National Park After Dark - How Not to Die: Yellowstone National Park

Episode Date: April 12, 2021

Designated as the world’s first national park, Yellowstone is unique in so many ways. From its distinct thermal features, various species of iconic wildlife and picturesque landscapes this park draws in millions of visitors annually. 149 years of people flooding the gates, roadways and trails has left Yellowstone with its fair share of tragedy. So much in fact, that hundreds of stories have filled thousands of pages in our history books. As with every historical event, there is always a lesson to be found. Usually, a lesson of what not to do. Come along as Danielle and Cassie discuss disastrous tales of death in Yellowstone, and if you listen closely, you may just survive your next visit. For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials at:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!For a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Death is a frequent visitor in raw nature. In Yellowstone National Park, despite the cabins and roads, is raw nature. The park is the untamed and unfenced wildlife and the immoral energy of thermal wonders. It cannot be treated lightly. When it is, it erupts in death. We have seen other visitors in the park who have left the paths and boardwalks. We have seen visitors in the park who sat their children on bears in order to take a picture. They were lucky.

The park is not Disneyland, Rocky Mountain version, nor is it a zoo with moats and fences separating the wild and the domesticated. For all the trappings of men, it is wilderness, and the man who fails to accept it as such dies. More money for more rangers to enforce the park's rules would help, but until that time we urge all visitors and urge all Montana and Wyoming residents to warn visitors again and again to obey signs in the park. And to remember that Yellowstone National Park is wild.

The park is raw nature and it can kill. Welcome to National Park After Dark. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of National Park After Dark. I'm Danielle. And I'm Cassie. And we're excited to have you all back this week. And Danielle is excited to tell us something that she's doing. She just planned a trip somewhere, didn't you?

I did. Well, it was kind of spur of the moment. kind of not. So I'm going to be going to Zion at the end of the month. And I'm kind of kicking myself a little bit because. So this trip isn't just for me. I'm meeting a girlfriend from back home and we're going to go there. So our schedules and doing all that was kind of complicated.

But it just happened to fall on National Park Week, which is great. But then I'm like, oh, shit, everyone and their mother is going to be there. is going to be there. Nonetheless, I am excited because when I was in Utah, we didn't get the chance to go to Zion. We went to arches and then just moved along towards Southern California and Death Valley. So I'm stoked to go. Yeah, Zion's really cool. There's a lot of very cool hikes there.

It's beautiful. It's very different from a lot of other national parks. So I think you're going to have a really good time. Yeah, me too. So that being said, we will be still releasing. our weekly episodes for you guys, even though I'm going to be gone that week, we'll have stuff prepared for you. And while I'm in Zion, I'll do some reconnaissance intel mission work and come back with a cool story for everyone. You'll have to post some stories on Instagram so

everyone can see your adventures. Yeah, I'll do that. Um, yeah, other than that, with that being said, that National Park Week is coming up, we do have another piece of exciting news. did kind of mention it last week, but we are doing a giveaway starting the beginning of National Park Week. And this giveaway is really exciting because we have something special that we plan for you, but we also partnered up with a really talented artist. And she's going to be giving away some of her stuff in this giveaway package as well. And I think you guys are all going to really like this. So we're very excited to show you that. But we're not going to reveal it until the giveaway starts. So keep an eye out the first day of National

Park Week will post it. Last but not least, we do have our Patreon story picked for this month. We are going to be posting it on April 23rd, which is a Friday. It will be on Patreon. And let me tell you, if you are claustrophobic, this is going to give you a lot of anxiety. And it's a really terrifying. I'm super claustrophobic. So literally researching this actually gave me like heart palpitation. So when you hear this story, it's going to give you a lot of anxiety. And it is a really wild story. So if you are interested in hearing it, it will be on our Patreon. You can subscribe to it from our Instagram, National Park After Dark.

There's a link or you can go on our website, M-PADD podcast.com and click our Patreon link to subscribe there. So I think that's about it. So let's get going with this story because I say this every week. week and I feel like just a broken record and people are like, yeah, whatever. Because it's like, we're so excited to tell you about the story. But I really am excited for this park because it's what started it all for me. And I think it's what started it all as far as a love and passion for national parks for a lot of people. And that is Yellowstone.

I've been waiting for you to do a Yellowstone episode for so long because I know this is your favorite park. So that introduction was a quote, a director. quote from an editorial piece from the Billings Gazette from July of 1970. And I think personally, it rings truer today in the age of smartphones and social media than ever before. Yeah. That entire quote actually triggers me to our last conversation about Yellowstone of all the horrible things. The second it said that they have watched families sit their children on bears, there were so many hairs on my head that were standing up like, are you serious? Yeah. And it's, you put your child out of bear. That's wild. It's like, and it's not just in Yellowstone, of course, but because it is one

