1
00:00:05,372 --> 00:00:08,241
- They didn't expect
to see what they saw

2
00:00:11,728 --> 00:00:12,512
and when they saw it,

3
00:00:14,781 --> 00:00:16,216
they could never forget it.

4
00:00:21,921 --> 00:00:24,024
Ferdinand Hayden was
hired to lead a team

5
00:00:24,057 --> 00:00:25,625
into the Northwest Territories.

6
00:00:28,778 --> 00:00:30,363
And the 32 men headed west.

7
00:00:36,152 --> 00:00:39,239
They weren't here to
protect Yellowstone.

8
00:00:39,272 --> 00:00:40,707
They were here to
tear it to shreds

9
00:00:40,740 --> 00:00:42,242
in the name of progress,

10
00:00:43,893 --> 00:00:46,446
gold interests, railroad barons,

11
00:00:47,747 --> 00:00:49,082
Congress.

12
00:00:50,500 --> 00:00:53,286
Powerful people wanted
this land for themselves.

13
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:00,193
But something happened during
their three month journey

14
00:01:02,712 --> 00:01:04,064
and slowly but surely,

15
00:01:06,716 --> 00:01:08,034
their mission changed.

16
00:01:10,003 --> 00:01:12,806
So as we celebrate
the 150th anniversary

17
00:01:12,839 --> 00:01:14,374
of Yellowstone National Park,

18
00:01:15,658 --> 00:01:17,210
we take a look back in time

19
00:01:18,361 --> 00:01:21,047
and at the events that
led to the preservation

20
00:01:23,733 --> 00:01:25,318
of this magical place.

21
00:02:05,308 --> 00:02:08,027
I was hoping to get a look
at some wolves this morning.

22
00:02:09,729 --> 00:02:11,397
- No. You?

23
00:02:13,566 --> 00:02:15,251
- Ah.

24
00:02:15,285 --> 00:02:17,437
Well, I better say something
brilliant then, huh?

25
00:02:20,757 --> 00:02:22,325
Wolves or no wolves,

26
00:02:22,358 --> 00:02:24,444
it's still a pretty nice
way to spend the morning.

27
00:02:25,662 --> 00:02:26,446
It's quiet.

28
00:02:28,681 --> 00:02:30,333
It gives you time to think.

29
00:02:33,903 --> 00:02:36,156
- I spent a lot of
time thinking about

30
00:02:36,189 --> 00:02:38,641
what Hayden and
his men did here,

31
00:02:38,675 --> 00:02:39,492
what they experienced.

32
00:02:41,110 --> 00:02:42,679
But they actually weren't
the first outsiders

33
00:02:42,712 --> 00:02:44,063
to lay eyes on Yellowstone.

34
00:02:46,082 --> 00:02:48,768
A man named John Colter
beat them by 65 years.

35
00:02:51,704 --> 00:02:53,122
Colter grew up in Kentucky

36
00:02:55,358 --> 00:03:00,113
which in the late 1700s was
the western frontier of the US.

37
00:03:03,416 --> 00:03:05,952
So when Lewis and Clark
needed a few good men

38
00:03:05,985 --> 00:03:08,354
for their western expedition,

39
00:03:08,388 --> 00:03:13,209
they went straight to
Kentucky knowing that that's

40
00:03:13,243 --> 00:03:15,295
where the most rugged
of the rugged live.

41
00:03:18,281 --> 00:03:21,084
It must have been
the way Colter looked

42
00:03:21,117 --> 00:03:24,637
or the way he shook a hand
that inspired confidence.

43
00:03:24,671 --> 00:03:26,689
But they signed him on

44
00:03:26,723 --> 00:03:28,675
and for the next 28 months,

45
00:03:28,708 --> 00:03:30,076
they explored the west together.

46
00:03:34,697 --> 00:03:35,848
You could fill a few volumes

47
00:03:35,882 --> 00:03:37,500
with the stories from that trip,

48
00:03:39,102 --> 00:03:41,287
but it was only a
chapter for Colter.

49
00:03:44,007 --> 00:03:46,059
When the expedition was over,

50
00:03:46,976 --> 00:03:49,128
the group headed back
to St. Louis to debrief

51
00:03:49,162 --> 00:03:50,530
on everything they discovered.

52
00:03:54,017 --> 00:03:56,319
That's when a chance
meeting changed history.

53
00:04:02,775 --> 00:04:04,060
A few days out from St. Louis,

54
00:04:04,093 --> 00:04:06,746
they ran into a
group of fur traders

55
00:04:06,779 --> 00:04:08,498
who had a dilemma.

56
00:04:08,531 --> 00:04:10,850
They wanted to set up a fur
trade with the Crow Nation.

