Day 44 (D-17) This is America

Yellowstone, the very first national park.  March 1, 2017 marked the 145th anniversary of the creation of this first national park.

I mentioned the Lewis and Clark expedition and John Colter in the last post of my Louisiana blog on May 9, 2016.  http://uiadinlouisiana.blogspot.fr

John Colter, the famous mountain man, was the first known person of European descent to travel through the area that we call Yellowstone today.  After journeying with Lewis and Clark to the Pacific, Colter joined a party of fur trappers to explore the wilderness.   In 1807, he explored alone (in the winter with temperatures going down to -34°C) parts of the Yellowstone plateau and returned with fantastic stories of steaming geysers and bubbling cauldrons.  Some doubters accused the mountain man of telling tall tales and jokingly named the area "Colter's Hell."  When a geologist and a photographer went there on an expedition in 1871, their images provided proof and on March 1, 1872 President Grant signed the Yellowstone Act designating the region as a "pleasure-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" which would be preserved. The Yellowstone Act of 1872 was the start of the idea of preserving sections of the public domain for use as public parks.

Colter's Hell of the Shonone River, just west of Cody, Wyoming

In the winter of 1807 when John Colter saw the area seen in the above photo, there were active geysers.  Colter's description of the place was the earliest account by a white man of a place in Wyoming.  At the top of the photo is the west end of the town of Cody. (from Wikipedia)

To end today's blog post, a short MUST-SEE video clip for you.  Ken Burns has made many excellent documentary films about the United States. He speaks too quickly and the subtitles disappear quickly, but you can understand his enthusiasm about Yellowstone...and see it in winter in this video. (3:32 minutes).  Only English this time!

Ken Burns: Secrets of Yellowstone National Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86k-4ie05qc

My best,

Jane

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-- steaming = producing steam (vapeur)

-- tall tales =  a story that is very difficult to believe;  a greatly exaggerated story