Yellowstone from private development. Langford and several of his companions promoted a bill in Washington in late 1871 and early 1872 that drew upon the precedent of the Yosemite Act of 1864, which reserved Yosemite Valley from settlement and entrusted it to the care of the state of California. To permanently close to settlement an expanse of the public domain the size of Yellowstone would depart from the established policy of transferring public lands to private ownership. But the wonders of Yellowstone—shown through Jackson’s photographs, Moran’s paintings, and Elliot’s sketches—had captured the imagination of Congress. Thanks to their reports, the United States Congress established Yellowstone National Park just six months after the Hayden Expedition. On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law. The world’s first national park was born.

The Yellowstone National Park Protection Act says “the headwaters of the Yellowstone River … is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale … and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” In an era of expansion, the federal government had the foresight to set aside land deemed too valuable in natural wonders to develop.

The park’s promoters envisioned Yellowstone National Park would exist at no expense to the government. Nathaniel P. Langford, member of the Washburn Expedition and advocate of the Yellowstone National Park Act, was appointed to the unpaid post of superintendent. (He earned his living elsewhere.) He entered the park at least twice during five years in office—as part of the 1872 Hayden Expedition and to evict a squatter in 1874. Langford did what he could without laws protecting wildlife and other natural features, and without money to build basic structures and hire law enforcement rangers.

Political pressure forced Langford’s removal in 1877. Philetus W. Norris was appointed the second superintendent, and the next year, Congress authorized appropriations “to protect, preserve, and improve the Park.”

Norris constructed roads, built a park headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs, hired the first “gamekeeper,” and campaigned against hunters and vandals. Much of the primitive road system he laid out remains as the Grand Loop Road. Through constant exploration, Norris also added immensely to geographical knowledge of the park.

Norris’s tenure occurred during an era of warfare between the United States and many Native American tribes. To reassure the public that they faced no threat from these conflicts, he promoted the idea that Native Americans shunned this area because they feared the hydrothermal features, especially the geysers. This idea belied evidence to the contrary, but the myth endured.

Norris fell victim to political maneuvering and was removed from his post in 1882. He was succeeded by three ineffectual superintendents who could not protect the park. Even when ten assistant superintendents were authorized to act as police, they failed to stop the destruction of wildlife. Poachers, squatters, woodcutters, and vandals ravaged Yellowstone.

In 1886 Congress refused to appropriate money for ineffective administration.The Secretary of the Interior, under authority given by the Congress, called on the Secretary of War for assistance. On August 20, 1886, the US Army took charge of Yellowstone. The Army strengthened, posted, and enforced regulations in the park. Troops guarded the major attractions and evicted troublemakers, and cavalry patrolled the vast interior.

The most persistent menace came from poachers, whose activities threatened to exterminate animals such as the bison. In 1894, soldiers arrested a man named Ed Howell for slaughtering bison in Pelican Valley. The maximum sentence possible was banishment from the park. Emerson Hough, a well-known journalist, was present at the arrest and wired his report to Forest & Stream , a popular magazine of the time. Its editor, renowned naturalist George Bird Grinnell, helped create a national outcry. Within two months Congress passed the National Park Protection Act, which increased the Army’s authority for protecting park treasures. (This law is known as the Lacey Act, and is the first of two laws with this name.)

Running a park was not the Army’s usual line of work. The troops could protect the park and ensure access, but they could not fully satisfy the visitor’s desire for knowledge. Moreover, each of the 14 other national parks established in the late 1800s and early 1900s was separately administered, resulting in uneven management, inefficiency, and a lack of direction.

National parks clearly needed coordinated administration by professionals attuned to the special requirements of these preserves. The management of Yellowstone from 1872 through the early 1900s helped set the stage for the creation of an agency whose sole purpose was to manage the national parks. Promoters of this idea gathered support from influential journalists, railroads likely to profit from increased park tourism, and members of Congress. The National Park Service Organic Act was passed by Congress and approved by President Woodrow Wilson on August 25, 1916.

Yellowstone’s first rangers, which included veterans of Army service in the park, became responsible for Yellowstone in 1918. The park’s first superintendent under the new National Park Service was Horace M. Albright, who served simultaneously as assistant to Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service. Albright established a management framework that guided administration of Yellowstone for decades.

Almost as soon as the park was established, people began suggesting that the boundaries be revised to conform more closely to natural topographic features, such as the ridgeline of the Absaroka Range along the east boundary. Although these people had the ear of influential politicians, so did their opponents— which at one time included the United States Forest Service. Eventually a compromise was reached, and, in 1929, President Hoover signed the first bill changing the park’s boundaries: The northwest corner now included a significant area of petrified trees; the northeast corner was defined by the watershed of Pebble Creek; the eastern boundary included the headwaters of the Lamar River and part of the watershed of the Yellowstone River. (The Yellowstone’s headwaters remain outside the park in Bridger-Teton National Forest.)

In 1932, President Hoover issued an executive order that added more than 7,000 acres between the north boundary and the Yellowstone River, west of Gardiner. These lands provided winter range for elk and other ungulates.

Efforts to exploit the park also expanded during this time. Water users, from the town of Gardiner to the potato farmers of Idaho, wanted the park’s water. Proposals included damming the southwest corner of the park—the Bechler region. The failure of these schemes confirmed that Yellowstone’s wonders were so special that they should be forever preserved from exploitation.

World War II drew away employees, visitors, and money from all national parks, including Yellowstone. The money needed to maintain the park’s facilities, much less construct new ones, was directed to the war effort. Among other projects, the road from Old Faithful to Craig Pass was unfinished. Proposals again surfaced to use the park’s natural resources—this time in the war effort. As before, the park’s wonders were preserved.

Visitation jumped as soon as the war ended. By 1948, park visitation reached one million people per year. The park’s budget did not keep pace, and the neglect of the war years quickly caught up with the park.

Neglected during World War II, the infrastructure in national parks continued to deteriorate as visitation soared afterward, leading to widespread complaints. In 1955, National Park Service Director Conrad Wirth persuaded Congress to fund an improvement program for completion by the National Park Service’s 50th anniversary in 1966. Although also designed to increase education programs and employee housing, Mission 66 focused mainly on visitor facilities and roads. Trained as an architect, Wirth encouraged the use of modern materials and prefabricated components to quickly and inexpensively construct low-maintenance buildings. This architectural style, which became known as Park Service Modern, was a deliberate departure from the picturesque, rustic buildings associated with national parks; their “fantasy land” quality was considered outmoded and too labor-intensive for the needed scale of construction.

Mission 66 revitalized many national parks; in Yellowstone, intended to be the program’s showpiece, its legacy is still visible. It was a momentous chapter in the park’s history, and as the park continues to reflect changing ideas about how to enhance the visitor experience while protecting the natural and cultural resources, the question of how to preserve the story of Mission 66 is being addressed.

Work in Yellowstone included the development of Canyon Village. Aging visitor use facilities were replaced with modernistic visitor use facilities designed to reflect American attitudes of the 1950s. Visitor services were arranged around a large parking plaza with small cabins a short distance away. The first Mission 66 project initiated by the National Park Service, Canyon Village opened in July 1957.

Until the mid-1960s, park managers actively managed the elk and bison of Yellowstone. Elk population limits were determined according to formulas designed to manage livestock range. When elk reached those limits, park managers “culled” or killed the animals to reduce the population. Bison were likewise heavily managed.

In 1963, a national park advisory group, comprised of prominent scientists, released a report recommending parks “maintain biotic associations” within the context of their ecosystem and based on scientific research.

