Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness

Yellowstone National Park is beloved passionately and, as with all objects of passion, it generates heated feelings and has for over 125 years. Created in 1872, Yellowstone has been at the center of efforts to conserve the nation's once vast western wilderness. In turn Yellowstone's history has demonstrated how complex those efforts to conserve it have been. As Schullery writes, "We inherited this great humming thing . . . Ever since then we have imagined ourselves wise enough to control it and have rushed to judge what is wrong with it. And every time we looked hard enough, we discovered that there was more wrong with our judgment than with Yellowstone." This marvelously detailed book skillfully and objectively traces the park's social and ecological history from Pleistocene times to the present. Searching for Yellowstone is an absolute "must read" for anyone wanting to understand why the park is engraved in the American consciousness.