Source: http://wyomingalmanac.com/readings_in_wyoming_history_5th_edition/theodore_roosevelt_and_professional_land_management_agencies_in_the_yellowstone_ecosystem_by_jeremy_johnston
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 01:06:09+00:00

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Throughout the Progressive Era, many professional governing agencies were created to regulate the basic economic, social, and political needs of the American nation. This movement toward professional federal government agencies was evident during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909), and left a lasting impact on the Yellowstone ecosystem. In 1905, Roosevelt placed the nation’s forest reserves under the direct supervision of Gifford Pinchot and created the modern U.S. Forest Service (USFS).
In the following year, Roosevelt appointed retired army general Samuel Baldwin Marks Young to be the first civilian superintendent of Yellowstone National Park to serve in that position since the U.S. Cavalry had assumed the management of Yellowstone in 1886. Roosevelt instructed Young to work on plans for a civilian park guard that would manage the park; however, Roosevelt later rejected this idea and, with Pinchot’s support, planned to place Yellowstone under forest service control. This idea was unsuccessful, however, and the park remained under military supervision after Roosevelt’s term of office ended.
Roosevelt’s hand-picked successor, William H. Taft, continued to support the creation of a civilian park guard, but the park remained under military control until the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, under the administration of Roosevelt’s political opponent, Woodrow Wilson.
Roosevelt fully supported the creation of a civilian park guard, even if it was achieved during Wilson’s term of office. Roosevelt’s efforts to create a civilian park guard, and his later support of the National Park Service (NPS), reveal a side of the president that is rarely revealed in the history of the environmental movement.
Many historians and environmental writers have classified Roosevelt as a conservation-minded environmentalist who argued for scientific use of the land--not as a preservation-minded environmentalist who favored protection of the aesthetic landscape. Roosevelt’s involvement in the creation of the NPS and USFS clearly indicated that he supported not only the conservation movement as advocated by Gifford Pinchot, but also the preservation movement as advocated by John Muir. Theodore Roosevelt can not be characterized as a sole supporter of any side of the early environmental movement in the Progressive Era.
Eventually, only small pools of America’s wilderness remained, one of which was the Yellowstone ecosystem. Congress offered some protection to this area in 1872, by setting aside Yellowstone National Park as a "pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." Congress took another major step toward saving the natural resources of the West with the passage of the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which granted presidential authority to establish national forest reserves. That year, President Benjamin Harrison used this newly acquired power to set aside the Yellowstone Park Timberland Reserve, expanding federal protection of the Yellowstone ecosystem to the south and east of Yellowstone National Park.
Another emergent force from the eastern cities that would impact the management of the Yellowstone ecosystem was the political corruption and ineptitude arising from machine politics, known as the spoils system. Before the age of civil service, government representatives did not hire or appoint employees on the basis of their skills, education, or previous employment; rather, it was a job candidate’s political connections that were important. A lack of secret ballots clearly identified supporters and non-supporters, allowing the bosses to reward voter support with patronage positions. The spoils system also had a hold on the federal government--especially the executive offices (under presidential authority) that managed the newly created federal public land reserves--which helped ensure that the management of federal lands in the Yellowstone ecosystem would not be very effective. Presidents and their Cabinet members rewarded their political supporters with patronage positions while non-supporters, even individuals within their own political parties, were fired regardless of their management skills, knowledge of the areas they were charged with protecting, or previous service.
Patrick H. Conger, Yellowstone’s third superintendent, reflected the ineptitude fostered by the spoils system. Early park historian Hiram Chittenden noted, "Of this Superintendent, it need only be said that his administration was throughout characterized by a weakness and inefficiency which brought the Park to the lowest ebb of its fortunes, and drew forth the severe condemnation of visitors and public officials alike."6 Conger and the assistant secretary of the interior allowed the Northern Pacific (which finally completed its tracks in the early 1880s), operating under the guise of the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, to claim thousands of acres in government leases and establish monopolistic control over the main attractions of the park. This company also began logging operations and slaughtered wildlife to feed its workers.
In 1884, Robert E. Carpenter replaced Conger as superintendent of Yellowstone through the political connections of his brother, who was the governor of Iowa. According to Chittenden, the new superintendent viewed Yellowstone National Park as "an instrument of profit to those who were shrewd enough to grasp the opportunity. Its protection and improvement were matters of secondary consideration."7Carpenter attempted to further the hold of the Northern Pacific Railroad on the park by lobbying for some of the lands within its boundaries to be opened for private occupancy by the railroad.
Likewise, Philetus W. Norris served as an effective superintendent of Yellowstone. Norris explored and mapped new areas in the park, studied the park’s geological and archeological resources, wrote the park’s first detailed set of rules and regulations, and attempted to establish a functional administrative organization to manage the park. His administration made significant strides in protecting Yellowstone; unfortunately, Norris soon ran afoul of the Northern Pacific Railroad’s interests in the park, and of local residents who were angered by Norris’s involvement in changing a mail route. Norris’s political enemies moved quickly to replace him with Patrick Conger, who intended to promote the railroad’s interests in the park.
Congress provided some legislative protection to the Yellowstone ecosystem under the spoils system, but it responded to blatant problems, rather than providing preventive measures to avoid future problems. This process was slow and relied on active individuals and organizations, such as the Boone and Crockett Club, to identify the problems and lobby for legislative action.16 For instance, when the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company moved to establish a monopoly over Yellowstone during Patrick Conger’s administration, General Phil Sheridan generated enough publicity that Congress made provisions under the Sundry Civil Appropriations Bill of 1883 to limit lease sizes. More important, the bill contained a provision wherein the U.S. military could assume the management of Yellowstone upon the request of the Secretary of the Interior. When Congress subsequently failed to appropriate any funds for the management of Yellowstone in 1886, the U.S. Cavalry was sent to the park.
Machine politics impacted federal management of the Yellowstone ecosystem through the end of the nineteenth century. Fortunately, the U.S. Cavalry protected the park from most immediate threats. The Yellowstone Timberland Reserve, however, endured mismanagement under the spoils system until Theodore Roosevelt became president and expanded Pinchot’s authority over the forest reserves.
Progressive reforms included the end of the spoils system and the tight control held by political bosses, through increased and uninhibited political participation of the electorate. Democratic reforms such as initiatives and referendums allowed more direct participation in the creation of legislation. The electorate was expanded through women’s suffrage, and the use of the secret ballot prevented party bosses from knowing who voted for which party and which candidates. Progressives also hoped to replace the inept political officeholders appointed under the spoils system by creating both a merit system guided by a civil service process and strong executive federal powers that bypassed the kinds of legislative political squabbles that were responsible for slowing administrative responses to social problems.
Progressives strongly advocated the creation of more professional government bureaucracies staffed with professionals appointed on the basis of their educational background and work skills instead of their political connections. Progressives hoped that these professional government employees would successfully manage much-needed social and economic reforms as well as the conservation of public lands.
Progressives successfully implemented many of these reforms at various local levels of government. After a hurricane destroyed the city of Galveston, Texas, in 1900, killing at least 6,000 people, its citizens created a commission of professional city administrators to assume the duties and responsibilities of an elected mayor. The movement to create more professional governing agencies also took hold at the state level and became popularly known as the "Wisconsin Idea." The Wisconsin Idea was the brainchild of Wisconsin governor Robert "Battling Bob" LaFollette, who recruited a "brain trust" from the University of Wisconsin to help his administration address the new demands placed on the state by the rise of urbanization and industrialism.
The same qualities that have enabled Americans to conquer the wilderness, and to attempt tasks like the building of the Panama Canal and the sending of the battle fleet around the world, need to be applied now to our future problems; and these qualities, which include the power of self-government, together with the power of joining with others for mutual help, and, what is especially important, the feeling of comradeship, need to be applied in particular to that foremost of national problems, the problem of the preservation of our natural resources.
