Yellowstone National Park Guide

NATIONAL PARK 2019

OLD FAITHFUL GEYSER

YOUR GUIDE TO THE NATION’S FIRST NATIONAL PARK AND THE COMMUNITIES SURROUNDING IT LOWER YELLOWSTONE FALLS

First-timer know-how to

Yellowstone National Park

Photos courtesy of Yellowstone National Park

A bison and calf take up the road at Yellowstone National Park.

By CHARITY DEWING cdewing@billingsgazette.com

E

very year, approximately four million tourists flock to Yellowstone National Park to witness some of nature’s most curious and beautiful creations. While the experience is nothing short of magical, it can be overwhelming. Planning ahead and knowing what to expect is the best way to enjoy your time in the Grand Prismatic Spring park.

Driving the park Believe it or not, car accidents are frequent at the park. Mass traffic, wildlife all over the road, and turns that create blind spots are some of the most significant reasons to take it easy on park roads.

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“Drivers really need to slow down and pay attention. You can come around a corner and there may be a car parked right in the middle of the road observing wildlife. Be prepared and alert,” said park spokesperson, Linda Veress.

If you do see wildlife while

the park 24/7. From construction to weather, roads can be temporarily closed. To check current road status before heading to the park, call (307) 344-2117 to receive updated road information.

You can also register to receive Yellowstone road alerts. Just text “82190” to 888-777 and an automated text will give confirmation and instructions.

Best times to go The park officially opens middriving, safely pull to the side of April and according to Veress, this the road and observe from a secure is one of the best times to visit if you want to avoid the masses. distance.

“With kids still in school and summer vacations not yet planned, Check road conditions the end of April is far less busy,” Roads to the park are always said Veress.

Visitation reached its height in open, so guests can enter and exit Yellowstone Park Guide

Twenty-five-minute-old elk calf in Mammoth Hot Springs.

2016, with a record year of 4.2 million guests. 2018 was close with 4.1 million U.S. and international guests.

With all of the park roads open and many locals having a threeday-weekend, Memorial Day is the busiest day in May. But May is still only a moderately visited month for the park. Guests can take guided tours and experience new life in the park as newborn black bears, bighorn sheep, bison, moose, antelope and wolf pups begin to emerge in Lamar Valley.

All roads are open from June to September and with that comes the busy season. All five park entrances jam with visitors from 9 to 11 a.m.

Stay all day and into the evening as crowds tend to lighten around 6 to 7 p.m., giving a few extra hours to explore before sunset.

What to see and where Throughout the summer months, the park is abundant with plants and animals. The two things that every tourist is there to see is wildlife and geothermal features.

Wildlife can be seen at anytime and anywhere. And there are some serious rules when it comes to visitor and animal safety. Do not approach, follow or encircle the animals. Stay at least 25 yards from all wildlife – and 100 yards from bears and wolves. All guests are encouraged to carry bear spray.

Taunting the animals or breaking these rules can result in a hefty Yellowstone Park Guide

fine. If you see someone doing this, report them immediately.

With as many as 500 geysers – that is about half of the world’s total – geothermal features are found throughout the park. All are deadly and guests should remain on boardwalks and marked trails at all times. Yellowstone sits on a volcanically active area. The reason why we can see all of the amazing heat-influenced features is because the magma reaches the surface a lot closer than normal. Guests will witness bubbling hot pots, acidic hot springs and steaming water filtering through the earth.

The Upper Geyser Basin holds the most sought-after attraction, Old Faithful. With temperatures reaching 350 degrees, Old Faithful erupts every 60 to 110 minutes, reaching as high as 184 feet, and lasts anywhere from one to five minutes.

No selfies With so many geothermic features, not to mention various activities like camping, hiking, boating and backpacking — getting the perfect selfie is a must for many visitors. But, park officials advise against that.

“Selfies are dangerous in the park,” said Veress. “Visitors want to get a selfie near a geothermic structure or by a cliff and it’s not safe to turn your back to those things.”

Wildlife is also there, wheth-

Grizzly chewing on a bison carcass in the Yellowstone River.

er you see it or not. Turning your back to a heavily forested area may present a perfect opportunity for a threatened bear or wolf to defend its territory. While it makes for a great profile picture on Facebook, try taking a photo of the landscape you are admiring and leave yourself out of it.

Look but don’t touch At 34,375 square miles, the park is part of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, meaning everything from the geothermic features to the plants and animals cannot be jeopardized by human interaction. Hiker on the Boardwalk at Grand Simple acts like dropping a rock Prismatic Spring. into a hotpot or picking a flower can catastrophically alter the environ- Plan to stay ment. Treat the park with respect and keep your hands to yourself.

There are nine lodges located in the park and rooms go fast.

Make reservations as soon as posNo service sible. Lodges open beginning in Keep in mind that cell phone late spring into the fall season. Old service may not be totally acces- Faithful Snow Lodge and Mamsible in the park. Prepare ahead of moth Hot Springs Hotel are the time to deal with being unable to only lodges open during winter. receive or send texts or calls.

There are 12 campgrounds with as many as 2,000 spots to pitch a tent. Reservations can Entrance Fees made for five of the campgrounds, For people hiking or bicycling everything else is first-come firstinto the park, entry is $20 per per- serve.

For more information on planson; motorcycles and snowmobiles are $30; and non-commercial ve- ning your trip to Yellowstone, call (307) 344-7381 or visit nps.gov. hicles are $35.

SUMMER 2019 | 3

Courtesy photo

Drones are prohibited at Yellowstone National Park.

What’s NEW in Yellowstone?

By CHARITY DEWING cdewing@billingsgazette.com

Entrance - Current Conditions at Gate, West Entrance - Heading into the Park, and Yellowstone Lake.

Not only do the webcams offer fascinating images but can also help predict traveling into the park.

In addition, the webcams have descriptions of history and information that makes the viewing experience even more meaningful.

For more information, visit nps. gov.

A

lthough the mission of Yellowstone National Park is to prevent change to the park’s ecosystem, changes are made in and around the park to simultaneously benefit guests and the environment.

There are new rules, technological advancements and renovations to look forward to when visiting the first national park in the U.S.

Remodeled Mammoth Hotel

No drones With a wave of camera technology, drones became an innovative way to capture incredible images from high above the surface. The human-pilot aircrafts work with a hand-held base controllers, reaching heights of 400 feet.

Drones were not technically permitted nor unauthorized in the park based on the fact that they never really had a presence there – until they did. In June 2014, after concerns about the safety of wildlife and guests arose in response to the use of drones in state parks, a ban was enforced.

In August of that year, a drone was illegally flown in the park, resulting in it crashing into Grand Prismatic Spring. The crashed drone has never been recovered to

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Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park

Check out live feed of Old Faithful erupting on the Yellowstone National Park website.

avoid further damage to the fragile ecosystem.