of the more popular parks, it's seen a lot more frequently, I think. Um, and especially with all the different types of wildlife that are there, um, most of this story, like 90, 95% of this story today is taken from information that was published in the Death and Yellowstone Accidents and Full Hardiness in the First National Park by Lee H. Whittlesey. And it's the book that I talked about that kind of sparked my love and passion and interest in morbid subject matter within national parks back when I visited Yellowstone on that family vacation a decade ago or whatever that was. And I can't even explain like this book is let me see almost 300 pages long and it is full of just like you said like it makes your hair stand up on edge or on end like hearing that stuff think about that in the

context of reading 300 pages worth of that you know it's just all kind of like are you serious are you kidding me did that really happen why would you ever do that it's a love to hate type of book You know. Yeah. I haven't read this book. I've heard the first time I heard of it was from you, but I've been to Yellowstone four times. And I have never been there where there hasn't been someone breaking the rules of the park. So I can just imagine what this is going to be. And I'm also really excited to go back to where your love started. Like this is where your love of National Park started. And I feel like every single person who has. has a love for national parks, has their own national park that's close to them. So I'm excited to hear all about yours. Yeah. And I will admit that Yellowstone is my favorite park so far. Clearly, I haven't been to all of them. So I can't say that with, you know, 100% certainty. But thus far, it has been and it holds that title. But I have been reluctant to do a story here just because there are so, so many to choose from. And I don't want to like,

do a disservice and just be like, oh, yeah, here's the story in 40 minutes and move on. It's kind of like similar to physically visiting the park. One visit is just not enough. So I think that this is going to be one of many episodes that between the both of us will be coming back to Yellowstone in the future. Absolutely. Like I said, I gathered all this information from the Death and Yellowstone book, a couple articles from the Washington Post.

and information on the National Park Service website as well. So here we go. So Yellowstone is one of the most famous parks in the world. It was designated as the world's first national park, and it truly does have something for everybody. And just a couple fast facts about Yellowstone. It encompasses 3,472 square miles, which is roughly 2.2 million acres,

which, to put that in perspective, is larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. And Rhode Island and Delaware aren't super big. They're small. But that's big. That's a huge area of protected wilderness set aside for a park. It has around 10,000 geothermal features, including hot springs, geysers, mud pots, and steam vents. And with all this bubbling and boiling, it shouldn't be a surprise that Yellowstone sits

atop a giant active volcano that is capable of an eruption of about a magnitude 8, which, if it did erupt, at that magnitude, it would be thousands of times more violent than the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980. This is the movie 2012. This is what happened. Okay, well, does this happen? Because if Yellowstone was to erupt, the northern Rockies would be buried in multiple feet of ash, and ash would rain down across most of the United States. Plus, it would have cultural and planetary consequences.

It has had three massive eruptions and will erupt again. The question is just when. Yes, this is the movie 2012. Go on. So I don't know how you haven't seen this movie, but also I remember walking around in Yellowstone, and they actually have signs there that say it's due to erupt. We have no idea when it's going to happen. So it's almost eerie walking around because you're like,

is right now going to be the time while I'm in the park? And then if you've seen the movie 2012, you think back to it and you're like, oh, God. And in that movie, they like run to an airplane and they have to escape. And you just, you can. Okay. So I will watch the movie too. So, yeah, like you said, scientists are constantly monitoring the seismic activity within the park. And they're diligently keeping record of all the geologic changes.

And I do remember being in one of the visitor centers of Yellowstone. and there is an entire area dedicated to the geologic features of the park, the seismic activity, the history of the eruptions, etc. So it's widely up for debate when it's due to erupt. I mean, if you do a quick Google search, there will be articles saying that it's overdue, and some scientists will say that that's false and that it shouldn't be due to erupt for another couple thousand years.

So let's just hope it's not in our lifetime, because we would totally be screwed. But, you know, that terrifying and ominous fact aside, let's go on to brighter things really quick. So the park is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states, and they actually have 67 species of mammals within the park. And if you're looking for outdoor adventure, this is definitely the park for you. With 600 lakes, 1,000 rivers and streams,

and over 1,000 miles of hiking trails, Yellowstone National Park, is an outdoorsman's dream. But with some dreams, they can quickly become nightmares. Recorded deaths in this park number in the hundreds since its establishment on March 1, 1872. Causes have included drownings, falls, death by animal, including bison and grizzly, falls into the hot springs, exposure to the elements, automobile and snowmobile accidents, suicides, forest fires, carbon monoxide poisoning, stagecoach incidents, battles with Native Americans, ingesting poisonous plants, plane crashes,

earthquakes, and murder. From all of that, it's not difficult to understand why Yellowstone has had its fair share of reported hauntings, from apparitions in historic buildings such as the Old Faithful Inn and the Roosevelt Lodge, to strange sightings around natural wonders within the park. It may be safe to say that some visitors have never left Yellowstone. In the book, Death and Yellowstone, accidents in full heartiness in the first national park. The author Lee H. Whittlesey touches on more than 300 deaths from the years 1839 to 1993, not even counting automobile or snowmobile accidents. And this book was published in 1995. So that number is totally different now. Right. That's just recorded deaths also, I want to mention because obviously there have been

indigenous peoples in what we now know is the Yellowstone National Park, Far before it was established. This park and this land has a lot of history, which makes it great for us. Yeah. So, as Whittlesey points out in the introduction section of his book, which is what I read in the intro of this episode, although the title reads accidents, he wants to make it clear that vast majority of the incidents that result in injury or death were caused by foolhardiness, aka negligence. So stupidity and negligence are big elements in the stories, and very few of them can be categorized as true accidents. And because I wholeheartedly agree with that statement, today we are going to break this episode down into stories that took place in Yellowstone that will highlight different lesson takeaways that we would be wise to learn from. I feel like our little rant that we went on about things not to do in National Parks, we're dedicating a whole episode.

