The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-02-23
SNOM SHOE RGRTY
 AT OBSIDIAN CLIFF

and spikes. tenpennies and shingles. had to be heated on the cook stoves before the carpenters could handle them. The reason for this haste was that the new hotel had to be finished in time for the summer season. when the park is in its brief period of verdant glory.
 More people will go to the Yellow stone National Park this year than ever before. In 1872. when the Federal Gov ernment dedicated it ''as a public park or pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" probably not more than . thousand persons a year were visiting 1t. Tn the next twenty three years the number of visitors climbed slowly to about 5000 annual Iy. In 1895, tine authorities began counting the persons who entered the Park. and complete records have been kept ever since. There were 6.438 vis- itors in 1895. Ten years later the num- Der had risen to 26.1ss. In 1906. 1t dropped to 17.172. The next year 1t fell off nearly q thousand. In 1908, the total was 1S,74s. Then came the most remarkable increase fin visitors that the park ever has known Tn 1908 there were nearly twice as many (32.545) as the year before. This was principally due to the opening of a new railroad gateway to the park-at Yellowstone Montana-which made 1t much easier of access.
 Bit of E. H. Harrirnan's Wizardr~.
 This came about through a visit that the late B. H. Hartman made to the Park in the summer of 1904 He was so impressed by the wonders of the Park that he immediately ordered the location and construction of a branch from the Oregon Short Line. a part of the Union Pacific system. to the west ern border of the Park. This road, from Idaho Falls to Yellowstone Mon tana- twenty miles from the lower Geyser Basin. was finished Nov 12 1907, and was opened for traffic the cost nearly s2,0oo.oOo. Its construction called into play the greatest energy and skill in the science of railroad build ing.
 Owing to the deep snows and severe winters work could be carried on dur ing only about four months of the year But. in that brief season. a vast army of men and machines toiled night and day. The giant mountain barriers with their deep valleys in between had to be conquered. That part of the earth where the rails ran had to be remod- eled so as to secure the safest and easiest grades. Probably no railway where so many obstacles had to be overcome. ever was built in so short a tAA4A1s oAk LhC BSiy ALCT0dbG0 Der of visitors to the Park has proved that the new line is fully appreciated. Of the more than 10000 who entered the Park last year nearly half went by this new Western Gateway that MT. Hartman created.
 The government scouts who are guard ians of the wild creatures are about the only ones who ever see much of the winter beauties of the Park. Those who have been there any length of time have learned much that is new about the habits of the animals that abound there, although they are chiefly concerned fin keeping poachers out of the park There are fewer of these now than there used to be, because heavier penalties have been laid by the Government on those who are caught. The few that do venture into the Park mostly come in winter Then there Is less chance of their being detected, but more risk of losing their lives in the cold and snow. One thing more than all others tempts them-the buffalo. Unscrup ulous taxidermists will pay the weight in silver for a buffalo head nowadays. for these heads are practi- cally unattainable by legitimate means. The rest of the wild creatures that make their homes in the Park are sell dom molested.
 Poaehing In the Deep Shows.
 It has been seventeen years since one of these poachers after buffalo has been caught, but he did so much dam age before he was arrested that 1t has taken a long time to make up for it.
 Early in March, 1894, a party was ganized at Fort Yellowstone for the purpose of visiting the winter ranges of the game to ascertain the exact number of buffalo that still existed and to photograph them. The party trav- eled on Norwegian snowshoes. with packs of sleeping bags, provisions and camera, directly to Hayden Valley via Norris and the Grand Canyon. They fouRd eighty-one buffalo in the valley together with numerous small groups of elk aggregating more than 300.