Flying drones in the park is a serious crime that can result in fines up to $5,000, significant jail time and years of probation.

Webcams The webcams aren’t totally new but their locations are, especially the newest location perched atop Old Faithful Inn, pointed directly at the park’s leading attraction,

Old Faithful geyser. The webcam comes complete with an eruption predictor, letting watchers know the exact time the famed geyser will explode. It is the only live-streaming webcam in the park.

Eight more webcams offer static images that provide views of wildlife, current conditions and park entrances at Roosevelt Arch, Electric Peak, Travertine Terraces and Parade Ground, Mount Washburn - Northeastern View, Mount Washburn - Southern View, West

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins have been a staple at the park since 1882, when it was originally built and named after the neighboring springs. An additional wing was added for lodging in 1911, as well as the famous Map Room, with its sizeable wooden map of the U.S. The hotel underwent renovations in 1936 and has remain so for the last 60 years – mostly from concern of damaging earthquakes.

Still, the safety and comfort of guests was most important and construction began with accessibility improvements, updated fire protection systems, seismic stabilization and private bathrooms to each guest room. Guests may experience concrete and asphalt work in and around the hotel.

Yellowstone Park Guide

The hotel’s premium rooms have also been recently renovated with larger beds, new furniture, telephones, coffee makers, refrigerators, hair dryers and fans.

The Mammoth also offers frontier cabins, providing only the basic necessities for an overnight stay like a shower, sink and toilet; hot tub cabins, which are exactly like frontier cabins but with a six-person hot tub; and cabin-style units without a private bathroom – but there are shared bathrooms nearby.

And remember, you are in Yellowstone National Park, there is no television or radio, and internet and cell service can be shoddy – enjoy the land, the simplicity of nature, away from the busy world of social media and Netflix. It is a vacation after all.

Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel and Cabins opens April 26 and closes Nov. 3. For more information, call (307) 344-7311 or visit yellowstonenationalparklodges. com.

New to the guide

to amazing places, protect the park, and keep you safe. People have been Courtesy of Yellowstone National severely burned and killed after Park leaving the boardwalk or reaching In efforts to protect the park and into hot water. Geysers, mud pots, its guests, The National Park Service and hot springs are delicate. Don’t wants all guests to take the Yellowthrow anything into any hydrothermal stone Pledge. features, touch them, or change them “I pledge to protect Yellowstone in any way.

National Park. I will act responsibly 3. Be bear aware. Carry bear and safely, set a good example for spray and know how to use it. Be others, and share my love of the park alert, make noise, hike in groups, and and all the things that make it special.” stay on trails. If you encounter a bear, never run.

TOP 10 WAYS TO PUT THE 4. Watch out for water. Use cauPLEDGE INTO ACTION: tion around rivers, lakes, and streams.

1. Give wildlife room, use a They are cold and fast and people zoom. The safest way to view wildlife have died from hypothermia and is through a telephoto lens, a spotting drowning after accidentally falling scope, or a pair of binoculars. Park an- into frigid water. imals are wild and dangerous. Bison, 5. Practice safe selfies. No bears, and elk have injured and killed picture is worth hurting yourself, people. Do not approach, encircle, others, or the park. Be aware of your follow, or feed any animal. Stay 100 surroundings whether near wildlife, yards (91 m) from bears and wolves. thermal areas, roads, or steep cliffs.

Stay 25 yards (23 m) from all other 6. Enjoy the ride. Drive defenanimals. sively and cautiously. This park has 2. Follow the beaten path. In hazards on the road you aren’t used to thermal areas, boardwalks take you at home (like 2,000-lb. bison). Follow

Courtesy of Yellowstone National Park

Renovations are under way at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.

Yellowstone Park Guide

speed limits and stay with your car if you’re stuck in a wildlife jam. When you want to take a photo or look around, use pullouts to avoid blocking traffic and damaging vegetation. Turn off your vehicle when stopped in a traffic line.

7. Leave your drone at home.

Drones are not allowed in Yellowstone National Park. They disturb wildlife, interfere with park operations, and bother people trying to enjoy natural sounds.

8. Clean, Drain, Dry. Help us prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species. Clean, drain, and dry your watercraft and fishing gear before you come into the park or move from one body of water to another.

9. Stash your trash. Recycle what you can and put the rest in bear-resistant trash cans so animals can’t get to it. If a can happens to be full, find another.

10. Leave what you find. Don’t take antlers, artifacts, rocks, plants, or other objects from the park.

Take the pledge. Tell a friend.

Protect the park.

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Yellowstone’s

NEW GLAM GEYSER Steamboat draws attention away from Old Faithful

By BRETT FRENCH french@billingsgazette.com

More often, though, Steamboat has minor eruptions that may climb only 6 to 40 feet high and last one to four minutes.

T

here’s a newly active geyser in Yellowstone National Park that’s stealing some of Old Faithful’s thunder.

Steamboat geyser captured headlines across the nation this year for erupting more times in a row than ever before — 40 times since March 2018 at last count.

The old record was 29 times set in 1964. Calculated out, Steamboat has been blowing since last March about every seven to 11 days on average.

“Giant is another big geyser that has been going off lately, too,” said Jeff Hungerford, a Yellowstone geologist. “But somehow Steamboat is catching everyone’s imagination.”

Maybe that’s because Steamboat is the tallest active geyser in the world. It was first recorded erupting in 1878.

One of many Steamboat is one of 500 thermal features in a park known for its otherworldly boiling mud pots, clear blue steaming hot pools and what seem to be steaming, rotten-egg-smelling portals to hell called fumaroles. Norris Geyser Basin, in the northwestern corner of the park, is the hottest area of Yellowstone (many hot springs and fumaroles have temperatures above 200 degrees) and home to Steamboat.

Although Steamboat’s recent frequent eruptions are unusual, they are not unprecedented. In addition to the previous record-setting season in 1964, in the early 1980s it was active for more than 20 eruptions. The geyser also has long quiet periods. For 50 years between 1911 and 1961 there was no recorded eruption of Steamboat, although it could have went off when no one was around to see it.

“Each geyser has its own personality,” Hungerford said.

Not faithful Even with a new record and lots of notoriety, Steamboat’s eruption pace is a far cry from the numerous ones provided daily by Old Faithful, which spouts off about every half hour to hour-and-a-half. But Steamboat can be much more robust when it blows its top, capable of shooting steam and water more than 300 feet high. The water phase of the eruption can last for three to 40 minutes. In comparison, Old Faithful’s spout is about 140 to 190 feet tall with the erup-

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Kalsang Phuntsok

Steamboat geyser’s steam phase, shown here in 2013, can be so loud that visitors on the boardwalk cannot hear each other over the roar.

tion lasting about one-and-a-half to five minutes.