We're about to go off, okay? Because I couldn't choose one or two stories to do a deep dive on, even though it was very tempting. What was more tempting is to, I literally, I said I've read this book before, but I even skimmed it over again as a refresher and kind of looked at it in the frame of mind of what can we learn from these stories and kind of categorize them in my mind. I broke it into four lessons for everyone today. And I'm going to give you, read you a couple stories that fall into each of these categories that hopefully we will all learn from and be careful to not make the same mistakes. Lesson 1. Read the Literature. July 20, 1981, two friends parked their truck at Yellowstone Fountain Paint Pot parking lot

at 1 p.m. to view the hot springs. David Allen Kerwin, who was 24 at the time, and Ronald Ratcliffe were not alone. They were traveling with Ronald's dog, a Mastiff Great Dane named Moose, who they left in the truck while they were going to view the paint pots. And paint pots for people who don't know, they're like little cauldrons, like hot mud pots. I don't know how let's describe it unless you see it. I think that's a good description, yeah. Yeah. So they left Moose behind and they went out to the boardwalk to go look at the geothermal pools.

While admiring the scenery, Moose somehow escaped from the truck and ran towards the thermal pools, jumping straight into the 202-degree Celestine pool. During the dog's struggle and cry out, the friends rushed to the edge of the pool. And Kerwin took a couple steps in and started to take off some things of items of clothing. and all the people around him were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like, no, no, no, let's not do that. And he basically said, try and stop me. And he dove straight in headfirst into the waters in attempt to save the dog.

A park visitor and witness named Earl Welch saw him swim out to the dog. He grabbed it in the middle of the pool, released it. He went underwater and then swam to the side of the pool. to try and climb out. He made it out, and when he stood up, he was staggering back and forth. Welch put his arm out to steady him, to give him like a steady hand, and Kerwin looked at him and managed to say, that was stupid. How bad am I? That was such a stupid thing I did. Kerwin's body was badly burned, and his skin was starting to peel off. His eyes were totally white, and he appeared blind. When the others ran to the scene to help him.

him, they attempted to take off his shoes, but when his skin started to come off with them, they stopped. He suffered from third degree in burns over 100% of his body and was taken to the clinic at Old Faithful and then later transported to a hospital in Salt Lake City where he later died of his injuries. Rangers did not recover the dog's body, so the body of moose from the hot spring, but did later find two large pieces of skin shaped like hands. But you know, what they also discovered. Literature and pamphlets highlighting the dangers of the park inside the men's truck unread and unopened. It's so cringy and I... That has never made me not want to go in one of those thermal pools more than that story. If I had ever thought of, which I certainly

have not thought of going in them, but if I ever even had the slightest inkling to do it, that is gone. Well, and they're so, I mean, they're so beautiful, right? Yeah. So beautiful. They're beautiful. Vibrant colors, crystal clear waters. Like, you're drawn to them. Like, a lot of people, even now, especially now, I think, in the age of the selfie and getting the perfect Instagram picture, we see it all over the place. People go off the boardwalks, go over to the side of the pools, dip their toe in, do whatever. And this story was completely different. I wholeheartedly believe that Kerwin would have not wanted to go into the pools for fun.

He was doing it out of instinct because his friend's dog just dove and he was trying to save him. But if they read the paperwork, you know, maybe things would have been different. Yeah. I mean, that's a really sad story because you just think of, of course, you. You want to save your dog. And especially if you see that they're still alive. Yep. Your first instinct would certainly be like, I have to go help.

Right. I will say the whole first chapter of this book, like, if there was ever, like, a way to, like, a little teaser to get people involved in reading this book. Whittlesee really set it up beautifully because the whole first chapter of this book is incidents exactly like. this from the early 1800s up until, you know, when he published it in the 90s, people have seen their kids go in and boil alive. Like, people have fallen in. People have accidentally walked in at night when they're off the boardwalk. Like, this is not an isolated incident. This has happened many, many, many times. Yeah. And it's horrifying. Every single story is horrifying. But this one I picked because of the fact that he was going in after a dog.

And I think a lot of us can relate to that of being like seeing something like that happened and wanted to do something about it. But I also picked it because there was that moment of, it wasn't an immediate like he ran in and he dove right in. He hesitated at the shore or the edge of the pool. People were saying don't do it. there was a moment that he could have made a different decision. Right. And maybe if they had read the information that was provided at the park entrance, you know all the literature that when you pay your fee, they give you, like, that's important stuff.