Yellowstone National Park has 27 associated tribes. Some have evidence of their ancestral presence in Yellowstone National Park through ethnohistoric documentation, interviews with tribal elders, or ongoing consultations. Others are affiliated because of documented spiritual or cultural connection to places or resources. Many park resources remain important to these tribes’ sense of themselves and in maintaining their traditional practices.

In addition, tribes are sovereign nations whose leaders have a legal relationship with the federal government that is not shared by the general public. Consequently, representatives of Yellowstone’s associated tribes participate in consultation meetings with park managers. They bring tribal perspectives to current issues such as bison management. Tribes also comment on park projects that could affect their ethnographic resources.

Change and controversy have occurred in Yellowstone since its inception, in the last three decades many issues have arises involving natural resources.

One issue was the threat of water pollution from a gold mine outside the northeast corner of the park. Among other concerns, the New World Mine would have put waste storage along the headwaters of Soda Butte Creek, which flows into the Lamar River and then the Yellowstone River. After years of public debate, a federal buyout of the mining company was authorized in 1996.

In an effort to resolve other park management issues, Congress passed the National Parks Omnibus Management Act in 1998. This law requires using high quality science from inventory, monitoring, and research to understand and manage park resources.

Park facilities are seeing some improvements due to a change in funding. In 1996, as part of a pilot program, Yellowstone National Park was authorized to increase its entrance fee and retain 80% of the fee for park projects. (Previously, park entrance fees did not specifically fund park projects.) In 2004, the US Congress extended this program until 2015 under the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act. Projects funded in part by this program include a major renovation of Canyon Visitor Education Center, campground and amphitheater upgrades, preservation of rare documents, and studies on bison.

The legacy of those who worked to establish Yellowstone National Park in 1872 was far greater than simply preserving a unique landscape. This one act has led to a lasting concept—the national park idea. This idea conceived wilderness to be the inheritance of all people, who gain more from an experience in nature than from private exploitation of the land.

The national park idea was part of a new view of the nation’s responsibility for the public domain. By the end of the 1800s, many thoughtful people no longer believed that wilderness should be fair game for the first person who could claim and plunder it. They believed its fruits were the rightful possession of all the people, including those yet unborn. Besides the areas set aside as national parks, still greater expanses of land were placed into national forests and other reserves so the United States’ natural wealth—in the form of lumber, grazing, minerals, and recreation lands—would not be consumed at once by the greed of a few, but would perpetually benefit all.

The preservation idea spread around the world. Scores of nations have preserved areas of natural beauty and historical worth so that all humankind will have the opportunity to reflect on their natural and cultural heritage and to return to nature and be spiritually reborn. Of all the benefits resulting from the establishment of Yellowstone National Park, this may be the greatest.

Archeological resources are a key source of information about humans in Yellowstone for nearly the entire time that people have been in the area. Archeological evidence indicates that people began traveling through and using the area that was to become Yellowstone National Park more than 11,000 years ago. Because the intensity of use varies through time as environmental conditions shift, archeological resources also provide a means for interdisciplinary investigations of past climate and biotic change.

Many thermal areas contain evidence that early people camped there. At Obsidian Cliff, a National Historic Landmark, volcanic glass was quarried for the manufacture of tools and ceremonial artifacts that entered a trading network extending from western Canada to the Midwest. (Obsidian from different lava flows can be distinguished from one another other using X-ray fluorescence analysis [XRF].) These remnants of past cultures must be preserved, as they are invaluable in our understanding of early people in the area. Historic archeological sites in Yellowstone reveal Native American activities, early tourist camps and hotels, and events of the 1877 Flight of the Nez Perce, as well as US Army activities.

Although more than 2,000 archeological sites have been documented since the archeology program began in 1995, less than 3% of the park has been inventoried. Most known sites are located in developed areas because archeological resources have been identified as part of National Historic Preservation Act compliance research related to construction, hazard fuel reduction, or other projects. Multiple prehistoric sites throughout the park are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

Condition assessments performed on most of the documented sites found 1,109 were in good condition, 467 are fair, 209 are in poor condition, and 250 lack condition data. Twenty-four of the sites no longer exist because of two sites being combined into one, natural erosion, damage from the historic 2022 flood, or disturbance as a result of construction or other authorized activity. Excavations have been conducted at some sites where archeological remains are especially vulnerable to disturbance or loss through erosion or illegal collecting.

Prehistoric sites contain projectile points, knives, scrapers, abraders, and other tools, and concentrations of burned and butchered animal bone. Radiocarbon dating is used to establish the age of organic artifacts such as charcoal or bone. Organic materials (wood, bone, basketry, textiles) rarely persist in the Yellowstone environment because of the acidic, thermally influenced soils. However, ice patches in the park can and do preserve fragile organic artifacts. These perishable artifacts complement the oral histories of indigenous peoples as well as an archaeological record of abundant stone tools and manufacturing debris.

Stone artifacts provide most of the chronological information on Yellowstone’s prehistory. Most of the stone tools are associated with a particular time period based on distinctive stylistic characteristics, which define a point type. These include some knives, such as Cody knives, or projectile points, such as spear and dart points, as well as arrowheads. At several locations in the park, campsites from distinct periods of indigenous use spanning more than 9,600 years are layered upon each other starting at five feet below the surface. These occupations reveal how tool manufacture and lifeways changed in this region through time.

The earliest evidence of humans in Yellowstone are two 11,500 to 10,900-year-old Clovis-type spear points found near Yellowstone Lake and north near the Yellowstone River. Later, projectile point types increase, both in number and the variety of types (style), which may indicate an increase in the number and diversity of peoples using the area. Most documented sites in the park date to the Archaic period (8,000–1,500 years ago), suggesting that may have been the most intense period of use by pre-park peoples. Recent archeological surveys have identified a large number of sites dating to later periods in prehistory (approximately 1400–1800 CE). Distinguishing use of these sites by different ethnic groups or specific tribes, however, has not yet been possible.

Archeological resources can inform us about paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and the human response to climate change over the past 11,500 years. Long-term climate data suggest current temperature rise and precipitation contribute to longer annual droughts and shorter wet seasons. Given changing environmental conditions, in 2016 the park embarked on a ten-year project to assess wildfire impacts on archeological resources, including those impacted by the historic 2016 Maple Fire and Tatanka Fire Complex. Data indicate sites subjected to intense heat and loss of vegetation are more susceptible to post-fire erosion, flooding, and other landscape processes which expose or threaten archeological resources.

Archeologists have completed intensive inventories across several river valleys that served as transportation corridors for many pre-park peoples. Newly identified sites include prehistoric quarries, campsites, and lithic scatters dating to between 11,500 and 300 years ago, as well as historical period quarries, campsites, and refuse dumps. These prehistoric sites are increasing our understanding of how early humans procured and used obsidian across the park. Most sites in the northern portion of the park show a heavy reliance on Obsidian Cliff materials and chert, a cryptocrystalline sedimentary rock. Materials from smaller obsidian sources in the park were locally used, supplementing the Obsidian Cliff toolstone. However, along the Lewis and Snake rivers a more diverse range of materials was used. Obsidian was primarily locally sourced from nearby Warm Spring, Teton Pass, and Park Point quarries, while orthoquartzite, a classic sedimentary rock, was the most common material used for manufacturing tools.

The majority of historical archeological sites in the park are associated with tourism in some manner. Examining these types of sites help us trace the park’s history. Tourism is directly connected to larger social and economic changes occurring across America, including widespread settlement of the American West, and the increasing shift towards a globally integrated economy.

