Baldwin, Kenneth H. Enchanted Enclosure: The Army Engineers and Yellowstone National Park, a Documentary History. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, 1976.

The Army Corps of Engineers shaped the discovery, preservation, and improvement of Yellowstone National Park by writing about it, popularizing it, mapping it, finding its weaknesses, and building roads and bridges. Primary source journals and reports reveal the contributions of six influential Army Corps of Engineer officers who never lost their awe of nature.

Barringer, Mark D. Selling Yellowstone: Capitalism and the Construction of Nature. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002.

Concessioners such as Harry Child worked together with the National Park Service (NPS) to generate profits by marketing and adapting the park as needed to fit tourists’ changing expectations of nature, scenery, history, etc. As the NPS became more conservationist in outlook and tourists wanted a natural and rustic experience, the concessioners were unable to adapt and meet the expectations, so the partnership fell apart.

Black, George. Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2012.

The history of Yellowstone leading up to its founding as a national park is intimately connected with the history of the greater United States. Black identifies three interwoven strands of history that influenced the development of Yellowstone—the passion for exploration, violence against Native Americans, and the “civilizing” of the frontier.

Chittenden, Hiram M. The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive. Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd Company, 1920.

Chittenden details the history of Yellowstone National Park. He also describes the complex and wonderful flora and fauna, thermal features, and geology of the park.

Demaray, Jane G. Yellowstone Summers: Touring with the Wylie Camping Company in America’s First National Park. Pullman: Washington State University Press, 2015.

Collected stories of W. W. (William Wallace) Wylie’s camping company show that it attracted middle-class visitors with its frugality, safety, informality, down-to-earth employees, and fascinating interpretation about the park’s natural wonders. It gave tourists a genuine, democratic, and personal experience as it developed and defined tourism in the park.

Ferris, Warren A. Life in the Rocky Mountains: A Diary of Wanderings on the Sources of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia, and Colorado from February, 1830, to November, 1835. Denver: F.A. Rosenstock, Old West Pub. Co., 1940.

Warren A. Ferris traveled west with the American Fur Company, encountering hunger, nature, and Native Americans. Ferris closely observed nature and Native Americans in the West.

Haines, Aubrey L. The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park, Volume 1. Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone Library and Museum Association, 1977.

Yellowstone was originally inhabited by Native Americans, primarily the Shoshones. After it was discovered by John Colter, waves of trappers, tourists, emigrants, then prospectors came through Yellowstone. Historic expeditions explored the area to observe and map it, after which it was made a national park, but it had little management at first. Wars in the park with Native Americans delayed improvements. Philetus Norris was a pioneering superintendent; Patrick Henry Conger was ineffective and allowed monopolization. Continuing management issues almost caused the end of the park.

Haines, Aubrey L. The Yellowstone Story: A History of Our First National Park, Volume 2. Yellowstone National Park: The Yellowstone Association for Natural Science, History & Education, Inc., 1996.

The army took over the park’s management to protect nature, which required isolated and difficult work, but misguided efforts to protect animals distorted the ecosystem. An increase in tourism increased commercial development, and the park had to be protected from monopolies. The Army Corps of Engineers strengthened infrastructure to better enable tourism, which was increased and democratized with the introduction of the automobile. When the National Park Service was created, rangers took over management. The Park survived through legal and political strife to preserve nature for tourism.

Janetski, Joel C. Indians in Yellowstone National Park. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2002.

For at least 8,000 years, Native Americans used the land that became Yellowstone National Park, and, contrary to popular belief, were not afraid of the geysers. Their lives changed with the introduction of the horse. Yellowstone was permanently inhabited by the Sheep Eater tribe, and the Nez Perce and Bannock traversed the park in their respective wars with United States military forces, after which a sustained Native American presence in the park ended.

MacDonald, Douglas H. Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the National Park. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018.

Yellowstone National Park has been actively used by Native Americans for 11,000 years and 26 tribes acknowledge a history with it. Archaeological sites are characterized by stone tools, fire pits, animal bones, and plant remains. Tribes that used the park most likely lived elsewhere in the winter. They valued the obsidian of the park for tools, they hunted but did little fishing, and they used the geysers to camp, hunt, and seek spiritual guidance.

Morris, Larry E. The 1959 Yellowstone Earthquake. Charleston: The History Press, 2016.

In 1959 a 7.5 magnitude earthquake started inside Yellowstone National Park, causing avalanches and floods, and triggering thermal features, wreaking great damage in the park. Many people were injured, lost, or killed, and rescue efforts by the park service highway patrol, other organizations, and civilians were remarkably united and inspirational. Survivors remember their fear of the earthquake and the magnanimity of the rescuers.

