10 Surprising Facts About Yellowstone

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10 Surprising Facts About Yellowstone - by Kim Heacox/ News/ National Geographic/ news.nationalgeographic.com

"The world’s oldest national park changed the way people think about nature, leaving an enduring legacy.

Yellowstone, the world’s first—and still most famous—national park, was established in 1872, the year the Brooklyn Bridge opened and President Ulysses S. Grant completed his first term in the White House (then called the Executive Mansion). That same year Jules Verne wrote Around the World in 80 Days and Thomas Edison perfected the duplex telegraph. But nothing changed the world like Yellowstone.

The new park taught people the value of restraint; that we save wild places so they might one day save us..."

An aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring.
Photography by Norbert Rosing, National Geographic Creative


Richard

 

[csxjohn]

"Yellowstone received more visitors in 1989 than in any other year that decade."

We went that year. I told my wife that if you want to take the kids, this would be the year to do it. The news media complained long and hard that the NPS was ruining the park by letting the fires burn.

It was a great trip and we were educated on the importance of fire in the wild.

 

[DebBrown]

Interesting article, thanks for posting! I'm not sure I would call these things "surprising" - LOL!

Deb

 

[WinniWoman]

The best of all the National Parks in my opinion! I haven't been to every single one of them but I have been to many and this was my favorite.

 

[DaveNV]

I've been to Yellowstone many times since 1974, and especially in the year after the 1988 fire - I was one of those 1989 visitors. I was amazed at how quickly nature was recovering from the fire. Grass and baby trees were everywhere. Small birds and insects were visible everywhere I turned. It was like a different place. By 1991 the fire was more of a memory, and ten years after the fire it was like it had happened a very long time before.

I think the Park is healthier because of NPS letting the fires burn, and the reintroduction of wolves. Nature will find a way, but we need to step back, and let things take their own course.

Dave