Refuse dumps, also known as trash middens, are important sources of information, as they contain a variety of artifacts which provide insight into people living and working in the park. In 2019, archeological fieldwork near Lake Lodge revealed over 450 artifacts dating to the late nineteenth/early twentieth century associated with meals, such as ceramic tableware, utensils, drinking glasses beverage bottles, and butchered animal bone. The various types and qualities of goods, reflected through artifact collections, grant us a unique view of leisure and tourism development in Yellowstone over the past 140 years, a viewpoint that is unavailable in most other places in North America.

Cultural landscapes are settings that human beings have created in the natural world. They are geographic areas that have been shaped by human manipulation of natural and cultural resources and are associated with historic events, people, or activities in the park. They reflect significance of the historic setting and recognize the influence of human beliefs and actions over time on the natural landscape. A cultural landscape is an indicator of cultural patterns, values, and heritage through the way the land is organized and divided, patterns of settlement, land use, circulation, and the types of structures that are built and their placement in the landscape.

Yellowstone National Park contains an array of landscapes that reflect the park’s history, development patterns, and a changing relationship between people and the unique Yellowstone environment. In Yellowstone, these landscapes are often a physical record of the early and ongoing efforts to balance resource preservation and facility development for public enjoyment. They include sites such as Artist Point and Apollinaris Spring and the landscape features and patterns that contribute to the character of the Roosevelt Lodge Historic District. They also include areas significant to Native American cultures, such as Obsidian Cliff and sacred sites. Yellowstone’s cultural landscapes are being inventoried to identify landscapes eligible for the National Register and to ensure new undertakings are compatible with them.

The road construction that began in Yellowstone in the 1870s became the United States’ first large-scale road plan and served as a model for other parks, especially in its use of local materials. Even after Yellowstone could be reached by train in 1883, the difficulty of transport and road construction in a geologically and climatically challenging terrain required enormous labor and innovative engineering. The development of a road system was essential in making Yellowstone more accessible to the public. Over the years, advances in road standards and construction technology have led to changes in the roads’ appearance, but the overall design has remained largely intact, along with many historical features such as bridges, culverts, and guardrails.

The 300-mile, figure-eight road system that connects Yellowstone’s five entrances, developed areas, and major attractions remains largely the same as when engineer Major Hiram Chittenden finished his work on it in 1905. Through his role in designing Yellowstone’s roads, bridges, and other structures, Chittenden had a lasting effect on the appearance of our national parks. While stating that they should be maintained “as nearly as possible in their natural condition, unchanged by the hand of man,” he would use masonry and add or remove trees and other landscaping so that “the roads will themselves be made one of the interesting features of this interesting region.”

Throughout the park, he replaced many wooden bridges with steel or concrete. His most difficult project was the replacement of the rickety trestle at Golden Gate with a 200-foot viaduct, a series of 11 concrete arches built into the cliff wall over a canyon. In 1902 he persuaded Congress to make the appropriation needed to complete the park’s road system. This included some of Chittenden’s signature achievements: the road over Sylvan Pass, the road to Mount Washburn (now called Chittenden Road), and the bridge over the Yellowstone River above the Upper Falls, which at last provided a means of getting to the east bank of the river without going all the way north to Baronett’s bridge. Over the years, the Golden Gate viaduct had to be reconstructed, and the bridge over the Yellowstone River was condemned in 1959. A campaign to preserve the original bridge by building the new Chittenden Memorial Bridge in a different place was thwarted by the discovery that Chittenden had used the only logical location.

Before leaving Yellowstone in 1906, Chittenden was also responsible for overseeing the redesign of the park’s north entrance, including construction of the arch and, through irrigation, fertilization, and the planting of alfalfa, transforming 50 acres adjacent to Gardiner into a green field that would provide winter forage for pronghorn and other game animals. Today, efforts are being made to restore the field to its natural condition, but the Roosevelt Arch endures.

At first, travel to and within the park was difficult. Visitors had to transport themselves or patronize a costly transportation enterprise. In the park, they found only a few places for food and lodging. Access improved in 1883 when the Northern Pacific Railroad reached Cinnabar, Montana, a town near the north entrance.

A typical tour began when visitors descended from the train in Cinnabar, boarded large “tally ho” stagecoaches, and headed up the scenic Gardner Canyon to Mammoth Hot Springs. After checking into the hotel, they toured the hot springs. For the next four days, they bounced along in passenger coaches called “Yellowstone wagons,” which had to be unloaded at steep grades. Each night visitors enjoyed a warm bed and a lavish meal at a grand hotel.

These visitors carried home unforgettable memories of experiences and sights, and they wrote hundreds of accounts of their trips. They recommended the tour to their friends, and each year more came to Yellowstone to see its wonders. When the first automobile entered in 1915, Yellowstone truly became a national park, accessible to anyone who could afford a car.

The Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District has statewide significance as the administrative and concession headquarters of the largest national park in Wyoming. Park managers here developed significant conservation policies that greatly influenced the nascent National Park Service. It is also significant for its architecture, which includes Colonial Revival, Rustic, Prairie, Art Moderne, French Renaissance, and English Tudor styles.

The district contains 189 buildings, 2 sites (Mammoth Hot Springs Campground and Fort Yellowstone Parade Ground), and 1 object (flagpole). Of these, 35 buildings also contribute to the significance of the overlapping Fort Yellowstone National Landmark , as does one structure (Fort Yellowstone Powerhouse) and one site (Fort Yellowstone Parade Ground). These remain from the 1890s and early 1900s when the US Army administered the park. They reflect the layout and architecture of a typical western army fort of the nineteenth century.

The origins of the building at the edge of Fort Yellowstone that became known as the mail carrier’s house are a matter of debate, but it is significant as the only 1800s log structure still standing in Mammoth Hot Springs. Its rustic style is more typical of construction of the area and time than are the buildings put up by the US Army for Fort Yellowstone. It was probably built in the mid-1890s, and over the years it has provided quarters for mail carriers as well as employees of concessions and the National Park Service.

When mail delivery was not yet provided in rural areas, mail carriers delivered the mail from railroad distribution points to post offices, where people traveled, often from many miles away, to pick up their mail, their only link to the rest of the world. In the 1800s, a mail carrier was contracted to transport mail from the railroad station in Livingston, Montana, to Mammoth Hot Springs and then to Cooke City, Montana, before returning to Livingston, a trip of several days’ duration.

The cabin was either built by or later sold to an early park concession, the Yellowstone Park Association. A lean-to with a shed roof was built onto the back of the two-room structure in about 1903 to serve as a kitchen and dining area. In the 1930s, a mudroom and bathroom were added to the north side of the building, bringing the total square footage to 512. In the early 2000s, removal of the insulation added to the walls and ceilings in the 1930s exposed a layer of newspapers beneath, announcing the 1903 flight of the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk.

In 1972, the building, then owned by a park concessioner, was “in a state of general deterioration.” Historic structure experts recommended that the vacant house be demolished because they doubted that it “could serve any useful function” that would justify the “great cost” of restoration. However, the house was listed on the National Register in 1982. Despite the building’s poor condition, it continued to house park staff for another two decades.

Yellowstone’s main post office was one of 1,007 post offices constructed from 1935 to 1938 “with a view to relieving countrywide unemployment.” Using standardized plans developed from guidelines provided by the Treasury Department, these post offices were built in sizes and styles that reflect transitions in architectural design and the context of the communities in which the offices were located. The Yellowstone Post Office is a concrete building with a hipped roof in the French Renaissance Moderne style, compatible with the Art Moderne style ornament on the nearby Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, which was partially rebuilt in 1936. The post office lobby has walls of travertine from a quarry outside the park’s north entrance.