To demonstrate his points, Marsh examined the decline of ancient civilizations in connection with environmental destruction. He also compared these ancient civilizations to events that were occurring in modern nations across the globe.
An assassin’s bullet brought Progressivism to the federal arena. On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley, a conservative Republican with strong ties to the industrial giants of his age, was shot and fatally wounded by Leon Czolgosz at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. After lingering for a few days, McKinley died and Theodore Roosevelt became the next president of the United States. Roosevelt received the news of McKinley’s declining condition during a hunting trip in the Adirondack Mountains--a portentous setting, given that his administration would do more to save the wilderness areas of North America than any presidency before or since.
Roosevelt’s conservation record has been unjustly characterized as demonstrating an attempt to instill conservation policies at the expense of preservation policies. The growing split between the two sides became evident during Roosevelt’s administration, but was more reflective of the attitudes and beliefs of Gifford Pinchot and John Muir than those of Roosevelt himself.
Theodore Roosevelt’s involvement in the Hetch Hetchy controversy has clouded many interpretations of his conservation and preservation work. Often overlooked, for example, is that his administration brought progressive reform to the Yellowstone ecosystem by creating the professional land management agencies that continue to administer our public lands today.
Roosevelt took considerable personal interest in the Yellowstone region, which helped motivate his desire to properly protect both the lands within the Yellowstone Timberland Reserve and Yellowstone National Park through professionalization of their management. He became acquainted with the problems impacting the region through his connections with famed naturalist writer George Bird Grinnell. Together, the two men formed the Boone and Crockett Club and dedicated its membership to the protection of the Yellowstone National Park. They campaigned to end poaching in the park and fought attempts by the railroads to build inside its boundaries.
To preserve the Yellowstone ecosystem and to protect and properly manage its natural resources, Roosevelt needed to create a professional government agency. He realized that the military was not the appropriate organization for the task, and that the spoils system had led to ineffective land management.
His background made him well suited to create an agency to remedy the situation. In the 1880s, President Harrison appointed Roosevelt to the Civil Service Commission. Democratic President Grover Cleveland kept Roosevelt, a Republican, working on the commission during his administration. This experience allowed Roosevelt a close view of the inefficiency of the spoils system and the benefits of a merit system accomplished by civil service reform.
After his stint on the Civil Service Commission, Roosevelt served as New York City Police Commissioner. As commissioner, Roosevelt continued to advocate governmental reform and worked to create a more professional standard of law enforcement for the New York Police Department. He advocated testing police candidates, pushed for the creation of an academy to promote specialized training in law enforcement, supported new technological advances in law enforcement, and recommended physical and pistol training for policemen. Roosevelt’s efforts represented the beginnings of modern professional law enforcement.
Upon assuming the presidency, Roosevelt quickly began working on the creation of a professional land management agency for the conservation and preservation of the national forest reserves and their vast natural resources. He recommended the transfer of the forest reserves to the Department of Agriculture and requested that certain areas of forest reserves be set aside as game preserves.
In the national forests, Roosevelt recommended more professionalism from the rangers appointed to watch over them. In a letter to a former Rough Rider and newly appointed forest ranger, he outlined the qualities he desired in such men: "You have been appointed a Forest Ranger," wrote Roosevelt.
In Roosevelt’s fourth annual message, December 6, 1904, the president praised the Department of Agriculture for its development into an educational institution with 2,000 specialists advocating forestry practices for the forest reserves. He stressed that the reserves, themselves, needed to be moved to Department of Agriculture, where the knowledge and skills were located.
Roosevelt noted that the transfer would result in better forest work; forests would be handled by men in the field, and forests would become self-supporting. He also emphasized the need to maintain public lands as game refuges, recommended that continued support be given to preserving Yellowstone wildlife, and urged that the park’s boundaries be expanded southward and that additional parks be added to the system to provide more protected habitat to wildlife.
