Coaching YNP 1903 - Part II

In my last post we talked about a stagecoach full of tourists visiting Yellowstone in the early 1900s. Our historical perspective comes from a little booklet called Coaching Through Yellowstone. It's now in my collection of Yellowstone memorabilia but, from July 28th to August 3rd, 1903, it was used by a visitor to the Park as their guidebook and became a souvenir of their journey.

Click on pictures for larger view.

We previously covered some of the reasons that Yellowstone is called "Wonderland" --- the geysers, hot springs, and beautiful mountain scenery.

We saw how the tourists entered the Park in 1903 through the entrance known as the Roosevelt Arch. The first photo above shows a "stereograph" published by H C White in 1904 of a stage passing under the arch. Called "stereos" at the time, few people today know about them. When used with a special viewer they provide a 3D effect.

Continuing our tour:  We might have seen the passengers on the stage refer to the little fold-out map in the back for an overview of where they were in this large park. YNP covers an area of 3,468 square miles (8,980 km²).

The Falls. There are many beautiful water falls in the Park including the majestic Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, as noted in the booklet, height 308 feet.  My photo shows the falls and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. The area is much the same today as it was in 1903.

The Wildflowers. To quote from the booklet, "The Flora of the Park is luxurious."

The Fishing ... The Yellowstone and Madison Rivers are world famous for their fishing opportunities. It seems reasonable to assume there was time on the tour to do some fishing, especially since a page in the booklet is devoted to it, and the tour lasted for seven days.

The Animals. "Yellowstone Park, as well as being a pleasure ground for the people, is a preserve for wild animals."

Just before the section on animals, the booklet had one last page on which the owner could write. Interestingly, we find penned there the words of Lord Byron's "Remembrance" - 1806:


’Tis done!—I saw it in my dreams;
No more with Hope the future beams;
My days of happiness are few:
Chill’d by misfortune’s wintry blast,
My dawn of life is overcast;
Love Hope, and Joy, alike adieu!
Would I could add Remembrance too!


Seems somewhat melancholy but the last two lines lead me to believe he/she loved the visit to Wonderland and hoped the memories would last for a long time.


As always, thanks for visiting John's Island. I sure appreciate all the encouraging comments!

Coaching Through Yellowstone

My post today is about Yellowstone National Park and includes photos from my visits, plus items from my collection. For years, I've been collecting old stuff related to YNP, especially if it has something to do with the railroads that served the Park in the first half of the last century.

Yellowstone Park is one of my favorite places. I've visited there many times, taken many pictures, and  now collect vintage memorabilia related to the Park. The old postcard above shows a group of tourist leaving the Northern Pacific Railroad station at Gardiner, Montana, aboard a stagecoach on their way into the park for a tour. They have just stepped off the train after what might have been a long journey from places all over the world. The photo below is a scan of a very old glass slide (commonly known as a lantern slide) showing a train at the depot in Gardiner.

If these tourists were entering the Park in the summer of 1903 they would have passed through the entrance arch dedicated by President Theodore Roosevelt in April of that year ... 108 years ago. (If you're into history a great article was written about the arch's history by Lee Whittlesey and Paul Schullery and can be found at the following link -- note: allow several seconds for the article to download -- it's worth the wait -- The Roosevelt Arch )

The close-up above shows the cornerstone. My photos in this post are from visits about 10 years ago and were taken with a medium format camera using FUJI color transparency film.

The tour in 1903 would have been guided, of course, and perhaps the stagecoach driver or tour guide would have handed each traveler a little booklet called "Coaching Through Yellowstone Park."

This little booklet is in my collection. Let's take a look inside.

Compliments of Yellowstone Park Transportation Company. A sketch of a soldier on horseback is followed by a brief introduction: "The Park is under the control of the Government. Fort Yellowstone, the name of the post, is located at Mammoth Hot Springs. The soldiers patrol the park daily and during the park season a summer encampment is maintained at the Lower Geyser Basin. Infractions of the superintendent's rules are severely punished."

Sounds like they were serious.

A further look into the booklet shows the distances to various points in the Park.

The sketches are neat. Of course, in 1903, automobiles were in production in the world, but there weren't many and none were allowed into the Park. The way to see Yellowstone was on the stage, on horseback, or walking. Yellowstone is located in the Rocky Mountain part of the United States, and in the early 1900s almost all tourists arrived via train and toured via stagecoach.