The Yellowstone post office was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 with 11 other Wyoming post offices built from 1908 to 1939. The buildings were said to “record the evolution of both the political/economic philosophies and the design philosophies of the federal government” during a period when building design was used “to provide a symbol of the monumental presence of the federal government in its post offices.”

The road (five miles in length) from the park’s boundary at Gardiner, Montana, to its headquarters at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, was built in 1884. The arch constructed over the road became known as Roosevelt Arch because President Theodore Roosevelt, who happened to be vacationing in the park, spoke at the ceremony to lay the cornerstone in 1903. The plaque on the arch is inscribed with a phrase from the legislation that established Yellowstone National Park: “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.” Today it would be considered inappropriate to embellish the park’s landscape with such a conspicuous, non-functional structure, but Roosevelt Arch continues to serve as a historical marker for a time when cultural values called for a monumental entrance to Yellowstone.

The Roosevelt Arch is in the North Entrance Road Historic District and is part of the Fort Yellowstone Historic Landmark District. The structure was conceived by US Engineer Hiram Chittenden; Robert Reamer may have contributed to the design, and architect N.J. Ness also worked on it.

The Old Faithful Historic District, which includes the inn and many of the surrounding buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. Like the inn, the district is historically significant because of its rustic architecture and its role in the development of concessions to accommodate growing tourism in the early 1900s. The Old Faithful Lodge, located near the Inn, reached its present configuration in 1928 after numerous changes. The consolidation into one complex was designed by Gilbert Stanley Underwood, a famous architect.

After the only hotel in the Upper Geyser Basin burned down in 1894, park officials pressured the Yellowstone Park Association, which held the lease on the property, to replace it with something more substantial. In 1902 the president of the concession, Harry Childs, obtained financing from the Northern Pacific Railroad for a new structure, the first parts of which would become known as the Old House. The lobby, rising six stories beneath a steeply sloped roof, was flanked by a dining room and two three-story wings containing guest rooms.

The Old Faithful Inn opened in 1904, and was equipped with electric lighting, but Reamer designed the light fixtures to look like candlesticks. Both the electricity and the radiators were fueled by a steam generator. Evening meals were accompanied by a string quartet, and dancing was customary six nights a week. The east wing was added in 1919 and the west wing was added in 1927, both under Reamer’s supervision and bringing the inn’s total number of guest rooms to about 340.

The August 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake shook the Old House from its foundation and damaged the roof and chimneys, but no guests were seriously injured, and after closing early for the winter, the inn opened the following summer. Another evacuation took place in September 1988 when the North Fork Fire destroyed some small buildings nearby, but the Old Faithful Inn was preserved with the help of firefighters, roof sprinklers installed the previous year, and a shift in wind direction.

The Old Faithful Inn was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. A major renovation program of the Old House was launched in 2004 to meet current building codes and restore the lobby so that it more closely replicates Reamer’s original design. The walls and roof were reinforced with steel to make the structure more seismically stable, and electrical, plumbing, and heating systems were replaced and made less conspicuous. With the completion of this program, the Old Faithful Inn is considered to be in good condition.

On a sinter slope in the Lower Geyser Basin miles from any other structure, the bathhouse at Queen’s Laundry spring was one of two buildings constructed by Superintendent Philetus Norris in 1881. It is the only building that remains from the first era of civilian park administration (1872–1886) and the first building in a national park constructed by the government for public use. According to its National Register listing, the Queen’s Laundry bathhouse represents the “earliest recognition that providing for visitor accommodation was a legitimate use of federal funds within a National Park.” It also turned out to be the first step toward what became a conflict between accommodating visitors and leaving the park’s thermal features intact.

The roofless bathhouse is located on the edge of a sinter mound formed by the Queen’s Laundry (hot spring), where deposition from the pool’s run-off has engulfed it. The pine logs used to construct the building have been partially preserved by the silica and other minerals from the water that has permeated them. There is no evidence of a floor, but it may be buried beneath the silica deposits.

The Roosevelt Lodge Historic District, which includes 130 buildings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983, with a period of significance from 1906 to 1948. The accommodations are still rustic, with unpaved roads into and around the lodge and cabins. Although the Grand Loop Road can be seen from the corral, which is not part of the historic district, it is obscured from view of the lodge and most of the cabins by a stand of mature trees.

The area has undergone intermittent expansion and changes as visitor use has changed and facilities have aged over the years. The architectural appearance of the original lodge is retained only in the interior and exterior of the front portion (the lounge and dining room); the other sections of the building have been modified. The interior has become congested with multiple activities, some of which were not part of the original building—a bar, vending machines, gift shop, and offices.

In 2009, the National Park Service completed an environmental assessment for the Tower–Roosevelt area to set limits on the kind, location, and amount of development that will occur there in order to protect the area’s natural resources and preserve its historical character, including the rustic architecture of Roosevelt Lodge and the small cabins, the arrangement of the lodge and cabins around a grassy meadow, and the view from the lodge porch across the meadow to the distant mountains. The plan also called for pulling the parking lot away to improve views and reduce congestion near the lodge, which was accomplished in 2021.

Indians, fur trappers, and explorers on the Bannock Trail camped in this area where a sagebrush meadow was encircled by Douglas fir, quaking aspen, and a mountain stream tumbled toward the Yellowstone River. President Chester Arthur camped here in 1883. In 1906, the Wylie Permanent Camping Company built a tent camp there that became known as “Camp Roosevelt,” though Theodore Roosevelt never camped there. The tents were replaced by a lodge and cabins in the 1920s, and the Lost Creek has shifted course, but people still enjoy staying at this scenic spot on the park’s northern range.

Camp Roosevelt’s location provided an overnight stop for visitors traveling between Mammoth Hot Springs and Canyon. As at other Wylie camps, guests slept in striped tents with wood floors, gathered at a larger tent for communal meals and sing-alongs, and were transported around the park in the Wylie company’s vehicles. The successor to the Wylie company, the Yellowstone Park Camping Company, built the park’s first and smallest lodge at Camp Roosevelt in 1919. The lodges were built to accommodate the increasing number of visitors arriving in their own automobiles who wanted something more than a tent but less expensive and formal than the park’s hotels. During the 1920s and 1930s, the old hotels often stood empty while the new lodges overflowed with visitors.

At Camp Roosevelt, the concessioners wanted to create the atmosphere of a dude ranch, and Superintendent Horace Albright described it as “a place visitors would like to stay indefinitely.” It did provide a base for fishing parties and saddle-horse trips, but it was also expected to serve as a field laboratory where teachers and their students could conduct research at minimum expense, a purpose that the first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, was promoting for the parks. In what was a forerunner to the educational programs found in the parks today, the National Park Service hired H.S. Conard, a naturalist at Grinnell College, to present lectures and conduct daily field trips for Camp Roosevelt visitors and collect botanical specimens for the park museum. Scientists based at the hotel conducted studies on the park’s wildlife. From 1921 to 1923, the lodge was the headquarters for a boy’s summer camp run by Alvin Whitney of the New York State School of Forestry at Syracuse University.

The lodge, constructed of unpeeled logs and completed in 1920, was originally surrounded by 43 small log cabins, the first of which were completed in 1922. Over the years, the Roosevelt Lodge area became a repository for guest cabins brought from areas in the park where they were no longer wanted. By 1982, the corral had been moved farther from the cabins, of which there were now 110 of four main types.