In 1907, Congress responded negatively, with legislation preventing the President from setting aside any further forest reserves, now called national forests, in six western states. Roosevelt signed the legislation only after he set aside a great number of new reserves, many of which further protected the Yellowstone ecosystem.
In 1907, Major John Pitcher, who was Roosevelt’s friend and Yellowstone’s acting superintendent, retired from military service, thus creating an opening for park superintendent. Roosevelt viewed Pitcher’s retirement as an opportunity to create a professional agency, similar to the USFS, to manage Yellowstone National Park. To achieve this goal, Roosevelt appointed the first civilian superintendent of Yellowstone to serve since the military had begun to manage the park in 1886.
Roosevelt’s replacement was his old friend and fellow officer from the Spanish-American War, Samuel Baldwin Marks Young. In the Civil War, Young rose from private in the Pennsylvania Infantry to general in the Pennsylvania Cavalry. After the war, he was reassigned to military campaigns against American Indians in the West. Young was appointed acting superintendent of Yellowstone Park in 1897, but served in that position for only a few months.40 In 1904, Young retired from the military after a successful career. Because Young had previous experience with the position of superintendent, Roosevelt wanted him back in the park.
With Young’s acceptance ("I am always ready to be of service to you and your administration," he told Roosevelt, "and the proper maintenance and protection of the Yellowstone park and wildlife is of much interest to me"), the position of park superintendent reverted back to civilian control.41 Choosing a former military man with previous experience in the position was wise on the part of Roosevelt, as it smoothed the transition from military enforcement to civilian control. Young was also a good friend, which made it possible for Roosevelt to influence park policy.
With Roosevelt’s request to place some of the national parks under the control of his friend Pinchot, preservationists feared they would lose out to the conservationists yet again. Although this plan would have accomplished Roosevelt’s goal of placing Yellowstone National Park under the control of a professional land management agency to protect its resources, it would have greatly exacerbated the stress between advocates of differing management policies for national parks and national forests. Preservationists feared that national parks would come to be managed as national forests and, as such, preservation-based management of federal lands would be replaced by conservation-based economic development, which very well could destroy the sanctity of national parks as scenic playgrounds. Was that what Roosevelt wanted?
In addition, with the parks controlled by Pinchot, Roosevelt was likely to retain his influence to direct park policies. However, Congress did not act on his request, and the national parks remained under the army’s supervision until 1916, when the National Park Service was finally created.
As Roosevelt left the office of the presidency, he handpicked his successor, William H. Taft. Taft quickly alienated the former President by firing his star conservationist, Gifford Pinchot, in the aftermath of a notorious spat between Pinchot and Interior Secretary Richard Ballinger.
Despite the support of Roosevelt and Taft, who had become political enemies due to an emerging split between progressive and conservative Republicans, Congress did not pass a bill creating a National Park Service. The new bureau would have to wait for a few more years. In the meantime, the presidential election of 1912 proved to be one of the most interesting elections ever held. The Democratic Party nominated the progressive Woodrow Wilson, while Roosevelt and Taft campaigned against each other under the banners of the Republican Party and the newly formed Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party), as well as against their other rivals, Wilson and Socialist Party candidate Eugene V. Debs.
Despite Albright’s account, it is hard to believe that Wilson would have signed any piece of legislation without knowing its details and implications, especially one that created a new government agency. Given his scant interest in conservation affairs generally, one could surmise that Wilson signed the bill for political reasons. According to Wilson biographer Arthur S. Link, Wilson signed much of his progressive legislation in 1916 to win Progressives over to the Democratic Party.56 The timing was appropriate, for by that time Roosevelt had requested that Progressive Party members return to the Republican Party to defeat Wilson and the Democrats.
Clearly the bill was supported by many Progressive conservationist and preservationists; first NPS director Stephen T. Mather, for instance, was a former Progressive Party member who supported Wilson after the signing of the bill. Signing the bill also gave Wilson a measure of accomplishment in the conservation arena. He may have seen it as a way to counter the environmental legacy of Roosevelt and the Republicans, thus reducing the possibility for criticism of his conservation record in the upcoming presidential election debates.
