The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1904-09-22
The Yellowstone Park.

1ne YclBOWStOne F81ks
When you alight from the train
at the pretty station At Gardiner,
tastefully built of pine logs and
rendered ingeniously attractive
by the primitive material of its
construction, you find in front of
you, at the entrance of the great
park, a fine arch of gray lava
stone as gateway to the govern
ment domain, which bears sculp-
tured upon it's front the appro-
pirate legend, "For the benefit and
enjoyment of the people, -
The s'people" include our hum
bic "poor relations" of the lower
order of beings. AS not a gun
can be fired for their destruction
in the great pleasure-ground, the
wild creatures have taken up their
abode there in ever-increasing
numbers, andhav become SO tame
and bold in their approaches to
human beings, you feel while there
that you are marking back to
primitive Garden of Eden.
The park, 62 miles long by "a
miles wide, may be called a little
state of nature, niched in a corner
of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming.
An elevated plateau 1900 feet
above the sea, surrounded by
mountains, it is probably one of
the Hottest inhabited valleys in
the world. The government has
entire control. Uncle Sam is an
excellent park-keeper, a wise,
generous, but despotic ruler. He
keeps sharp eye out for depre-
dators of all kinds, those who
would ruthlessly destroy the game
and the relic hunters, who would
pocket the geysers and carry them
off if they could. His four troops
of cavalry stationed at Fort Yell
lowstone constantly patrol the
park in all directions, and render
it safe for man beast-from the
buffalo down to the tiny chipmunk.
Heavy penalties are attached to
the slaughter of game.
All new roads and bridges are
made by the general government
oil old ones are kept in repair by
the same. Recently near $500, OOC
has been expended in these ways,
much to the ease and comfort oil
tourists.
At Gardner you mount the six
horse stage which is to carry you
to Mammoth Hot Springs, through
the beautiful little canyon O
Gardner River. The park is {
ildernesspunctuatedwith hotels
Every noon or night you come t
a comfortable hosiery, where 70,
are we'll housed and fed. TIL
general scenery is not attractive
although there are many places o
very great beauty. You pas
through long stretches of drear,
forest, monotonous and dull, en-
numbered by masses of dead WOO
that hasn't even the grace to re
and go back to its native soil.
When you get into the neigh
borhood of the formations" a
the geysers and hot springs ar
called-where the underwood
bursts up to the top OF the earth
surface in many strange an
gruesome forms-a somethin
deadly and unnatural seizes upo
your mind; not fear that the thi
crust of the earth may cave ir
but q sense of the uncanny, {
something weird and inexplicabl
that puts you in relation with tn
interior of the earth, and yet ex
plains nothing of the mystery
The strangeness, the unnatural
ness runs all through. No com
mon, innocent-lookin brook ths
purls by the side Of the road b.
has something in taste and SINE
that hints of hidden fire and vol
canic convulsion. The soil itsel
is unlike that Of normal place,
where grass and weeds spring.
Its flowers are thestrange incrus
tationa. thu 1uriGl colors. Of chem;