Rediscovering Wonderland: The Expedition That Launched Yellowstone National Park

by M. Mark Miller

In the nineteenth century people could gain fame and fortune by “discovering” and documenting things that were already known to exist like the source of the Nile and the North Pole. For decades trappers and prospectors had told about the wonders of the area that became Yellowstone Park, but no credible person had written about the falls, canyons, and geysers there. An ambitious politician, Nathaniel P. Langford, decided to make his name by promoting an expedition and publicizing its activities in 1870. An army lieutenant named Gustavus Doane maneuvered to lead the expedition’s army escort for the same reason. Their written accounts of the big “discovery” of Wonderland were the basis for the park’s founding in 1872. Rediscovering Wonderland brings together the words of these men, along with images of the expedition, to provide historical context for the exploration and founding of America’s first national park.

Genres: Nature, History

182 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2022

About the author

I returned home to Montana in 2003 after a career as a newspaper reporter and journalism professor. These days I stay busy doing research on Montana history. My current focus is on early trips to Yellowstone National Park

I worked for Montana newspapers while in college at the University of Montana. After graduating, I was a reporter and editor for newspapers in Utah and Kentucky. After earning a doctorate, I was a professor at the Universities of Wisconsin and Tennessee teaching mass media effects, public opinion, and communication research methods. My research has appeared in several scholarly journals including Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, and Public Opinion Quarterly.

I have been researching Yellowstone National Park since in 2003 have a collection of more than 200 first-person accounts of park travel before 1915. Globe Pequot published my book, Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales, in August, 2009.

My articles on Yellowstone Park and Montana history have appeared in the Big Sky Journal and the Pioneer Museum Quarterly. I am working on a novel for young adults about a 14-year-old boy’s adventures in Yellowstone Park in 1871.

I live with Bozeman where I am a volunteer at the Pioneer Museum. I am a reader for the Montana Book Award.