Parks, Forests & Public Lands

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Title Article Type Author
Alcova Dam and Reservoir Encyclopedia Annette Hein
Anderson, A.A. Encyclopedia John Clayton
Archeology, alpine in Wyoming Encyclopedia Rebecca Hein
Arthur, Chester A. and 1883 trip to Yellowstone Encyclopedia Dick Blust, Jr.

The 1880s cattle boom seemed to promise a rich future for Alexander Swan, who amassed 4.5 million acres in southeastern Wyoming to graze 100,000 head. His extravagant tenure ended quickly—but the ranch lasted generations.

Wealthy artist, hunter and conservationist A.A. Anderson was named superintendent of the new Yellowstone Forest Reserve in 1902. His love for wildlife habitat clashed with local timber and grazing interests, however, and, after much controversy, he lost his job. Wyoming and the nation might have benefitted if he’d found a way to bridge that gap.

No logging, no grazing—even no trespassing? The Yellowstone Timber Land Reserve, the first land to be set aside in what evolved into today’s National Forest system, had a distinctly different character from its successors. Here’s why.

In July 1862, a large train of 80 wagons was passing through mountains in what’s now western Wyoming when, within a matter of days, serious troubles led to the deaths of two women and their infants. Elizabeth Paul’s grave remains at the site under a tall pine.

When Jackson Hole News co-owner Virginia Huidekoper learned in June 1971 that Bill Briggs had just skied down the Grand Teton—first person ever to do it—she fired up her Cessna and flew a reporter and photographer over the mountain for an unforgettable, front-page photo of the tracks.

Starting a newspaper is tough, even without rivals. Against enormous odds, the Jackson Hole News managed to not only thrive while competing for three decades with the Jackson Hole Guide, it ended up buying the established newspaper and merging into the Jackson Hole News&Guide, which survives today.

Westbound wagon-train emigrants got their first glimpse of the Rocky Mountains when they first saw the blue cone of Laramie Peak, 85 miles away. Snowcapped in early summer, the mountain stayed in sight for a week or more, dominating many diarists’ accounts and foreshadowing drier, more difficult country ahead.

After flying combat missions in World War II, Tom Bell launched another battle—to preserve western lands. The founder of the Lander, Wyo.-based High Country News managed to keep the publication afloat and conservation in the minds of its readers. His legacy and the magazine continue today.

It may seem surprising that a solitary New York socialite would make Yellowstone safer. But Alice Morris’s love of Yellowstone National Park led to her horseback explorations in 1917, when she chronicled the park’s wonders and detailed changes to improve and standardize trail systems that remain in place today.

A sudden, hot wind one August afternoon in 1937 blew a small fire into an inferno that rushed for ridgetops above Blackwater Creek, in the Shoshone National Forest west of Cody, Wyo. Fifteen firefighters died; 38 more were burned in the fourth deadliest wildfire in the nation’s history.