The museums at Fishing Bridge, Madison Junction, and Norris Geyser Basin were designated National Historic Landmarks in 1987 because their exaggerated features and organic forms exemplify rustic design in the national parks and served as models for hundreds of park buildings constructed during work relief programs of the 1930s. As envisioned by the chairman of the American Association of Museums, Hermon Bumpus, they also established the idea of “trailside museums’’ where visitors could learn about an area within a park. Bumpus regarded national parks as “roofless museums of nature” with unlabeled exhibits and the trailside museum as the place to provide the labels.

Designed by Herbert Maier in a style that became known as “Parkitecture,” the museums have the battered rubble masonry and clipped gables of a traditional bungalow style, but use locally available materials left in their natural condition to reflect the scale and roughness of the landscape. The asymmetrical boulders and gnarled logs display the irregularities of nature. Maier, who also designed museums for Grand Canyon and Yosemite, regarded buildings in national parks as “necessary evils” because even the best was “somewhat of an intruder.” Their National Register nomination described the trailside museums as “a perfect solution for an architecture appropriate to the outdoors: informal through the use of natural materials and horizontal lines,” but with “a strength of design and heavy-handed expressions” that “suggested the smallness of man in relation to nature.”

In 1928, Yellowstone Superintendent Horace Albright proposed the construction of “small local museums” to provide visitors with information that would “make their sojourn educationally as well as recreationally profitable.” With a grant from a foundation set up by John D. Rockefeller and the guidance of Dr. Bumpus, the American Association of Museums built four such museums in Yellowstone.

The Museum of Thermal Activity, constructed at Old Faithful in 1929, was razed and replaced by a visitor center in 1971. It opened in 1929 to acclaim for its quality materials and construction, and for the way it blended into its surroundings. The exteriors of the other museums have changed little since their completion by 1932, but the interiors have undergone small and large alterations in design and use.

In a 1942 report, park naturalist Bert Long pointed out that “due to lack of funds,” there were “many obvious gaps and inadequately told phases” of the Yellowstone story as told in its museums, and that many of the exhibits contained obsolete scientific theories. “Every attempt should be made to include in each museum information pointing out what there is to do of a recreational nature in its surroundings,” Long urged. “Get the people out of their cars, on the trails to the features and half the battle is more than won.” The difficulty of funding and keeping exhibits up to date has not lessened over the years, nor has the goal of getting people out of their cars changed, but the efforts to do so have. Only the Norris Geyser Basin Museum still has its original name.

Now called the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center, the building was designed so that visitors approaching from the parking lot could see through it to Yellowstone Lake, where stone steps lead down to the shore. In 1933, Superintendent Roger Toll complained that the irregular steps at the Norris and Fishing Bridge museums were “unsatisfactory for the considerable number of people that use these museums.” He asked the park’s landscape architect to “take advantage of this experience and not use any more native stone for the treads in park buildings.” Some of the stone steps at the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center have been replaced by rounded concrete steps and a ramp for accessibility.

Antlers, rams’ horns, and bighorn sheep skulls still decorate the two wrought-iron chandeliers, but they were removed from the log frame around the screen in the adjacent amphitheater, where the original log seats were replaced with thick plank seats. No longer used, the fireplace beneath the large stone chimney is concealed from public view in a small area used for offices. During 2021–2022, linoleum tiles were removed to reveal the original scored concrete floor, and plywood covers were removed to reveal original windows that had been covered to accommodate shelving in the book sales area. The museum display cases (many designed and built by Dr. Carl Russell) were also rebuilt to accommodate shatter proof glass and reinstalled.

The open foyer through the middle of the Norris Museum still functions as the visitor’s gateway to the Norris Geyser Basin. One of the two rooms on either side of the foyer originally contained bird specimens; both now have exhibits explaining geothermal activity and life in thermal areas. In 2020, the exhibits were updated, windows uncovered, and a removeable ramp was installed. Also designed by Maier with rustic architectural features, the nearby comfort station was converted to a Yellowstone Forever bookstore after a larger restroom of more contemporary style was built closer to the parking area.

Overlooking a meadow beyond which the Gibbon and Firehole rivers join to form the Madison River, the Madison Museum was intended to focus on park history, especially the nearby site where the 1870 Washburn expedition was thought to have originated the idea of a national park as a way to protect the thermal areas from commercial development. In accordance with Bumpus’s vision of the museum’s “function as a national monument,” a large glass transparency created from a 1930 photograph was placed prominently in a window where the light shone through a re-enactment of the Washburn party gathered around a campfire.

In 1940, a park naturalist suggested that the main room’s floor, made of large, uneven pieces of rhyolite, should be covered with oak or pine to “avoid possible hazards to visitors from stumbling falls” and make it easier to clean. That did not happen, but when the building was transformed into the “Explorers’ Museum” as part of Yellowstone’s 1972 centennial celebration, carpeting and track lighting were installed, the wood stove that used to heat the building was removed, and the exhibits were redesigned.

In acknowledgement of evidence long put forth by historian Aubrey Haines that refuted the “campfire story,” the re-enactment transparency and references to the Washburn party’s role in establishing the first national park were removed from the museum. However, in deference to Albright, still influential in retirement, and National Park Service officials who would not abandon the story, the purported campfire discussion was commemorated in a sign placed outside the museum: “…there emerged an idea...that there should be no private ownership of these wonders but that the area should be preserved for public enjoyment.”

The Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District includes Fort Yellowstone, where 35 structures remain from the 1890s and early 1900s when the US Army administered the park. Significant conservation policies were developed here that led to the origin of the National Park Service. The Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District has statewide significance as the administrative and concession headquarters of the largest national park in Wyoming. Fort Yellowstone is also listed as a National Historic Landmark District, the highest designation.

The nationally significant Fort Yellowstone-Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District is in the northwestern portion of Yellowstone National Park on an old hot springs formation. The buildings on this plateau represent the first development of administrative and concession facilities in the park.

For the decade after 1872 when Yellowstone National Park was established, the park was under serious threat from those who would exploit, rather than protect, its resources. Poachers killed animals. Souvenir hunters broke large pieces off the geysers and hot springs. Developers set up camps for tourists, along with bath and laundry facilities at hot springs. Civilian superintendents were hired to preserve and protect this land from 1872 through 1886. The good intentions of these early administrators, however, were no match for their lack of experience, funds and manpower. Word got back to Congress that the park was in trouble and legislators refused to appropriate any funds for the park's administration in 1886.

Invoking the Sundry Civil Act of 1883, the Secretary of the Interior called upon the Secretary of War for assistance in protecting the park. The Army came to the rescue and in 1886 men from Company M, First United States Cavalry, Fort Custer , Montana Territory under Captain Moses Harris came to Yellowstone to begin what would be more than 30 years of military presence in Yellowstone .

When Company M arrived in August 1886, they lived in temporary frame buildings at Camp Sheridan , established at the foot of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces. After enduring five cold, harsh winters, the cavalry realized there was no end in sight to this assignment. Therefore, in 1890, Congress appropriated $50,000 for a permanent post.

In 1891, the first building to be constructed was the guard house because it directly coincided with the Cavalry's mission—protection and management.

There were three stages of construction at Fort Yellowstone. The first set of clapboard buildings were built in 1891, the second set in 1897 as the Fort expanded to a two-troop fort, and, finally, the stone buildings were built in 1909 making the fort's capacity 400 men or four troops.

As more troops were needed, more buildings were constructed: officers' quarters, guard house, headquarters, barracks for enlisted men, stables for their horses and non-commissioned officers' quarters.

