Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

by Lee H. Whittlesey

Book Overview

The chilling tome that launched an entire genre of books about the often gruesome but always tragic ways people have died in our national parks, this updated edition of the classic includes calamities... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1570980217
• ISBN13: 9781570980213
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Publishers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

A Gotta Have for a Yellowstone Visit

Having visited the park i can see how foolhardy accidents happen but don't understand why they happen since all kind of warnings are given out by rangers when entering the park and sign posted with same messages. This book goes into as much detail as could be found about various deaths in the park, geyeser, drowning, bear, bison, hiking, murder, plane accidents etc.. Its strange to be looking at a particular geyeser or steaming pool to know someone died there and how and when it happened. To see a bison walking closely by and giving proper respect for the animal only to see a father trying to put their child on the bison for a picture (saw this myself). This book will give you a different perspective about the park and help to identifiy potential dangers for foolhardy behavior.

Watch your step.

I picked up a copy of Whittlesey's book while on vacation in Yellowstone in July of 2000. The cover captured my attention because the day before two of my kids narrowly escaped becoming statistics. We had just entered the park through the northwest gate when, as we were driving along, we spotted our first plumes of steam. Anxious to begin exploring we eased the camper onto the side rode and drove to a parking spot, pulling off the road near a dirt trail that led to the hot spring. As usual, my kids were out of the car in a flash and dashing down the trail where they immediately set up a game of tag, darting around the edge of the boiling water. Also, as usual, I got out of the car and hollered after them to "get back here and settle down." This time, though, I was a bit more concerned because as I drew near the hot spring I could see it bubbling and steam was rising off the surface. Again, I yelled after the kids to settle down, but they just ignored me and continued their game of tag. Knowing the water was probably hot I decided to test it. With calculation I quickly dipped the index finger of my right hand into the pool up to the first knuckle, withdrawing it as fast as I could. What I felt sent terror up my spine - it was the cutting pain and persistent dull ache of scalding, boiling water. My perspective changed in an instant. I no longer saw the water as a clear, sparkling, blue-green emerald, but as a death trap more dangerous than a gaping hole thousands of feet deep. Just then Jacob and Christopher flew around the corner, and darted between the pool and me. Jacob tottered but regained his balance and, with a holler of delight, and scampered quickly to escape Christopher who was in hot pursuit.Using the most authoritarian and urgent language in my vocabulary, I shouted at the kids to get away NOW! Jacob and Christopher stopped. They recognized that tone of voice and the twitch that develops in my left eye when I mean business. They moved away from the hot spring, and for the next 15 minutes endured a parental lecture on what it would mean to be dunked in boiling water. I described third degree burns over their entire bodies, flesh that comes off the bones like a boiled chicken, a scalded esophagus, blindness and certain death after languishing for hours in the hospital's burn center as parents and siblings wept in the waiting room. Being kids, they looked at me askew, doubting my warnings and admonitions while calculating the price of defiance. They obeyed, if not with reluctance, and stayed by my side as we visited the rest of (a small sampling of) the park's geothermal features. Wanting backup, however, I was immediately convinced when I read the first few pages of the first chapter in Whittlesey's book. I bought it on the spot, and read it in less than a week. The kids read it too, and finished it with a new appreciation for minding their father's warning in the wilderness.T

Interesting page turner with theme: "Don't Be Stupid"

At first glance, it sounds like a morbid book. Two hundred seventy six pages about people who have died in various ways in Yellowstone National Park. In reality, it is a fascinating book with an underlying message of safety and caution in National Parks. You might expect a book which is written by an historian to have an academic tone and be full of footnotes and an extensive bibliography. "Death in Yellowstone" by Yellowstone National Park Historian, Lee H. Whittlesey, does have the footnotes and bibliography. It also reads like a Stephen King novel, drawing the reader to the next page. Whittlesey even used a King technique of quoting song lyrics or some other source to introduce his chapters. Even many of the footnotes and bibliography entries are annotated with additional, interesting information.The book's subtitle, "Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park", sets the tone. Nearly every chronicled death in the book really is due to carelessness on the part of the deceased; or on the part of someone else.The historian's perspective gives Whittlesey the opportunity to dig into the archives of Yellowstone as well as newspaper accounts in cities in the area taking him (and the readers) back to the 1800's and the park's earliest deaths. For recent events he often spoke with "primary sources", witnesses and family members.Each of the 25 chapters takes the reader to a different and bizarre way that death has occurred in Yellowstone National Park. The chapter titles, themselves, often give a light hearted and much needed break from the serious nature of the overall work. Chapter titles include: "I Think I Shall Never See --Yellowstone's Deaths from Falling Trees"; "Malice in Wonderland --Yellowstone Murders"; and "The Gloom of Earthquakes --Shaky Breaky Park".The opening chapter deals with deaths by falling (or jumping) into hot springs and geysers. The first incident in the book sets the tone and the overall theme....."Don't do stupid things in Yellowstone". It is the 1981 account of David Allen Kirwan, who dove head first into the 202 degree water of Celestine Pool of the Lower Geyser Basin to save a friend's dog that had also jumped into the boiling water In most instances, it was s "stupid thing" that caused a death in Yellowstone. Usually, it was because a visitor did not heed a warning, or made a conscious decision to ignore the warning. In "Death in Yellowstone", Whittlesey repeats those warnings...over and over again. He also explains in fairly graphic terms the consequences of ignoring them."Death in Yellowstone" may save lives. There are few history books, so entertaining and so engrossing that can claim that.The Wyoming Companion