57
00:04:12,335 --> 00:04:16,122
But the Crows had already
returned to their winter camps,

58
00:04:16,155 --> 00:04:19,142
territory where no
outsiders had ever set foot.

59
00:04:20,009 --> 00:04:22,795
After more than two
years in the wilderness,

60
00:04:22,829 --> 00:04:24,297
Colter had a decision to make:

61
00:04:26,266 --> 00:04:29,769
a warm bed in St. Louis
or the cold unknown.

62
00:04:32,405 --> 00:04:35,642
Some creatures just aren't
built for captivity.

63
00:04:37,910 --> 00:04:39,262
So Colter asked Lewis and Clark

64
00:04:39,295 --> 00:04:42,115
for an early
dismissal, unheard of.

65
00:04:43,283 --> 00:04:46,970
They said he'd been so crucial
to the expedition's success

66
00:04:47,003 --> 00:04:49,122
that they had no choice
but to set him free.

67
00:04:50,490 --> 00:04:53,793
America's first mountain man
was released into the wild.

68
00:05:12,829 --> 00:05:14,097
He spent the next three years

69
00:05:14,130 --> 00:05:16,616
canoeing the rivers and
traversing the peaks.

70
00:05:21,788 --> 00:05:23,189
He made trade
deals with the Crow

71
00:05:25,425 --> 00:05:28,795
and faced certain death
when he came upon hundreds

72
00:05:28,828 --> 00:05:30,096
of Blackfeet warriors

73
00:05:30,129 --> 00:05:32,432
just outside
Yellowstone's borders.

74
00:05:34,250 --> 00:05:36,869
After the trapper he was
traveling with was dismembered

75
00:05:36,903 --> 00:05:38,187
right in front of him,

76
00:05:39,105 --> 00:05:42,425
Colter was stripped
naked and told to run.

77
00:05:47,130 --> 00:05:48,965
It was a chance for
the young Blackfeet

78
00:05:48,998 --> 00:05:51,517
to prove their manhood
by killing Colter.

79
00:05:52,735 --> 00:05:53,836
So he ran.

80
00:05:57,673 --> 00:05:58,524
Feet caked in blood

81
00:05:59,992 --> 00:06:02,061
and lungs drowned in fluid,

82
00:06:03,396 --> 00:06:06,199
he managed to stay ahead of
the warriors for 21 days.

83
00:06:19,996 --> 00:06:21,864
Ironically, the very animal

84
00:06:21,898 --> 00:06:24,617
whose fur he sought
saved his life.

85
00:06:27,336 --> 00:06:29,689
He managed to elude
the young Blackfeet

86
00:06:29,722 --> 00:06:31,424
by hiding inside a beaver dam.

87
00:06:34,961 --> 00:06:37,163
When he arrived at
Fort Manuel days later,

88
00:06:38,731 --> 00:06:40,650
he told the incredible story

89
00:06:43,886 --> 00:06:45,204
and a few others.

90
00:06:50,093 --> 00:06:52,678
He told tales of
exploding geysers,

91
00:06:57,700 --> 00:06:58,751
bubbling mud pots,

92
00:07:03,473 --> 00:07:05,141
rainbow-colored pools.

93
00:07:15,802 --> 00:07:17,136
No one believed him.

94
00:07:20,206 --> 00:07:23,025
They said he'd lost his
mind or called him a drunk.

95
00:07:24,627 --> 00:07:25,445
It became a joke

96
00:07:28,531 --> 00:07:32,585
as people sardonically labeled
this place, "Colter's Hell."

97
00:07:36,873 --> 00:07:39,025
Colter never got the last laugh.

98
00:07:40,009 --> 00:07:42,028
He died five years later,

99
00:07:42,945 --> 00:07:45,214
long before the rest of
the country would come

100
00:07:45,248 --> 00:07:49,435
to know that Yellowstone region
was very much a real place.

101
00:07:52,855 --> 00:07:55,057
I guess the last
laugh was Colter's

102
00:07:55,091 --> 00:07:57,210
getting to see Yellowstone
with his own eyes,

103
00:07:57,910 --> 00:07:59,145
at least I hope so.

104
00:08:07,453 --> 00:08:08,421
Okay, here we go.

105
00:08:18,581 --> 00:08:19,999
This is going to get good.

106
00:08:36,148 --> 00:08:38,618
The people who question
what John Colter saw

107
00:08:42,955 --> 00:08:44,790
may have referred to
it as Colter's Hell,

108
00:08:48,427 --> 00:08:49,278
but in reality

109
00:08:51,847 --> 00:08:53,216
it was sacred ground.

110
00:09:00,139 --> 00:09:02,441
According to their oral history,

111
00:09:03,793 --> 00:09:05,962
the Kiowa people
didn't have a home land

112
00:09:05,995 --> 00:09:08,047
when the earth
first was created.

