Mammoth Hot Springs (Home of Terrace Mountain and Historic Fort Yellowstone)

Our trip in Yellowstone had us staying for three nights at Mammoth Hot Springs and two night at Old Faithful.  Since our daily scenic trips never included Mammoth Hot Springs, it was up to us to explore the area on our own.  On one evening, we spent a few hours exploring the boardwalks at Terrace Mountain, which is the largest known "carbonate-depositing" spring in the world.

The mountain, which we could see from our cabins, would continuously let off a hot mist of steam (much like the steam vents and hot springs we would soon see at Old Faithful).  However, as you explore it closer on the boardwalks, you can see that the mountain was created by calcium carbonate deposits that have flowed from the the spring for thousands of years.  The result is beautiful, colorful terraces--some dry and some wet--full of interesting shapes, designs, and patterns.

A view of Fort Yellowstone from Terrace Mountain

On another night during our stay at Mammoth Hot Springs, we went to the Visitor Center to take a historic walking tour of Mammoth's historic Fort Yellowstone buildings.  It was here that we learned all about the history of Yellowstone National Park (which I LOVED)!  On March 1, 1872, Congress established Yellowstone National Park (the world's first national park) in the territories of Montana and Wyoming "as a public park of pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" under control of the Secretary of the Interior.

However, in the beginning, the Secretary of the Interior didn't exactly know what it would take to run a National Park.  They first established a civilian superintendent to manage the park, but, having limited resources and authority, the superintendent wasn't able to control poaching, hunting, vandalism, or random people and interest groups trying to come in and commercialize/privatize park lands.  Thus, in 1886, the Interior Department transferred control of the park to the War Department; the army, the 1st U.S. Cavalry, was sent to Mammoth Hot Springs where they set up Camp Sheridan.  Camp Sheridan, in 1891, was later renamed as Fort Yellowstone, and the army continued to use this fort to control the park until 1918--exactly 32 years later.  (They wrongly thought the army was only needed for a few years.)

Today, of course, Yellowstone National Park is now controlled by the National Park Service, which not surprisingly, has roots from the army (uniforms, hats, boots, policies, protocol, etc.).  The difference, however, is that the National Park Service  (established by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916) was established to protect and preserve our national parks, wildlife and monuments.  Thus, they teach natural and cultural resource conservation in addition to protecting our parks.

The tour was led by a Park Ranger, and she spoke about some of the illegal activities that occurred in the park prior to the army coming in... Some ranchers would put up fencing and stake the land as their own; some would poach--one poacher was famous for killing Bison for their heads; some people would do laundry in the hot springs; and still others would put sticks, rocks, and other things in the geysers to watch them shoot out.  It was kind of the wild west until the army came in, and even then, they had difficulty arresting all the poachers and vandals...

The Visitor Center is one of the remaining Fort Yellowstone buildings.

Buildings at Fort Yellowstone.  (Today they are used by Rangers and people that work for the Park Service.)

The tour ended with lowering the flag.

The historic tour was one of my FAVORITE parts of the trip.  (I'm fascinated by early American history.)  As you will learn from at least three more posts, there is so much to see in Yellowstone, and yet, I find that I cannot fully appreciate the beauty without appreciating the history of this place, too!