The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and DescriptiveChittenden, Hiram Martin
History
The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive
Chittenden, Hiram Martin
Yellowstone National Park
In a region like the Yellowstone National Park, destined for all time
to be a resort for the lovers of science and pleasure, this temptation
was quite irresistible; so much so, that, when the expeditions of 1870
and 1871 left the field, they left little worth naming behind them.
And yet the honor thus gained has not, we venture to say, been all
that its votaries desired. Small is the number of tourists who stop to
inquire for whom Mary Lake, DeLacy Creek, or Stevenson Island was
named. Fewer still are aware that Mt. Everts was _not_ christened in
honor of a distinguished American statesman of similar name, but in
commemoration of one of the most thrilling individual experiences in
American history. So with all these personal names. The lively
satisfaction with which they were given finds no counterpart in the
languid indifference with which the modern visitor mechanically
repeats them.
In as much as it fell to the lot of the United States Geological
Survey to originate a great many of the names in our western
geography, it is interesting to know from official sources the
principles which governed in this important work. Writing upon this
point, Dr. Hayden says:[BX]
"In attaching names to the many mountain peaks, new streams, and other
geographical localities, the discovery of which falls to the pleasant
lot of the explorer in the untrodden wilds of the West, I have
followed the rigid law of priority, and given the one by which they
have been generally known among the people of the country, whether
whites or Indians; but if, as is often the case, no suitable
descriptive name can be secured from the surroundings, a personal one
may then be attached, and the names of eminent men who have identified
themselves with the great cause, either in the fields of science or
legislation, naturally rise first in the mind."
[BX] Page 8, Fifth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.
In the more recent and thorough survey of the Park by the United
States Geological Survey, it became necessary to provide names for
those subordinate features which, in a less restricted field, the
early explorers had thought unworthy of notice. Professor Arnold
Hague, upon whom this work has principally fallen, thus states the
rule which he has followed:[BY]
"In consultation with Mr. Henry Gannett, geologist in charge of
geography, it was agreed that the necessary new names to designate the
unnamed mountains, valleys, and streams should be mainly selected from
the beasts, birds, fishes, trees, flowers, and minerals found within
the Park or the adjacent country."
[BY] Page 152, Part I, Annual Report United States Geological Survey
for year ending June 30, 1887.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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