In 1913 the government built a Community Chapel at Mammoth. During the summer months services are usually conducted there and at the lodges or amphitheaters by the Catholic, Protestant, and Latter-day Saint (Mormon) faiths.
The postal service in Yellowstone has had a colorful evolution. The mail has always come through, either by scout, stage driver, bus, or “star route” mail car. In 1937 a fine post office was erected in Mammoth. It does business there the year around; while postal stations at Old Faithful, West Thumb, Lake, Fishing Bridge, Canyon, and Tower Falls are open only during the summer season.
Thus does a cross-section of America meet by canyon, geyser, lake, and waterfall. They also foregather around counters, tables, lobbies, and evening camp fires. It would be difficult to find a more representative assembly of American society. Many people consider this interesting human equation one of the most enjoyable experiences in the Park.
Chapter XIII
“THE YELLOWSTONE IDEA”
It has already been disclosed that Yellowstone Park has served the nation as an experimental unit in certain fields of conservation. While this is true, it would not be correct to regard the Park as the single place of origin for such a complex and salutary movement. Today the conservation of natural resources is one of America’s most popular and cherished causes, but it was not always so. A brief review of the conservation issue will provide a background for a correct appraisal of the position of the National Park System in relation to the nation’s over-all conservation program.
When the first colonies were established along the Atlantic seaboard America was a land of trees. This profusion of flora constituted an obstacle counted more serious than hostile Indians.[258] The natives had already fully cleared limited areas from the ravages of ancient fires, but the great forest stood almost limitless, and it was dense. Ambitious farmers yearned for the sight of bare ground; all trees irritated their eyes and caused them to reach for their axes. They wanted soil as rich as a barnyard, level as a floor, stone free, cleared clean of trees, without cost.[259] Except for the absence of trees, these amazing requirements were largely possible of fulfillment because never before had “heaven and earth agreed better to frame a place for man’s habitation.”[260] Here, indeed, was another Eden once it was redeemed from the leafy wilderness.
Colonials rallied to the challenge of a conquest over nature. They “drove” whole groves by partially felling each in a series and then touching off a chain reaction with the downfall of a ponderous giant. Thus did settlers cleave their way into the forests, rejecting in nature all that was not of immediate practical value. A little poem published in 1692 depicts their philosophy:
In such a wilderness ...
When we began to clear the land ...
Then with ax, with Might and Strength,