113
00:09:10,800 --> 00:09:12,251
Instead, they had to earn one.

114
00:09:15,137 --> 00:09:18,157
Their god told them to travel
to a harsh, unforgiving land

115
00:09:22,912 --> 00:09:25,164
where water boils out
of a thundering cave

116
00:09:28,251 --> 00:09:31,103
and if anyone was brave
enough to jump into the water,

117
00:09:32,822 --> 00:09:34,156
the land would be theirs.

118
00:09:37,693 --> 00:09:39,445
One young man did.

119
00:09:42,114 --> 00:09:44,083
And when he climbed back out,

120
00:09:45,268 --> 00:09:47,853
the land around them had
turned lush and beautiful.

121
00:09:52,174 --> 00:09:55,478
The Kiowa called the
hot spring "To-sal-dau".

122
00:09:59,148 --> 00:10:01,434
Today it's known
as Dragon's Mouth.

123
00:10:03,853 --> 00:10:05,321
Hidden deep inside its cave

124
00:10:06,956 --> 00:10:09,158
gas and steam form
pressure bubbles

125
00:10:09,191 --> 00:10:11,277
that explode against
the cave's roof.

126
00:10:12,962 --> 00:10:15,047
When they pop, the
sound echoes out

127
00:10:15,081 --> 00:10:16,749
like the growl of a beast.

128
00:10:22,355 --> 00:10:25,107
Steam drifting upwards like
the hot breath of a dragon.

129
00:10:31,297 --> 00:10:34,133
Dragon's Mouth and other
remarkable sights and sounds

130
00:10:34,166 --> 00:10:35,868
of Yellowstone had
been experienced

131
00:10:35,901 --> 00:10:37,503
only by Indigenous tribes

132
00:10:39,121 --> 00:10:42,475
until John Colter
arrived in the area,

133
00:10:44,877 --> 00:10:46,512
the first outsider to see them.

134
00:10:52,852 --> 00:10:54,286
Soon others would follow.

135
00:10:58,207 --> 00:11:01,427
America was growing
in the 1800s.

136
00:11:04,063 --> 00:11:06,232
Westward expansion
was on the march.

137
00:11:13,389 --> 00:11:16,359
Gold strikes sent people
past the Mississippi River

138
00:11:17,510 --> 00:11:21,113
into uncharted territory
where there was plenty of land

139
00:11:25,885 --> 00:11:27,636
but not enough railroads.

140
00:11:29,855 --> 00:11:32,191
So in 1853,

141
00:11:32,224 --> 00:11:34,794
Congress passed the Pacific
Railroad Survey Bill.

142
00:11:36,996 --> 00:11:38,330
They wanted to chart the west

143
00:11:39,281 --> 00:11:41,033
and find potential
railroad routes

144
00:11:41,067 --> 00:11:42,401
from the Mississippi River

145
00:11:43,936 --> 00:11:45,304
to the Pacific Ocean.

146
00:11:48,257 --> 00:11:50,626
The best and brightest
scientific minds

147
00:11:50,659 --> 00:11:51,877
jumped onto the project.

148
00:11:56,432 --> 00:11:59,185
One of them was a geologist
named Ferdinand Hayden

149
00:12:01,153 --> 00:12:04,323
who in 1871 set his sights
on the Yellowstone region.

150
00:12:05,908 --> 00:12:07,309
No one had mapped the area

151
00:12:07,343 --> 00:12:10,196
he had heard so many
seemingly tall tales about.

152
00:12:12,064 --> 00:12:13,783
Hayden wanted to be
the first to do it.

153
00:12:18,270 --> 00:12:23,109
He assembled a 32-man dream
team made up of geologists,

154
00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:28,130
mineralogists, botanists,
and zoologists.

155
00:12:30,082 --> 00:12:32,351
He also brought
along a photographer

156
00:12:32,384 --> 00:12:35,221
and a painter to
memorialize their findings.

157
00:12:38,557 --> 00:12:40,259
It took 27 horses,

158
00:12:41,393 --> 00:12:45,898
21 mules, and five wagons
to transport Hayden,

159
00:12:45,931 --> 00:12:48,000
the 31 men who joined him,

160
00:12:48,033 --> 00:12:49,869
and their gear
across the country.

161
00:12:57,126 --> 00:12:59,361
Two journals that were
kept during the trip

162
00:12:59,395 --> 00:13:03,282
and 10 letters sent by Hayden
himself lasted through time,

163
00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:07,136
providing us with vivid insight

164
00:13:08,087 --> 00:13:09,855
into the team's
historic journey.

165
00:13:41,904 --> 00:13:43,289
They traveled for days

166
00:13:47,893 --> 00:13:49,295
through jagged canyons

167
00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:51,897
and lush valleys.

168
00:13:56,552 --> 00:14:00,172
And on July 21st, 1871,

169
00:14:01,240 --> 00:14:03,442
they finally entered
Yellowstone itself.

170
00:14:20,809 --> 00:14:21,810
And soon after

171
00:14:27,266 --> 00:14:30,719
they arrived at the spot that
immediately let them know

172
00:14:30,753 --> 00:14:33,105
Colter's Hell was very real.

173
00:14:38,210 --> 00:14:41,664
A giant complex of hot springs
on a mountain of travertine.

174
00:14:47,386 --> 00:14:50,472
Mammoth Hot Springs was
created over thousands of years

175
00:14:55,961 --> 00:14:58,163
from cooling water
spouted from below.

176
00:15:03,586 --> 00:15:07,473
Over two tons of
calcium carbonate flows
into Mammoth daily.

177
00:15:10,910 --> 00:15:12,645
And its Terrace
Mountain is the largest

178
00:15:12,678 --> 00:15:14,213
of its kind on earth.

179
00:15:29,295 --> 00:15:32,715
The photographers on the
expedition had a field day here

180
00:15:39,471 --> 00:15:40,339
and still today,

181
00:15:41,340 --> 00:15:43,709
it's one of the most
photographed places

182
00:15:43,742 --> 00:15:45,628
in all of Yellowstone.

183
00:15:54,003 --> 00:15:55,904
Hayden's men camped nearby

184
00:15:55,938 --> 00:15:58,157
and studied the
feature for two days.

185
00:16:04,196 --> 00:16:06,198
They met two squatters
who had big plans

186
00:16:06,231 --> 00:16:08,417
to cash in on the
unique geology.

187
00:16:11,670 --> 00:16:14,173
JC McCartney and HR Horr

188
00:16:15,607 --> 00:16:18,160
had laid claim to 320 acres

189
00:16:19,294 --> 00:16:22,548
and established a ranch and
bathhouse near Liberty Cap.

190
00:16:27,553 --> 00:16:31,490
They planned to market the
water as having healing powers.

191
00:16:36,128 --> 00:16:38,263
Hayden knew they would
destroy the area,

192
00:16:40,282 --> 00:16:42,384
but he didn't know how
he would stop them.

193
00:16:44,603 --> 00:16:46,255
For that plan to solidify,

194
00:16:47,172 --> 00:16:49,508
they had to push deeper
into the strange land,

195
00:16:52,127 --> 00:16:53,862
see what else it had to offer.

196
00:17:09,328 --> 00:17:12,231
They continued their march
into the pristine valleys.

197
00:17:20,372 --> 00:17:24,626
Instantly, they were floored
by the abundance of wildlife,

198
00:17:31,984 --> 00:17:34,319
particularly the massive
population of elk.

199
00:17:48,350 --> 00:17:53,272
The elk herds are a stunning
sight for the tourists today.

200
00:17:59,595 --> 00:18:00,412
But to Hayden's men,

201
00:18:03,782 --> 00:18:05,284
they were a steady
source of food.

202
00:18:10,172 --> 00:18:12,407
Long days of trekking
over difficult terrain

203
00:18:14,042 --> 00:18:16,361
had the men thinking
with their stomachs often

204
00:18:18,397 --> 00:18:21,400
even when they encountered the
park's most feared predators.

205
00:18:24,570 --> 00:18:28,006
Hunting is strictly prohibited
in Yellowstone today,

206
00:18:29,575 --> 00:18:33,312
but it takes a lot of food to
keep 32 hungry men motivated.

207
00:18:38,317 --> 00:18:40,435
And even grizzly bear
was on their menu.

208
00:18:47,943 --> 00:18:51,263
The pioneers had to eat
and they had to sleep,

209
00:18:54,066 --> 00:18:56,385
making their camps at
night in canvas tents

210
00:18:57,786 --> 00:18:59,438
hoping for a good night's rest.

211
00:19:01,990 --> 00:19:05,043
But in the wilderness,
sleeping isn't always easy.

212
00:19:15,404 --> 00:19:18,841
Boy, am I glad I chose to set
my tent right under a tree

213
00:19:18,874 --> 00:19:20,175
that houses the loudest owl

214
00:19:20,209 --> 00:19:21,760
in the continental
United States.

215
00:19:24,496 --> 00:19:28,250
And always, always bring
earplugs when you go camping.

216
00:19:28,283 --> 00:19:31,103
That's a tip I wish
I'd remembered.

217
00:19:33,522 --> 00:19:35,791
I was doing some reading

218
00:19:35,824 --> 00:19:39,111
before I got my 17
minutes of sleep.

219
00:19:40,929 --> 00:19:42,464
This is Albert Peale's journal.

220
00:19:43,432 --> 00:19:46,501
He was a mineralogist on
expedition with Hayden.

