How Yellowstone Became the World’s First National Park

2 minute read

There is an origin story about Yellowstone National Park that involves weary explorers sitting around a campfire, extolling the beauty of the land they’ve just seen and vowing to ensure it becomes a public park for all to enjoy. It’s a vision of altruism and environmentalism that suits the founding of the world’s first national park—only it’s not entirely true.

The members of the 1870 Washburn-Doane Expedition did likely gather for campfires as they explored the region’s geysers and rivers and waterfalls, and they did likely discuss the best use of the land they were exploring. But, as with so much of American history, there were significant corporate interests at play. Yellowstone might never have become the public parkland it is today if not for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.

Before the explorers set out on their expedition, Northern Pacific was strategizing to expand across the Montana Territory. An influx of tourism in the region would be a boon to business, so a railroad financier, Jay Cooke, began lobbying for an expedition. To drum up excitement back east, one member of the expedition, a politician named Nathanial P. Langford, toured the country giving lectures about the beauty of Yellowstone. Meanwhile, Northern Pacific subsidized an artist to sketch images of the park for display in Washington, D.C.

In March of 1872, less than two years after the expedition, Congress enacted the Yellowstone Park Act, ensuring that the land would remain under the purview of the Department of the Interior rather than being divvied up among private individuals—an arrangement that would attract visitors to the area, which would be sure to benefit big business like the railroad company.

Seventy years into the park’s existence, LIFE dispatched Alfred Eisenstaedt to photograph its geographic features, during a summer that was shaping up to be its biggest yet for tourism. In that record year, 1946, the park saw more than 800,000 visitors. In 2014, it saw 3.5 million. Though the idea might seem incongruous, all 167 million visitors who have encountered its bison and watched Old Faithful blow (since recordkeeping began in 1904) have corporate interests to thank for one of America’s greatest natural wonders.

August 19, 1946 cover of LIFE magazine
Alfred Eisenstaedt—LIFE Magazine

Liz Ronk, who edited this gallery, is the Photo Editor for LIFE.com. Follow her on Twitter @lizabethronk.

Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Old Faithful, Yellowstone's most famous geyser, erupts 150 feet in air about once every hour, has done so half a million times since its discovery in 1870.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Castle Geyser is shown just starting an eruption which will go 100 feet in the air and last half an hour, will not perform again until the following day.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Norris Geyser Basin is a bowl-like area containing 30 geysers, most of which erupt every few seconds or minutes, so that there are always several in action.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Riverside Geyser is just as regular as Old Faithful. Every seven hours it spurts 100 feet at an angle for approximately 15 minutes.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Spectators wait for Giant Geyser, which erupts irregularly at intervals of 6 to 16 days.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Sign covered with graffiti on trail at Yellowstone National Park.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Giant Geyser, 200 feet has been the world's largest since Excelsior, also at Yellowstone, became inactive in 1888. Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Morning glory pool shines a beautiful blue in noonday sun. It is an extinct geyser.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Grotto Geyser shows the cone like formation of whitish silica deposited around opening during centuries of activity.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Jupiter Terrace is a series of grayish-white pools and falls formed by action of large hot springs at its top.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Grand Canyon of Yellowstone has been gouged deep into the soft vocanic rock by rushing waters of the Yellowstone River, leaving fantastic shapes such as the 260-foot "needle" shown at lower left. Picket-fence effect along top of the cliff is a layer of ancient lava hardened by cooling and shrinking into columns of basalt 25 feet high.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Lower Falls of Yellowstone River has a perpendicular drop of 308 feet, which is about twice the height of that of Niagara Falls. Thirty-eight tons of water roar over lip of this chasm every second, causing a downdraft which engulfs millions of butterflies and moths and even occasional small birds which venture too close to the cascade.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Tourist trick is cooking over hot spring. Park frowns on this, also on throwing soap into geysers, which may make them explode.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Visitors buy postcards and scenic photo folders at the rate of 3,000,000 a year.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Hut at Mammoth Hot Springs is made of old elk antlers. Visitors purchase them as souvenirs, all hunting in the park being forbidden.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Mother moose and baby are photographed from road. Also abundant are antelope, bear, beaver, bighorn sheep, bison, coyote, deer, elk, marten, porcupine and woodchuck.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Old stagecoach at Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel provides perch for snapshots. Automobiles replaced stages in park in 1917.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Bears, both black and grizzly, are common, particularly around garbage dumps.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Pillow covers of brightly colored rayon satin, adorned with maps and the scenic wonders of Yellowstone, sell rapidly at $1.25.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Free pop, in the form of natural carbonated water with lemonade flavor, gushes in continuous streams from the rocks which line the highway near Apollinaris Springs.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Line of cars at entrance to Yellowstone National Park.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Trailer camps charge tourists $1 a day. Many visitors are settling down in them, living on fish they catch. After a month they must move on to another camp in the park.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Trailer park in Yellowstone National Park.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Caption from LIFE. Las Vegas blackjack dealer and wife spend summer in tent at Yellowstone.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Yellowstone National Park 1946
Bear on a road in Yellowstone National Park.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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Write to Eliza Berman at eliza.berman@time.com