"Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park" by Lee H. Whittlesey

I almost hate to admit that I enjoy reading the "Death in" books.  Maybe "enjoy" isn't the word I am looking for, but I do find them so fascinating.

Well, Lee H. Whittlesey has given us, "Death in Yellowstone" noting all of the deaths that have occurred in that National Park.  Lee's book is mindbogglingly thorough.

There are a LOT of ways that death has happened in this park.  In fact, there are some ways that are almost exclusive to Yellowstone.  I absolutely don't want to get too detailed here, but there are some natural boiling hot water pools at Yellowstone.  There are bears.

AND, the area has a lot of history too.  OLD history- so there are deaths that have happened involving Indian wars and stage coaches.

Lee's writing style is perfect for this volume too.  The details of each case are given a good amount of attention.  Its obvious that he took his time combing through archives and old papers.  Interestingly, he even has some personal connections to some of the tragedies.

I took some time and read through this one slowly, as each story is fascinating.  This would make for some interesting reading before or during a trip to the park!

Custer's Last Stand- southern Montana

Back in the mid-1980's- I don't remember just which year- I journeyed to Montana to visit Custer National Historical Monument. I had just finished reading an excellent documentary book, Son of the Morning Star, by Evan S. Connell. That well-researched historical account had really whetted my appetite to visit the site, and the day of my visit turned out to be noteworthy in an unexpected way.

Visiting the Monument adequately really takes several hours. By late afternoon, most visitors were leaving, but a small group of us were let in on a little secret by one of the naturalists. The newly-discovered grave of one of the cavalry soldiers was currently under excavation. Back in 1876, within days after the battle, the bodies of soldiers were for the most part buried where they had fallen. A cluster of monuments marked the specific site of the "last stand"; however, many other soldiers fell scattered over an area covering many acres and were left in unmarked graves. It was now in one of the outer-lying parts of the park that the new grave had just been discovered.

Following the naturalist's directions, our small group drove our cars along a narrow road and pulled off at the appointed spot. A short walk took us to the active dig. I don't know who the archaeologists were, but they basically stayed focused on task in their methodical work, ignoring the small group of us onlookers.

The open grave was about a foot deep, and a portion of a crumpled up human skeleton was evident. Most obvious was the exposed lower leg bone with part of a boot still intact on the foot.

As I reluctantly left the park a few minutes later, any doubts as to the significance of what I had witnessed were extinguished when I spotted an USA Today media van in the parking lot. Sure enough, on June 25th of that year (the anniversary of the battle), the cover story of USA Today newspaper featured an article about the Custer Monument, and did make reference to the grave I had seen, but did not include any photos of the grave. I felt pleased to have been at the right place at the right time.

Guest blogger

You know, I mention to people frequently that I have a couple of blogs about traveling. Several times people say that sounds interesting and that they would like to try that. I have told many people that they can use my blog to post pictures, or to talk about a fun travel memory. In fact, I was really hoping my blogs would be more communal, and that others would use them for that purpose.

Well, I have had a taker recently! My pal Mark offered to write a short entry, AND supply scans of some photos from a trip to the Custer Monument in Utah! Mark told me a great story about his trip there, and I asked if he would write up a little bit about his adventure. He agreed!

So, in the next day or so I will be putting up his story, WITH photos! This will be a great entry for anyone interested in some of the stranger points of visiting a site. I don't want to give his story away, but a skeleton is involved!