Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park, a global icon of conservation and natural beauty, was born at the most improbable of times: the American Gilded Age, when altruism seemed extinct and society’s vision seemed focused solely on greed and growth. Perhaps that is why the park’s “creation myth” recounted how a few saintlike pioneer conservationists labored to set aside this unique wilderness against all odds, when in fact, the establishment of Yellowstone was the result of complex social, scientific, economic, and aesthetic forces. Paul Schullery and Lee Whittlesey, both longtime students of Yellowstone’s complex history, present the first full account of how the fairy-tale origins of the park found universal public acceptance, and of the long process by which the myth was reconsidered and replaced with a more realistic and ultimately more satisfying story.

Paul Schullery is the author of many books on the American West, including Searching for Yellowstone and Old Yellowstone Days. He wrote and narrated the PBS film Yellowstone: America’s Sacred Wilderness and is currently scholar-in-residence at Montana State University Library. Lee Whittlesey is park historian for the National Park Service at Yellowstone National Park. He is the author of several books, most recently Ho! for Wonderland: Travelers’ Accounts of Yellowstone, 1872–1914 and A Yellowstone Album: A Photographic Celebration of the First National Park.