“You’re really close to it if you’re on the viewing deck” at Norris Geyser Basin, Hungerford said of

a Steamboat eruption. “It’s very high. Then it turns into a steam phase which is really remarkable.

You could not carry on a conversation because it is so loud.”

Musings Theories about why Steamboat may be more active right now include more water underground, following recent winters with heavy snowfall.

“When you add all that water, it changes the stress” on the surface of the basin, Hungerford said. “It Yellowstone Park Guide

If you go Steamboat geyser is located in the Norris Geyser Basin, which is 21 miles south of the North Entrance at Mammoth Hot Springs, or 14 miles northeast of Madison Junction.

The entrance fee for Yellowstone is $35 for a seven-day pass.

There is camping next door to the geyser basin on a first-come, first-served basis. The cost is $20.

The campground is open May 17 through September.

There is also a museum at the geyser basin and the Museum of the National Park Ranger at the campground.

CHASE DOAK, Billings Gazette

Jim Peaco, YNP

During the steam phase, Steamboat geyser in Yellowstone National Park can produce a large cloud. This photo puts a load on the system with the was taken in 2014 from Elk Park, saturated ground, which weighs about a mile southwest of Norris Geyser Basin. more.”

Anecdotally, that explanation seems sound, said Michael Poland, scientist-in-charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, but no one has yet combed through history records to connect those dots. Scientists will sometimes use pattern recognition when they are unsure about what is happening, he noted.

In February, Poland said Steamboat’s eruptions seemed to be smaller — based on seismic monitoring and measurements of overflow water in a nearby stream, Tantalus Creek.

“Does that mean the eruptive YNP Geology cycle is waning?” Poland won- This YNP Geology map shows the dered out loud. “It’s impossible to locations of temperature monitors and say. There could just be less water the stream gauge in Tantalus Creek. in the system.”

With spring runoff the plumb- each seismometer. Researchers are ing system under Norris Geyser combing through that data right Basin and Steamboat geyser could now. be recharged. Poland said it’s an “There is this tantalizing hope exciting time when scientists that we’ll be able to use that to learn might learn more. more about the intricate plumbing of Steamboat,” Poland said, possibly illuminating the network of Data overload passageways to provide clues to Last year, scientists placed why the geyser “behaves the way it temporary portable seismic moni- does.” tors around the geyser in a quest to The problem for scientists is better understand Steamboat. The that the monitors collect vast idea was to correlate the noise of amounts of data that needs to be all that water rushing around un- crunched, Poland said. derground during an eruption with “The math problem becomes Yellowstone Park Guide

A lone bison walks past visitors at Yellowstone National Park’s Old Faithful Geyser in 2018.

The big blowup Yellowstone National Park’s website provides this description of a Steamboat geyser eruption.

A major eruption of Steamboat Geyser is unforgettable. Water surges from two vents to varying heights, then suddenly water is expelled to more than 300 feet (91 meters) high. Curtains of water fall to the slope above the geyser and collect in torrents rushing back into the vents, carrying huge amounts of mud, sand, and rock that are shot skyward again and again. Water coats everything with a glistening layer of silica.

A significant amount of eruption debris can accumulate around the geyser. Even cars in the parking area can be littered with debris. (Note, park far away from the geyser.)

Mature lodgepole pines have been broken by the downpour, undermined and then washed away by the geyser’s massive discharge. The boardwalk at the base of the hill has been covered by the geyser’s outwash.

The water phase of a major eruption lasts three to more than 40 minutes. Once the water supply is exhausted, the geyser continues with a powerful steam phase lasting several hours to several days. Its roar is so great that conversation near the geyser is difficult, and visitors in the Norris Campground, a mile to the north, have been awakened by the noise.

Steamboat’s minor eruptions are most common and reach 6-40 feet (2–12 meters) and last one to four minutes. Intervals may be as short as two to five minutes.

very big very fast,” he said.

“In general, geo-science is facing this problem,” he explained.

“We used to be geo starved. Now the technology is so advanced that we’re flooded with data, and analyzing it hasn’t caught up with collecting it.”

Scientists are also monitoring other hydrothermal features in the basin, such as hot pools like Cistern Spring that has drained during and after a major Steamboat geyser eruption, to see how they may change when Steamboat is active.

to see Steamboat blow this year should try and time their trip to Norris Geyser Basin about seven to eight days after the last eruption.

Those can be tracked at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory’s website, where seismometers show a distinct eruption signal which is followed about 45 to 90 minutes later by a temperature spike in the water of Tantalus Creek.

There are no guarantees. That’s why people who like to see geysers erupt are called geyser gazers. They may spend a lot of time looking before actually seeing anything. So as Yellowstone’s staff Gazing likes to advise its visitors, pack Visitors to Yellowstone hoping your patience.

SUMMER 2019 | 7

The route features mountains with peaks at more than 12,000 feet in elevation and the Custer, Gallatin and Shoshone National Forests.

CASEY PAGE, Gazette Staff

The

BEARTOOTH HIGHWAY An orphaned All-American Road

By CHARITY DEWING cdewing@billingsgazette.com

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very year, during Memorial Day weekend, cars line up as visitors await the triumphant opening of the Beartooth Highway.

“I go up and handout maps and muffins for all of the tourists,” said Sherry Weamer, executive director at the Red Lodge Area Chamber of Commerce.

As car horns honk in applause for the gate opening of the highway, many of the tourist have no idea what it takes to make it all happen.

A month of planning and plowing

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takes place to make the highway accessible to the many guests that behold its wonderment.

“The Montana Department of Transportation plows all the way to its highest point at 10,947 feet,” said Weamer. “It’s dangerous, they often cannot see where the dropoff is and they are hanging off the edge. These drivers take great pride in their work and this highway.”

The Beartooth Highway begins in Montana, enters Wyoming and ends up back in Montana, making it unclaimable and by extension, orphaned. Thanks to Yellowstone National Park and the transpor-

tation plows of Montana and Wyoming, guests can take in views from what feels like the top of the world.

“It is one thing to stand at the bottom of a mountain and look up – but to drive up almost 11, 000 feet and watch how everything changes – the plant life, animals and scenery – it’s truly extraordinary,” said Weamer.

The highway is also deemed an “All American Road” by the United States Department of Transportation for its natural and picturesque topographies.

From Red Lodge to Cooke City, the 68 mile drive in Montana

proves why the Beartooth Highway is more than just a road. With abundant wildlife, lakes, glaciers, snow-caped peaks, cloud-covered vistas and fields upon fields of wildflowers, it shows the enormity and beauty of a landscape that remains preserved in its element.