And they didn't read it. So I don't even know if he truly knew how hot the pools were. Maybe he was just like, oh, it's like a hot tub. It's bubbling like a hot tub. Like a hot spring. Exactly. I actually have a slight story, not that's that, but could have gone that way. Okay.

So last time I was in Yellowstone, I was with one of my friends, and her and I were walking. And we went to Yellowstone. I've been there a couple times, but she had never been there. And I'm always down to go back to another national park. So we went to Yellowstone, and we were looking at the geysers and everything. And I forget which one we were at, but it was a really, It was a really popular one, and we were walking along the boardwalk, and there was this woman who was behind us. I think she was behind us.

She had in her hand. She had an iPad. The camera was facing towards her, so she could take a selfie. She was taking a selfie video, and she wasn't looking where she was going at all. She actually shoved my friend where she was literally an image. inch from falling in because there's no railings into the geyser into the geyser shoves her out of the way because she's taking a selfie iPad video she catches I grab onto her arm we catch her real quick she doesn't fall in but it was so close she literally pushed my friend into a geyser almost

because she wanted a selfie and she was so enveloped in her own world and just totally not aware of her surround. And that's the thing. Like, be aware of your surroundings. And I, again, okay, so like I said, we're going to be coming back to Yellowstone for sure for different stories and things like that. But there are so many quotes like that that I would want to read out of this book. I might as well just sit you down for two hours and read this book directly to you because like it's that good. But there's just so many quotes that the author says of like, like, Like he said, this is not Disneyland Rocky Mountain version. But people treat it as such.

Absolutely. We'll get into it a little bit later. It kind of comes up again. But I agree. I mean, I'm going to post a couple pictures as well. It doesn't have a direct correlation with any of the stories that I'm going to tell. But just looking and researching for pictures to post for the story, I came across a lot that it actually makes me truly upset. and they're pictures of people conglomerating in huge numbers in the road.

And I'm talking like hundreds of people surrounding bears, like a mother and her cubs just trying to cross the road. And these people are 10 feet away. And they're in the middle of the road, setting up tripods. It's just so infuriating because, number one, the poor bears, you know, like just trying to get along with their day. But the flip side of it that is most infuriating is when there happens to be human wildlife conflict, it's always the bears that suffer or always the animal that suffers. But look at the position that we're putting them in. What other option do they have? You're scaring them. Actually, my first experience ever seeing a black bear, it was in the Grand Teton's. And it was my very

first day in the Grand Teton's. I had not seen any wildlife or anything yet. I was literally, there for like minutes at this point and we're driving and I see a ton of cars pulled over to the side of the road. I'm like, maybe there's a moose. We were on the road, but there was a big hill next to us and it kind of went off further. So I thought maybe people were stopping because they saw something off in the distance. So we pulled over and I just asked someone, what's everyone looking at? And they said, oh, there's a bear and her cubs. There was probably like 40 people, pulled over, they had scared this bear and her cubs so much that they were hiding up in a tree and all of the people were down below the tree surrounding it taking pictures of her.

And even at one point, like I walked over, I was like, oh, a bear. And then I realized what was happening like right after. And I even said to a bunch of the people there was like, we're scaring her. We should all leave. People are like, no, no, no. Like they have their Zoom lenses out and everything. And I'm like, no, we're scaring her. Let's go.

And me and my friend, we left because I'm like, I'm not contributing to this. But that was my very first experience seeing a black bear. And it was, they terrified her up into a tree. And someone actually said that. Someone said they saw the bear. They pulled over. And a bunch more people pulled over. And she ran up into the tree with her cubs.

Yeah. And there's obviously differing point of views for this. And we could have a whole episode just on this subject. but people go to Yellowstone to form a connection with wildlife and wild places or any national park. And you want to have those experiences. It's kind of like how I view, and this is maybe not related at all, but when I was a kid going to SeaWorld, I only went once, but I couldn't wait as a kid knowing, like, I can't wait to go see the whales. and the orcas and the dolphins up close. Because, wow, what an experience.

I love these animals and this is just an amazing opportunity to be able to see them so close. But now reflecting on it, it's like, because you have this love and this want and desire to connect and to get a closer experience with wild things, it's not always in the fairest way. obviously going to Sea Worlds and other wildlife and marine life amusement parks have downfalls that we're not even going to go into. But obviously Yellowstone is not a wildlife park in that aspect. But it's just, it's so hard because how do you get people to care about wildlife and wild things if they don't have a personal connection with them to care about them? but then how do you protect wildlife from people? It's just so, so complicated, and there's so many layers to it.

But the biggest thing is to just respect wildlife and respect their homes. And I think we're doing a terrible job of it, to be honest. I do too. I think we really are. And I think every place I've ever traveled, I have to say Yellowstone is the worst. I've ever seen it. Speaking of wildlife, here's our next story. Lesson one, story two.

