The National Park Idea
I
write several time travel romance series set in the American West, as well as
some western historical romances. I love Yellowstone - it’s beauty, diversity,
and history. There is just no place like it on earth. It’s what inspired me to
write my first series, the Yellowstone Romance Series. Romance and adventure is
set against the backdrop of this magical place that is often called Wonderland.
Amidst action, adventure, and plenty of romance, the series takes the reader through my
fictional account of how Yellowstone National Park went from an unknown
wilderness to becoming the first national park.
Yellowstone
National Park, the nation, in fact, the world’s first national park, was signed
into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872.
If
you’ve ever been to Yellowstone, and sat at one of the Ranger campfire programs
at Madison Junction, the ranger will almost always point behind him or her, to
a tall mountain across the valley. The mountain is named National Park
Mountain, and legend has it that this is where the national park idea was born.
It is said that Henry Washburn, Nathaniel Langford, and Cornelius Hedges camped
in the valley just beneath the mountain during their expedition through the
area in 1870, and came up with the grand idea of preserving the wonders they
saw – the geysers, hot springs, canyons, rivers and lakes – for everyone to
enjoy for generations to come. They wanted the area set aside as a nation’s
park.
 |
| National Park Mountain |
Whether
this conversation actually occurred, and in that precise location, is up for
debate, but it makes for a nice campfire story.
So what did lead to the birth of the national park idea?
Lewis
and Clark, during their expedition in 1805, missed the area that is now the
famous Yellowstone National Park. In 1806, John Colter, who was part of the
expedition, set out with a group of fur trappers, and some historical accounts
say he is the first white man to have seen the area and its geysers. He
described a place of “hell and brimstone” that most people dismissed as
delirium. Those who heard of his tales called this imaginary place “Colter’s
Hell.”
Over
the years, more fur trappers entered the Rocky Mountains, and more and more
reports found their way back to civilization of a place with boiling mud,
steaming rivers, and petrified trees. These fantastical stories were believed
to be just that – men’s tall tales who had been in the wilderness too long.
In
1856, mountain man Jim Bridger reported observing boiling springs, spouting
water, and a mountain of glass and yellow rock. But since Bridger had a
reputation as a “spinner of yarn,” his reports were also ignored.
The
first detailed exploration of the Yellowstone area came in 1869, when three
privately funded explorers trekked through what is now the park. The members of
the Folsom party kept detailed records and journals, and based on their
information, a group of Montana residents organized the Washburn/Langford/Doane
Expedition of 1870. Henry Washburn was surveyor-general of Montana at the time.
The
group included Nathaniel Langford, who later would be known as “National Park
Langford.” They spent a month exploring the region, collecting specimens, and
naming sites of interest (Old Faithful, anyone?) Another member of the group,
lawyer Cornelius Hedges, proposed that the region should be set aside and
protected as a national park. Other prominent men also made similar suggestions
that “Congress pass a bill reserving the Great Geyser Basin as a public park
forever.”
In
1871, Dr. Ferdinand Hayden, a geologist, organized the first government-sponsored
exploration of the region. The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 included
numerous scientists, as well as photographer William Henry Jackson, and artist
Thomas Moran. Together, they compiled a comprehensive report on Yellowstone,
which helped convince Congress to withdraw the region from public auction. The
Act of Dedication Law was signed by the President Uysses S. Grant on March 1st,
1872.
The Act of Dedication
An Act to set
apart a certain tract of land lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone
River as a public park. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the tract of land
in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming …. is hereby reserved and withdrawn
from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and
dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit
and enjoyment of the people; and all persons who shall locate, or settle upon,
or occupy the same or any part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall
be considered trespassers and removed there from…
Approved March 1, 1872.
Yellowstone Heart Song, Yellowstone
Romance Series Book One:
Nurse and avid backpacker Aimee Donovan is offered
the opportunity of a lifetime. She encounters a patient who tells her he can
send her two hundred years into the past to spend three months in the rugged
Yellowstone wilderness at the dawn of the mountain man era. The only
requirement: she cannot tell anyone that she’s from the future.
How did a white woman suddenly appear in the remote
Rocky Mountain wilderness? Trapper Daniel Osborne’s first instinct is to
protect this mysterious and unconventional woman from the harsh realities of
his mountains. While he fights his growing attraction to her, he is left
frustrated by her lies and secrecy.
Daniel shows Aimee a side of Yellowstone she’s never
experienced. She is torn between her feelings for him, and exposing a secret
that will destroy everything he holds as truth. As her three months come to an
end, she is faced with a dilemma: return to her own time, or stay with the man
who opened her eyes to a whole new world. When the decision is made for her,
both their lives will be changed forever.
Excerpt
from Yellowstone Heart Song
For the
better part of the morning, Daniel led her through the forest. He showed
her how to read different tracks, signs to look out for that an animal had been
in the area, where to look for edible roots and plants, and how to watch the
skies for changes in the weather. Along with the berries, she filled her
backpack with mint, wild onions, licorice, and various other roots and plants.
She listened
attentively as she tried to absorb everything Daniel told her. Some things she
already knew, others were completely new to her. The subtle animal signs he
picked up on astounded her. Silently, he had pointed out a black bear sow and
her twin cubs in the distance, a moose in the thickets that she would have
completely overlooked, and countless other smaller animals. He knew which
critter made every track they came upon. He read the forest for information as
someone in her time would read a newspaper. It was most refreshing to get a
glimpse of this wilderness that she loved so much in her time from this man who
carved out a living here.
Aimee
savored the beauty of her surroundings. Aspen trees grew in abundance. Beaver
lodges lined the banks along streams, and countless otters played in the
waters. With the coming of the fur trappers to these mountains within a decade
of this time, the beaver would be trapped to near extinction. Wolves would be
hunted until none remained, and without this predator, the elk would take over,
and cause the destruction of the aspen from overgrazing. This was a Yellowstone
unfamiliar to her, but it was as nature had intended before the encroachment of
man.
Despite the
differences, the landscape still held a certain familiarity, and she realized
Daniel was leading them back in the direction of the cabin sometime in the
early afternoon. Her foot throbbed with every step she took, but today was one
of the best days of her life. The raw, undisturbed landscape exhilarated her.
No other hikers, no roads. Just me and this gorgeous backwoodsman.
Oh, geez,
where were her thoughts taking her now? Daniel had proven to be an excellent
teacher, and she enjoyed seeing her beloved Yellowstone through his eyes. Yet,
as the day wore on, she found it harder and harder to concentrate on her
surroundings, while she became more and more aware of him. He was as untamed as
this land, and by far the most virile man she had ever met.
Peggy L
Henderson
Western
Historical and Time Travel Romance
“Where Adventure Awaits and Love is Timeless”
Author of:
Yellowstone Romance
Series
Teton Romance Trilogy
Second Chances Time
Travel Romance Series
Blemished Brides
Western Historical Romance Series
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