History
Yellowstone National Park, the world’s first national park, was established on March 1, 1872. In the park’s early years, a civilian staff (with limited financial and human resources) was in charge of running and protecting the park. However, the civilian group was unable to protect the park’s natural features and wildlife, so in 1886, control over the park was delegated to the United States Army.
The Army set up a tent camp near Mammoth Hot Springs, which eventually evolved into Fort Yellowstone, which the army continued to use until they turned over control of the park (and the fort) to the then newly-formed National Park Service in 1918. The National Park Service used Fort Yellowstone as Yellowstone National Park’s headquarters, which has continued to this day.
Fort Yellowstone was designated a National Historic Landmark on July 31, 2003.
Historical significance of the fort
The Army spent thirty-two years running Yellowstone National Park, the longest period the army ran any national park in United States history.
Fort Yellowstone is also noted by conservationists to have helped define how national parks were to be managed. During its thirty-two years at Yellowstone, the army developed regulations that put much emphasis on conservation. Under the watchful eyes of the army at Fort Yellowstone, the features and wildlife of Yellowstone National Park were protected from vandalism and extinction. In fact, many of the policies initiated by the army at Fort Yellowstone were later adopted by the National Park Service.
In addition, the hats used by the National Park Service rangers (Ranger Stetsons) are descended from the hats originally used in Army uniforms
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In the northwest corner of the park there is a large hot spring complex near Fort Yellowstone called Mammoth Hot Springs. Mammoth is a large hill of travertine that has been created over thousands of years as hot water from the spring cooled and deposited calcium carbonate (over 2 tons of calcium carbonate flows into Mammoth each day in a solution). Although these springs lie outside the caldera boundary, their energy has been attributed to the same magmatic system that fuels other Yellowstone geothermal areas.
The hot water that feeds Mammoth comes from Norris Geyser Basin after traveling underground via a fault line that runs through limestone and roughly with the Norris to Mammoth road (the limestone is the source of the calcium carbonate). Shallow circulation along this corridor allows Norris’ super-heated water to cool somewhat before surfacing at Mammoth, generally at about 170° F (~77° C). Algae living in the warm pools have tinted that travertine shades of brown, orange, red and green.
Thermal activity here is extensive both over time and distance. Terrace Mountain at Mammoth Hot Springs is the largest known carbonate-depositing spring in the world. The most famous feature at the springs is the Minerva Terrace, a series of travertine terraces. The terraces have been deposited by the spring over many years, but due to recent minor earthquake activity, the spring vent has shifted, rendering the terraces dry.
The Mammoth Terraces extend all the way from the hillside, across the Parade Ground, and down to Boiling River. The Mammoth Hotel, as well as all of Fort Yellowstone, is built upon an old terrace formation known as Hotel Terrace. There was some concern when construction began in 1891 on the Fort site that the hollow ground would not support the weight of the buildings. Several large sink holes (fenced off) can be seen out on the Parade Ground. This area has been thermally active for several thousand years.
The Mammoth area exhibits much evidence of glacial activity from the Pinedale Glaciation. The summit of Terrace Mountain is covered with glacial till, thereby dating the travertine formation there to earlier than the end of the Pinedale Glaciation. Several thermal kames, including Capitol Hill and Dude Hill, are major features of the Mammoth Village area. Ice-marginal stream beds are in evidence in the small, narrow valleys where Floating Island Lake and Phantom Lake are found. In Gardner Canyon, one can see the old, sorted gravel bed of the Gardner River covered by unsorted glacial till.
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