The Yellowstone National Park has been set apart by Congress as a
public reservation and pleasure-ground, and covers a surface of about
fifty-five hundred square miles within the Rocky Mountains. Most of
the Park is in the northwestern corner of Wyoming, but there are also
small portions in Montana to the north and Idaho to the west. It is a
tract more remarkable for natural curiosities than an equal area in
any other part of the world, and within it are the sources of some of
the greatest rivers of North America. The Yellowstone, Gardiner and
Madison Rivers, which are the headwaters of the Missouri, flow out of
the northern and western sides, while on the southern side originates
the Snake River, one of the sources of the Columbia River of Oregon,
and also the Green River, a branch of the Colorado, flowing into the
Gulf of California. The central portion of the Park is a broad
volcanic plateau, elevated, on an average, eight thousand feet above
the sea, and surrounded by mountain ridges and peaks, rising to nearly
twelve thousand feet, and covered with snow. The air is pure and
bracing, little rain falls, and the whole district gives evidence of
remarkable volcanic activity at a comparatively late geological epoch.
It contains the most elevated lake in the world, Yellowstone Lake. The
Yellowstone River flows into this lake, and then northward through a
magnificent canyon out of the Park. Its most remarkable tributary
within the Park is Tower Creek, flowing through a narrow and gloomy
pass for two miles, called the Devil's Den, and just before reaching
the Yellowstone having a fall of one hundred and fifty-six feet, which
is surrounded by columns of breccia resembling towers. There is frost
in the Park every month in the year, owing to the peculiar atmospheric
conditions. The traces of recent volcanic activity are seen in the
geysers, craters and terrace constructions, boiling springs, deep
canyons, petrified trees, obsidian cliffs, sulphur deposits and
similar formations. These geysers and springs surpass in number and
magnitude those of the rest of the world. There are some five
thousand hot springs, depositing mainly lime and silica, and over a
hundred large geysers, many of them throwing water columns to heights
of from fifty to two hundred and fifty feet. The most elaborate colors
and ornamentation are formed by the deposits of the springs and
geysers, these curiosities being mainly in and near the valleys of the
Madison and Gardiner Rivers. An attempt has been made under Government
auspices to have in the Park a huge game preserve, and within its
recesses large numbers of wild animals are sheltered, including deer,
elk, bears, big-horn sheep, and the last herd of buffalo in the
country. Troops of cavalry and other Government forces patrol and
govern the Park.