Yellowstone Park is the most popular vacation park in America. Yosemite is up there with Glacier and the Grand Canyon. These remote and beautiful places also come with their risks and dangers.
Yellowstone Park has been a national park for 153 years. President Grant created the National Park and President Teddy Roosevelt claimed the real estate during his presidency. The original deal for Yellowstone Park was a lease of $1 a year to the railroad magnet that owned the area. The tycoon Harriman made the deal with President Grant. He also donated several Bison to live and prosper in the new park.
Since then, tourists, anglers, hunters, and outdoors fanatics have enjoyed the wildlands. Some never returned. There have been at least 250 deaths in Yellowstone Park alone since 1872, when the park was formed. Records are not completely correct, which means they could be much higher.
At one point, Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe marched through the middle of Yellowstone. The Nez Perce creek is where they crossed the Firehole River. No one died, in fact the tourist’s shared food, blankets, and gear with the tribe. There have been other deadly encounters with Indians, rustlers, poachers, and renegades in Yellowstone.
There have been plenty of deaths in the park but also many accidents that caused serious injuries. This number is in the thousands. These accidents can range from sprains, cuts, broken bones, to more severe accidents on the park roads.
In a place full of carnivores, scavengers, and remote access, a person’s remains can disappear fast. Superheated water can cook and dissolve a body quickly. There are places in the park where no human has ever stepped.
There are also Touron accidents that happen when idiots pet the bison, walk close to the geysers, or try to drink the geothermal toxic waters, where the brain eating amoebas live!
Here are the documented death causes.
125 drownings
35 vehicle/auto crashes
23 scalding’s
Other fatal injuries come from animal attacks, snowmobiles, murders, suicides, and falls. Without common sense, things can go wrong in a hurry. Yellowstone is 3,472 square miles. Over 30 tourists have never been found. One victim, from over 30 years ago, was recently discovered. A hiker discovered an old boot, with a skeleton foot inside. It was found along a remote watershed. No other bones were located.
Tourists are dying to see this wonderful wild park. Be careful what you wish for!
Montana Grant