In 1909, Scottish masons began constructing sandstone buildings here - among them the Albright Visitor Center (then the Bachelor Officers' Quarters) and the administration building (then a two-troop barracks for 200 men). The Chapel, the final building constructed during the Army's tenure, was also constructed of native sandstone. The stone from these buildings was obtained from a local quarry between the Gardner River and the Mammoth Campground.

In 1910, at the height of the Army's presence in Yellowstone, there were 324 soldiers stationed here - plus some families and numerous civilian employees. These troops staffed not only Fort Yellowstone, but were stationed throughout the park in small details at various outposts.

By 1916, the National Park Service was established and the US Army moved out. In 1917, The Army returned and finished their duty completely in 1918. Since that time, historic Fort Yellowstone has been Yellowstone's headquarters.

The entrance station and ranger residence at Yellowstone’s northeast entrance were constructed in 1935 in a rustic style that was becoming emblematic of national park architecture. According to its listing as a National Historic Landmark in 1987, the entrance station “subconsciously reinforced the visitor’s sense of the western frontier and the wilderness he was about to enter. The building was not only the physical boundary, but the psychological boundary between the rest of the world and what was set aside as a permanently wild place.” The station is considered “the best of its type remaining in the National Park System.”

The entrance station was constructed with two traffic lanes passing through it. When it became necessary to accommodate the increasing number of recreation vehicles too tall to fit in the passage, a lane was added to each side of the building rather than alter it. These drivers must walk around to the checking station office, but the system is workable because of the relatively low volume of traffic at the entrance.

The station is currently considered to be in good condition. Extensive rehabilitation of the entrance station in 1984 repaired log ends with epoxy and replaced log rafters and the roof. The oakum rope chinking remains. Two street lights and a flagpole were added, and concrete bollards were placed on the east and west side to prevent vehicles from driving into the building. The interior of the checking station has undergone little change over the years. Although the original plans called for earth floors, the rooms have concrete floors that were probably poured sometime after construction. The original wood stove that heated the central portion of the station was replaced with an oil stove in the same location.

As leaders in concessions development in Yellowstone from 1884 to 1962, Frank Jay Haynes and his son Jack Ellis Haynes constructed many buildings for their enterprises. Among the few that remain, the stores at Old Faithful (1927) and in Mammoth Hot Springs (1929) were most important to the primary Haynes business of taking, developing, and selling photographs. By helping Yellowstone gain international recognition for its natural wonders, the Haynes’ photography promoted both tourism in the West and the idea of a national park.

The Old Faithful building is an example of the rustic style that was becoming popular in western parks, while the Mammoth building displays a transitional architectural style influenced by the Crafts movement, a departure from more traditional revival styles prevalent in Mammoth that was unrelated to the rustic architecture prevalent elsewhere in the park.

F. Jay Haynes first photographed Yellowstone National Park in 1881 to publicize the Northern Pacific Railroad. Encouraged by Superintendent Philetus Norris, who wanted to promote park visitation, Haynes built stores on land leased in Mammoth Hot Springs in 1884 and at Old Faithful in 1897. After he retired, his son Jack took over the business, and in 1927 built stores, called photo or picture shops, in the Mammoth and Fishing Bridge campgrounds, and a larger facility near what was then the Old Faithful Auto Camp. Eventually, 13 Haynes stores were opened in hotels or their own buildings.

The 1927 Old Faithful store, designed and constructed in two months by contractor George Larkin, had living quarters on the second floor over a photo finishing operation as well as a retail shop. A two-story dormitory for Haynes employees was added in 1951, and an addition to the rear of the building several years later.

The Mammoth Hot Springs facility, designed by Fred Willson and completed in 1929, served as the headquarters for the Haynes photographic business in the park. It included a dormitory, an overnight photo finishing service, and retail space that carried an assortment of photographs, books, camera film and other supplies. The drive-through canopy acknowledged the growing influence of the automobile on architectural design.

Jack Haynes operated the family business until his death in 1962. After running the company for another five years, his wife Isabel sold it to Hamilton Stores, owned by the Povah family. After most of the Old Faithful building was moved in three pieces and reconfigured near the newly constructed Snow Lodge in 1971, Hamilton Stores renovated the dormitory and added a front porch. Nearly all of the exterior materials on the original store are still present or have been replaced in-kind. By 1998, the original Snow Lodge had been razed and a new Snow Lodge opened immediately adjacent to the Hamilton Store.

When the Hamilton Stores contract expired in 1999, the National Park Service purchased the buildings at Old Faithful and Mammoth. The Old Faithful store detracted from the appearance of the new Snow Lodge, and after considering several alternatives, in 2009 the National Park Service dismantled the dormitory and moved the original portion of the building to a site near its original location. The building is now the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage Center and Yellowstone Forever bookstore. Its former site has been landscaped as public open space.

Except for the stairway, nearly all of the exterior materials in the Mammoth building are original. Finishes and fixtures in the kitchen and bathrooms date from the 1950s to the 1970s; most of the other interior materials are original.

Yellowstone’s abundant and diverse wildlife are as famous as its geysers. There are nearly 300 species of birds, 16 species of fish, five species of amphibians, six species of reptiles, and 67 species of mammals—including seven native ungulate species and two bear species.

Habitat preferences and seasonal cycles of movement determine, in a general sense, where a particular animal may be at a particular time. Early morning and evening hours are when animals tend to be feeding and are more easily seen. But remember that the numbers and variety of animals you see are largely a matter of luck and coincidence.

It helps to know the habits and migration patterns of the animals you want to see and the habitats in which they live. For example, bighorn sheep are adapted to live on steep terrain, so you might see them on cliffs in the Tower area. Osprey eat fish, so you would expect to see them along rivers. Bison graze on grasses and sedges, and mate in August, so you are likely to see them in big, noisy herds in the Hayden and Lamar valleys.

Hydrothermal basins provide important habitat for wildlife. For example, some bison live in the Old Faithful area yearround. In the winter, they take advantage of the warm ground and thin snow cover. Both black and grizzly bears visit these areas during the spring when winter-killed animals are available. Rangers at the visitor centers can tell you where wildlife have been seen recently.

Wild animals, especially females with young, are unpredictable and dangerous. Keep a safe distance from all wildlife. Each year a number of park visitors are injured by wildlife when approaching too closely. Approaching on foot within 100 yards (91 m) of bears or wolves, or within 25 yards (23 m) of other wildlife is prohibited. Please use roadside pullouts when viewing wildlife. Use binoculars or telephoto lenses for safe viewing and to avoid disturbing wildlife.

By being sensitive to its needs, you will see more of an animal’s natural behavior and activity. If you cause an animal to move, you are too close. It is illegal to willfully remain near or approach wildlife, including birds, within any distance that disturbs or displaces the animal.

Records of bird sightings have been kept in Yellowstone since its establishment in 1872. These records document nearly 300 species of birds to date, including raptors, songbirds, shorebirds, and waterfowl. Approximately 150 species nest in the park. The variation in elevation, terrains, and vegetative communities support habitats for a relatively high diversity of birds. Many of the birds are migratory species with approximately 50 species residing in the park year-round. There are currently no federally listed bird species known to breed in Yellowstone National Park.

The Yellowstone National Park bird program monitors a small portion of its breeding bird species to gather information on reproduction, abundance, and habitat use. Data are collected on multiple species from a wide variety of taxonomic groups and have been maintained for 40 or more years for several species. Long-term monitoring efforts help inform park staff of potential shifts in ecosystem function, e.g., climate change effects, for Yellowstone’s bird community and may guide future conservation of the park’s birds and their habitats.

