Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales

by M. Mark Miller

After its establishment in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was sufficiently famous that numerous people risked bear maulings, Indian attacks, and geyser burns just to glimpse its wonders. A surprising number of those who survived wrote about their adventures. The best of these stories are collected in Adventures in Yellowstone . Presenting a dozen narratives―journal entries, letters, and diaries―with an introduction to each, and with historic photographs, postcards, and woodcuts, this book is the essential compilation of the most gripping first-person accounts of the early years of America's most cherished national park.

Genres: History, Nature, Adventure, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published August 4, 2009

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.

Reviews

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m planning a celebratory forty-year-anniversary visit to Yellowstone later this summer. To prepare, I’m slowly reading a lot of Yellowstone-ish books. This one is a collection of excerpts from the stories of early travelers to Yellowstone. Truman Everts got separated from his exploration party and spent thirty-seven days alone in Yellowstone, for example...now that’s a story. Any number of wild animal attacks. A surprising number of people who were burned badly from geysters. I loved reading about the group of explorers that tentatively divided up, pre-park, Yellowstone’s great sites and contemplated the riches each might obtain from future tourists there. If you are headed to Yellowstone or you just love Yellowstone, this is a book you will want to read.

[Maura · Rating 4 out of 5]

While driving around Yellowstone, marveling at the weirdness of being in a huge volcano's caldera, I wondered what early people thought of all this when they first encountered it. I found this book in the gift shop at the Old Faithful Visitors' Center; it's accounts by early travelers through Yellowstone, from around the 1870's through the early 1900's. When information first came out about Yellowstone, people thought it was all exaggerated. But as the more adventurous types began to visit, the park became more popular, referred to in several memoirs as "Wonderland." What impressed me was what these visitors put up with to see the sights: tent camping for several weeks, rough roads, poor food. And yet they came away raving over the beauty of all they had seen. By the early 1900's the place was practically plush - hotels and real paved roads existed in the park by then. This is a good book to read before you go, to make you appreciate how easily we can visit these wonders today, but also after, when you will recognize all the places mentioned in these memoirs.

[Lisa Butterworth · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of fascinating stories that I retold to my family as we drove around Yellowstone.

[Kelly Massey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful reprint of several primary sources of travelers' early experiences going through the park. Their amazement and wonder at such a place existing is truly wonderful to read.

[Nainika Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really cool look ito early traveler's views of Yellowstone!

[Ron Sitton · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you caught Ken Burns documentary on the National Parks, you’ve no doubt heard that Yellowstone National Park is America’s first National Park. That may be the only story not told in M. Mark Miller’s book, “Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales.”

Miller takes those interested in Yellowstone’s history on a captivating tour through the eyes of some of the earliest records from white Americans visiting the region. Those who saw Burns documentary will recognize the story of the Washburn Expedition and Truman Everts’ 37 perilous days; if that’s enough for you, stick to the documentary. For the rest of us, Miller abbreviates 12 fascinating accounts into an anthology of stories that made me rethink Yellowstone.

Sure, I saw the Yellowstone I know by reading Margaret Cruikshank’s jaded account of too many visitors … granted, that was in 1883. But I also gained a new appreciation for the natural wonders revealed through the eyes of Nathaniel Pitt Langford, the Earl of Dunraven and Stephen M. Dale, each of whom tried to describe the majesty of Yellowstone Falls, each of whom acknowledged their limitations through words. It reminded me of the insatiable longing to see the next curiosity described by Emma Cowan and Eleanor Corthell, as well as Carrie Adell Strahorn’s feeling that I was too close to beauty to be deterred from seeing it.

I read the book tonight over 5 hours instead of making class notes or grading papers; I think that’s indication enough that it’s captivating. Granted, I studied under Miller, so I may be biased. But considering that was more of a “quantitative” tour, I found his “qualitative” story-telling not only informative but highly enjoyable. He documents where he found the stories, and provides additional readings for those not content with the abridged versions. Though he doesn’t claim to be a historian, he provides the trail for historians wishing to follow his tracks.

Lest I forget, Miller does provide the “tall tale” of creating a national park in Langford’s account. He corrects misunderstandings in the accounts of Langford, Strahorn and Henry Calfee, and generally warns you about “outlandish” tales. But I cannot pinpoint any other “outright fabrications” he warns the reader about in the preface. Miller claims not to fret over the “literal truth” in seeking to compel modern readers; I think he succeeded in his goal.

Besides, only the most exaggerated embellishments must have done justice to a pristine Yellowstone. If there’s a better sample, somebody please send it to me.

(This review was written on an Amazon account I can no longer access. But it's been helpful to some: http://www.amazon.com/gp/review/R1IS4...)

[M. Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm the author so, of course, I agree with the blurb on the back cover:

Gripping first-person accounts of the early years of America’s most cherished national park

After its establishment in 1872, Yellowstone National Park was sufficiently famous that a surprising number of people risked bear maulings, Indian attacks, and geyser burns just to glimpse its wonders. Many of those who survived wrote about their adventures. The best of those stories are collected here, in Adventures in Yellowstone.

From Osborne Russell’s colorful early accounts of the daily lives of mountain men in the 1840s to a story by Eleanor Corthell, who in 1903 took her seven children on a two-month, 1,200-mile tour of the park by wagon, each story opens a new window on a long-overlooked aspect of our nation’s history.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much fun to read this during our stay in Wyoming! This book gave me new perspectives and an appreciation for the experiences of the earliest visitors to Yellowstone. I retold many of the stories to friends and family members ... made for entertaining and relevant conversation while hiking or driving in the area. I especially loved reading journal entries written by explorers who were so awestruck by the beauty of the canyons, falls, and geysers that they were afraid their friends back home wouldn't believe what they'd seen. My thanks to the author for compiling these first-hand accounts into this captivating book.

[Jon Hurd · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any interest in Yellowstone National Park this is the book to read. An excellent work by M. Mark Miller who has found first person accounts by the early (white) visitors to the area. I have to admit that I cringe when I read of the blatant contempt for the wild environment expressed by some of the early "explorers" and the equally heinous treatment of native americans. But I also realize that I am viewing history from a different age and set of sensibilities.

I look forward to more works by Mr. Miller.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Mr. Miller admits to extensive editing and abridging, these were all worthwhile tales of Yellowstone. The selections were well-balanced, from before and after the 'taming' of the park. Also, the authors come from varied backgrounds - from a mountain man to a wealthy European pleasure seeker to a middle class woman and her brood of seven children - giving this small collection a broad scope. I especially enjoyed the story from Emma Cowan who was kidnapped by the Nez Perce in 1877 and whose husband survived a bullet to the head.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the book felt a little disjointed - and repetitive - I did appreciate the abridged accounts of early travelers to Yellowstone. Had this not been my first book on the subject, I would probably not have enjoyed it as much; the book, in whole, felt limited in scope. That being said, the book is easy to read and interesting. And, not wholly told from a man's perspective; I appreciated the author's inclusion of various voices and perspectives.

[Paula P · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good at times. So-so at other times.