221
00:19:47,603 --> 00:19:51,590
"This morning about one o'clock
we had quite an earthquake.

222
00:19:54,960 --> 00:19:57,246
"The first shock
lasted about 20 seconds

223
00:19:57,279 --> 00:20:00,349
"and was followed by
five or six shorter ones.

224
00:20:04,236 --> 00:20:06,688
"Duncan who was on guard says
that the trees were shaking

225
00:20:10,075 --> 00:20:11,877
"and that the horses
that were lying down

226
00:20:11,910 --> 00:20:13,412
"sprang to their feet."

227
00:20:22,070 --> 00:20:23,822
I've been through my fair
share of earthquakes,

228
00:20:23,855 --> 00:20:26,308
but one that lasts 20 seconds,

229
00:20:27,593 --> 00:20:28,327
that's a big one.

230
00:20:29,561 --> 00:20:32,464
I can't imagine anyone going
back to sleep after that.

231
00:20:34,633 --> 00:20:37,519
That was the first recorded
earthquake in Yellowstone.

232
00:20:38,971 --> 00:20:41,506
Now we know there are
as many as 3,000 a year.

233
00:20:42,691 --> 00:20:43,742
Some small,

234
00:20:46,795 --> 00:20:48,080
some massive

235
00:20:50,582 --> 00:20:52,317
like the one in 1951.

236
00:20:54,603 --> 00:20:56,188
It was so strong

237
00:20:56,221 --> 00:20:59,291
that a 25-mile long section
of the park was pushed up

238
00:20:59,324 --> 00:21:02,327
40 feet in elevation
in just a few seconds.

239
00:21:05,814 --> 00:21:07,449
At a magnitude of 7.3,

240
00:21:09,334 --> 00:21:12,037
it is Yellowstone's
strongest earthquake

241
00:21:12,904 --> 00:21:14,656
at least on record.

242
00:21:17,459 --> 00:21:20,579
Evidence of its destruction
can still be seen today

243
00:21:20,612 --> 00:21:21,380
at Quake Lake.

244
00:21:26,084 --> 00:21:29,037
A 170-foot deep body
of water that formed

245
00:21:29,071 --> 00:21:31,723
when a crumbling
mountain tumbled

246
00:21:31,757 --> 00:21:33,325
into the nearby Madison River.

247
00:21:37,963 --> 00:21:40,499
Today, legions of ghost
trees dot the lake.

248
00:21:42,901 --> 00:21:44,119
A stark reminder of

249
00:21:44,152 --> 00:21:47,139
how quickly the face of
Yellowstone can change.

250
00:21:57,349 --> 00:22:00,002
Earthquakes,
underground volcanoes,

251
00:22:00,035 --> 00:22:03,188
entire mountains
rising and falling,

252
00:22:05,057 --> 00:22:07,175
and here I am getting
rattled by an owl.

253
00:22:32,734 --> 00:22:34,353
Despite the sleep deprivation

254
00:22:35,887 --> 00:22:37,489
the team continued
on their mission.

255
00:22:40,425 --> 00:22:43,929
And on July 25th, they
reached another stunning site:

256
00:22:46,565 --> 00:22:47,716
Tower Falls.

257
00:23:00,762 --> 00:23:02,197
A 132-foot drop

258
00:23:09,137 --> 00:23:12,357
flanked on either side by
eroded pillars of volcanic rock.

259
00:23:29,141 --> 00:23:31,660
Two days later they
reached the Upper Falls

260
00:23:31,693 --> 00:23:32,694
of the Yellowstone River.

261
00:23:41,853 --> 00:23:44,389
Teetering over a 109-foot drop,

262
00:23:51,813 --> 00:23:53,348
the precipice of
Upper Falls marks

263
00:23:53,381 --> 00:23:56,701
a dramatic geological shift
in the Yellowstone riverbed.

264
00:24:01,022 --> 00:24:03,091
It's where hardened,
water-resistant lava flows

265
00:24:04,726 --> 00:24:06,228
give way to softer rock,

266
00:24:10,465 --> 00:24:15,253
a boundary set by volcanic
eruption over 450,000 years ago.

267
00:24:22,360 --> 00:24:25,430
Hayden's team was humbled by
the spectacle in front of them.

268
00:24:31,353 --> 00:24:34,072
But waterfalls were not
what they were seeking.

269
00:24:38,877 --> 00:24:40,045
They were looking for the source

270
00:24:40,078 --> 00:24:42,113
of the mighty Yellowstone River.

271
00:24:44,733 --> 00:24:45,984
And six miles upstream,

272
00:24:48,887 --> 00:24:50,422
they found what they were after.

273
00:24:56,011 --> 00:24:59,447
On July 28, they arrived
at Yellowstone Lake.

