Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
This Land Is Your Land
The Yosemite Grant was a land protection initiative signed into law by President Lincoln in 1864. This was the first preservation of park land in the U.S. and set the stage for the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
Jay Cooke, then President of the Northern Pacific, understood that railroads needed passengers and passengers needed somewhere to go to: hence Yellowstone. For some time, the Lakota blocked the way and Cook went bust but post-Custer the geysers got their railroad and the railroad got its tourists.
True! There's a great series of old railroad and National Park posters that make the linkage explicit, and there used to be massive fancy hotel resorts at the end. The Banff Springs Hotel was the one I remember visiting in Canada. A complete WOW.
Of course, there's a similar resort hotel connected to a railroad up your neck of the woods Donald -- The Homestead. Stayed there once!
Dear Patrick, Dunno about the other National Parks but the hotels in Glacier (GN) and Yellowstone (NP) were owned by those railroads and - at yellowstone - college kids were recruited in Minnesota (NP HQ) to wait and housekeep and live in barracks and have first sex and rustic adventures during the summer months. I worked at Glacier one summer. Split a lot of wood.
3 comments:
Dear Patrick,
Jay Cooke, then President of the Northern Pacific, understood that railroads needed passengers and passengers needed somewhere to go to: hence Yellowstone. For some time, the Lakota blocked the way and Cook went bust but post-Custer the geysers got their railroad and the railroad got its tourists.
Donald McCaig
True! There's a great series of old railroad and National Park posters that make the linkage explicit, and there used to be massive fancy hotel resorts at the end. The Banff Springs Hotel was the one I remember visiting in Canada. A complete WOW.
Of course, there's a similar resort hotel connected to a railroad up your neck of the woods Donald -- The Homestead. Stayed there once!
Dear Patrick,
Dunno about the other National Parks but the hotels in Glacier (GN) and Yellowstone (NP) were owned by those railroads and - at yellowstone - college kids were recruited in Minnesota (NP HQ) to wait and housekeep and live in barracks and have first sex and rustic adventures during the summer months. I worked at Glacier one summer. Split a lot of wood.
Donald
Post a Comment