“I tell all tourists to take their time – stop and pull over. Have a picnic, walk around and just take it all in,” said Weamer.

The Beartooth Highway opens at 8 a.m., May 24.

For more information on the Beartooth Highway call Sherry Weamer at (406) 446-1718 or visit redlodge.com.

Yellowstone Park Guide

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CALDERA CHRONICLES

USGS

High-spatial-resolution airborne images of the Tern Lake area from 1994, 2006, and 2017 show that the area of bright pixels identified in the Landsat-8 thermal infrared image corresponds to a newly emerging area of warm ground and tree kills about 32,500 m2 (8 acres, or four soccer fields) in area.

Satellites help discover

new thermal area

By R. GREG VAUGHAN U.S. Geological Survey

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. ellowstone’s thermal areas are the surface expression of the deeper magmatic system, and they are always changing.

They heat up, they cool down, and they can move around. A recent spectacular example was the September 2018 emergence of a new thermal feature and eruption of the long-dormant Ear Spring in

Y

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the Upper Geyser Basin, near Old Faithful. Even more impressive was the expansion of heated ground in the Back Basin of the Norris Geyser Basin in 2003. These sorts of changes are part of the normal life cycles of thermal areas in Yellowstone National Park.

Recently we have discovered another phenomenal example of thermal change: the emergence of an entirely new thermal area which has taken place over the past 20 years.

First, a little background. A thermal area is a contiguous geologic unit that includes one or more thermal features (like fumaroles,

hot springs or geysers) surrounded by hydrothermally altered ground, hydrothermal mineral deposits, geothermal gas emissions, heated ground and/or a lack of vegetation.

There are more than 10,000 thermal features in Yellowstone, most of which are clustered together into about 120 distinct thermal areas (like Upper Geyser Basin and Norris Geyser Basin).

One such area is called the Tern Lake thermal area and is located in the central part of the park along the northeast margin of the Sour Creek resurgent dome. It is named after nearby Tern Lake and West Tern Lake. This area is deep in Yel-

lowstone’s backcounty, about half a mile from the nearest trail, and about 11.2 miles from the nearest trailhead; therefore, few people have visited this site.

Indeed, many of Yellowstone’s thermal areas are located in remote and inaccessible areas of the park. This is why YVO scientists use satellite-based thermal infrared remote sensing to help map the locations of thermal areas and their changes through time.

Landsat-8 thermal infrared images are a great resource for examining thermal areas — especially when the temperature-sensitive images are acquired at night when Yellowstone Park Guide

R. Greg Vaughn

Most of Yellowstone’s more than 10,000 thermal features are clustered together into about 120 distinct thermal areas (shown in red). Lakes are blue.

The Yellowstone Caldera is solid black and the resurgent domes are dotted black. Roads are yellow. The orange box shows the location of the Tern Lake thermal area.

the contrast between thermal areas and unheated ground is highest.

Analysis of a Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image acquired in April 2017 revealed an unexpected warm area between West Tern Lake and the previously mapped Tern Lake thermal area.

This mysterious patch of bright pixels in the thermal infrared image did not match any previously mapped thermal areas. Could it be a lake?

At night, lakes are warmer than the surrounding land and stand out in thermal infrared images, but only if they are liquid (i.e., not frozen). All of Yellowstone’s lakes without significant thermal input stay frozen throughout the winter, but the lakes can start to thaw in April. In fact, this appears to be the case in the April 2017 image — some of the lakes are clearly frozen (dark Yellowstone Park Guide

pixels in the thermal infrared), but West Tern Lake appeared to be starting to thaw.

This may have been because the lake was receiving thermal water from nearby hot springs. But that new bright area between West Tern Lake and the previously mapped Tern Lake thermal area was not a lake. What was it? High-resolution airborne visible images held the answer.

The National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP), administered

by USDA’s Farm Service Agency, acquires high-resolution (0.5 to 1-m pixel) aerial imagery over the continental U.S. every few years.

The most recent image of the Tern Lake region, from 2017, reveals a large area of dead trees and bright soil, rather like a thermal area.

The NAIP imagery from 2006 shows a smaller zone barren of veg-

A Landsat-8 nighttime thermal infrared image from April 2017 shows the Tern Lake area. In Yellowstone, temperatures are extremely cold at night in the winter, and most lakes are frozen (dark pixels). West Tern Lake seems to be thawing here — perhaps it receives some thermal waters from nearby hot springs. The patch of bright (warm) pixels between West Tern Lake and the Tern Lake thermal area has emerged over the last 20 years. Lakes are outlined in blue; the boundary of the Sour Creek resurgent dome is in black; known thermal areas are outlined in red; and the red triangles are individual thermal features that have been mapped.

etation and the beginnings of a tree kill zone with many reddish-brown trees among healthy green ones.

The 1994 air photos, while black and white and lower spatial resolution, clearly show that this was once an area of healthy trees with no hint of a thermal area.

Other historical imagery that have been analyzed indicate that this thermal area started forming in the late 1990s or early 2000s. It is also notable that between 2006 and 2017 there was an increase in the size of the tree kill zone on the north side of the previously mapped Tern Lake thermal area.

From all these satellite and aerial images, we conclude that a new thermal area has emerged in the past 20 years. The newly emerging thermal area, located at 44.6635° N latitude, 110.279° W longitude, can be seen using Google Earth. In fact, using the time slider tool in Google Earth one can see how this area has changed since 1994 — you can see the changes in the vegetation and

the emergence of the thermal area yourself.

The recognition of the new thermal area is a great example of the importance of satellite thermal infrared imaging — especially images acquired at night — for mapping Yellowstone’s thermal areas (including both the discovery of new hot spots and changes in existing areas).

This is exactly the sort of behavior we expect from Yellowstone’s dynamic hydrothermal activity, and it highlights that changes are always taking place, sometimes in remote and generally inaccessible areas of the park.

We will continue to keep an eye on Yellowstone using satellite imagery and report on any changes we see in future Caldera Chronicles articles. And if you’re really interested, you can check out the Landsat-8 data and airborne NAIP images for yourself. All images are freely available from https:// earthexplorer.usgs.gov. Have fun.

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CALDERA CHRONICLES U.S. Geological Survey

This hydrothermal explosion occured at Biscuit Basin in Yellowstone National Park. These types of events are the most likely explosive hazard from the Yellowstone Volcano.

Next ‘big one’ in YNP likely to be

HYDROTHERMAL

EXPLOSION

By LISA MORGAN U.S. Geological Survey

Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles is a column written by scientists and collaborators of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. This contribution is from Lisa Morgan, emeritus research geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. ne of the most common questions asked of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is “when is the next big one?”

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This is an interesting question given the multiple potential natural hazards that exist at Yellowstone.

