Lee WhittleseyReseñas

Whittlesey recounts deaths ranging from tragedy to folly-from being caught in a freak avalanche to the goring of a photographer who just got a little too close to a bison. Armchair travelers and park visitors alike will be fascinated by this important book detailing the dangers awaiting in our first national park.

Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park
by Lee H. Whittlesey

This was very interesting. It described deaths from way before it was a park. People who were living there before 1900. No Native Americans lived there, they were too smart! There are too many ways to accidentally die!
The ground crumbles, there wasn't any paths back then, steam made vision had to see the trail, gas from the vents, falling in was an almost sure death sentence or slow death.

Besides the many falls, many jumped in not understanding how hot 190 degrees really is! Boiled alive! Or a dog gets lose and they try to rescue the dog. There is always death by other people and a lot of suicide especially in the distant past. Must have been very hard back then because there were so many suicides.

There were fires, drowning, and other odd things too. It was sad but I just kept thinking about how hard it must of been. The newer ones was tragic too because some were kids. The water is pretty and doesn't look like death. One false move is all it takes.

Couldn’t put it down!!

I found this book to be most fascinating and eye opening! When you think of national parks, you think of the animals and scenery, but not of the tragic deaths that have occurred in the parks. This book describes in graphic detail such unfortunate events, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.

Very readable. While usually a fan of world history as opposed to American I found this an entertaining read full of historical facts.

The author picking a town to concentrate on gave me insight into every day life there while giving information on the development of Yellowstone

Is it weird to say that I thoroughly enjoyed a book about the various ways people die in what is arguably the best National Park? No? Okay, then I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.

[b: Death in Yellowstone|432684|Death in Yellowstone Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park|Lee H. Whittlesey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347275303s/432684.jpg|421642] has not only a wonderful title (who doesn't dig the word Foolhardiness?) but also proves to be a very thorough history about the manifold ways people find themselves perishing within this idyllic setting. Everything from bears to lightning, falling to freezing, and stagecoach accidents is covered between these pages. It starts off detailing the ways people died in thermal pools and hot springs (and includes details such as eyes boiling in skulls), and it all just goes downhill (uphill?) from there.

The main takeaway from the book is meant to be to keep the wilderness wild, and respect the wilderness - it can kill you. The book does succeed thoroughly in that task, but one also needs to realize that it thoroughly succeeds in highlighting just how idiotic some visitors to the park can be. Who looks at a bear and thinks "I'll put my baby on top of it, that would make a perfect picture!" Why do so many people hike where they shouldn't? Why are people still skinny dipping in hot springs and thermal pools? The world may never know.

This book could easily have been four or five stars, but the writing was a bit dry now and then. The contents are certainly four or five star worthy, especially the section that Karen copied about small dog owners.

Respect nature people, it can (and judging by this book will) kill you.

Let’s be honest. Your appreciation for this book is going to be directly proportional to your interest in Yellowstone National Park. You have no use for the park; you have no use for the book. You have a passing interest; then this may be passingly interesting. But, if you are fascinated by the park; you will be fascinated by this book.

And my rating reflects that fascination. The book is not for everyone. But for those to whom it is geared, it is great.

This is literally an alphabetical listing of every natural feature within Yellowstone and how each got its name. Geysers, waterfalls, mountains, lakes, etc. – they are all here. In some cases, the source of the name is rather straightforward. But in others, there can be a convoluted history that includes names moving among features and people battling for the credit of coming up with the name. (This was even happening in the 1800s.)

But the author is up to the task of trying to straighten it all out (as much as is possible.) He is one of the foremost experts on Yellowstone history and has worked alongside others to help identify the real names, to help make many of the names official, and to actually come up with names for new features. He knows of what he speaks and there is ample evidence that he has scoured the historic record to get to whatever truth is available to be had.

Of course, the basic how-did-this-get-this-name descriptions are interesting. But interspersed in the descriptions are fascinating stories about the history of the park, facts about the geysers, and even some insights into the weird and convoluted process of establishing names for things. It is these that take the book beyond reference to entertainment.

