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Imagine this electronic field trip could serve as a magic window and you could see Yellowstone's past through the eyes of the people who lived it. Against a backdrop of breathtaking scenery, they walked the mountains, explored the forests, and worked to preserve this special place for the future. Read on to discover some of their stories! People have visited and lived in the area we now call Yellowstone
National Park since the end of the last Ice Age, about 11,000 years
ago. We don't know very much about these early people, but it is fun
to imagine what kind of Yellowstone they might have lived in. When
they were here, the glaciers that once blanketed Yellowstone in a
mile thick layer of ice had melted away leaving only the mountaintops
covered with snow and ice. In those days the temperature was much
colder than it is in Yellowstone today. However, 10,000 years ago
lodgepole pine forests and aspen groves were starting to grow. Animals
found in Yellowstone today such as elk, bison, black bear, bighorn
sheep, and coyotes were present at that time. But there were other
animals that we don't currently see, such as camels and sloths. At
the close of the last Ice Age, about 8,500 years ago, temperatures
warmed. Some animals like the wooly mammoth were better suited for
colder and wetter conditions and became extinct while others adapted
to the warmer environment. |
