The First National Park

Civics 101

NHPR

Society & Culture, Government, History

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2022

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The land had been cultivated and lived on for millennia when geologist Ferdinand Hayden came upon the astounding Yellowstone "wilderness." It wasn't long before the federal government declared it a national park, to be preserved in perpetuity for the enjoyment of all. Ostensibly. How did Yellowstone go from being an important home, hunting ground, thoroughfare and meeting place to being a park? Megan Kate Nelson, author of Saving Yellowstone, Mark David Spence, author of Dispossessing the Wilderness and Alexandra E. Stern, historian of Native peoples and Reconstruction are our guides to this rocky start. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	By the mid 19th century, the rumors had been going around for a while in the Eastern
0:08.2	US.
0:11.7	There had been trappers and some scouts who had been in there and they had been telling
0:17.3	stories but no one believed them because they were always telling stories, you know,
0:21.2	that seemed hard to believe in Outlandish.
0:24.1	The purpose of a place in the northwest, in Wyoming territory, that was truly fantastical
0:30.8	in description.
0:32.6	This place supposedly had exploding geysers shooting water a hundred feet into the air.
0:38.5	It had boiling springs.
0:40.8	It had bubbling mudpox.
0:43.0	It was both beautiful and dangerous.
0:49.3	But who could save any of these rumors were true?
0:51.7	The Yellowstone was one of the few unmapped places in the United States in 1870 and 71.
1:00.3	This is Megan Cape Nelson, author of Saving Yellowstone.
1:04.1	Lots of surveys had been out there, Lewis and Clark had kind of moved north of Yellowstone
1:09.6	on their return trip in their big survey but no federal officials had been there or even
1:15.1	civil officials on the ground.
1:17.0	The specifics 101, I'm Hannah McCarthy.
1:18.8	I'm the Capri-Jay.
1:20.0	And today we are telling the story of how a now unbelievably vast system found its rocky
1:24.9	start.
1:26.2	This is how America got its first national park.
	...

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