My first foray into the book was the worst way to read this type of book – from first entry to last. However, I still found it entertaining and informative. (And it made me realize just how much more of the park I want to explore.) But now it will be an invaluable resource for looking up individual entries to find out just what is going on

The book is not perfect. For example, some titles appear at the bottom of one page with the description starting on the next. A bit bothersome and distracting. A final copyedit for such things wouldn’t have been a bad thing. And fair warning should be given that it is word heavy. (However, also note that, while the pictures are few and far between, they are fascinating nonetheless.) But these are minor quibbles.

This is a book no fan of the park should be without. But it will also be of interest to anyone who wants to learn a little of Yellowstone’s history, and for anyone who is just interested in how the heck things are named.½

The subtitle states: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park.

I’ve had this on my tbr for some time. In general, I like nonfiction about natural history and the great outdoors. I read Jack Olsen’s Night of the Grizzlies a few years ago and found it fascinating and compelling. I was expecting something akin to Olsen’s work with this book, and was sorely disappointed.

Whittlesey give us a recitation of incidents in the park, and surrounding communities, divided into categories/chapters. The first two are fairly interesting despite the dry, factual delivery. Whittlesey begins with people who have been burned / scalded by falling – or diving (!) – into various hot springs. The second chapter is devoted to encounters with bears, primarily grizzlies. In each chapter, he relates the incidents in chronological order, beginning with vague reports of events in the last 1800s, for which we have minimal historical data or first-hand accounts. He includes chapters on poisonous plants, falls, runaway horses, Indian battles, suicide, car accidents, drowning, and avalanches among others.

I appreciate the amount of work involved in gathering all this information, and Whittlesey obviously spent time trying to corroborate various accounts (frequently without success, though he noted his efforts). However, the delivery of this information is so dry and “just the facts, Ma’m” that I quickly grew bored.

This is one of those books that was worth writing, even though it was not written so well. I listened to the audiobook, so didn't get a chance to check the writer's sources.

The writer himself grew up near and worked in Yellowstone as a guide, eventually becoming a lawyer. He is therefore interested in the legal cases that came up in relation to various deaths. He dismisses snowmobile accidents and automobile accidents as too numerous and banal to discuss, grandly. However, other causes may have snowmobiles or automobiles involved. For example, some exposure deaths involved snowmobiles, and at least one car was backed over a cliff (that's a fall).

The main point of the book might be that people can be incredibly stupid. Another point is that they will sue no matter how irresponsible and stupid they or the injured or killed persons were. A third point is that wilderness is wild and can kill you even if you are not stupid. Another point might be that wildness is valuable.

This book organizes the deaths by category, hot springs, bison, bear, exposure, falling, drowning, murder, stagecoach accidents, etc. This results in a lack of context, as the book moves from one time period to another, and then back again, over and over again. Another flaw is that, while individual stories are mostly quite factually told, and sometimes rather repetitive in their uniformity, the author will occasionally speculate, usually suggesting that the person who was killed may have been "overconfident". This does little for me.

Interesting, but not engrossing.

Since the title of this book was “Death” in Yellowstone, I was expecting it to be an investigation into one death. Instead it was a compilation the detailed descriptions of all the different ways people have died in Yellowstone. Burning, mauling, goring, poisoning, freezing, drowning and shooting are just a few of the calamaties. The gory aspects of some of these accounts -- especially the burns from falls into the hot springs -- were too much for me. This book might have been more accurately titled “Deaths in Yellowstone” so as to warn the reader of its contents.

I appreciate the organization of the book, the historical details and applaud the fantastic research that must have gone into it, but I am reminded of the Roberto Bolano book 2666 with its seemingly neverending accounts of murders. (“And the next victim was...”) Toward the end of Death in Yellowstone I found myself getting numbed by the multitude of painful details. I think there’s only so much of that the human psyche can take. Bolano used that as a creative and literary manipulation, but I don’t think it can work the same way in a book of non-fiction.

Note: This is an audio book that I received as part of the Early Reviewers program.

