“* * * and behold! The whole country beyondwas smoking with vapor from boiling springs,and burning with gases issuing from smallcraters, each of which was emitting a sharp,whistling sound. * * * The general face of thecountry was smooth and rolling, being a levelplain, dotted with cone-shaped mounds. Onthe summit of these mounds were smallcraters from four to six feet in diameter.Interspersed among these on the level plainwere larger craters, some of them four to sixmiles across. Out of these craters, issued blueflames and molten brimstone.”

Description credited to Joseph Meek, 1829; quotationfrom page 40 of the book “The Yellowstone NationalPark” by Hiram Martin Chittenden (as edited and publishedby Richard A. Bartlett, University of OklahomaPress, Norman, Oklahoma, 1964). Photograph is of Midway Geyser Basin.

“Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the UnitedStates of America in Congress assembled, that the tract of land in theterritories of Montana and Wyoming lying near the headwaters of theYellowstone River is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement,occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicatedand set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefitand enjoyment of the people * * *”