The Yellowstone National Park bird program monitors the park’s bird species, including species of concern. The program’s core activities are monitoring raptors (bald eagles, ospreys, peregrine falcons, golden eagles), wetland birds, and passerine/near passerine birds (songbirds and woodpeckers).

The timing of availble food sources for birds may change with rising temperatures and changing weather patterns. Birds are sensitive to shifts in seasonal weather patterns and show a relatively rapid response to these fluctuations. For example, climate change has been shown to influence migration patterns, population size and distribution, the timing of reproduction, and nesting success for birds. Through monitoring, birds can be used as environmental health indicators to help managers detect changes in ecosystem function and, if necessary, take appropriate management action.

The Yellowstone bird program monitors the spring arrival of species to the park, as well as the timing of nest initiation and fledging for several raptor species, which may be useful in observing the effects of climate change in Yellowstone.

Birds should be viewed from a distance . Getting too close can stress a bird (as it can any animal) and sometimes cause the bird to abandon its nest. The use of audio bird calls (or any other wildlife call) is illegal in the park. Never feed birds or other park wildlife.

Breeding bird surveys are a continent-wide monitoring effort coordinated by the US Geological Survey, the Canadian Wildlife Service’s Research Center, and Mexico’s National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (CONABIO). Since the 1980s, Yellowstone National Park has participated in these long-term surveys conducted throughout North America. The surveys are road-based with the registered observer recording all birds seen and heard within a quarter mile radius; survey points occur every half mile. Surveys conducted in June, during the height of the songbird breeding season, occur on three routes: Mammoth (Indian Creek to Tower Junction), Northeast Entrance (Tower Junction to Round Prairie), and the Yellowstone Route (Dunraven Pass to Mary Bay).

In 2018, surveyors detected more than 3,100 individuals of 82 species. The greatest species diversity (55) and individual bird abundance (2,254) were observed along the Yellowstone route through the interior. Large flocks of Canada geese along the Yellowstone River accounted for 75% of all observations along the interior route. Canada goose numbers were relatively stable from 1987 to 2010, after which they increased substantially.

The vegetation communities of Yellowstone National Park include overlapping combinations of species typical of the Rocky Mountains as well as of the Great Plains to the east and the Intermountain region to the west. The exact vegetation community present in any area of the park reflects the consequences of the underlying geology, ongoing climate change, substrates and soils, and disturbances created by fire, floods, landslides, blowdowns, insect infestations, and the arrival of nonnative plants.

Today, the roughly 1,491 native taxa in the park represent the 1,404 species that have historically persisted in the area that recolonized after glaciers, lava flows, and other major disturbances.Yellowstone is home to three endemic plant species, at least two of which depend on the unusual habitat created by the park’s thermal features. Most vegetation management in the park is focused on minimizing human-caused impacts on their native plant communities to the extent feasible.

There are several vegetation communities in Yellowstone: higher- and lower-elevation forests and the understory vegetation associated with them, sagebrush-steppe, wetlands, and hydrothermal.

Source: NPS DataStore Collection 7854 . To search for additional information, visit the NPS DataStore .

Yellowstone’s wetlands include lakes, rivers, ponds, streams, seeps, marshes, fens, wet meadows, forested wetlands, and hydrothermal pools.

Fascinating and unique plant communities have developed in the expanses of thermally heated ground.

Wildflowers can grow under the forest canopy, but the most conspicuous displays occur in open meadows and sagebrush-steppe.

The Greater Yellowstone region has few endemic plant species, or species that occur only in Yellowstone and nowhere else in the world. Endemic species occur in unusual or specialized habitats such as hydrothermal areas. Within Yellowstone, only three endemic species occur: Ross’s bentgrass ( Agrostis rossiae ), Yellowstone sand verbena ( Abronia ammophila ), and Yellowstone sulfur wild buckwheat ( Eriogonum umbellatum var. cladophorum ).

At 3,437.5 square miles (8,903 km2),Yellowstone National Park forms the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem—one of the largest nearly intact temperate-zone ecosystems on Earth. Greater Yellowstone’s diversity of natural wealth includes hydrothermal features, wildlife, vegetation, lakes, and geologic wonders like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 primarily to protect geothermal areas that contain about half the world’s active geysers. At that time, the natural state of the park was largely taken for granted. As development throughout the West increased, the 2.2 million acres (8,903 km2) of habitat that now compose Yellowstone National Park became an important sanctuary for the largest concentration of wildlife in the lower 48 states.

The abundance and distribution of these animal species depend on their interactions with each other and on the quality of their habitats, which in turn is the result of thousands of years of volcanic activity, forest fires, changes in climate, and more recent natural and human influences. Most of the park is above 7,500 feet (2,286 m) in elevation and underlain by volcanic bedrock. The terrain is covered with snow for much of the year and supports forests dominated by lodgepole pine and interspersed with alpine meadows. Sagebrush steppe and grasslands on the park’s lower-elevation ranges provide essential winter forage for elk, bison, and bighorn sheep.

12–22 million acres; 18,750–34,375 square miles (Sizes, boundaries, and descriptions of any ecosystem can vary.) States: Wyoming, Montana, Idaho Encompasses state lands, two national parks, portions of five national forests, three national wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management holdings, private and tribal lands. Managed by state, federal, and tribal governments, and private individuals Wildlife One of the largest elk herds in North America Largest free-roaming, wild herd of bison in United States One of few grizzly populations in contiguous United States Rare wolverine and lynx sightings Management Challenges Climate change Invasive species Managing an ecosystem across political boundaries Land use change Conservation of migration corridors Increasing visitation Wildlife diseases In Yellowstone: – Bison management – Grizzly bear management – Native fish conservation – High Visitation

Yellowstone National Park is a Class I airshed. The largest source of particulate matter in Greater Yellowstone is smoke from wildland fire.

Sounds have an important ecological function for reproduction and survival. Together they form a soundscape.

Managers from local, state, and federal agencies across the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem coordinate efforts around resource issues.

More than 2 million acres of Yellowstone are recommended for federal wilderness designation and managed as such.

Yellowstone is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states. In addition to having a diversity of small animals, Yellowstone is notable for its predator–prey complex of large mammals, including eight ungulate species (bighorn sheep, bison, elk, moose, mountain goats, mule deer, pronghorn, and white-tailed deer) and seven large predators (black bears, Canada lynx, coyotes, grizzly bears, mountain lions, wolverines, and wolves).

The National Park Service’s goal is to maintain the ecological processes that sustain these mammals and their habitats while monitoring the changes taking place in their populations. Seasonal or migratory movements take many species across the park boundary where they are subject to different management policies and uses of land by humans.

Understanding the links between climate change and these drivers will be critical to informing the ecology and management of Yellowstone’s wildlife in the years to come.

67 different mammals live here, including many small mammals. As of 2024, an estimated 1,030 grizzly bears live in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Black bears are common. Gray wolves were restored in 1995. As of January 2025, at least 108 live primarily in the park. Wolverine and lynx, which require large expanses of undisturbed habitat, live here. Seven native ungulate species—elk, mule deer, bison, moose, bighorn sheep, pronghorn, and white-tailed deer—live here. Nonnative mountain goats have colonized northern portions of the park. As of August 2024, there were approximately 5,400 bison.

Carnivores all started out as meat-eaters, but many have evolved to be omnivores (consumers of plants and animals). Over a dozen carnivores can be found within the park.