If I had to sum up this book in two words, those words would be "fascinating" and "long." The author has basically composed an encyclopedia of every known death in Yellowstone, dating back in some cases to the early-to-mid 1800s. Of the two large sections of the book--nature-caused deaths and human-caused deaths--deaths by nature was much more interesting to me. Overall though, many of the stories were downright fascinating. The only downside to the book was its sheer length--13 hours. I was not sure if I was ever going to get to the end!

I received this audio book from the Early Reviewers program and, once again, I had not read the description of what I requested closely enough. I thought this was going to be a murder mystery set in Yellowstone, but instead, it is a chronicle of seemingly every death that has occurred in the park since it's inception.

I will say three things about this book:

1. It is not for the squeamish. The author graphically relates stories of people being boiled alive in thermal springs, being flayed and eaten by bears and being gored by bison. It came as a relief when people just started dying by falling trees.

2. The stupidity of people apparently knows no bounds. The vast majority of the deaths related in the book could have been avoided if the victims ha just followed basic safety rules prominently displayed at the park.

3. About two thirds through the book I just got bored at so much death and it just was not interesting (or shocking anymore)

This is a good cautionary book for anyone venturing into America's National Parks, but the author would have better served the reader is he had eliminated some of the deaths he relates. We did not need to hear about every last one of them.

Yellowstone historian Lee H. Whittlesey did a magnificent job of documenting deaths occurring in or near Yellowstone National Park. He spent hours pouring through newspaper accounts and locating testimony of persons who witnessed the accounts as well as reading official superintendent reports which often included accounts of such incidents. The "in Yellowstone" portion of the title is a bit misleading as some of the reported deaths took place outside the park or in gateway cities. Since I was listening to the book in audio format, I wish these portions had been omitted to make the book not quite so long and seemingly repetitive. I really think this is a book which probably works best in print or e-book format where one can "skim read" portions. Much of this book needs to be read by persons preparing to visit Yellowstone so they are aware of the dangers of not following guidance of rangers and park literature. The narrator, Stephen R. Thorne did a good job convincing the reader he was the author and witnessed much of the book although he pronounced a few names of Southern locations a bit strangely. I received the audio version of the book from the Tantor Media through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program in exchange for a review. This review refers to a reading of the 2nd edition of the book.

Let us not tame wilderness. Let us respect and enjoy wilderness in all of its glory and danger. Mr. Whittlessey did a great job with identifying the glories of Yellowstone National Park. He also provided "real life/death" stories about those who either on purpose or accidentally did not respect the wilderness.

The book captures the wonders of the hot springs/pools. And yes if you get the feeling you want to lean over and touch the water - don't. The water is hot and dangerous. Read and heed the warning signs, do not walk on the unstable ground near the geysers etc.

Read or listen to this book!

Death in Yellowstone is both fascinating and relentlessly cautionary. I've never been to the park but thanks to a healthy dose of shock and awe from Mr. Whittlesey I now know to always hike in groups, carry bear spray (I didn't even realize this was a thing), read and obey every frickin' sign, and never ever climb over a retaining wall. Ever. And a host of other warnings.

After hearing only a handful of ill-fated stories, I couldn't imagine it's simply a lack common sense that puts so many at risk. It's more like people believing themselves to be exceptions to the rule. Such is human nature, unfortunately. This book is on its 2nd edition and I doubt it will be the last.

To my delight, despite the macabre subject matter, a number of Yellowstone incidents date back to the time of the park's founding in the late 19th century even though many of the records are vague and possibly inaccurate. This is a glimpse back to a young America. You get a sense of Yellowstone's early history through these accounts and their telling would be at home in any number of history books.

I recommend Death in Yellowstone whether you enjoy the great outdoors, are an avid reader of history or are simply morbidly curious. I also think other parks, both large and small, would benefit from publishing their own versions as kind of a public service to help remind us all why we keep wilderness preserves wild.½

Wilderness by it's very nature is WILD. If you aren't cautious you just may end up in a follow-up to this book or another one like it. When you go to our National Parks you don't want it to be surrounded by fencing, no wild animals and no dangers of any sort. That would destroy the beauty of nature that you went there to find in the first place. Our National Parks are not zoos or city parks.

This book recounts the tales of people who didn't watch what they were doing by either taking chances by jumping into hot pools, sailing on cold, windy lakes, getting too close to wildlife, or traveling without the proper outdoor precautions.

I haven't had the opportunity to go see Yellowstone as of yet, but enjoyed the stories and accounts of the history of people that have lost their lives there or near there. Not that it is of any enjoyment for those that lost their loved ones, but at least they can know that their loved ones have served a purpose of being a cautionary tale to others so that they may possibly avoid their fate.

I was given an audiobook version of this book by the publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers Giveaway.

Lee Whittlesey, a Yellowstone National Park historian, has created a work that will appeal to true lovers of Montana history, especially arcane history. Cinnabar, Montana, was a temporary town on the Yellowstone River just north of the entrance to Yellowstone Park. It was the brainchild of an entrepreneur who almost willed the town into existence with dreams of a railhead that would serve the expected numbers of visitors in the 1880s, but had that dream die when the railroad was extended south to Gardner at the exact entrance to the Park.

Whittlesey almost parallels this entrepreneur’s actions by himself willing into being a history of a place that barely existed. But he does it with enthusiasm, with remarkable dedication and truly with love. He has somehow cobbled together a fascinating history of the family and events of Cinnabar…a town that 99% of Montanans don’t even know existed. I loved the detail, the narrative and the tribute to a place that is gone….but while it lived had high hopes.

I was intrigued by the title and found the book fascinating.

This was a fascinating book by an articulate, if untrained, writer. I couldn't put it down — although it was quite disturbing, since I was reading it while I was there!

This was a delightful history, both human and geological, of the development of Yellowstone. I have a friend who has lost count of how many times he's been there, so I've gifted this to him. Gateway to Yellowstone fills in the knowledge gaps about what we all thought we knew about this natural wonder and the rough necked pioneers who first arrived on the scene.

An interesting piece of history but a slow read. I have become too used to historical books written as novels whereas this one was written more like my high school history book. There was a lot of repetition and jumping around in time. I also had a hard time keeping track of the myriad people who appeared for one or two pages and then never again. I did enjoy learning learning about the struggle to start towns in the middle of nowhere and the competition that existed.

This well documented and enthralling book explores the founding and demise of Cinnabar, Montana and the story of Hugo J. Hoppe and his vision. As the railroads and national parks developed, so did the dreams of entrepreneurs. Hoppe hoped to provide for his family by running a hotel for guests at the end of the railway line in Cinnabar. Land disputes prevented the railroad from developing close to the entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Tourists disembarked at Cinnabar and took stagecoaches into the park. Years of hard work by Hobbe and his four sons eventually resulted in accomplishing his goals. Unfortunately unforeseen circumstances led to the end of Cinnabar and Hoppe's hopes.

Though hundreds of newspaper articles had already been written about Yellowstone National Park, whipping up public interest around the world, before the railroad came to the town of Cinnabar, Montana in 1883 getting to the park was extremely difficult. This fascinating book tells the history of that town, which only existed for a few decades, but it also gives a picture of the whole country during the last part of the nineteenth century, a sense of what life in the West was like at that time, and through the individuals involved in the Cinnabar’s story it traces the country’s changing attitudes about wilderness areas, and what should be done with them.

At just less than 200 pages of text (there are many more pages of notes, and some photos), Gateway to Yellowstone is both detailed and entertaining. It’s the only book by Lee H Whittlesey I’ve read so far, but he’s probably best known for his book Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First national Park, which is so popular that the 1995 edition was updated in 2014.

I read an advanced review copy provided by the publisher through LibraryThing at no cost or obligation to me. Review opinions are mine.½

Lee H. Whittlesey is a Yellowstone historian of some note who has written important and good books about the area (some of which I have in my collection.) Perhaps his most famous is Death in Yellowstone, the stories behind the many (and stupid) ways people have died in the park. But there are many others to his credit.

Whittlesey is talented. His collection of works is evidence of that. However, Whittlesey's knowledge and talents are wasted in this book. Yes, it is exhaustive. Yes, it is well-researched. Yes, it is as detailed as anyone could want. The problem is that I do not believe many people really want this much detail about this particular subject.

There is no doubt that this is an exhaustively researched book. It is well supported with over 80 pages of notes containing sufficient support to allow any reader the resources necessary to explore further. And these notes also provide assurance that there is authority underlying everything contained in the book. Also, Whittlesey has done an incredible job of filling in all possible (and answerable) questions about the town of Cinnabar and the family which believed in the town– the Hoppe's.

However, again, you have to wonder how many people really care.

Cinnabar was a town that existed for only about 20 years. The Hoppe family put much faith in the success of the town. And, when it was the train's final stop for passengers wanting to enter the park from the north (including routes to Fort Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs), as well as there being the promise of successful mining enterprises in the area, their hopes made sense. However, Gardiner eventually won the designation as the final stop, Cinnabar was bypassed, and, for all intents and purposes, Cinnabar was dismantled and moved to Gardiner.

In other words, Cinnabar is just a footnote in the history of the way the northern borders of the park were developed. And, because it is a footnote, the excruciating detail wears thin quickly. Whittlesey bombards us with so much factual information that it is hard to get a personal feel for the people or the town. There are actually some interesting stories here. But they are buried under a deluge of information that, while perhaps of interest to pure historians, only serves to wear on the reader.

And there is one final thing that hampers Whittlesey in the telling of the story – the fact that many of the concrete facts about the people are no longer available. The work he has put in piecing the fragments of evidence together is evident. But far too often even these facts have to be qualified with comments stating we can't be sure or there are conflicting stories or we are forced to conjecture what actually happed.

The result is a book that starts with a premise of only some interest that is taken through an academic wringer which causes the removal of what little heart might have existed.

There are more scholarly types which may enjoy this book. And there are others who want to know every scintilla of information about the area who may revel in it. (Again, the research appears impeccable and Whittlesey has brought all his talents to bear on being sure it is an accurate portrayal.) However, the more general reader – even a reader like me with a more than ordinary interest in the area – will find it of only some interest. And the work of reading through the book is not worth what little interesting reward there may be at the end.

The story of Cinnabar, a “ghost town” if any of it were left, is told in chronological order, from the first settler, to the last one to pull up stakes and leave, a mere 20 years later.

To do this, lots of property owners/characters came and sometimes went quickly. Not knowing if they were staying around, or leaving, important or visitors, made it difficult to read the first chapters. I wish that Whittlesey had introduced all the main characters and told their interesting stories first, and then filled in the background of others who owned what for how long. I kept looking for family trees, anything to anchor the names to, and to keep the paragraphs on one set of people at a time.
Fully one third of the book is devoted to detailed notes and references to sources, so its a great resource for looking at original materials on the Yellowstone gateway.

My hometown, founded at the same time as Cinnabar, was aided in its early growth by the railroads, and also left behind by them. Cinnabar is hardly unique; today it is the highways that bypass the towns. Cinnabar stands in for hundreds of others in the same era whose only remnants are concrete station platforms and tombstones in the graveyard. The lessons are still out there. Stay connected, or die.

One of the best chapters was “The Only Little Girl in Cinnabar.” I would have loved meeting her in person. She had a wonderful set of adventures, all on her own. I wondered what else happened to her.

Other chapters that were interesting were the ones about the difficulties with wolf, elk, antelope, and bison migrations in and out of the Park, and about the decision to expand the Park for grazing in the northwest corner, where the wildlife made it difficult for ranchers on private lands. The new configuration has not solved the problems. Because fewer individuals were involved in the political and legal maneuvering, it was easy to follow the predictable tugs among Washington, D.C., Montana state houses, and local public opinion.

I was personally interested in the activities of Park Superintendent Horace Albright, since I met him just after he published his book on the birth of the National Park Service. I knew of his role in Death Valley National Monument (now Park), but nothing of his early years in Yellowstone. As an elderly old-fashioned gentleman he was a delight to meet, with a fully intact mind and sense of humor up to the day he died at the age of 97.