Posted by Ranger Sally on October 11, 2001 at 16:19:04:
In Reply to: Yellowstone Park posted by Danielle on October 11, 2001 at 14:51:27:
: When and how did you find Yellowstone Park?
Danielle:
You probably know from reading the field trip information that humans have passed through Yellowstone for 11,000 years, so no one person can really take the credit for "finding" Yellowstone first. It's important to remember, though, that communication was very limited up until the last century, so it is possible that some people might not have realized that other people had visited the Yellowstone area before them. Also, sometimes records tend to focus on European-American history and the meaning of "the first person to find Yellowstone" gets interpreted as "the first Euro-American to visit Yellowstone". It is important to remember that prehistoric nomadic people and Native Americans used this area long before. . .Although Yellowstone had been thoroughly explored by Euro-American trappers and miners, in the view of the nation at large it was really "discovered" when penetrated by formal expeditions. The first of these in 1869 was composed of three members, David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook and William Peterson. In 1870 a second expedition set out for Yellowstone, led by Henry D. Washburn, Nathaniel P. Langford and Lt. Gustavus C. Doane. The following year Ferdinand V. Hayden led an expedition which included a photograher and artist and brought bck scientific corroboration of earlier tales of thermal activity.