Big earthquake? Big lava flow? Big explosion? Most people mean the big explosion, but that’s not a particularly likely event. In fact, most people do not know about the potential hazard associated with a hydrothermal (hot water) explosion, which is far more common than any eruption of lava or volcanic ash.

Hydrothermal explosions are violent and dramatic events result-

ing in the rapid ejection of boiling water, steam, mud, and rock fragments. The explosions can reach heights of 1.2 miles and leave craters that are from a few yards up to more than 1.2 miles in diameter.

Ejected material, mostly breccia (angular rocks cemented by clay), can be found as far as 1.8 to 2.5 miles from the largest craters.

Hydrothermal explosions occur where shallow interconnected reservoirs of fluids with temperatures at or near the boiling point underlie thermal fields. These fluids can

rapidly transition to steam if the pressure suddenly drops. Since vapor molecules take up much more space than liquid molecules, the transition to steam results in significant expansion and blows apart surrounding rocks and ejects debris. Hydrothermal explosions are a potentially significant local hazard and can damage or even destroy thermal features. In Yellowstone, hydrothermal explosions occur within the Yellowstone Caldera and along the active Norris-Mammoth tectonic corridor.

Yellowstone Park Guide

Large hydrothermal explosions occur on average every 700 years, and at least 25 explosion craters greater than 328 feet wide have been identified. The scale of these craters dwarfs similar features in geothermal areas elsewhere in the world. Large hydrothermal explosions in Yellowstone occurred after an icecap greater than .6 miles thick receded from the Yellowstone Plateau around 14,000-16,000 years ago.

Studies of large hydrothermal explosion events in Yellowstone indicate: 1) none are directly associated with magma; 2) several smaller historic explosions have been triggered by seismic events, like the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake; 3) rocks ejected by hydrothermal explosions show significant mineral alteration, indicating that explosions occur in areas subjected to intense hydrothermal processes; and 4) many large hydrothermal explosion craters in Yellowstone are similar in area to active geyser basins and thermal areas.

Critical components for development of large hydrothermal systems require high heat flow, abundant water (Yellowstone Plateau receives about 70 inches of precipitation annually), and seismicity (Yellowstone experiences 1,000-3,000 earthquakes a year) to maintain open fractures. Active deformation of the Yellowstone Caldera and seasonal changes also contribute.

Hydrothermal systems with explosive potential have a water-saturated system at or near boiling temperatures and an interconnected system of well-developed joints and fractures along which hydrothermal fluids flow. Ascending hydrothermal fluids flow along fractures that have developed due to repeated inflation and deflation of the caldera, which causes rocks to break, and along edges of low-permeability rhyolitic lava flows. The size and location of hydrothermal fields may be limited by excessive alteration of rocks and development of clay Yellowstone Park Guide

JIM PEACO, YNP

Indian Pond along the shore of Yellowstone Lake was created about 2,900 years ago by a hydrothermal explosion.

minerals that can create caprocks and seal the system. If a portion of the system is sealed, any sudden or abrupt drop in pressure causes water to flash to steam, which is rapidly transmitted through interconnected fractures. The result is a series of multiple explosions and the excavation of a crater. Similarities between the size and dimensions of large hydrothermal explosion craters and thermal fields in Yellowstone indicate that this type of event may be an end stage in geyser basin evolution.

Although large hydrothermal explosions are rare events on a human time scale, the potential for additional future events of the sort in Yellowstone National Park is not insignificant. Based on the occurrence of large hydrothermal explosion events during the past 16,000 years, an explosion large enough to create a 328-foot wide crater might be expected every few hundred years.

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Tourist education not enough

Yellowstone visitors ignore multiple bison warnings

By BRETT FRENCH french@billingsgazette.com

From informational pamphlets handed out to tourists at the gates of Yellowstone National Park to roadside informational signs and displays in its visitor center, the park’s staff tried to teach visitors not to get too close to wildlife.

A new study says that might not be enough to keep bison, the park’s most dangerous animal when it comes to tourist injuries, from harming visitors.

“Education alone is not sufficient to reduce bison-related injuries,” according to the study, which examined the causes of human injuries by bison between 2000 and 2015 at the park.

Yellowstone officials could not be reached for comment on this story due to the government shutdown.

Too close Cara Cherry, a veterinary epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was the lead author of the study. She conducted somewhat similar research in 2015that identified cellphone photos as a rising cause of injuries to Yellowstone tourists.

With the short focal length of cellphones, and the increase in posting photos on Facebook or Instagram while traveling, people may be ignoring park warnings about keeping their distance from bison, Cherry wrote.

In Yellowstone it is illegal to be within 100 yards of bears and wolves or 25 yards of bison and other wildlife. Yet the study showed people hurt by bison were on av-

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DAVID GRUBBS, Billings Gazette file photo

Often Yellowstone Park visitors come dangerously close to wildlife. These tourists take photos from the boardwalk at Midway Geyser Basin. Park regulations require the visitors to be at least 25 yards from bison.

erage only 11 feet from the big animals, which can weigh between 1,000 and 2,000 pounds and run at speeds up to 35 mph.

Injured During the study period, bison injured 25 people — 21 tourists and four employees — based on reports filed with park law enforcement.

Incidents could be higher since not all encounters were likely reported if the injuries were mild.

Here’s how those 25 people behaved, according to the study: 20 people, or 80 percent, actively approached bison before they were hurt.

5 people, or 20 percent, didn’t back away when bison approached.

15 people, or 60 percent, were hurt when in a group of three or more people who approached bison.

12 people, or 48 percent, were

CHASE DOAK, Gazette Staff

A bison walks past visitors to Old Faithful Geyser at Yellowstone National Park.

hurt while photographing bison.

6 people, or 24 percent, acknowledged they were too close to bison.

Although groups of people close to wildlife may make tourists feel safer about approaching the animal, crowds likely have the opposite effect on the animals, making them feel threatened and therefore more likely to charge.

All of the injuries were in areas of the park crowded with people, like Old Faithful.

Education “Educational campaigns rely on the assumption that increasing awareness about risk-enhancing behaviors will change those behaviors,” the article noted.

Yellowstone Park Guide

BRETT FRENCH, Billings Gazette

Bison bulls are more likely to charge humans, or female bison with calves.

Yellowstone even provides its warnings in different languages and gives tour buses information on thumb drives to educate Chinese tourists who have become more common in the park during the past few years.

But in studying injuries in Yellowstone the authors found that even though some people were aware of the dangers of getting too close to bison, the tourists ignored their own fears or misgivings when other people approached wildlife.

They incorrectly assumed there might be safety in numbers.