Ungulates are hooved herbivores (plant-eaters), and there are two types: even-toed and odd-toed. All of the native ungulates found in Yellowstone are even-toed, while there is one odd-toed ungulate you may see in the park: horses.

Rodents are a vital part of the ecosystems in Yellowstone, serving as a major food source for many of the park's predators. All rodents have a pair of incisors in their upper and lower jaws with a large gap between the incisors and the molars. The incisors continue to grow throughout their lives, so they continually wear them down through chewing.

These mammals are similar to rodents, except that they only eat plants and have four incisors in their upper jaws.

The Yellowstone National Park bird program monitors the park’s bird species, including species of concern. The program’s core activities are monitoring raptors (bald eagles, ospreys, peregrine falcons, golden eagles), wetland birds, and passerine/near passerine birds (songbirds and woodpeckers). To read technical reports regarding bird management in Yellowstone, visit www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/birdreports.htm .

The park supports 19 breeding raptor species, with additional species during migrations and seasonal movements. The park monitors bald eagles, golden eagles, ospreys, and peregrine falcons. Bald eagles and peregrine falcons were previously listed as endangered and threatened species, and the park has continued monitoring since their delisting. The osprey is monitored because of the decline of one of their primary food sources, the cutthroat trout in Yellowstone Lake. The park monitors golden eagles because they are affected by expanding energy development and increasing human activity across the United States. Other species that occur in the park, such as American kestrels and Swainson’s hawks, are of growing conservation concern throughout their ranges in the United States.

Owl surveys continued after the completion of the Raptor Initiative in 2015, enabled by dedicated volunteers. Surveys provide an index of sites that attract advertising males of several northern forest owl species. Surveys in 2024 observed the highest abundance of northern saw-whet owls since surveys were initiated in 2013. Additionally, annual monitoring has revealed high year-to-year variation in abundance and diversity of species across the study area.

Approximately 30% of the bird species that breed in Yellowstone depend on wetlands. Scientists are concerned about these species because wetlands are expected to diminish as global and local temperatures increase. They are monitoring the trumpeter swan, common loon, and colonial nesting species, like the double-crested cormorant and American white pelican. Yellowstone has years of data about the rate and success of nesting for some wetland species, but little information about changes in the timing of nesting activity— an indicator of climate change.

Songbirds and woodpeckers, or passerine and near passerine species, comprise the majority of bird species in Yellowstone National Park. They are monitored through the willow–bird study, the breeding bird survey, and the forest burn survey.

That depends on what kind of birds you want to see, the time of day you are looking, and your location in the park. In general, riparian areas and wetlands, especially those with shrubby willows, aspen, and cottonwoods attract the greatest diversity and abundance of songbirds.

Hayden Valley is one of the best places to view water birds and birds of prey. Shorebirds feed in the mud flats at Alum Creek. Sandhill cranes often nest in the valley. Ducks, geese, and American white pelicans cruise the river. Bald eagles and osprey hunt for fish along the river; northern harriers fly low looking for rodents in the grasses. Great gray owls are sometimes seen searching the meadows for food (these birds are sensitive to human disturbance). Blacktail Ponds and Floating Island Lake, between Mammoth and Tower Junction, and the Madison River west of Madison Junction are also good places to look for birds.

Many birds, such as American robins and common ravens, are found throughout the park. Other species live in specific encironments. For example, belted kingfishers are found near rivers and streams while Steller’s jays are found in moist coniferous forests.

Spring is a good time to look for birds. Migration brings many birds back to the park from their winter journeys south; other birds are passing through to more northern nesting areas. Songbirds are singing to establish and defend their territories; and many ducks are in their colorful breeding plumages, which makes identification easier.

Watch for birds on early morning walks from mid-May through early July. At all times, but especially during the nesting season, birds should be viewed from a distance. Getting too close can stress a bird (as it can any animal) and sometimes cause the bird to abandon its nest. As with all park wildlife, visitors should keep at least 25 yards away from birds and their nests.

Most birds migrate to lower elevations and more southern latitudes beginning in August. At the same time, other birds pass through Yellowstone. Hawk-watching can be especially rewarding in Hayden Valley late August through early October. In early November, look for tundra swans on the water.

Birds that can be viewed in Yellowstone year-round include the common raven, Canada goose, trumpeter swan, dusky grouse (formerly blue grouse), Canada jay, black-billed magpie, red-breasted nuthatch, American dipper, and mountain chickadee. A few species, such as common goldeneyes, bohemian waxwings, and rough-legged hawks migrate here for the winter.

Visitors may report sightings with a wildlife sighting form and at visitor centers.

Annual Bird Program Reports. National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park. https://www.nps.gov/yell/nature/birdreports.htm .

Baril, L.M., D.W. Smith, D.B. Haines, L.E. Walker, and K. Duffy. 2017. Yellowstone Raptor Initiative 2011-2015 Final Report, YCR-2017-04. National Park Service, Yellowstone Center for Resources, Yellowstone National Park, WY, USA.Crick, H.Q.P. 2004. The impact of climate change on birds. Ibis 146:48–56.

Follett, D. 1986. Birds of Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks . Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart.

Walker, L.E., L.M. Baril, D.B. Haines, and D.W. Smith. 2018. Reproductive characteristics of red-tailed hawks in Yellowstone National Park, an intact temperate landscape. Journal of Raptor Research 53(3): 309–318.

Yellowstone National Park. 2020. Field Checklist of the Birds of Yellowstone National Park .

All campsites are reservable through Recreation.gov Campground 2027 Dates Nightly Fee Sites Bridge Bay 5/7 – 10/16 $38 + taxes 431 ● ● ● ● ● 60 Canyon 5/28 – 9/18 $45 + taxes 272 ● ● ● ● ● ● 40 Fishing Bridge RV Park 5/14 – 10/16 $94 + taxes 310 ● ● ● ● ● ● 95 Grant Village 6/18 – 9/25 $45 + taxes 429 ● ● ● ● ● ● 50 Indian Creek TBD – TBD $20 70 ● ● ● 35 Lewis Lake 6/15 – 10/10 $20 84 ● ● 25 Madison 5/7 – 10/16 $38 + taxes 276 ● ● ● ● ● 60 Mammoth Open year-round* $25 82 ● ● ● ● 30 1 Pebble Creek Closed** 27 ● ● ● 2 Slough Creek 6/15 – 10/11 $20 16 ● ● 30 3 Tower Fall 5/28 – 9/26 $20 31 ● ● 30 4

Beginning with the 2027 summer camping season, all campground reservations will be handled through Recreation.gov . Reservations will open approximately 6 months in advance.

No car camping or overnight vehicle parking is allowed in pullouts, parking areas, picnic grounds, or any place other than a designated campground within Yellowstone National Park.

Summary: Yellowstone National Park has 11 campgrounds with over 2,000 established campsites. All campsites must be reserved in advance, with the exception of Mammoth Campground which offers first-come, first-served sites from October 15 - April 1. Reservations open on a rolling basis, meaning you can book your site exactly six months before the date of your stay, as long as reservations are available for that time. Most campsites are reserved far in advance, so it is recommended that you make reservations as early as you can. All dates are subject to change.

For all lifetime passes , the pass holder must be present with identification for entry into Yellowstone National Park. We cannot look up information if your pass is lost or stolen and cannot accept receipts or pictures of the pass in lieu of the actual pass. On a snowmobile, lifetime passes admit the signer(s). When traveling by snowcoach or shuttle, they admit a signer and up to three additional adults. Children under 16 are admitted for free and are not included in these totals.