The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive

by Hiram Martin Chittenden

Catlin’s enthusiasm for every thing pertaining to Indian life, and the grief with which he beheld the certain fading away of it all before the rapid progress of civilization, suggested to him the idea which was to find partial fulfillment at the time to which our narrative has now been carried. In order to preserve, at least on a small scale, the native fauna of America, and a remnant of the Indian races, he proposed that the government should set apart, in some suitable locality of the West, a large tract of land, to be preserved forever as a “Nation’s Park, containing man and beast, in all the wildness and freshness of their nature’s beauty.” With his natural enthusiasm and vigor, he unfolded his idea, concluding:

“I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrollment of my name among the famous dead, than the reputation of having been the founder of such an institution.”

In the report of the late Prof. Joseph Henry to the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution for 1871, it is stated that Catlin made a proposition to the government in 1832 “to reserve the country around these [the Yellowstone] geysers as a public park.” While it is more than probable, considering the date, and the wide acquaintance of Mr. Catlin with the traders and Indians of the West, that he had heard of the geyser regions, still there is not sufficient evidence attainable to justify our acceptance of the above statement. But in every thing else except the particular locality, and the plan of providing a reservation for the Indians, Catlin’s idea was the same as that finally adopted by Congress.

Although the project of creating a vast National Park in the West originated with George Catlin, it is certain that Congress could never have been brought to act favorably upon it, except under the influence of some extraordinary motive. That motive was supplied when the innumerable unique and marvelous wonders of the Yellowstone were made known. Their preservation at once became a matter of high public duty, which could be accomplished only by reserving from settlement the region around them.

Since the Park was created and has to such a marked degree received the approval of the people, numerous claimants have arisen for the honor of having first suggested the idea. In truth, no special credit for originality should attach to the matter. It was a natural, an unavoidable proposition. To those who first saw these wonders, and were not so absorbed with gold-seeking as to be incapable of appreciating their importance, it was clear that, within a few years, they must become objects of universal interest. It was equally clear that the land around them would soon be taken up by private parties, and that the beautiful formations would be carried off for mercenary purposes; in short, that the history of Niagara and of the Yosemite would repeat itself in the Yellowstone. To avoid such a calamity only one course was open, and that was for the government to retain control of the entire region. That the necessity of such a course should have been set forth independently by several different parties, as we find it to have been, is therefore not in the least surprising.

But in as much as the development of the project must have started from some one source, it is of interest historically to determine what this source was. We find it to have been the Washburn Expedition of 1870. [AF] The subject was discussed by the party at the first camp after leaving the geyser regions near the junction of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers. The date was September 19, 1870. The members of the party were sitting around the camp-fire after supper, conversing about what they had seen, and picturing to themselves the important pleasure resort which so wonderful a region must soon become. The natural impulse to turn the fruits of discovery to the personal profit of the discoverer made its appearance, and it was suggested that it would be a “profitable speculation” to take up land around the various objects of interest. The conversation had not proceeded far on these lines when one of the party, Cornelius Hedges, interposed and said that private ownership of that region, or any part of it, ought never to be countenanced; but that it ought to be set apart by the government and forever held to the unrestricted use of the people. This higher view of the subject found immediate acceptance with the other members of the party. It was agreed that the project should be at once set afoot and pushed vigorously to a finish.

[AF] Mr. Folsom deserves mention in this connection. In the manuscript of his article in the Western Monthly was a reference to the Park idea; but the publishers cut out a large part of his paper, giving only the descriptions of the natural wonders, and this reference was cut out with the rest. Mr. Folsom also suggested the idea to General Washburn, of which fact Mr. N. P. Langford is still a living witness. From Mr. Folsom’s suggestion, however, as from Mr. Catlin’s, no direct result can be traced.

As soon as the party reached Helena, a series of articles appeared in the daily papers of that city describing the late expedition, and in one of these, written by Mr. Hedges and published in the Helena Herald November 9, 1870, occurs what is believed to be the first public reference to the Park project.

The next mention of the subject was in Mr. Langford’s lecture, delivered, as already related, in Washington, January 19, 1871; in New York, January 21, 1871; and at a later date in Minneapolis. At each of these places he closed his lecture with a reference to the importance of setting apart this region as a National Park. The New York Tribune of January 23, 1871, thus quotes Mr. Langford: