Yellowstone National Park turns 150 in 2022
March 1, 2022, marks the 150th
anniversary of the establishment
of Yellowstone National Park.
Signed into law by President
Ulysses S. Grant, America's first
national park was set aside to
preserve and protect the scen-
ery, cultural heritage, wildlife,
geologic and ecological systems
and processes in their natural
condition for the benefit and
enjoyment of present and future
generations.
Yellowstone serves as the core of
the Greater Yellowstone Ecosys-
tem, one of the last and largest
nearly intact natural ecosystems
on the planet. Yellowstone has
the most active, diverse, and
intact collections of combined
geothermal features with over
10,000 hydrothermal sites and
half the world's active geysers.
The park is also rich in cultural
and historical resources with 25
sites, landmarks and districts on
the National Register of Historic
Places.
Based on the park’s location
at the convergence of the Great
Plains, Great Basin, and Co-
lumbia Plateau, many Native
American Tribes have traditional
connections to the land and its
resources. For over 10,000 years
before Yellowstone became a
national park, it was a place
where Native Americans hunted,
fished, gathered plants, quarried
obsidian and used thermal wa-
ters for religious and medicinal
purposes.
"Yellowstone's 150th anniver-
sary is an important moment in
time for the world," said Superin-
tendent Cam Sholly. "It’s an op-
portunity for us to reflect on the
lessons of the past while focusing
our efforts to strengthen Yellow-
stone and our many partnerships
for the future. I applaud
and share the vision
of Secretary
Haaland and
Director
Sams on
our re-
sponsibility to more fully engage
with Tribal Nations to honor and
learn from their ancestral and
modern connections to Yellow-
stone.”
Beginning March 1, the park
will host and participate in
a wide range of activities to
commemorate the 150th. The
park has conducted substantial
outreach to Native American
Tribes, inviting them to partici-
pate directly in this anniversary.
Multiple Tribal Nations will be
present throughout the sum-
mer at Old Faithful as part of
the Yellowstone Tribal Heritage
Center project. Tribes are also
coordinating with Yellowstone
to install a large teepee village in
the park near the Roosevelt Arch
in August, where tribal members
will interact directly with visitors
about their cultures and heritage.
During this anniversary year,
Yellowstone will open 40 new
employee housing units through-
out the park along with ground-
breakings on projects totaling
more than $125 million funded
through the Great American
Outdoors Act. These projects
include two of the largest historic
preservation projects in the
country and a range of transpor-
tation projects that will address
aging infrastructure. This year
will also mark the reopening
of Tower Fall to Chittenden
Road (near Dunraven Pass), a
$28 million road improvement
project completed over the past
two years.
The park will participate in the
15th Biennial Scientific Confer-
ence on the Greater Yellowstone
Ecosystem hosted by Montana
State University, the Wyoming
Governor’s Hospitality and
Tourism Conference, and the
University of Wyoming's Yellow-
stone National Park 150 Anniver-
sary Symposium. The park is also
grateful to Wind River (Eastern
Shoshone and Northern Arapa-
ho) and other Tribal Nations for
planning a multi-tribal gathering
on the Wind River Reservation
later in the year.
Due to COVID-19, the park
does not currently have large
events planned; however, this
may change as the year progress-
es.
Visit go.nps.gov/Yellowstone150
and follow #Yellowstone150 fre-
quently in 2022 to stay current on
commemoration information.