July 12, 1971, Marvin Trader from Spokane, Washington, was visiting the Fountain Flats area of the park with his family when he spotted a lone bison bull laying in the meadow. He walked within 20 feet of it to take a photo when the two-toned bison stood up and charged. Marvin was tossed more than 12 feet into the air before hitting the ground with a large hole ripped into his side by the animal's horn. He tried to get up, rose to his elbow on his side, moaned for a few minutes, while his wife and his

three children watched him die. His wife, Bonnie, later admitted that they were too close to the animal and that they had a pamphlet issued by the park called Danger that warned of the dangers of wild animals. So another example of you have the information, use it, read it. Also, just as like a little tidbit, buy a zoom lens. Buy a zoom lens. If you want these pictures, if you want this really beautiful picture of a bison or an antelope or a wolf, whatever you want, your iPhone is never going to take it. I don't care how close you get to these animals, which I don't.

condone or recommend. I don't care how close you get to them. That iPhone photo is never going to take the photo quality that you're looking for. If you really want these pictures, buy a DSLR camera, buy a zoom lens, get a tripod, and stay very far away from these animals like photographers do. Because who doesn't want a great, who doesn't love looking at a good picture or taking a good picture is all about how you do it and that's the responsible way to do it. And I have a close friend from Colorado who is very into wildlife photography and she's a huge wolf and wildlife advocate. And she went to Yellowstone and in my opinion did it the right way. She got up early, followed the reports of she went primarily for the wolves. And she followed the reports of sightings

of where the packs were. She had a huge Zoom lens. She spoke with biologists in the park. She wasn't just traveling around the roads, seeing where huge conglomeration of people were, got out, joined the pack, and, you know, walked within 10 feet of whatever animal was

and took a picture on her iPhone. Like, you know, like, there is a responsible way of doing things and how you described it is it. Okay, moving on to lesson number two. Listen to the locals. 25-year-old Eugene Walker and his friend Philip Crow Bradbury were hitchhiking from their home in Alabama across the country to see America. On Friday, June 23, 1972, approximately two weeks after their journey began, the two hitchhiked into the park from the north entrance.

As they did not enter the park the traditional way, they missed the useful information and warning literature handed out at the gates. but lucky for them they hitched a ride with Vicki Schlett, an Old Faithful Inn employee. Vicky recalls chatting with them on the ride and warmed them of the bears and to check in to the ranger station. The men arrived at Old Faithful, walked over the boardwalks of the thermal geysers, and made an illegal camp on the hillside above Grand Geyser. They stayed the night and all of the next day before heading to the Old Faithful Inn for drinks. very early morning, the next morning, so this is Sunday, June 25th, I'm guessing it was on their way back from drinks the previous night. So when they say early morning, it's not like 7 a.m. It's like 1-2 in the morning type of thing. Okay. So they had drinks that's on Saturday night at the Old Faithful Inn. And super early Sunday morning on June 25th, they're on their way back to the camp.

Upon arriving at the camp, they disrupted a grizzly rooting through their food that they had left scattered all over their campsite. Crow watched as the bear charged them from a handful of feet away and dove to the side and rolled down an embankment. Simultaneously, Walker shined his flashlight at the bear as it charged at them, but the bear grabbed him and dragged him away. Crow ran from the scene calling for help. Bear, bear, a bear has my friend. Meanwhile, he could hear his friend yelling, Crow, help me, before silence took over the scene. Crow managed to evade the hot springs and the thermal areas in the dark and in a panic burst through the doors of the old faithful inn, alerting everyone of the situation. By 5 a.m., Rangers arrived at the scene and found what remained of Walker's body, and determined. determined he died as a result of a massive damage to his trachea. A grizzly was tracked down, trapped, killed, and examined nearby. Human hair was found under its claws and in its digestive tract,

which were IDed later as walkers. The bear was a 232-pound 20-year-old sow that had injuries to her teeth and her paw pads, and she also had a history of garbage feeding. Again. So she was already an older bear that was probably in a more desperate situation than some of the other bears in the area. Yeah, so let's break this down. Number one, they're camped illegally. They never checked in with rangers to let them know where they were planning on camping. They did not bear proof their camp. And in the book, actually, it does say that there is testimony from different rangers and people who saw the site, that it was one of the most poorly set up campsites they'd had ever seen as far. And not just because from the bear rummaging through all the food and like spreading it everywhere, just the condition

that it was left in previously. There was none of the food was in bearproof containers. It wasn't set far away from their actual tent site, etc. So that's also another issue. Also, they did surprise the bear, period. Like things happen. You stumble upon wildlife. But again, like, and this goes back to Timothy Treadwell, like this bear is old, has injuries, and has history of human interaction. And the old saying, a fed bear is a dead bear, is very true. So garbage feeding in this park and others actually has a fascinating history that, again, I'm going to save for another episode. And I'm not talking they get into dumpsters. I mean the park would intentionally leave out garbage in huge piles near the roadside as tourist attractions as wildlife would be attracted to it.

