Part 24 (1/2)

The canon in particular is as wonderful a bit of scenery as any mountains afford. It is every-where rugged, majestic and imposing, and there is no point in its twelve miles length that does not present a landscape deserving of the tourist's careful study. Mr. W. H. Weed, who has done much work in the Park, and particularly in this section, says of this valley:

”To the eastward Soda b.u.t.te Valley penetrates the heart of the rugged Sierra, whose high peaks rise in castellated forms. The visitor, disappointed perhaps in the mountain scenery of the Park, after traveling the usual route over the dusty roads of the Park plateau, will here find mountain views that are sure to fulfill his expectations, while the neighborhood is not lacking in curiosities that in another land would attract visitors from far and wide.”[BT]

[BT] Fossil Forests of the Yellowstone. See Appendix E.

_Cooke City_ is a small mining camp just outside the north-east corner of the Park in the midst of the Clark's Fork mining district. It is of interest in this connection only on account of its notorious hostility to the Yellowstone National Park.

_Death Gulch_, reputed to exist in the valley of Cache Creek, is like Bridger's Gla.s.s Mountain, mostly a product of the imagination. It seems that some animals were once poisoned there, and that later, certain explorers, finding them, attributed their death to an escape of carbonic acid gas from the earth. The name has found its way into maps and reports of highest authority, but the object itself has no existence.

The _Hoodoo Region_ is near the head of Miller Creek just outside the original reservation, although within the Forest Reserve addition.

This mysterious region furnishes probably the most striking example in existence of the effects of erosion and wind action upon ma.s.ses of moderately soft rock. The region was discovered by miners in 1870, but was first explored and reported upon by Colonel Norris in 1880, who thus describes it:[BU]

”Nearly every form, animate or inanimate, real or chimerical, ever actually seen or conjured by the imagination, may here be observed.

Language does not suffice to properly describe these peculiar formations; sketches may probably do something, and photographs more, to convey a conception of their remarkable character, but actual observation is absolutely necessary to adequately impress the mind with the wild, unearthly appearance of these eroded Hoodoos of the Goblin Land. These monuments are from fifty to two or three hundred feet in height, with narrow, tortuous pa.s.sages between them, which sometimes are tunnels through permanent snow or ice fields, where the big-horn sheep hide in safety; while the ceaseless but ever changing moans of the wild winds seem to chant fitting requiems to these gnome-like monuments of the legendary Indian G.o.ds.”

[BU] Page 8, Annual Report, Superintendent of the Park, for the year 1880.

Returning to Junction Valley, and following down the Yellowstone, the tourist soon arrives at the _Third Canon_ (the third above Livingston, the Grand Canon being fourth), which extends from the eastern limit of Junction Valley to the north boundary of the Park. Located anywhere else, away from the overshadowing splendor of the Grand Canon, it would become celebrated. Some of the views, particularly from the high ground north of Mt. Everts, overlooking by nearly 2,000 feet the vast chasm through which the turbulent river flows, are among the most impressive in the entire region.

From the immediate vicinity of the Third Canon, the road crosses the plateau of Black Tail Deer Creek to the valley of the East Gardiner.

The tour terminates at Mammoth Hot Springs.

PART III.--The Future.

CHAPTER I.

HOSTILITY TO THE PARK.

From what has been thus far set forth the reader can not have failed to observe how fortunate have been the events, both in prehistoric and in recent times, which have made the Yellowstone National Park what it is to-day. In the course of long ages Nature developed this region into its present attractive form, and filled it with wonders which will never fail to command the admiration of men. She placed it upon the very apex of the continent, and made of it an inexhaustible reservoir of water for a perennial supply to the parched and rainless desert around it. She interspersed among its forests an abundance of parks and valleys, where the native fauna of the continent, elsewhere fast pa.s.sing away, may find protection in all future time. With infinite foresight she made it unfit for the gainful occupations of men, so that every motive to appropriate it for private use is removed.

For many years after the white man first looked within its borders, a rare combination of circ.u.mstances prevailed to keep it from becoming generally known until the time had arrived when the government could effectually reserve it from settlement. Finally, since its formal erection into a public park, the same good fortune has attended it, in spite of many adverse influences, until it has become thoroughly intrenched in the good opinion of the people.

So fully has the experience of the past quarter century confirmed the wisdom of setting apart this region for public uses, that it ought no longer to be necessary to say a word in favor of its continued preservation. To most people it will seem impossible that there should be any one who would seek the mutilation or destruction of this important reservation. Unfortunately there are many such. No session of Congress for twenty years has been free from attempted legislation hostile to the Park. The schemes to convert it into an instrument of private greed have been many, and strange as it may seem, they are invariably put forward by those very communities to whom the Park is, and must ever remain, the chief glory of their section. It is a lamentable proof of the dearth of patriotic spirit that always betrays itself whenever the interests of individuals and of the public come into collision. Nevertheless it is a great satisfaction to know that this spirit of hostility is confined to an infinitesimal portion of the whole people. Excepting a few mine owners and their following, a handful of poachers, one or two railroad corporations, and a few greedy applicants for special franchises, the people of the country are a unit in favor of the strictest preservation of this great national pleasure ground. No better proof of this can be had than the fact that the Park has successfully withstood for so long a period every attack that has been made upon it.

It will not do, however, to a.s.sume that, because these schemes have hitherto failed, they will always continue to fail. Since they have their origin in speculative ventures, they will be put forward so long as they offer the least pecuniary inducement. The certainty of this, and the danger of their ultimate success, justify the a.s.signment of a brief s.p.a.ce to a consideration of this subject.

CHAPTER II.

RAILROAD ENCROACHMENT AND CHANGE OF BOUNDARY.

Nearly all of the enterprises that have been put forward in opposition to the true interests of the Reservation partake of the nature of railroad encroachment. Without entering into the merits of particular projects, it will be sufficient to explain in general terms the reasons why the government has always opposed them.

Railroads in the Yellowstone Park are objectionable because: