User talk:Mike Cline/Articles Under Contemplation/Timeline of Yellowstone history

Yellowstone National Park was created on March 1, 1872 and is the first and oldest national park in the United States. This is a Timeline of Yellowstone history outlining significant events in the history of the park.

Pre-creation exploration

 * 1830s-1840s trapper Osborne Russell visits Lamar River valley as described in a Journal of a Trapper ,
 * September, 1863 prospector Walter W. de Lacy traveled through the lower geyser basins and southeast corner of park discovering Shoshone Lake.
 * September 13-October 3, 1869 - Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition explores upper Yellowstone River and geyser basins.
 * August 26 - September 23, 1870 - Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition was the first "official" exploration of the upper Yellowstone and geyser basins.
 * July 21 - August 26, 1871 - Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 was the first government sponsored exploration of the park regions.
 * July 28, 1871, Annie, the first European boat ever to sail on Yellowstone Lake was used to begin exploring the islands and shoreline.
 * 1871 - John C. Baronett builds first bridge across the Yellowstone River near the mouth of the Lamar River which remained in use until 1894.

1872–1886

 * March 1, 1872 - President Ulysses S. Grant signed The Act of Dedication law that created Yellowstone National Park.
 * 1872 - 1877 - Nathaniel P. Langford served as first Superintendent of Yellowstone (unpaid).
 * October 1876 - January 1877 - Lieutenant Gustavus Doane leads the first winter expedition through the park from Gardiner to Fort Hall, Idaho on the Snake River.
 * August 20 - September 7, 1877 - U.S. Army pursues Chief Joseph and a band of ~700 Nez Perce through Yellowstone during the Nez Perce War.
 * Over a dozen tourists from Helena and Radersburg, Montana traveling in the park were captured by Nez Perce. Two–Charles Kenck (August 26) and Richard Dietrich (August 31) were killed. Several others were wounded.
 * 1877 - 1881 - Philetus Norris is appointed as the first paid superintendent of the park.
 * 1880 - Marshall's Hotel became the first public accommodations in the park along the Firehole River.
 * Mattie S. Culver, age 30, died of tuberculosis at the hotel on March 2, 1889. Mrs. Culver was the wife of the hotel's winter keeper, E. C. Culver. Adelaide Child, the wife of the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company president Harry W. Child, ensured a proper burial, memorial and fenced in tombstone near the hotel.  The grave is visible today a few 100 ft west of the Nez Perce Picnic Area.
 * 1881 - Frank Jay Haynes becomes defacto official photographer for Yellowstone until his death in 1921.
 * 1882 - The Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, with backing by the Northern Pacific Railroad was formed and awarded major concessions to build and manage park amenities.
 * 1883 - Lieutenant Dan Christie Kingman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructs Kingman Pass pass between Terrance Mountain and Bunsen Peak on the Grand Loop Road (U.S. Route 89), just south of Mammoth Hot Springs.
 * August 1883 - Chester A. Arthur becomes the first U.S. President to visit Yellowstone.
 * September 1883 - The first rail service to Yellowstone reaches Cinnabar just north of Gardiner, Montana via the Yellowstone Park Line of the Northern Pacific Railroad.
 * May 1886 - The first of three versions of the Canyon Hotel is opened near the Yellowstone Falls.
 * August 1886 - U.S. Department of Interior transferred administration of the park to the War Department and U.S. Cavalry entered Yellowstone and established Camp Sheridan near Mammoth Hot Springs.

1887–1918

 * January 1887 - Schwatka Winter Expedition of 1887 led by Arctic explorer Frederick Schwatka undertook a winter tour through the park with photographer Frank Jay Haynes and produced the first winter photographs of the park.
 * 1889 - The first non-native brown trout are introduced into park waters by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries
 * 1891 - The Lake Hotel, built by the Northern Pacific Railroad opened and was remodeled by architect Robert Reamer in 1903.
 * May 7, 1894 - Lacey Act of 1894 was passed as "An Act To protect the birds and animals in Yellowstone National Park, and to punish crimes in said park, and for other purposes."
 * 1894 - John W. Meldrum was appointed the first U.S. Commissioner for Yellowstone, a post he held until 1935.
 * 1902 - The Yellowstone Park Line of the Northern Pacific Railroad was extended to the North Entrance of the park at Gardiner, Montana.
 * 1903 - The first Chittenden Memorial Bridge was constructed by engineer Hiram M. Chittenden across the Yellowstone River to provide access to the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
 * April 24, 1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt dedicates the laying of cornerstone of the Roosevelt Arch which was completed in August 1903.
 * 1907 - The Lamar Buffalo Ranch was established to preserve one of the last free-roaming bison (buffalo) herds in the United States when 28 bison were moved from Fort Yellowstone to the Lamar Valley in the northeast portion of the park.
 * 1908 - Rail service to West Yellowstone, Montana and the west entrance to the park begins with the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad's Oregon Short Line.
 * October 31, 1918 - U.S. Cavalry units leave Yellowstone and relinquish administration of the park to the National Park Service.

1919–1940

 * 1919 - Horace Albright becomes first Yellowstone superintendent (1919-1929) under National Park Service administration.
 * 1926 - Gray wolves are considered completely extirpated from Yellowstone.

1946–1966

 * 1950 - Madison and Firehole Rivers designated as Fly Fishing only.
 * August 17, 1959 - The 7.5 Hebgen Lake earthquake just outside the park causes extensive damage to some park roads and structures and alters many geothermal features.
 * August 8, 1960 - The 1910 Canyon Hotel, abandoned in 1959, burned to the ground.
 * June 1963 - The first phase of Grant Village is completed near West Thumb as part of the National Park Service Mission 66 program.

1967–1999

 * July - September 1988 - Wildfires burn over 793880 acre or 36 percent of the park.
 * 1994 - Unauthorized introduction of non-native lake trout discovered in Yellowstone Lake kicks off massive eradication program to protect native Yellowstone cutthroat trout.
 * January-March 1995 - Fourteen (then endangered) Gray wolves were reintroduced into Crystal Creek, Rose Creek and Soda Butte Creek areas in the Lamar Valley.

2000–present

 * May 4, 2008 - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service changed the status of the Northern Rocky Mountains Distinct Population Segment of gray wolves from Endangered to Experimental Population-Non Essential.
 * August 25, 2010 new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center opens in upper geyser basin.
 * 2011 - National Park service issues regulations requiring the killing of non-native trout in some park waters and encouraging the killing of non-native trout in the Native Trout Management Area waters of the park.