And the park was encouraging this wildlife to feed there as a huge tourist trap. This must have been a while ago because this isn't. This is in 1900s. So not like that long ago. This obviously resulted in a lot of human wildlife interaction. that did way more harm than good for the animals and sometimes for the people too. I feel like just as a little lesson, if you're camping and you do not know what bearproofing your campsite is, here's a lesson. First and foremost, if you are in a campground, there will be bare boxes where you can actually close any food you have.

And I don't just mean food. I mean anything with a scent. Like if you have two. toothpaste, put it in there. Deodorant. If you have a fruity deodorant, put it in there. That is a foolproof way. If you are not out backpacking camping, put it in these spare boxes. If you are on BLM land and you, they don't have these. Keep your food in your car. If you are out backpacking, hopefully you know better, you keep the food away from your camp, you put it in a dry bag and you hang it from a tree. You hang high up, away from you, way away from you.

Like, I mean like a five, ten minute walk from you. You leave it up there and you tie it down to a tree where you can actually pull it back down to you when you need it. There are so many ways to stay safe in bear country. Utilize them. So this whole incident obviously is really tragic, seeing your friend getting or hearing your friend getting attacked and eaten by a bear is horrific. If they listen to Vicky, maybe it would have had a different outcome. But Walker's parents, so Walker is Eugene, who was killed by the bear.

His parents sued the National Park Service with the claim that they had not been properly warned of the dangers and initially won over $87,000. But that ruling was appealed and the decision was reversed. So also in this book, it goes into detail about this court proceeding of the parents suing the National Park Service and kind of some detailed description of the trial itself or the proceedings itself. And it goes back and forth about, okay, well, he was never properly warned. There were no signs up. There was no fencing, like, etc. It goes into all that pretty in depth.

But that also begs another question that is brought up a lot in this book and in general. As far as national parks go, people have been upset and continue to be upset that bad things happen to them there. And why are they not fences? Why are they not signs? You know, just like, because I can answer that in one sentence. Because it's not a zoo. How are you going to put fencing across hundreds of thousands of miles? 2.2 million acres to be exacted.

2.2 million acres. What kind of fence is that? And who is that keeping in? Because it's not keeping in wildlife. I'll tell you that. Yep. So this is a point of contention that if you're interested in and if you want to learn more about as far as plastering signage all over the park with warnings,

fencing in animals, controlling the wildness of the park, if that fascinates you, like, and kind of ignites kind of like a fire of like what the hell in you like it does for us. There's a book that was very recently published in 2019, actually, and it's called Engineering Eden. And it's actually on my list after I finish the current book that I'm reading as far as I'm doing research for another episode that we're doing upcoming. So I'm finishing that book. But once I'm done, I'm going to read this one. And Engineering Eden is all about how Eugene, Walker's death and the ensuing civil trial brought against the U.S. Department of the Interior

for alleged mismanagement of the park's grizzly population emerged as a referendum of how America's most beloved wild places should be conserved. Two of the 20th century's greatest wildlife biologists testified and on opposite sides. So this book is all about, it uses Eugene Walker's story as a springboard into a deep discussion of how do we manage parks? Do we plaster signs on every tree warning people of the dangers? Do we fence in animals? Do we, what do we do? You know, it's all about managing the wild. So yeah, if you're interested in that debate, I would definitely recommend engineering Eden. And it's like if you care about national parks and you want to preserve them as they are, you should care about these issues because national parks as we

know them may not be around forever. Moving on. Lesson three, Mother Nature rules all. Beware of the elements. Drownings account for a large majority of deaths within Yellowstone, with over a hundred people losing their lives in the waters of the park. Although some deaths can be attributed to lack of proper planning, like inexperience compounded with lack of safety equipment like life jackets, etc. Some of victims were well prepared and experienced outdoorsmen, including scout leaders and park rangers. So let's take the story of Ryan Francis Welkman, a 22-year-old popular and well-liked park ranger. He was described as being very conscientious, safety-wise, and very experienced. And he would go to great lengths to help park visitors. He was an emergency medical technician who also

was dive certified and had advanced life-saving training. He was assigned to the Shoshonee Lake and loved his job and was quoted as telling his friend Smokey Struvant, Smokey, I think I found heaven. So he was super stoked to get this job. I understand why, because I looked into Shoshone Lake. It's a backcountry Lake and it has an area of over 8,000 acres and is at a pretty high elevation. So it's over 7,000 feet, almost 8,000 feet in elevation. It's in the southwest section of the park and it's the largest backcountry lake in the lower 48 states that cannot be reached by road. On July 3rd, 1994, after checking in on a campsite near Windy Point near the lake, Ryan entered

his kayak, which he used often throughout the day to patrol the lake during his right routine duties. The wind picked up to 35 miles an hour and three to four foot white capped waves whipped across the lake. Campers from Utah that were on the shore of the lake saw Ryan struggling on the lake an attempt to help him like they got out in their own boats and tried to go help him out, but they capsized 20 feet from shore and went back. They ended their attempts to help him. Although they watched him struggle for two hours, and you want to know the worst part, the campers told nobody of what they witnessed and chose to stay camping for another two days before notifying anyone. Ryan succumbed to the high waves and hypothermia.