274
00:25:03,785 --> 00:25:07,138
At 7,732 feet above sea level

275
00:25:07,939 --> 00:25:10,475
and covering 136 square miles,

276
00:25:12,110 --> 00:25:15,197
it is the largest body
of water in Yellowstone.

277
00:25:21,553 --> 00:25:24,823
In late July, Hayden and his
men set up camp by the lake.

278
00:25:28,894 --> 00:25:30,862
They could see the
islands in the distance,

279
00:25:30,896 --> 00:25:32,230
but they didn't have a boat.

280
00:25:36,117 --> 00:25:38,503
When you're an explorer,
your job is to explore.

281
00:25:40,238 --> 00:25:43,141
You don't have something
you need, build it.

282
00:25:43,975 --> 00:25:45,243
You don't know how,

283
00:25:45,277 --> 00:25:47,178
you better figure
it out pretty quick.

284
00:25:48,013 --> 00:25:49,447
And that's what they did.

285
00:25:55,854 --> 00:25:57,856
They used a fallen pine

286
00:25:59,474 --> 00:26:00,191
as the base

287
00:26:01,893 --> 00:26:04,095
and carved oars out of branches.

288
00:26:06,514 --> 00:26:08,016
Then they rigged up one

289
00:26:08,049 --> 00:26:11,136
of their blankets as a
sail and named her Annie.

290
00:26:13,021 --> 00:26:15,006
They placed Annie in the lake

291
00:26:15,040 --> 00:26:17,142
and crossed their
fingers that she'd hold.

292
00:26:31,039 --> 00:26:34,092
It's the true spirit
of an explorer,

293
00:26:37,012 --> 00:26:39,230
figuring things out on the fly,

294
00:26:41,032 --> 00:26:43,134
forging ahead with
no safety net,

295
00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:46,037
no guarantee of success.

296
00:26:57,916 --> 00:26:59,250
When I was younger,

297
00:27:02,003 --> 00:27:05,123
I wanted so much to
be on a lake by myself

298
00:27:08,743 --> 00:27:10,061
going somewhere

299
00:27:10,095 --> 00:27:13,898
that between the
ages of 7 and 18

300
00:27:13,932 --> 00:27:15,867
I built three different canoes,

301
00:27:15,900 --> 00:27:17,535
and they all looked horrible.

302
00:27:17,569 --> 00:27:19,321
They were all handmade.

303
00:27:19,354 --> 00:27:22,841
But I took the last one I
built down some of the rivers

304
00:27:22,874 --> 00:27:24,025
that Lewis and Clark went down,

305
00:27:24,059 --> 00:27:27,078
because it just
spoke to me out loud.

306
00:27:31,082 --> 00:27:32,901
I was determined
to be out there.

307
00:27:37,839 --> 00:27:39,190
To experience the kind of thrill

308
00:27:39,224 --> 00:27:41,209
Hayden and his men
must have felt,

309
00:27:44,929 --> 00:27:47,015
just get in a boat and go.

310
00:27:54,189 --> 00:27:56,508
What Hayden found as
they sailed the Annie

311
00:27:58,309 --> 00:28:01,012
was an island they
described as a jungle

312
00:28:06,568 --> 00:28:07,952
full of wild game.

313
00:28:19,114 --> 00:28:22,117
Want to know the best part
about being an explorer?

314
00:28:22,150 --> 00:28:24,269
You get to name
things after yourself.

315
00:28:25,186 --> 00:28:28,239
Jim Stevenson was the
first one off the boat,

316
00:28:28,273 --> 00:28:31,159
so naturally they named
it Stevenson's Island.

317
00:28:37,932 --> 00:28:39,718
Hayden raved about
their discovery

318
00:28:39,751 --> 00:28:41,653
in a letter to the Smithsonian.

319
00:28:47,242 --> 00:28:50,044
With a seaworthy
boat at his disposal,

320
00:28:51,262 --> 00:28:54,199
Hayden wanted to explore
and map the entire lake.

321
00:28:57,368 --> 00:29:00,105
The team sailed the Annie
to six other islands

322
00:29:02,373 --> 00:29:05,710
naming each one after
themselves or family members.

323
00:29:21,109 --> 00:29:23,094
After they finished
mapping the lake,

324
00:29:26,231 --> 00:29:28,833
Hayden and his team pushed
deeper into the strange land.

325
00:29:35,673 --> 00:29:37,058
They continued their mission

326
00:29:37,091 --> 00:29:39,077
of mapping a potential
route for the railroad

327
00:29:39,110 --> 00:29:41,279
and collecting
geological samples,

328
00:29:46,301 --> 00:29:49,270
some of which gave the team
a sense that even John Colter

329
00:29:51,105 --> 00:29:53,158
was not the first to come here,

330
00:29:54,626 --> 00:29:56,127
not by a long shot.