One woman injured by a bison “recounted to park rangers that her family read warnings in park literature and signage about not approaching wildlife, but when they saw other people close to bison, they thought they would be safe. A witness to another incident stated the injured person started creeping toward the bison to get better pictures and eventually was at an unsafe distance from the animal.

Other photographers saw his example and started moving closer to bison as well.”

Ideas The first step the park should undertake to try and reduce the number of injuries is to identify “the specific risk-enhancing behaviors that lead to human-wildlife injuries,” the study advised.

The research goes on to identify those key behaviors as “maintaining an appropriate distance from bison, especially for photography, and not crowding bison.”

Yellowstone Park Guide

Bison injuries do appear to be declining, so all of the educational material must be having some effect. According to the study, an earlier analysis showed that between 1980 and 1999 bison injured 79 Yellowstone tourists. Interestingly, those injuries occurred even though the average distance from the animals was farther — about 29 feet — “indicating that persons are moving closer to bison than they did in the past.”

Low risk Even though bison can be viewed as the most dangerous animals in Yellowstone, the incident of bison-related injuries is fairly small considering that during the study period an average of about 3.3 million people visited the park each year.

Visitors are more likely to be injured driving in Yellowstone as tourism increases. For example, in 2014 there were 18 vehicle accidents with injuries. That jumped to 48 in 2015.

A study of European bison in Polandshowed they were more likely to run away from tourists.

“We conclude that bison are not aggressive animals and usually flee when encountered by humans,” the study reported.

“Bison attack only in specific conditions when approached at a close distance and disturbed for a prolonged period of time.

Most bison attacks have the form of a short chase and are directed mainly at people which cross this critical distance.”

SUMMER 2019 | 17

LARRY MAYER, Billings Gazette

A C-130 drops retardant on a fire near the Madison River during the Yellowstone National Park fires of 1988.

If the conditions were ripe Yellowstone could burn like 1988 again

By BRETT FRENCH french@billingsgazette.com

was so dry that large logs contained less than 10 percent moisture, Cataldo said, similar to kiln-dried lumber. Those logs helped carry the fire through the old burn and on to the mature forest, which was unusual, he added. Typically the scars have acted almost like fire breaks.

“We generalize about the ’88 fire scar, but within that there are all different intensities,” he explained. “Those areas that burned most intensely aren’t carrying fire very well. We really need that dead and downed component” to carry fire.

If conditions were perfectly horrible, Yellowstone National Park could experience another fire season that rivaled the record-setting 1988 burn when about 1,200 square miles were charred, but it won’t be easy.

One problem is that scars from the 1988 fires are acting as fire breaks, slowing down burns as the fuel type changes from mature lodgepole pine to newer growth, and sometimes even meadows.

“It’s well under 5 percent of any summer where we have the extreme conditions that the ’88 fire Causes scar will carry fire,” said John Cataldo, fire management officer for Although Yellowstone doesn’t the park. track lightning strikes, it’s not unusual for the park to receive 50 to 150 strikes in a 24-hour period, The exception Cataldo said.

“What it really comes down to is As with everything, though, there are exceptions. In August if we have any moisture associated 2016 the Maple firebroke out in the with those storms,” he added.

The Maple fire was lightning western corner of the park. By the time it was extinguished the fire caused. In that year — 2016— 109 had burned more than 71 square square miles burned inside Yellowmiles and cost more than $6.2 mil- stone. The following year — 2017 — the park had high fire danger with lion to suppress.

The Maple fire burned through many lightning strikes, but most a portion of the North Fork fire scar of the storms carried enough rain from 1988. But the 2016 summer to limit fire starts. Out of eight

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fires last year, only two were lightning-caused, and both stayed less than an acre in size. The rest were all human caused but also did not exceed an acre in size.

Yellowstone suppresses all human-caused fires, but actively manages those caused by lightning strikes.

“People think if you’re monitoring a fire it’s less stressful or tense than when you’re out building fire line,” Cataldo said. “But it’s an incredible amount of work no matter the strategy.”

Yellowstone has a fire staff of 20 to 80 people. Each fire start is judged on its complexity and assigned a management team. All tactics are based off the park’s 2014 fire management plan. Level 5, 4 and 3 fires the park manages locally with help from adjacent national forest crews. Larger level 2 and 1 fires require national assets.

Calling in national assistance could lead to a 20,000-gallon water drop from a 747 jet converted for firefighting, or 9,000 gallons from a DC-10. That compares to what used to be a maximum drop of about 2,000 to 3,000 gallons, Cataldo said.

“Those are pretty spectacular assets,” he said. “But airplanes don’t put fires out. We really need to follow up with firefighters on the ground. For the most part, that’s still young people in their 20s and 30s with a pulaski. That hasn’t changed in 100 years.”

Climate What has changed during the past 100 years is the climate in Yellowstone, and across much of the West. The fire season is now as many as 10 days longer in the spring and fall in the park.

That change has resulted in Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, headquarters for the National Park Service in Yellowstone, becoming much warmer and drier, said Roy Renkin, a vegetation specialist for Yellowstone.

“Mammoth is starting to take

on climate changes that Gardiner had 40 years ago,” he said of the community at the park’s North Entrance that is about 1,000 feet lower in elevation. “Gardiner is taking on the climate of pre-Euro-American times.”

The park’s website acknowledges the changes, noting, “Conditions are becoming significantly drier at elevations below 6,500 ft. In fact, the rise in minimum temperatures in the last decade exceeds those of the 1930s Dust Bowl Era. By the latter part of the 21st century, the hot, dry conditions that led to the fires of 1988 will likely be the norm, representing a significant shift from past norms in the greater Yellowstone ecosystem toward the type of climate conditions we currently see in the southwestern United States.”

Questions Cataldo said there’s “a lot of debate” about whether a warming climate will change the frequency and intensity of fires in Yellowstone.

“There’s the potential that if younger lodgepole experience more fire, it could result in a change in the forest cover type,” he said. “It could mean more fire on the landscape than we saw traditionally.”

The park tracks the timing of the snowmelt closely, Cataldo said, that period when the park has bare ground. Because most of Yellowstone is at higher elevations than the surrounding area, the fire season is usually confined to July and August but can carry over into September.

“Fortunately we have winter,” he said. “At some point it’s going to snow many feet here” and put out any fires.

That’s not the case in much of California, where Cataldo worked prior to moving to Yellowstone. That state is seeing unprecedented fire seasons, or as Cataldo said, “It’s always fire season there.”

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The 1877 trip to Yellowstone that went horribly,

horribly wrong

Emma Cowan

George Cowan

Photos courtesy Montana Historical Society

George and Emma Cowan revisted Yellowstone in 1901, twenty-four years after George was nearly killed by Nez Perce Indians fleeing Oregon through the newly created park.

