Janet Chapple

Janet Chapple has assembled an engaging anthology of writings describing Yellowstone National Park, America's premier natural treasure. Starting with Nathanial P. Langford’s “The Wonders of the Yellowstone” which in 1871 brought Yellowstone to the forefront of America’s collective consciousness, the editor has gathered a potpourri of writings documenting fascinating voyages of Yellowstone sojourners. The texts are interspersed with maps and original illustrative materials. Especially valuable are the 1884 water color illustrations of Thomas H. Thomas, which appear for the first time in print courtesy of the National Museum of Wales. Annotated with notes on place names and a bibliography of relevant literature, the volume is a valuable addition to the voluminous literature devoted to Yellowstone.… (más)

Travel is much more accessible these days than it was a century ago, and as a result travel narratives proliferate, both in print and on the web. That means there's not much that's truly new in the genre, not much left to write ... though that doesn't stop people from trying. As much as nearly anywhere, that axiom is especially true for America's great National Parks; a place like Yellowstone, for example, get around four million visitors these days, nearly all of whom share what is essentially the same oft-told experience that has characterized the park since the arrival of the automobile. People know that, and at some level, they know what their experience is likely to be even before they arrive.

Things were much different, though, a century ago. In 1900 fewer than 10,000 people visited the park, and Yellowstone was far from becoming a national tourism cliché. Regardless of how one traveled through the park, the experience was still bound to be an adventure into the unknown, one marked by a feeling of excitement and wonder. The narratives of that day, no matter how prosaic in tone, couldn't help but reflect that sense of real adventure. And that, in short, is what makes this book so wonderful. The stories have a trailblazer's romance to them, a feeling of being part of something new and grand ... and this gives them a remarkable, evocative power that makes them well worth reading.

The volume itself is well-done, too, giving these stories the respect and presentation they deserve. The selection of essays is balanced and appropriate; the annotations and notes are professional and thoughtful, even including definitions of arcane terms; and the book is well composed, with relevant period illustrations, quality page layout, and good paper. All in all, this is an outstanding publication effort, one of the best anthologies of National Park literature I've seen.

Highly recommended.… (más)

This book is a compilation of early accounts (late 1800s and early 1900s) that individuals wrote about their experiences visiting and exploring Yellowstone Park, under very difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions. The book is very well illustrated, with maps and early drawing, plus a whole section of reproductions of coloured watercolour paintings by Thomas H. Thomas. The book is well annotated with all kinds of extra information to put the accounts and drawings into context, and to give modern names and information when this differs from how things were back then.

There are lots of amusing anecdotes in some of the tales. I particularly liked the account by a mother who took her 7 children (oldest barely 16) in a wagon on a journey to Yellowstone of some 1200 miles, living outdoors for 2 months and crossing mountains and deserts. When their wagon broke down and they had to look for help in getting it fixed, she discovered that she had left her pocketbook on the hall table at home and so had no money to pay for any supplies or fixing the wagon! Luckily, the rancher she asked for help was kind and trusting. Another account describes how his poor pack ponies would sometimes get stuck trying to jump over fallen logs, and one got over a log by somersaulting several times and was none the worse for it!

This is a very interesting book to treasure. Highly recommended.… (más)