As the stage entered the Park it would pass through the "Golden Gate." 

There is a sketch of the Golden Gate showing a rider on horseback passing through. There is also some info on additional places to be visited. The big concrete road in my picture was just dirt in 1903. They say the dust was something to deal with.

Some of the sights they might have seen and why Yellowstone is called "Wonderland."

Heart Spring in the Upper Geyser Basin

Apparently, one of the traditions was to have everyone in your coach sign your booklet.

There are quite a few signatures in the book, so perhaps it included more than just one coach. I like the last signature on the page below ... Frank B. West, Columbus, O.  In the description of "Hotel Accomodations" it is noted: "The uniform rate at Park hotels for stay not exceeding seven days is $4.00 per day. After seven days $3.00 per day."

The scenery really hasn't changed that much since 1903.

The Madison River.

Steam escaping from an old geyser. The alignment of the clouds in the sky was coincidental and has nothing to do with the geyser. But I like the way it looks. The rocky substance that looks a bit like a volcano is called geyserite and is produced by steaming water and minerals coming out of the geyser.

Famous Old Faithful geyser in eruption.

The little booklet, like today's modern guide book, includes a "Geyser Table" showing the frequency of eruptions. Notice the sketch ... today visitors are not allowed to get nearly so close to the geysers.

The 1903 trip through the Park will conclude in the next post on John's Island. Hope you enjoyed this part and thank you for visiting!

Old and New

They say we should take time to "smell the roses" and I would suggest it's also interesting to watch the old turn into the new. That's what I was looking for with the camera a couple of days ago.

These new flowers don't have a nice smell but they sure have pretty blooms.

Take time to pause and enjoy the new. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by John's Island.

Promise of Blue

The last couple of months in Seattle have been very wet. Almost everyone is looking forward to our first day of clear blue skies. As I looked out my window on the world this morning the lights from the city were still strong enough to put a glow on the low clouds above but a big break in the clouds promised some of that elusive blue.

Maui to Los Angeles

Thanks for stopping by the Island. Today's post takes a look at our last stop in Hawaii and the return to Los Angeles. I can't really call the stop at Maui a "Port Stop" since our ship doesn't go into port, but rather, anchors out and we take smaller boats into shore.

Overview of the island of Maui from our anchoring spot just outside Lahaina.

The small boats are called "tenders" ... the ship carries them along and deploys them as in this case to get us into Lahaina where the "Light at Lahaina" greets us.

Here we have a little panoramic view of the main street which runs along the waterfront. The street really doesn't curve much at all, it's just that putting almost 180 degrees of photos together makes it look that way. The island you can see in the distance, with cloud cover, is Lanai, also known as the pineapple island. Historical fact: James Dole bought the whole island in 1922 for pineapple production and his company later became the well known Dole Foods.

Actually, Lahaina is a little too touristy for me. It seems like there are a thousand little shops. A little gift for just about everyone can be found here.

After spending a couple of hours in town we return to the ship. I like these views from the tender which give a good indication of the size of Golden Princess.

Here is a panorama of the more mountainous part of Maui from the Sky Deck of our ship.

As we pulled anchor and sailed away from Maui, the sun was setting and I thought the pastel colors in the sky quite pretty.

After dinner it's time for movies outside on Lido Deck ... "Movies Under the Stars"

For four days we are at sea as we head to Ensenada, Mexico, and then, finally one day later, back in Los Angeles.  During these days I like to sit out on the Promenade Deck and read. The thing I liked about the picture below is the way it captured the feeling of a sunny morning on deck.

I spent about 3 hours on one of these last days doing what is called the Ultimate Ship Tour and I highly recommend it to my friends who really enjoy ships. It's the behind-the-scenes look at what makes the ship work: the theater, the kitchens, the print shop, engine control, the laundry, and concludes on the bridge where we have a short chat with the Captain. The ship's photographer takes a group picture of the 14 of us together with the Captain and gives us a copy of the photo.

Finally, a sunset and then a sunrise. The sunset is looking out the back of the ship the evening before arrival at Ensenada. The sunrise is on the last day as we arrive at the Port of Los Angeles and prepare to disembark. In a future post I will share some more photos of the Vincent Thomas Bridge which is a pretty neat thing on its own! Again, thanks for going along on the journey.