Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park, 2nd Edition
Lee H. Whittlesey
Language: English
Pages: 440
ISBN: 1570984506
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The chilling tome that launched an entire genre of books about the often gruesome but always tragic ways people have died in our national parks, this updated edition of the classic includes calamities in Yellowstone from the past sixteen years, including the infamous grizzly bear attacks in the summer of 2011 as well as a fatal hot springs accident in 2000. In these accounts, written with sensitivity as cautionary tales about what to do and what not to do in one of our wildest national parks, Whittlesey recounts deaths ranging from tragedy to folly—from being caught in a freak avalanche to the goring of a photographer who just got a little too close to a bison. Armchair travelers and park visitors alike will be fascinated by this important book detailing the dangers awaiting in our first national park.
Wayne Skertich was a former park employee, a resident of nearby Jardine, Montana, a man that I knew personally, and a local musician who was troubled at the end of his life. He was a bit of a recluse with some marital problems, but that sounds like a lot of otherwise normal people. A builder by trade who was passionate about music, Wayne played fiddle, piano, bass, and guitar and spread a lot of happiness that way. But on Thursday night, April 7, 2005, Wayne and his wife got into an argument.
and petted they lose all fear of human beings, cause damage to property . . . and are dangerous . . . to [those who] trifle with them.” (Annual Report of Superintendent, 1902, pp. 6–7, quoted in “Yellowstone Bears Are Dangerous Only When Tame,” Colorado Springs (CO) Gazette, November 9, 1902, p. 11.) Of course this idea of a cover-up is all speculative and theoretical and may never have happened. But treating the cover-up story as kindly as possible, I went to the U.S. Army soldiers’ logbook
“Drowned in Yellowstone Lake,” Livingston Post, July 12, 1894; “Local Layout,” Livingston Enterprise, July 14, 1894, p. 5. 82. “Drowned in the Park,” Livingston Enterprise, September 1, 1906; “W. B. Taylor of Bozeman,” September 8; G. P. Taylor to John Pitcher, December 13, 1906, in archive document 6280, and John Pitcher to G. P. Taylor, December 17, 1906, Letters Sent, vol. 16, p. 470, YNP Archives; document 7026, August 26, 1907, YNP Archives. 83. Captain M. O. Bigelow to park
that she did not know the name of and then turned around at 10:40 a.m. (shown on Marylyn’s time-stamped photo) and began hiking (back) west to the trailhead. In typical Yellowstone fashion, they encountered no other hikers. At 1.4 miles from the Wapiti Trailhead only a few minutes later and in an open spot, they saw three bears one hundred yards away. It was an area of small meadows and dry thermal areas, crisscrossed and bordered by fringes of trees. Marylyn thought Brian saw the sow first,
bear got out of the trap and killed him. From the note in the park museum file (see note 63), it would appear to have been poetic justice.64 The John Graham story has been chronicled slightly differently by Gay Randall, a longtime Gardiner resident. According to Randall, Graham saw the tracks of a large bear near his mining claim on Crevice Mountain, so he returned to his cabin to get his rifle. He soon found that the bear had been feeding on the carcass of a dead horse, so he decided to trap