331
00:30:02,333 --> 00:30:05,336
One of the geological samples
that Hayden collected was

332
00:30:05,370 --> 00:30:10,074
an insanely sharp
hunk of geological
glass called obsidian.

333
00:30:11,176 --> 00:30:13,278
That's what these
spearpoints are made from.

334
00:30:15,997 --> 00:30:17,549
I can touch these, right?

335
00:30:17,582 --> 00:30:20,151
- [Staff Member] Yeah.

336
00:30:20,185 --> 00:30:23,288
- Obsidian was used by
ancient peoples as weapons,

337
00:30:23,321 --> 00:30:27,392
because it can be made to be
sharper than any modern razor.

338
00:30:28,827 --> 00:30:30,378
This one was found
in New Mexico,

339
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:35,383
and this one was found in Utah.

340
00:30:37,819 --> 00:30:38,469
And this one,

341
00:30:39,771 --> 00:30:42,140
this one was discovered in Ohio

342
00:30:43,007 --> 00:30:44,409
1,800 miles from here.

343
00:30:46,261 --> 00:30:48,313
You know what all
these have in common?

344
00:30:49,447 --> 00:30:53,001
They all came from a
single outcrop of obsidian

345
00:30:53,034 --> 00:30:54,819
that's right here
in Yellowstone.

346
00:30:57,522 --> 00:31:00,508
Obsidian is formed when
lava reaches the surface

347
00:31:00,542 --> 00:31:01,392
and cools rapidly.

348
00:31:04,929 --> 00:31:07,365
It usually breaks apart
during this process,

349
00:31:09,217 --> 00:31:12,203
which is why it's typically
found in small fragments.

350
00:31:16,424 --> 00:31:19,344
But Obsidian Cliff in
northwest Yellowstone

351
00:31:21,179 --> 00:31:24,349
is a 200-foot tall
outcrop of pure obsidian.

352
00:31:26,801 --> 00:31:28,486
It's a geological anomaly,

353
00:31:30,338 --> 00:31:32,674
and the mother lode
for hunter-gatherers

354
00:31:32,707 --> 00:31:34,259
in need of some new spears.

355
00:31:36,294 --> 00:31:39,163
Some of these spearpoints
are 11,000 years old.

356
00:31:40,915 --> 00:31:42,166
Think about that.

357
00:31:43,201 --> 00:31:46,104
11,000 years before
Hayden was even born

358
00:31:46,137 --> 00:31:48,273
Indigenous Americans
were using this land.

359
00:31:49,924 --> 00:31:51,509
I try to picture
it, try to imagine

360
00:31:51,542 --> 00:31:54,412
what the first Indigenous
people must have thought

361
00:31:54,445 --> 00:31:56,631
when they arrived here
thousands of years ago.

362
00:31:59,133 --> 00:32:00,852
Bison as far as the eye can see.

363
00:32:07,675 --> 00:32:09,193
Wooly mammoths.

364
00:32:12,013 --> 00:32:15,466
The earth rising, breathing.

365
00:32:23,841 --> 00:32:26,411
All the obsidian
you could carry.

366
00:32:28,613 --> 00:32:29,380
Pretty cool.

367
00:32:43,778 --> 00:32:45,647
The wooly mammoths are gone

368
00:32:53,304 --> 00:32:55,440
and roads and boardwalks
have been built.

369
00:33:01,896 --> 00:33:03,364
But in so many ways,

370
00:33:03,398 --> 00:33:06,184
Yellowstone is very much
the same place that it was

371
00:33:07,452 --> 00:33:10,371
when the first humans
found it 11,000 years ago.

372
00:33:19,163 --> 00:33:23,167
That's because at some
point in August of 1871,

373
00:33:25,353 --> 00:33:28,306
Hayden and the 31 other
men that followed him

374
00:33:29,374 --> 00:33:32,310
started to realize their
mission to exploit the region

375
00:33:33,711 --> 00:33:35,396
was the wrong path.

376
00:33:43,504 --> 00:33:47,525
The samples they were collecting
would have a new purpose,

377
00:33:50,144 --> 00:33:52,647
documentation of a
one of a kind place

378
00:33:52,680 --> 00:33:53,531
that needed to be preserved.

379
00:34:02,774 --> 00:34:04,976
They filled 45 large boxes with

380
00:34:05,009 --> 00:34:07,345
over a thousand
specimens of minerals,

381
00:34:09,597 --> 00:34:13,251
plants, and animal pelts.

382
00:34:16,888 --> 00:34:18,756
They shipped them off
to the Smithsonian

383
00:34:18,790 --> 00:34:20,358
to be organized and cataloged.