How would you not tell anyone, especially if you went to try and help them, you couldn't? You clearly know that this person's in need of help. You're like, uh, we tried. Sorry, we'll just sit here and watch. Yeah. So here's another example of someone who is experienced, well prepared, knows his shit, and yet nature rules all. Like there are some circumstances that it doesn't matter how experienced you are and how well prepared you are. Mother nature just rules everything. So that's really sad. Another example. December 13th, 1897, two soldiers, private John W.H. Davis, and Private Murphy left a group of soldiers stationed near Mud Geyser to ski towards West Thumb to meet up with another pair of soldiers to exchange mail and reports.

The weather that day was very mild, and when they departed, they were not wearing heavy clothing. That night they made it to a lakeside hotel and stayed the night. That night, though, the weather took a turn and the temperatures began to fall well below zero. But the next day, the men continued on, skiing along the lake shore. After seven miles, Murphy could not take the cold anymore and elected to turn back, while Davis wanted to continue, ignoring an order given by a higher up to never travel alone. He was from Kentucky, an experienced outdoorsman, and a soldier who was not unfamiliar with winter conditions. That night Murphy spent, so Murphy is the one that decided to turn back.

He spent the night at a cabin on the lake shore, but, before making it back to the Lake Hotel, and he did have frostbite on the tips of his fingers and his toes and actually like the tip of his nose. No one had heard from Davis and concern grew. A rescue party was organized and after several days, Davis's body was found two miles from where the men initially split up. The temperatures had reached over 35 degrees below zero,

and Davis died from exposure. He was found only wearing summer underwear and a light hat. Another soldier named Sergeant Max R. Welch skied over 130 miles over an entire week to transport his body to the cemetery in mammoth. Again, you're a soldier, you're experienced with weather conditions. The weather was mild. You thought you could handle it. I think that's almost an example of not to get too comfortable. No matter how experienced you are, things can still happen. and like, you know, I've dealt with this weather before I'm fine.

I don't need a jacket. That doesn't necessarily mean that's true. And you should always, it's just another example of always being prepared and to think and don't get overly confident because the wilderness is serious. You know, negative 35 degrees in shorts, you're not going to live. That's end a story. So you just need to know when it's time to call it quits sometimes when you're out there. and to use your better judgment and to not get too comfortable, just because you are really experienced out there.

And a lot of these stories, well, almost all of these stories, we can pin some sort of fault to the person, whether it be bad judgment, in experience, making the wrong call, etc. But that brings us to lesson four, and that's sometimes you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Sometimes they are true accidents, and you didn't do anything to cause a bad situation. So falling rocks, trees, and even lightning strikes have all taken the lives of individuals throughout the park, through no fault of their own. But I'm going to share with you a deeply troubling story of little Joseph Trishman, who found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time,

all the while feeling no threat at all, as he was with the one person in the world. that would keep him safe, his mother. Mr. George Trishman worked at Fort Yellowstone as a carpenter in the late 1800s. Before accepting this job, he and his wife Margaret and their four children lived in Billings, Montana. Margaret was living with an undiagnosed mental illness, and on a spring day in 1899, she went to a cow shed behind her home and used a large butcher knife to inflict a large wound on her neck an attempt to cut her own jugular vein. When she was found, alive,

she claimed that she was attacked by a strange man. Authorities doubted her story, and she was sent to the Montana Mental Health Hospital in Warm Springs. After a few short months, it was determined that she had recovered and was discharged. Her husband, George, was very happy to have his family together again, and they decided on a fresh start. They would move their family to Fort Yellowstone.

Four days after her discharge, on Saturday, June 3, 1899, she grabbed her five-year-old son and cut his throat with a large hunting knife in front of her three other children, Harry, Anna, and Elizabeth. She nearly decapitated Little Joseph, and she chased the others around with the knife. They escaped to a neighbor's house. Needless to say, George was heartbroken and Margaret was taken to the guardhouse at Fort Yellowstone. She stayed there a few days before U.S. District Attorney T.F. Brook arrived to conduct an investigation and to bring Margaret to a government hospital in Washington, D.C. But while on the train, somewhere between Point of Rocks and Daly's Ranch in Paradise Valley, she jumped the train, landed in the Yellowstone River, and despite an extensive search, she was never found. That was really horrible what she did to her son. And then the fact that she was never found after she jumped into the river, it just makes you think she escaped.

