THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
CHAPTER XXVII.
The Yellowstone National Park.
The park is situated in the North-west corner of the State of Wyoming, overlapping a few miles into Montana on the north, and Montana and Idaho on the west, in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, and is about sixty-five miles east and west and seventy-five miles north and south.
None of the valleys are less than 6,000 feet, while many of the mountain peaks rise to 10,000 and even 14,000 feet above the sea-level. Three of the largest rivers in the United States, the Missouri, Yellowstone and Columbia, have their sources in the Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone Lake, fifteen by twenty miles in size, is the largest body of water, at an altitude of 8,000 feet, in America. The other lakes are Shoshone, Lewis and Heart Lakes. The falls of the Yellowstone are most magnificent. The Grand Canyon, ten miles long, with an average depth of over a thousand feet, is one of the most brilliantly colored landscapes in existence. The geysers outclass anything in the world. Cliffs of volcanic origin, mountains of petrifactions beautiful waterfalls, hills of brimstone, snow-capped peaks, charming valleys with thousands of natural curiosities, make this the wonderland of the world.
The Mammoth Hot Springs is where the Mammoth Hotel and Fort Yellowstone are situated. Substantial roads and bridges have been construced from Gardner, on the very edge of the park and the terminus of the Yellowstone Park branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad, to all the chief attractions in this government national park, for the protection and enjoyment of the numerous people from all parts of the civilized globe who come to visit this beautiful spot of nature.
At Gardner the Northern Pacific Company has erected an attractive and unique depot, made of logs from the Bitter Root valley. The same company has erected the most magnificent depot in the west, at Livingston, the headquarters for all the National Park travel. The division headquarters and shops for the company are located here.
Livingston is situated on the Yellowstone river, and is the center of an extensive stock and farming country. There are numerous producing coal and quartz mines adjacent to the city, which is the distributing and supply point. Valuable quartz mines are at Jardine, Bear Gulch and Cooke City, and the coal mines are at Cokedale, Aldridge and Horr, and beyond the Bozeman tunnel are the coal mines of Chestnut and Storr.
At Lombard, the Montana Railroad extends to Lewistown, the principal town in the Judith country. This town has made great strides of late years, and on the event of the railroad this fall will make greater improvements, as it is the supply headquarters for the ranching country and the mines of Gilt Edge and Kendall, besides the enormous sheep and cattle industries of the Judith and Musselshell countries.
The railroad branches at Summit for Leadboro, the Castle lead mines.
At Dorsey the coaches meet the trains for White Sulphur Springs.
Townsend, on the main line of the Northern Pacific, is in the center of the rich farms of the Missouri valley, with numerous mines close by.
I again cross the Missouri river, passing the mining town of Winston, reaching the capital of our state, Helena, on the 25th day of October, 1903, having traveled with my companion during the last eight months, a distance of over twenty-four thousand miles.