By BRETT FRENCH french@billingsgazette.com

T

he next time the line is too long at the Old Faithful Visitor Center toilet or the traffic has slowed to a crawl in in the Hayden Valley because of a bison jam, consider the plight of one of Yellowstone National Park’s early tourists, George Cowan.

The 35-year-old Radersburg attorney was visiting the park with his 24-year-old wife, Emma, and seven other family members and friends in August 1877. They were visiting to see the incredible

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geysers, hot springs and views, to escape a grasshopper infestation back home and to celebrate a second wedding anniversary. Yellowstone had been designated the nation’s first national park only five years earlier and was still undeveloped.

The Radersburg Party’s timing was unfortunate. A group of Nez Perce Indians were traveling through Yellowstone at the same time. Beginning in June the Indians — about 250 warriors and 500 women, children, elderly and a herd of about 2,000 horses — had fled northeast Oregon after some

young warriors’ attack on white settlers. Several skirmishes occurred as the U.S. Army and volunteers pursued the Indians as they sought refuge.

By the time they arrived in Yellowstone the Nez Perce were in mourning. Only two weeks earlier a surprise attack by U.S. Army forces — near what is now the community of Wisdom — resulted in the death of 89 tribal members, the majority of them women, children and elderly. The attack, now known as the Battle of the Big Hole, and subsequent fights with Gen. Oliver Howard’s troops, left some

of the Indian travelers hostile toward other whites, no matter how agreeable they may have seemed.

Hostages Entering into this unfortunate scenario were Cowan and the Radersburg Party, who were camped along Tangle Creek in the Lower Geyser Basin — near where Firehole Lake Drive is now — when a small band of Nez Perce entered camp.

“It’s a bucolic area now,” said Alicia Murphy, Yellowstone historian, “but it’s easy to imagine when Yellowstone Park Guide

Photo courtesy Montana Historical Society

Photo courtesy YNP

General Oliver Otis Howard pursued the Nez Perce Indians across Yellowstone in 1877. This photo was taken around 1910.

you’re sitting next to the creek what the camping party must have felt.

“I think that area is very evocative.”

A few braves either broke into the campers’ sugar and flour or were being given provisions by another member of the Radersburg Party, depending on the account.

Angered that there wouldn’t be enough for his own group, Cowan forcefully halted the handout and shooed the Indians away. After packing up their gear, the campers began traveling north in their two wagons and on horseback when they were blocked near what is now Nez Perce Creek by about 75 Indians — including Chief Joseph — from going any farther.

Perhaps fearing the whites would notify the Army of their whereabouts, the Nez Perce forced the travelers to ride with them as they moved east up the creek drainage on what is now the Mary Mountain Trail.

“In my opinion, the Indians were fearful for their lives,” said historian Elizabeth Watry, author of the book “Women in Wonderland” which recounts the Cowans’ trip.

“It was just bad timing,” she said.

Yellowstone Park Guide

George and Emma Cowan are photographed in 1901 near the site where George was shot and Emma was taken captive by a band of Nez Perce Indians.

Shot When the route became impassable to the wagons because of fallen trees, the campers gathered what little gear they could carry and continued on by horseback.

The wagons were overturned, looted and disabled by some of the Indians near Morning Mist Springs.

After reaching an Indian encampment and a vote of the tribal council, the tourists were released.

Their freedom was short-lived as they were followed and captured by other less-lenient Nez Perce warriors. Some of the campers were able to escape into the forest as the campers and Indians clashed. Not so lucky were George Cowan and Albert Oldham, both of whom were shot.

Cowan took a bullet to his right thigh and when he saw another warrior taking aim at him, he dismounted and fell to the ground, his wounded leg numb and useless.

When a warrior came to finish him off with a pistol shot to the head, his wife Emma draped herself around her husband’s body to protect him.

Her 13-year-old sister, Ida Carpenter, was at Emma’s side.

“Every gun in the whole party of Indians was leveled at us three,” Emma would later recall. “I shall never forget the picture, which left an impression that years cannot efface. The holes in those gun barrels

looked as big as saucers.”

As one warrior pulled to dislodge Emma, another saw an opportunity and shot George Cowan in the head with a revolver. By some accounts, another Nez Perce clobbered Cowan on the head with a large rock, as well.

Leaving Cowan for dead, the Indians took Emma, her sister and her brother — 27-year-old Frank Carpenter — hostage. They were released the next day along the Yellowstone River at Nez Perce Ford in Please see Cowan, Page 22

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Photo courtesy USGS

The Nez Perce Trail began in northeast Oregon, dipped into Yellowstone and ends near Havre.

Cowan From 21

the Hayden Valley, where there’s now a picnic area. The women rode tired Indian horses while Frank walked.

In the same skirmish Oldham had been shot in the face, “the bullet tearing through his cheeks without (major) injury to his teeth or tongue,” according to a Yellowstone account. “Instantly, he had turned on his attacker, pointing an empty rifle at him, and the Nez Perce bolted while Oldham dove into the brush where he roamed for an agonizing 36 hours sustaining himself on crickets until rescued.”

Forest crawl George Cowan was not so lucky.

He eventually regained consciousness sometime the day after being twice shot. In an attempt to stand up and limp to a nearby stream to drink, a Nez Perce warrior saw him and he was shot a third time.

“As I was hobbling away, I glanced backward and saw him on one knee aiming his gun at me,” Cowan later recounted in Frank Carpenter’s 1878 book, “The Wonders of Geyser Land.” “Then followed a twinging sensation in my left side, and the report of the gun and I dropped forward on my face.

The ball had struck me on the side above the hip and came out in front

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of the abdomen.”

Despite this third gunshot wound, the associated blood loss, and lack of food and water, Cowan was somehow still alive.

“I now took another inventory of my wounds, and in trying to rise found that I could not use either of my lower limbs. They were both paralyzed,” he wrote.

Over the next three days he would crawl down Nez Perce Creek about nine miles to where the wagons had been abandoned and destroyed, there finding his bird dog still alive and happy to see him.

Hope, it seemed, had not entirely abandoned him.

After being shot three times by Nez Percewarriors and left for dead in Yellowstone National Park in August 1877, George Cowan’s next decision seems unusual, maybe the result of delirium, although some modern tourists may relate to his craving.

“It occurred to me that I had spilled some coffee when in camp, on Thursday in the Lower Geyser Basin, and calling my dog we started for it, I crawling as before, and the dog walking by my side,” Cowan later recounted in Frank Carpenter’s 1878 book, “The Wonders of Geyser Land.” “The coffee was four miles distant, but I thought not of that. The only idea was to possess the coffee. I was starving.”