The Progressive Movement came to an end in the aftermath of World War I. By 1920, most Americans were willing to follow Warren G. Harding’s "return to normalcy." Progressive reform retreated until the Great Depression brought about the ascension of another Roosevelt and his progressive reforms under the New Deal.
Yet the reforms enacted during the Progressive Era continue to impact the United States today. This is no more evident than in the Yellowstone ecosystem. The U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service, professional land management agencies conceived by Roosevelt, continue to monitor and protect this vast wilderness area. Although the evolution of both agencies would lead to the practice of different forms of land management, both remain a lasting monument to Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation leadership and the Progressive Era.
1 For general overviews of the era, see S. D. Cashman, America in the Gilded Age: From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. 3rd ed. (New York: New York University Press, 1984); N. I. Painter, Standing at Armageddon: the United States, 1877-1919. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1987); M. W. Summers, The Gilded Age, or the Hazard of New Functions. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997); A. Trachtenberg, The Incorporation of America:Culture and Society in the Gilded Age. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1982); R. H. Wiebe, The Search for Order, 1877-1920. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1967).
2 R. A. Bartlett, Yellowstone: A Wilderness Besieged. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1985); Aubrey L. Haines, The Yellowstone Story. vol. 1. (Niwot, Colo.: Colorado Associated University Press, 1977); Paul Schullery, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness. (Helena: Montana Historical Society Press, 2004).
3 H. Hagedorn, ed. The Works of Theodore Roosevelt. 20 vols. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1927), v. 16, pp. 121-22.
4 Alfred Runte, Trains of Discovery. Rev. ed. (Niwot, Colo.: Roberts Rinehart, Inc. 1990).
5 Bartlett; Haines, v. 1; Nathaniel Langford, The Discovery of Yellowstone Park. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972); Schullery.
6 H. M. Chittenden, The Yellowstone National Park. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964), 112.
8 H. K. Steen, The U.S. Forest Service: A History. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).
9 Gifford Pinchot, Breaking New Ground. Reprint. (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1947), 135.
14 A. A. Anderson, "The Yellowstone Forest Reserve," Annals of Wyoming 4 (April 1927), 385.
15 A. A. Anderson, Experiences and Impressions: The Autobiography of Colonel A. A. Anderson. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1933).
16 Haines; J. F. Reiger, American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation. Rev. ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975).
17 Chittenden; Haines, v. 1.
18 Cashman; J. W. Chambers, The Tyranny of Change: America in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920. 2nd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992); J. M. Cooper, Pivotal Decades: The United States, 1900-1920. (New York: W. W. Norton, 1990); S. J. Diner, A Very Different Age: Americans of the Progressive Era. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1998); L. L. Gould, America in the Progressive Era, 1890-1914. (Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001); Richard Hofstadter, The Age of Reform. (New York: Vintage Books, 1955); Arthur S. Link and Richard McCormick, Progressivism. (Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1983); Michael McGerr, A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in America, 1870-1920. (New York: Free Press, 2003); Painter; Summers; M. Sullivan, Our Times: America at the Birth of the 20th Century. Ed. by Dan Rather. (New York: Scribner, 1996); Trachtenberg; Wiebe.
20 Hagedorn, v. 16, pp. 23-24.
21 George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature. Reprint. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003).
22 J. Gable, "President Theodore Roosevelt’s Record on Conservation," Theodore Roosevelt Association Journal 10 (Fall 1984).
23 Hagedorn, v. 17, p. 317.
24 H. Huth, Nature and the American. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990); Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind. 3d ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967).
______Jeremy Johnston, "Presidential Preservation: Theodore Roosevelt and Yellowstone Wildlife," in Phil Roberts, ed., Readings in Wyoming History. (Laramie, Wyo.: Skyline West Press/Wyoming Almanac, 2004).
