Yellowstone [antikvár]

Yellowstone National Park is today just what it has always beentwo million acres of virgin wilderness. The changes man has introduced affect only one percent of this vast area. Here, with only a little effort, it is possible to move away from buildings and blacktop to a place beyond the sensory impact of civilization. Alone for a moment or two in a world that has remained essentially unchanged for eight thousand years, one may come to feel a tingling kinship with one of those who were here at times long pastperhaps John Colter, as he explored these forests and mountains in 1807; or a stalking Shoshone of the years before Colter; or even one of the ancient hunters who, with his people, followed the game herds that moved into this high country as the ice receded.Every visitor, no matter how casual, comes to know a little of Yellowstone's wildness. Inevitably he becomes aware of things not contemplated beforethat a geyser erupts because it is a wild and natural thing that does what it must, and that the bear, moose, and elk are here because this is their natural habitat. He may reflect on how few are the people who have been to the bottom of Yellowstone Canyon or to the top of Mount Holmes. And he may come to appreciate, as he views the wild land and its wild inhabitants, how little of Yellowstone has ever felt the foot of man.But the most significant aspect of Yellowstone National Park is probably not its wildness; it is something intangible and magical that lies in the name itself. The many unusual features of Yellowstone have been observed by millions of people; but, for every person who has watched Old Faithful erupt or has stood on the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, there are dozens of others who have only seen photographs or heard the familiar names. All of these people have one thing in common; they share a special feelinga pride of ownershipfor Yellowstone, the world's first national park.Had there been a human civilization anywhere to note the event, the volcanic eruption that formed the Yellowstone caldera may literally have been noticed throughout the earthjust as, since 1872, the thunder of the falls at Yellowstone, the hissing roar of Old Faithful, and the bugling of a bull elk have been figuratively "heard around the world," the sounds that have been recorded everywhere in acts of preservation and conservation.This is the story of those sounds and of the wonders that cause them. And it is the story of another, perhaps even greater wonder: the national-park movement that they stimulated to conception.