Nabokov, Peter, and Lawrence Loendorf. American Indians and Yellowstone National Park: A Documentary Overview. Yellowstone National Park: National Park Service, 2002.

By revisiting old primary sources and incorporating contemporary Native American perspectives, the authors found that Native Americans in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were familiar with the area of Yellowstone National Park and its ecosystem before Euro-Americans discovered it, that the “Sheep Eaters” are inaccurately portrayed, and that native groups today remain interested in their history with the park. The “pristine wilderness” view and white appropriation of the park’s history are inaccurate.

Nabokov, Peter, and Lawrence Loendorf. Restoring a Presence: Americans Indians and Yellowstone National Park. Duncan: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004.

The current understanding of Native Americans in Yellowstone is founded on meager, outdated, or biased information. The authors conducted an anthropological study to give an accurate view of Native American tribes—namely the Crow, Blackfeet, Flathead, Sheep Eaters, Bannock, Nez Perce, and Shoshone—in the Yellowstone ecosystem.

Rust, Thomas C. Watching over Yellowstone: The US Army’s Experience in America’s First National Park. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2020.

Soldiers assigned to Yellowstone National Park during the period of Army management struggled with low morale and high desertion due to the unusual, non-military nature of the assignment. The duties were often difficult, confusing, and even dangerous; some soldiers were incompetent; the facilities were primitive; and the isolation of Fort Yellowstone bred loneliness and contention.

Rydell, Kiki L., and Mary S. Culpin. Managing the Matchless Wonders: A History of Administrative Development in Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1965. Yellowstone National Park: National Park Service, Yellowstone Center for Resources, 2006.

The Organic Act that created Yellowstone National Park mandated that the park be preserved and that it be used for tourism, sparking debate about how to achieve the contradictory goals. As the National Park Service’s mission to protect the park from poaching was replaced with guiding and policing tourists, the mandate’s interpretation evolved to protect nature for tourism. Different superintendents had different enforcement policies in administration and facilities.

Schullery, Paul. Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness. Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2004.

Pre-1492 America was not wilderness; it was actively used and shaped by Native Americans. Yellowstone’s ecology and its unpredictable management have been misconstrued both positively and negatively in publications. Myths about its founding have been perpetuated. Some ecological questions such as why the beavers disappeared or how to manage the grizzlies have only recently been answered. Schullery traces the history of ecology to address these and show what the park means and should continue to mean.

U.S. Dept of Interior Geological Survey. Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden and the Founding of the Yellowstone National Park. Reston: U.S. Geological Survey, 1973.

Ferdinand V. Hayden, a geologist, led an expedition to study the Yellowstone area which included photographer William Henry Jackson. The expedition’s records, maps, and photos were instrumental in securing Yellowstone’s future as a national park.

Wallace, David R. Yellowstone: A Natural and Human History. Washington, D.C.: Division of Publications, National Park Service, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, 2001.

Yellowstone National Park was preserved because of its unusual features and its rich geological history, both of which are still being studied. Native Americans and then white people admired the area, and the United States government protected its wonders. The park has abundant flora and fauna, the management of which has evolved greatly. As part of a greater ecosystem, the park’s protection is vital and valuable to American society.

Watry, Elizabeth A. Women in Wonderland: Lives, Legends, and Legacies of Yellowstone National Park. Helena: Riverbend Publishing, 2012.

Biographical profiles of twelve notable women associated with Yellowstone National Park show that they influenced the park politically, socially, economically, and culturally through their pioneering work in the fields of interpretation, geology, geography, wildlife, environmentalism, tourism, hospitality, and management, as well as having historic experiences.

Whittlesey, Lee H., and Elizabeth A. Watry. Ho! for Wonderland: Travelers’ Accounts of Yellowstone, 1872–1914. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2009.

Visiting Yellowstone National Park in the stagecoach era (1873–1914) could be a grueling experience, but most visitors were impressed with the park and published accounts of their experiences, convincing more people to visit. The writers traversed the park with different transportation, and each had a unique experience on their tour.

Brust, James S., and Lee H. Whittlesey. “Thomas J. Hine: One of Yellowstone’s Earliest Photographers.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 49, no. 2 (1999): 14–23.

Article discusses photographer Thomas J. Hine and his trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1871. Hine was the photographer of the 1871 Barlow expedition. Unfortunately, most of Hine’s photographs of the 1871 Yellowstone exploration and tour of the Crow Indian Agency were destroyed in the October 1871 Chicago fire. Sixteen stereographs discovered in the Library of Congress in 1998 can be proved to be Hine’s work from that trip. The set includes the first photo of Old Faithful erupting.

