Evening star., 1909-08-26
GUARD PARkENTRANCE.
United States Soldiers in Fort,
North Side.
GARRISON OF 300 MEN
Employed in Protecting Property
and to Prevent Poaching.
SNOW SIX MONTHS IN YEAR
Animals in Reservation Under Close
Observation-Dome of
Elk and Beaver.
SNOW SIX MONTHS IN YEAR
RY WILLIAM E.. CURTIS.

|
BY WILLIAM r. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the
| Chicago d-Hcrald.
MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS. Wvo..
August Il, 1900.
When the Yellowstone Park was first
opened military camp was located at
| the northern entrance for the purpose
| of furnishing proper protection to gov
! ernment property and keeping things
straight. That camp has grown into
! regular military post called Fort Yellow
| stone. with garrison of 300 troopers
| of the 9th Cavalry. under command of
Maj. Harry Benson. one of the IDEAL
| soldiers of Uncle Sans service, and re-
garded as unusually competent for the
work to which he has been assigned
because of several years experience as
superintendent of the Yosemite valley.
The post has beautiful situation. 1t
occupies one side Of large square facing
tnat great natural wonder, the Mammoth
Hot Springs. On the right side of the
square is big, ugly hotel the oldest in
| the park, which has sheltered thousands
and thousands of people. It will be torn
down next year and replaced by a large
modern building with picturesque feat
ures which were described in a letter
the other day. On the left of the square
is an exquisite bungalow. the residence
of Mr.. Child, president of the hotel COM
pany and Yellowstone stage line: that of
Mr.. Frank Jay Haynes, president of the
coach company which is operated with the
Oregon Short Line railroad, and several
portable houses occupied by the clerks
and employees. The prettest building on
the reservation is a bungalow used as
storehouse by the commissary. There
a ohor of y~;,y
scattered about. including headquarters.
residence for the army engineer, an
office and quarters for the representative
of the weather bureau. a post office and
curio store, and altogether habitations for
population of about 400 people. The
soldiers have massive stone building
for their barracks, a gymnasium, a bow
ling alley. hospital. dispensary that
looks like chapel several stables and
storehouses, and the front line is oc-
cupied by a row of officehs' quarters,
half of them of wood the remainder OF
stone and al of them with very, very
red roofs.
Soldiers on Detail Duty.
Only few of the soldiers are here.
The most of them are scattered through
the park in details Of from five to fifteen
occupying small posts bull. of logs near
the principal hotels and other points of
vantage. where they are employed in
protecting government property. in pre-
venting poaching and in keeping order.
All of the roads are patrolled every day
the wear around, and there are twenty
two ''snow-shoe huts built at convenient
places in which the soldiers can take
| refuge when overtaken by storms. These
little hospioes are equipped with fuel
cooking utensils and bedding. and contain
| supply of food for emergency purposes;
and they are very much needed.
Military service in the park during the
lCt IC 1,1n
lasts only three months. while the average
winter is seven months long, with q snow
storm every day. and the thermometer
below zero The duties performed by the
Yellowstone garrison are the most
arduous and the most trying of the whole
army.
People who go about the park will
notice here and there strips of black
and red metal fastened 10 the trunks of
trees. These are the snow gauges from
which records are made daily for the
weather bureau. The snowfall often
covers them from view-although they are
eight feet Highland lies twelve feet and
sometimes fifteen feet deep. This locality
has the heaviest snowfall in the country.
From the middle Of November to the
middle of April it SHOWS almost every day.
May l of this year the snow was three
feet deep on a level at the western en-
trance of the park, and on June ) sew
eral of the roads were impa ssable. The
government engineer had already spent
the principal roads. This excessive snow
fall is generally attributed to the hot
springs and geysers. from which steam
rses continually into the cold atmos-
here above and causes precipitation.
Always Intense Cold.
The cold is always intense, sometimes
being below zero for months continuously
and ranging from ten to twenty degrees
below for weeks at a time. During this
terrible cold, when the temperature is
often below twenty degrees, soldiers are
compelled to perform their daily patrols.
When the snow is too deep for horses
they go on snow shoes and use that form
of locomotion two-thirds OF the winter.
In the meantime the horses remain in the
stable without exercise. because it is
impossible to take them out in the open
air There ought TO be big riding hall
at Fort Yellowstone in which the horses
could be exercised daily during the win
ter and thus kept in good condition. for ii
ruins them to remain idle in their stables
week after week. Congress ought to un-
derstand that valua BILE government prop
erty like horses is apt to suffer seriously
under such circumstances without refer
ence to the humane aspect OF the ques-
ton.
The chief duty Of the military guard is
to protect the wild game in the park-the
elk deer, antelope, buffalo and bears
for the latter are considered harmless.
Mountain lions, wildcats, wolves, coyotes
and other disagreeable animals are mas
sacred without mercy, and are already
very scarce, while the cloven-footed
species are becoming SO numerous that 1t
is already a problem how to maintain
them. 1t is estimated that more than
&c. Coo elk find summer pastures in these
beautiful valleys. but in the winter the
snow is SO deep that they cannot feed
here, and for ages they have been going
down into Jackson's Hole. under the pro-
lection of the Teton range Of mountains,
where they could get at the grass easily. /,
Pa assing from feeding ground to
another the elk frequently encounter very
deep snow, and this they pass through in
single file. the strongest of the bulls TAX
ing the lead in turn. SO as 10 break the
trail and then falling out one after an
other they become exhausted In this
way they pass from one feeding ground
to another, but their hereditary pasture.
IackSOn'S Hole has haen taken I'm hy