______; Jeremy Johnston, "Preserving the Beasts of Waste and Desolation: Theodore Roosevelt and Predator Control in Yellowstone," in P. Schullery and S. Stevenson, eds.,People and Place: The Human Experience in Greater Yellowstone: Proceedings of the 4th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, October 12-15, 1997, Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Wyo,: Yellowstone Center for Resources; Jeremy Johnston, "Theodore Roosevelt’s Quest for Wilderness: A Comparison of Roosevelt’s Visits to Yellowstone and Africa," in A. Wondrak Biel, ed., Beyond the Arch: Community and Conservation in Greater Yellowstone and East Africa. Proceedings of the 7th Biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, October 6-8, 2003, Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Yellowstone National Park, Yellowstone Center for Resources; C. Parsons, George Bird Grinnell: A Biographical Sketch. (Millbrook, New York: Grinnell and Lawton, 1993); J. F. Reiger, J. F., ed., The Passing of the Great West: Selected Papers of George Bird Grinnell. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1972; Paul Schullery, Wilderness Writings. (Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, 1978); G. B. Ward, Boone and Crockett National Collection of Heads and Horns. 2d ed. rev. (Cody, Wyo.: Buffalo Bill Historical Center. 1993); G. B. Ward and R. E. McCabe, "Trailblazers in Conservation," in W. H Nesbitt and J. Reneau, eds., Records of North American Big Game. 9th ed. (Dumfries, Va.: The Boone and Crockett Club, 1988).
26 Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt: An Autobiography. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913), 323-325.
27 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 54.
28 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 54.
29 Hagedorn, v. 15, pp. 53-54.
30 Hagedorn, v. 15, pp. 102-104.
31 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 161.
32 John Burroughs, Camping and Tramping with Roosevelt. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1907), 72-73.
33 S. B. M. Young, Annual Report of the Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1907), 25.
34 E. E. Morison, The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt. 8 vols. (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1951), vol. 3, p. 130.
35 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 237.
36 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 315.
37 Hagedorn, v. 15, pp. 326-327.
39 Hagedorn, v. 15, p. 376.
41 Theodore Roosevelt Papers, Microfilm. (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 1969), 3/28/1907.
46 J. E. Haynes, Yellowstone Stage Holdups. (Bozeman, Mont.: Haynes Studio, 1959), 15-20.
50 Hagedorn, v. 15, pp. 525-526.
51 Hagedorn, v. 15, pp. 525-526).
52 William Howard Taft, Second Annual Message to Congress, 1910. Available online at <www.theamericanpresidency.us/1910.htm>. Last accessed February 16, 2006.
53 Paul Schullery, "A Partnership in Conservation: Roosevelt and Yellowstone," Montana: The Magazine of Western History (Summer 1986), 2-15; 141-142.
54 Horace Albright and M. Albright Schenck, Creating the National Park Service: The Missing Years. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 301.
55 Horace Albright and R. Cahn, The Birth of the National Park Service. Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1985), 42-43.
56 Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954).
57 Republican Party Platform, 1916. Online at <www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php>. Last accessed January 18, 2006.
58 Democratic Party Platform, 1916. Online at <www.presidency.ucsb.edu/platforms.php>. Last accessed January 18, 2006.
59 Arthur S. Link, Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954).
60 William Allen White, Woodrow Wilson. (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1929), 316-317.
Dr. Johnston, a native of Powell, Wyoming, is Hal & Naoma Tate Endowed Chair and Curator of Western American History at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody. He also is Ernest J. Goppert Curator of the Buffalo Bill Museum and Managing Editor of The Papers of William F. Cody. A University of Wyoming graduate, he also holds the M. A. in history from UW. He earned his doctorate at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland. His doctoral dissertation examined the connections between Theodore Roosevelt and William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody. This article originated as a paper presented in 2006 at the eighth biennial Scientific Conference on the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and published the following year in Readings in Wyoming History.﻿ Johnston was the recipient of an award from Westerners International, in 2007, for this article. He is a past president of the Wyoming State Historical Society.

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