Frost, Warwick, and C. Michael Hall. “Reinterpreting the Creation Myth: Yellowstone National Park.” In National Parks and Tourism: International Perspectives on Development, Histories and Change, edited by Warwick Frost and C. Michael Hall, 16–29. New York: Routledge, 2009.

Article examines the creation myth of Yellowstone National Park. It describes the commonly accepted myth that Yellowstone National Park had its genesis in a campfire discussion and how the creation of the first national park became a model used around the world.

Gourley, Bruce T. “Chasing Florence Keyser: The Arrival of the Great Depression in Yellowstone National Park in August 1931.” Yellowstone History Journal 1, no. 1 (2018): 58–68.

Article describes Florence Keyser’s visit to Yellowstone National Park during the Great Depression. It documents her experiences on a tour marketed to middle class Americans.

Jacoby, Karl. “The State of Nature: Country Folk, Conservationists, and Criminals at Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1908.” In The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State: Political Histories of Rural America, edited by Catherine M. Stock and Robert D. Johnston, 91–112. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2001.

Article describes how changes in the country’s attitude toward natural resources impacted the tourist industry and race relations between whites and Native Americans. It discusses the evolution of conservation ideas and shows how tensions between rural communities and conservationists developed. It uses two high profile poaching cases in Yellowstone National Park to illustrate these tensions.

John, Gareth E. “Yellowstone as ‘Landscape Idea’: Thomas Moran and the Pictorial Practices of Gilded-Age Western Exploration.” Journal of Cultural Geography 24, no. 2 (2007): 1–29.

Article describes how artistic representations of the wonders of Yellowstone National Park contributed to the growing fame of the park. It focuses on Thomas Moran’s painting The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone but also illustrates how printed descriptions of the visual wonders of the area contributed to the parks growing reputation.

Johnston, Jeremy M. “The President, the Unscrupulous Concessioner, and the Insane Adversary: President Theodore Roosevelt Regulates Monopolies in Yellowstone National Park.” Yellowstone History Journal 2, no. 1 (2019): 4–23.

Article describes President Theodore Roosevelt’s efforts to regulate monopolies in Yellowstone National Park. It describes how, after years of governmental inaction, Roosevelt forcefully removed from the park James Fullerton, who aggressively protested Yellowstone wildlife management, and concessioner Ella Collins Waters, who abused his position for money and power.

Johnston, Jeremy M. “Progressivism Comes to Yellowstone: Theodore Roosevelt and Professional Land Management Agencies in the Yellowstone Ecosystem.” In Greater Yellowstone Public Lands: A Century of Discovery, Hard Lessons, and Bright Prospects, edited by Alice W. Biel, 80–93. Yellowstone National Park: Yellowstone Center for Resources, 2006.

Article describes how Progressive reforms played out in Yellowstone National Park. It highlights how the spoils system and machine politics had led to unqualified men being placed in charge of the national park. It describes President Theodore Roosevelt’s role in bringing professional land management practices to the park. It shows how Progressives believed that that destruction of America’s natural resources would lead to the destruction of the country. It also examines how Roosevelt’s legacy included the creation of the National Park Service was created under President Woodrow Wilson.

Rast, Raymond W. “Vistas, Visions, and Visitors: Creating the Myth of Yellowstone National Park, 1872–1915.” Journal of the West 37, no. 2 (1998): 80–89.

Articles discusses how tourist guides that emphasized Yellowstone’s physical beauty, spiritual benefit, high-class accommodations, and American values created a particular vision of the park. It also contributed to the development of a uniquely American culture which turned Americans to nature and increased tourism.

Smith, Langdon. “The Contested Landscape of Early Yellowstone.” Journal of Cultural Geography 22, no. 1 (2004): 3–26.

When the Northern Pacific Railroad attempted to build a railroad through the park, violent outcry from scientists and conservationists who sought to preserve the park in its natural state swayed public opinion and prevented the railroad’s construction. Article examines the contested early nature of Yellowstone National Park.

Whittlesey, Lee H. “‘Everyone Can Understand a Picture’: Photographers and the Promotion of Early Yellowstone.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History 49, no. 2 (1999): 2–23.

Early commercial photographers of Yellowstone sold their photos to the public which stimulated interest in, initiated interpretation of, and shaped public perception of the park. This article examines the long-term impact of these early photographers.

Whittlesey, Lee H. “Loss of a Sacred Shrine: How the National Park Service Anguished over Yellowstone’s Campfire Myth, 1960–1980.” The George Wright Forum 27, no. 1 (2010): 94–120.

For a long time, the National Park Service perpetuated the myth that the idea to make Yellowstone a federally run preserve was born one night around a campfire. The Park Service adopted various measures, such as creating museums, to ensure that their take on the park’s creation myth was preserved. Aubrey Haines’ research proves, however, that the campfire tale is a myth.