Timeline of Human History in Yellowstone

 

Hell Gap point, made 9,600–10,000 years ago

NPS illustration

Paleoindian Period

At least 11,000 years ago

A Clovis point from this period was made from obsidian obtained at Obsidian Cliff.

10,000 years ago

Sites all over the park yield paleoindian artifacts, particularly concentrated around Yellowstone Lake. Clovis peoples hunted large game and gathered resources across North America.

9,350 years ago

A site on the shore of the Yellowstone Lake has been radiocarbon dated to 9,350 years ago. People likely occupied this site for short seasonal periods.

9,000 years ago

9,000 years ago until 1,000 common era (CE), people leave traces of camps on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. Note: CE = Common Era (replaces AD)

 

Archaic Period

8,000 years ago

Vegetation similar to what we find today begins to appear. This period is characterized by use of large side-notched projectile points and atlatl technology.

3,000 years ago

Bison jumps and corrals begin to be used in the Rocky Mountain region. Oral histories of the Salish place their ancestors in the Yellowstone area.

1,500 years ago

Bow and arrow begins to replace atlatl (throwing spear). Sheep traps begin to be used in the mountains.

 

500–1700s CE

1400

Oral histories of the Kiowa place their ancestors in the Yellowstone area from this time through the 1700s.

1450

Little Ice Age begins.

1600s

North American tribes in the southwest begin acquiring horses in the mid- to late 1600s. Ancestors of the Crow may have come into the Yellowstone ecosystem during this time.

1700s

Lakota Sioux begin exploring the Yellowstone area.

 

Late 1700s–1840s CE

Late 1700s

Fur traders travel the rivers into the Yellowstone region. Tribes in the Yellowstone area begin using horses.

1804–1806

The Lewis and Clark Expedition passes within 50 miles of Yellowstone.

1807–1808

John Colter first known European-American to visit present-day Yellowstone.

1834–1835

Trapper Osborne Russell encounters Tukudika ("Sheep Eaters") in Lamar Valley.

 

1850s–1871 CE

1850s

Little Ice Age ends, climate begins to warm.

1860

First organized expedition attempts but fails to explore the Yellowstone Plateau.

1862

Gold strike northwest of Yellowstone.

1869

Folsom–Cook–Peterson Expedition.

1870

Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition; Old Faithful Geyser named.

1871

First Hayden expedition.

 

1872–1900 CE

1872

March 1, Yellowstone National Park Protection Act establishes the first national park; first "hotel" in park opens at Mammoth.

1877

First budget for park; Nez Perce (Nee-me-poo) flee US Army through Yellowstone.

1883

Northern Pacific Railroad arrives near Gardiner, MT.

1885

First hotel at Old Faithful opens, known as the Shack Hotel.

1886

The US Army arrives to manage Yellowstone, creating the temporary Camp Sheridan at Mammoth.

1891

First Lake Hotel built.

1894

First National Park Protection Act (Lacey Act) makes it illegal to kill wildlife in the park.

 

1901–1917 CE

1903

President Theodore Roosevelt dedicates arch at the North Entrance by laying its cornerstone at Gardiner.

1904

Old Faithful Inn opens.

1906

The Antiquities Act provides for the protection of historic, prehistoric, and scientific features on, and artifacts from, federal lands.

1908

Union Pacific train service begins at West Yellowstone.

1915

Private automobiles are officially admitted to the park.

1916

The National Park Service Organic Act establishes the National Park Service.

1917

Private and commercial horsedrawn conveyances banned on park roads.

 

1918–1939 CE

1918

National Park Service (NPS) takes over management of Yellowstone and the Army leaves.

1919

Horace Albright becomes first NPS superintendent.

1929

President Hoover signs first law changing park’s boundary.

1932

President Hoover expands the park again (by executive order).

1930s

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and other government-funded work crews complete work in Yellowstone.

1934

The National Park Service Director’s Order prohibits killing predators.

1935

The Historic Sites Act sets a national policy to “preserve for future public use historic sites, buildings, and objects.”

 

1940–1959 CE

1943–1944

Much of the park closes for WWII.

1948

Yellowstone receives one million visitors.

1949

First motorized oversnow vehicles allowed in park.

1955

Mission 66 begins in Yellowstone to revitalize lodging, dining, education, and infrastructure.

1959

West of Yellowstone, a 7.5 M earthquake strikes, killing campers in the Custer-Gallatin NF and affecting thermal features and infrastructure in the park.

 

1960–1975 CE

1963

Leopold Report leads to the last of the bear-feeding dumps closing over the following several years; Robert Reamer-designed Canyon Hotel burns to the ground.

1965

Park sees 2,000,000 visitors for first time.

1966

The thermophile Thermus aquaticus is discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring.

1970

New bear management plan begins, which includes closing open-pit dumps in park.

1971

Overnight winter lodging opens in park and continues yearly.

1975

Grizzly bear listed as threatened species in the lower 48 states.

 

1976–2000 CE

1988

Public Law 100-443 protects hydrothermal features in national parks from geothermal development on adjacent federal lands; wildfire burns approximately 36% of the park.

1991

Clean Air Act Amendments require air-quality monitoring at sites including Yellowstone, a Class I airshed.

1992

Park sees 3,000,000 visitors for the first time.

1994

Congress enacts a law allowing a percentage of park entrance fees to be kept in the parks.

1995

Wolves are restored to the park.

1996

New World Mine, near park’s northern boundary, halted.

1998

The National Parks Omnibus Management Act is passed.

2000

Interagency Bison Management Plan is adopted by federal, state, and tribal partners.

 

2001 CE–Present

2002

National Academy of Sciences confirms effectiveness of Ecological Process Management (aka natural regulation).

2007

Yellowstone's grizzly bears removed from federal threatened species list.

2008

Scientific review panel recommends an increase in lake trout removal operations on Yellowstone Lake.

2009

Grizzly bears returned to threatened species list. Bioprospecting final EIS completed; science agenda established for Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

2011

Grey wolves removed from the endangered species list in MT, ID, OR, and WA. Remain listed in WY until 2017.

2015

Park sees 4,000,000 visitors for the first time.

2016

National Park Service Centennial.