Yeah. And there is, they had found a body of a woman kind of in the same area that they were anticipating to find Margaret. But it was determined later it couldn't be identified positively as her. So officially. Was her throat slit? No. Well, that's the thing. They didn't have, she didn't have the indicative scarring on her.

her neck. So they couldn't positively ID that it was her. Her surviving children actually went on to make a huge impact on Yellowstone National Park. Harry became a park ranger with a later promotion to an assistant chief ranger and then later to chief buffalo keeper. And Trishman Knob, which is an isolated peak within the park that's about 8,000 feet or so, is actually named after him. Elizabeth and Anna the two sisters, ran a curio and soda fountain refreshment stand in the park that was called the Devil's Kitchenette from 1924 to 1953. So Anna worked as a school teacher in Yellowstone before marrying a man named George Pryor. After they married, the couple purchased Old Anderson's curio shop at Mammoth Hot Springs in 1908. Within a few years of purchasing the business,

Elizabeth would join her sister and took over Georgia's share of the company. So Anna and Elizabeth became partners, expanded their business over the next four decades to include the soda fountains and souvenir shops and that very popular little shop called Devil's Kitchenette, which was located next to the Devil's Kitchen Cave, which was a huge tourist attraction. And by 1932, Anna and Elizabeth owned all of the general stores and gas stations in the northern half of the park. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So they went on to lead a big life in Yellowstone. Joseph Trishman's grave can be found in the southwest corner of Mammoth Army Cemetery.

In closing, I wanted to quote one last thing from this book, and I thought it would be perfect to end this episode on. Wilderness is so impersonal. It does not care whether you live or die. It does not care how much you love it. So while we are loving Yellowstone wilderness, while we play in it and indeed revel in it, taking in its own terms and helping protect it.

We foolish mortals must always remember to respect it. For not only can it bite us, but indeed it can devour us. The end. So, yeah, those are some lessons that we can take from Yellowstone and kind of apply through our lives in different national parks. It doesn't matter which one you're in. You can use them everywhere. respect the wilderness, respect the wild and the wild things that live there, and just know that nature doesn't care about you.

Like, we are so wrapped up. And another thing, like, this is another thing that I love about this. It's such a good reminder of, like, especially in the selfie Instagram world that we live in right now, we are so self-centered and think that everything's about us. and that things will be okay because why won't they be okay? Because we just think of ourselves in this little bubble, this protected bubble, and we're not. And the beauty of national parks and other wild places is it remind you that you ain't shit, honestly, like you're not. I just think of it as we're only the top of the food chain because of how smart and intelligent we are. If you took away our intellect and our knowledge, we would not be anywhere near the top of the food chain. We have no fangs. We don't have claws. We don't have any sort of protection.

We don't even have fur to keep ourselves warm. We would die from weather in like two minutes. When you're out there in the wilderness, think of yourself as the middle of the food chain with a lot of things above you. Mm-hmm. Parks, national parks, national forest, wild land. It doesn't matter where it is. It needs to be respected. And we don't want to lose these places due to human negligence.

And when we talked about Walker and how his parents sued the national park, yeah, they're upset. And they're looking for justice in some sort of way. But you have to assume the risks of going out into the wild and anything can happen to you. And it's nobody's, you can't sue the park for something that a wild animal did. It's hard because if you lost your son or your daughter or your parents, you would want to get some type of justice for that. Stop something, make a difference so it doesn't happen to somebody else.

But when it comes to wildlife, besides using your own knowledge and your own wits, there's really nothing we can do in national parks. If you want to go there, you're assuming the risks. You need to know if you go into these national parks, you need to take the proper precautions. And it's nobody's fault if you don't do that. Yeah. And I would hate to see the day that upon arriving at an entrance station to a park that instead of, you know, have a nice trip and enjoy. your time, here's a pamphlet. Instead, it's here's a clipboard with all this legal paperwork and you need to read and acknowledge and sign that we can't be held liable for anything that happens to you,

et cetera, et cetera. Like, that would just be such a shame, but based on different, not just this one, I'm not trying to pick on this one. I'm just using this as an example. So anyways, yeah, we're going to end it there because we've gone on for, I'm sure, it's far too long. Again, this is just something that really gets us going. And these are all very tragic and hard stories. And we don't ever, I don't want this episode to come across as like, I'm picking on these people and being like, don't be like them. They were stupid because they are all tragic situations, accidents, mishaps, bad judgment calls, et cetera. I just want it to serve as a lesson so it doesn't happen to you. It doesn't continue to happen. Yeah. Right. It's more of a, this is an example of what not to do and the real things that can happen if you don't follow the proper precautions.

That's it for Yellowstone this time around. I'm sure we'll be back. We will be posting updates about National Park Week and our giveaway and things to come on our Instagram National Park After Dark. We are trying to get better at our Facebook. We're trying to be good across the board. just difficult. We're not social media people as it is. Besides Instagram, like besides that, we're not big social media people. So we are trying. Yes, we're trying. But yeah, if you want the most up-to-date information and happenings and all that, best place to go is Instagram.

And otherwise, enjoy the week. Take these lessons to heart. Be safe. And enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, guys. Hello, everybody. and welcome back to another episode of National Park After Dark.

I'm Danielle. And I'm Cassie. And that's it. Thank you. We'll see you next Monday. Why is this always such a struggle? I don't understand. We just talked for a half an hour.

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