384
00:34:22,944 --> 00:34:24,495
Hayden was starting
to build a case

385
00:34:26,047 --> 00:34:28,066
to convince the powers that be.

386
00:34:46,033 --> 00:34:50,204
On August 28, Hayden
posted a field report

387
00:34:50,238 --> 00:34:52,423
announcing the
completion of his survey.

388
00:34:59,113 --> 00:35:01,432
They'd finished their
journey into Colter's Hell,

389
00:35:08,539 --> 00:35:09,423
conquered the terrain,

390
00:35:12,126 --> 00:35:14,011
and scientifically
studied every inch

391
00:35:14,045 --> 00:35:15,413
of the Upper Yellowstone.

392
00:35:20,485 --> 00:35:23,488
But Hayden knew his greatest
work was still ahead of him.

393
00:35:25,072 --> 00:35:27,391
He had to convince Congress

394
00:35:27,425 --> 00:35:29,844
and even the President
of the United States

395
00:35:29,877 --> 00:35:32,130
to do something
that no one anywhere

396
00:35:32,163 --> 00:35:34,432
in the world had
ever done before:

397
00:35:38,719 --> 00:35:41,422
protect a huge piece of land.

398
00:35:49,964 --> 00:35:52,099
Preserve it for
future generations.

399
00:35:55,870 --> 00:35:57,355
Don't let them mine.

400
00:35:58,773 --> 00:36:00,057
Don't let them build.

401
00:36:02,810 --> 00:36:04,745
Just let it be.

402
00:36:13,421 --> 00:36:16,290
The phrase "a picture is
worth a thousand words"

403
00:36:16,324 --> 00:36:20,428
wasn't unleashed into the
ether until the 1920s.

404
00:36:22,163 --> 00:36:25,016
But I think Hayden knew what
it meant long before that.

405
00:36:28,019 --> 00:36:29,720
He knew that all the
words in the report

406
00:36:29,754 --> 00:36:30,888
that he was planning to present

407
00:36:30,922 --> 00:36:34,041
to Congress were
just that, words.

408
00:36:35,259 --> 00:36:39,297
So as he made his pitch
to preserve Yellowstone,

409
00:36:40,748 --> 00:36:42,333
he saturated members of Congress

410
00:36:42,366 --> 00:36:45,403
with the photographs that
William Henry Jackson had taken,

411
00:36:51,309 --> 00:36:53,477
watercolors that Thomas
Moran had painted.

412
00:36:59,016 --> 00:37:02,153
Suddenly, Colter's Hell
wasn't just the work

413
00:37:02,186 --> 00:37:04,272
of one mountain
man's imagination.

414
00:37:05,907 --> 00:37:07,325
It was all very real.

415
00:37:09,927 --> 00:37:11,979
And enough members of Congress

416
00:37:12,013 --> 00:37:14,148
and the Senate saw the
beauty in this place

417
00:37:14,181 --> 00:37:17,101
to pass the
Yellowstone Park Bill

418
00:37:19,353 --> 00:37:20,471
in record time.

419
00:37:25,509 --> 00:37:28,713
It was signed into law by
President Ulysses S. Grant

420
00:37:28,746 --> 00:37:31,382
on March 1st, 1872,

421
00:37:33,317 --> 00:37:36,621
and the planet's first
national park was created.

422
00:37:45,513 --> 00:37:49,100
Today, about 4 million people
visit Yellowstone each year.

423
00:37:53,804 --> 00:37:56,107
And in the 150 years

424
00:37:57,725 --> 00:37:58,843
since Hayden did what he did,

425
00:38:02,046 --> 00:38:05,449
422 more parks have
been created in the US

426
00:38:08,936 --> 00:38:12,023
spanning 84 million
acres of pristine land.

427
00:38:15,793 --> 00:38:17,295
Countries all over the world

428
00:38:18,312 --> 00:38:20,398
looked at what was
done here and thought,

429
00:38:21,832 --> 00:38:23,985
"Hey, that's a
pretty good idea."

430
00:38:30,374 --> 00:38:33,944
There are now 4,000
national parks worldwide.

431
00:38:39,667 --> 00:38:41,419
15% of the earth's land

432
00:38:46,824 --> 00:38:48,492
and 10% of the
waters are protected.

433
00:39:03,307 --> 00:39:05,810
The National Park
Service has been deemed

434
00:39:05,843 --> 00:39:07,411
America's best idea,

435
00:39:11,632 --> 00:39:12,400
but really

436
00:39:15,052 --> 00:39:17,338
it seems like the
world's best idea.

437
00:39:23,844 --> 00:39:25,496
I think we'd all like to dream

438
00:39:25,529 --> 00:39:28,632
that we can leave the world a
better place than we found it.

439
00:39:44,065 --> 00:39:45,900
This is the story of
some people who did.