Books & Manuscripts

1883 Yellowstone Diary

Appraisal: 1883 Yellowstone Diary

Transcript

GUEST: I brought my great-grandfather's little diary of going through Yellowstone Park.

APPRAISER: What year was that?

GUEST: 1883. They took a wagon and took their children. These children were...

APPRAISER: He's here in this picture?

GUEST:...teenagers. This was my...

APPRAISER: That's your grandfather.

GUEST:...grandfather and grandmother. And... Johnny had to stay home and take care of the...

APPRAISER: So he was home.

GUEST:...home. But the rest of them were teenagers, these three.

APPRAISER: At the time.

GUEST: And they went with them.

APPRAISER: Well, that was only 11 years after it had become a national park. So that was an early days in Yellowstone

GUEST: Yes, it was run by the Army.

APPRAISER: Yeah, it was a very early time.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Because tourism hadn't yet established.

GUEST: No.

APPRAISER: And to go then would have meant a real effort.

GUEST: It was.

APPRAISER: It wasn't what it is today, with all the means of...

GUEST: He hired an extra team to go, to pull up over one of the mountains, because it was such tough...

APPRAISER: Yeah. It's fascinating reading. There's a couple particular passages that I found very interesting and very telling. And it also gives a nice picture of what it was like to take on such an expedition then, because it really was more than a vacation, as it would be today.

GUEST: He said it was the trip of a lifetime.

APPRAISER: What is the relevance of this photo?

GUEST: This is the water right they bought. And this cabin was there. And they moved in... the year before he brought his family,

APPRAISER: It's their home.

GUEST: that they went up to Yellowstone.

APPRAISER: And is that... that's your...

GUEST: This is my grandfather.

APPRAISER: Right there on the horse.

GUEST: Yes, on the horse.

APPRAISER: Beautiful home, it looks lovely.

GUEST: And he was 15 when they came out. They came to Corinne, Utah.

APPRAISER: It was daring to do. There's one quote from August 11 that... from the journal I wanted to read. I think it's very relevant and telling. It says, "August 11. "Hitched up and drove to the Upper Basin to where the grand land and wonders of the world. "We have been walking all around "and seen Old Faithful go off twice. "Stood within ten feet of it boiling. "Water went straight up, 200 feet high. "Saw the Giant, Lion Geyser, Lioness and two Cubs; "the Castle, Sawmill, Grotto, and the Devil's Well. "The whole country around here seems to be hot, boiling pools, "basins, and the river is warm. And, oh, how I want a drink of cold water."

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: So he's really in the thick of things with the geyser country there. But it's just a very interesting description of what was going on and how those geysers were such a draw, even then.

GUEST: It was, and he says they camped all around. They saw the lights of the... the campers all around Old Faithful.

APPRAISER: Yellowstone's the first national park.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: So it was really a new concept. And there's another excerpt in there that was very, very interesting about an Indian encounter. On August 12, he writes, "I met a man by the name of Cowan, "a lawyer at Radersburg, "that was in here with his wife several years ago. "The Indians attacked him, shot him in several places, "and left him for dead. "It was Chief Joseph's band. "The next day, they turned his wife loose with her brother, "and they went home. "Cowan came to, crawled around for eight days, "and General Miles's scouts found him "but could not take him with them, "but left him some provisions to eat "until the soldiers would find him. He showed me a bullet taken out of his head." So, I mean, it's amazing that also he would come back to that area as well.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: I mean, after that, something like that had happened, you wouldn't think he'd be rushing back into Yellowstone. But it was an amazing, an amazing account. For us, we really look for that kind of an interesting thing to come along and only hope to find such a thing. But, really, when it comes to Yellowstone and the meaning of it, it's just telling of what people in those days would go through for a vacation. Well, it's a wonderful journal, And as I was mentioning, the history of it is very telling about tourism at that period. And, like I said, it was new into the idea of a,

GUEST: Why yes.

APPRAISER: of a park like that. It's a glimpse into early tourism before the boom of tourism. We would put an insurance value of about $2,000 on it for insurance, for this collection of items. But, really, it's something that is family history and something that... It's just,

GUEST: yeah.

APPRAISER: You should know, though, and take good care of it, as you've been. And it's something that you treasure.

GUEST: That I will, for my family.