Fortified by a boiled cup of coffee that he made in a leftover tin

Photo courtesy NPS

Camp Sheridan, which would later become Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, is shown around 1900. Even as early as 1877 the community had a telegraph.

can, his “first refreshment” in “five days and nights,” the 35-year-old Cowan began crawling again. This time possibly fording the Firehole River on his stomach before passing out near the bank, weary from his tortured travels, blood loss and the pain of his wounds.

“I was now exhausted and could go no farther,” Cowan later wrote.

“It was an expiring effort, and having accomplished it I gave myself up for dead.”

It was there, along a road into the park, that two of Gen. Oliver Howard’s scouts trailing the Nez Perce found the Radersburg lawyer near death.

The scouts built a fire, made some coffee for the injured man and gave him a blanket and hard tack, leaving him alone to await the trailing troops’ arrival the next day.

“After they were gone and I had eaten, my desire for life returned, and it seems the spirit of revenge took complete possession of me. I knew that I would live and I took a solemn vow that I would devote the rest of my life to killing Indians, especially Nez Perce.”

His vow was meant to avenge the capture of his wife, Emma Cowan, her 13-year-old sister, Ida Carpenter, and brother Frank Carpenter, 27. The three were taken hostage during the skirmish when George Cowan was shot and left for

dead. At the time, he was unaware the Nez Perce had released the threesome. Their luck, it seemed, had turned.

Unfortunately for Cowan, his bad luck was not over. He awoke during the night to find the campfire had spread across the ground surrounding him in fire, according to historian Elizabeth Watry, author of the book “Women in Wonderland” which recounts the Cowans’ trip. Now in addition to gunshot wounds and the scrapes and bruises from crawling, burns were added to Cowan’s list of injuries.

Other tourists The tale of the Nez Perce’s travels, encounters with whites and skirmishes provided sensational stories for the region’s newspapers that summer. Stories about the capture of the Radersburg Partywere even more tantalizing.

Before knowledge that many of the group had survived, the Helena Herald wrote in its Aug. 30, 1877, edition about “The national park massacre” of 10 Helena mencamping above Yellowstone Falls at about the same time.

“Not in the history of Helena — and it has been an eventful one — have we ever seen such crushing, staggering grief overwhelm our Yellowstone Park Guide

people as on the reception of the news of the massacre of nearly the entire party who left us a few days ago in high spirits for a pleasure excursion in the National Park.”

“Everyone was panicking throughout this region,” Yellowstone historian Alicia Murphy said.

The newspaper account is riddled with questions about whether dispatches from so far away could be hearsay or actual accounts of what happened, yet it still goes on to eulogize.

“If these men had fallen in battle as did those in the Big Hole fight, there would have been a different feeling in contemplating their fall.

We expect some to fall in battle, and we know that death on the battle-field is not without its charm to a brave man, but it aggravates our regrets to think of the lives wantonly taken without warning to avenge offences (sic) committed by others hundreds of miles away.”

In the final accounting, two of the 10 Helena men were killed by Nez Perce raiding parties; two others were injured.

“They had a pretty rough time, too,” Murphy said.

A Sept. 7, 1877, account from the New North-West newspaper in Deer Lodge provided updates on the Radersburg and Helena tourists, noting that, “Fortunately the casualties have been greatly reduced by late reports but the adventures and perils of those little parties have been as thrilling and wonderful as ever made up a chapter of border experiences.”

Rescue Howard’s troops would eventually reach Cowan. The Army had also found two of the Radersburg Party who had escaped — A.J Arnold and Albert Oldham, the camper who had been shot in the face. The Army surgeon and friends treated the Cowan’s wounds. The flattened bullet pulled from his head later graced his watch fob as a memento of a second anniversary and summer trip to Yellowstone that would never be forgotten.

Yellowstone Park Guide

Diane Renkin, YNP

There is a picnic site along the Yellowstone River in the Hayden Valley called Nez Perce Ford, the place where the Indian band forded the river in 1877.

“What an adventure that was,” said Murphy, the Yellowstone historian.

Cowen saddled up with Howard’s troops before breaking off to detour to Mammoth Hot Springs with Arnold and Oldham. After being freed, Emma, her brother and sister had found Army troops camped near Tower Junction. The detachment escorted them back to Mammoth and then on to Fort Ellis near Bozeman. While awaiting news of her husband, Emma returned to her parents’ home near Townsend.

When Emma read in the newspaper that her husband was still alive she traveled to Bozeman, only to find out Cowan was resting and in poor health at a ranch along the Yellowstone River in the Paradise Valley. Renting a carriage and driver she rode from Bozeman to the ranch. Three weeks after being found alive Cowan was finally reunited with his wife in late-September.

As Watry writes in her book, Cowan’s misfortunes were still not over. On the trip back to Bozeman in the carriage, the carriage broke and the team of horses spooked.

Luckily, the travelers were thrown clear of the wagon before it tumbled down a cliff. After arriving at a

Bozeman hotel, Arnold sat down on Cowan’s bed to treat his re-opened wounds and the bed collapsed.

“Had I been morbidly inclined,” Emma later commented, “I might have conceived the idea that some avenging Nemesis was following in his foot-steps, which nothing but the forfeit of his life would satisfy.”

End notes In the end it would be a rugged 126-day, 1,200-mile journey for the Indians through the Rocky Mountains, eventually ending violently on Montana’s eastern plains in October. At that time the remnants of the original band of fleeing Nez Perce surrendered to the U.S. Army near present-day Havre, although a small band escaped to Canada.

The captives were shipped on rail cars to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, that winter and then on to Indian Territory in Oklahoma where many died of disease. It would be seven years before tribal members were moved to the Colville Reservation in Washington.

In 1986 Congress created the 1,170 mile-long Nez Perce National Historic Trail. About 84 miles of that route wends through Yellowstone National Park.

In 1901 George and Emma Cow-

an revisited Yellowstone National Park and the sites where their traumatic experiences had taken place four years earlier, tourists once again, but this time without the drama they had suffered in 1877.

Amazingly and despite his injuries, George Cowan walked again and lived to the age of 84, dying from pneumonia in 1926, Watry wrote. Emma lived another 12 years after her husband’s death, dying in 1938 at the age of 85.

Considering the many bad turns Cowan’s trip took, historian Elizabeth Watry said it was almost like a “Keystone Cop comedy of errors,” referring to the silent film policemen known for their blunders.

In her many examinations of Yellowstone history, Watry hesitated to call Cowan the most ill-fated of tourists ever to visit the park.

Stagecoach accidents, Truman Everts’ lost wanderings for 37 days in 1870, tourist maulings by grizzly bears and the scalding of tourists in hot springs sprang to mind of other tragedies. But Cowan’s series of unfortunate events were one of the few to involve American Indians, to extend over several days and to contain such “high drama.”

“This is probably the most dramatic story of Yellowstone,” Watry conceded.

SUMMER 2019 | 23

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