BY KAREN E. DAVIS Planting their cowboy boots squarely in our backyard, the Paramount Network has created a new modern-day TV western called Yellowstone, starring Oscar-winner Kevin Costner. Costner, following in a long line of movie stars taken by the state, calls Paramount's Yellowstone his "postcard to Montana." The series, loosely set just outside the park, debuts … [Read more...]
Meeting Wolves Face to Face—What’s That Like?
Howlers Inn Proprietors Describe Initial Encounters BY DAVID S. LEWIS She was the first family member to set foot in the wolf enclosure, Aurelie Burns told the Pioneer. The outgoing owner of the sanctuary, Mary Martha Bahn, told Aurelie to remove her dangling earrings before getting close to the wolves—because they could catch their paws on them. Did that worry you, I … [Read more...]
Who Shot Yellowstone’s White Wolf?
BY KAREN DAVIS 6/11/17 A preliminary necropsy of the injured, well-known white wolf discovered April 11 in Yellowstone National Park shows she was shot—and within the boundaries of Yellowstone National Park, officials believe. Discovered by hikers inside the park near Gardiner, Mont., the Canyon Pack alpha female was euthanized by park staff due to her severe injuries. … [Read more...]
Optimism About Yellowstone River Fly Fishing
River Closure Messaging Masked Reality: Trout Are Many and Healthy BY JOSHUA ROBERSON 04/09/17 Last August 19, Governor Steve Bullock closed 183 miles of the Yellowstone River—from Yellowstone National Park's northern boundary at Gardiner to the Highway 212 bridge in Laurel. The reason for this emergency action: an invasive fish-killing parasite called PKX … [Read more...]
Death By Avalanche
Victim Pulled From Deep Snow Near Cooke City BY PAUL WEAMER Just north of Cooke City, Montana, a stone's throw from Yellowstone, blustery arctic winds blew across Henderson Peak in the Beartooth Mountains. Air temperatures hovered in the upper teens, as afternoon wind gusts of over 20 mph began to diminish by 3:00 p.m. Four skiers approached a slope dotted with trees, … [Read more...]
Aerial Cameramen Capture Yellowstone, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho
Capturing the Big Sky From High Above BY MARIA WYLLIE Imagine hovering above Yellowstone National Park, and the world's natural treasures in the most remote areas, where humans rarely travel. Like a bird of prey circling its quarry, you look down upon the landscape, see how it all fits together—from on high, yet close enough to the ground to take in the … [Read more...]
A Ghost Town Near Yellowstone
High in the Absaroka Wilderness, It’s Called a Ghost Town for Good Reason BY NIKOLAS GROSFIELD Montana towns—dead or alive—often seem similar to one another. But as with people, debunking this idea only takes a little digging. Independence is a long-abandoned ghost town high in the Absaroka Mountains. Around a dozen miles north of Yellowstone Park, it nearly … [Read more...]
How to Stop Sexual Harassment at Yellowstone
Why Are NPS and the Feds Incapable of Cleaning House? BY DAVID S. LEWIS 10-27-16 In House Oversight Committee hearings this summer, ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings looked back and forth across the panel, to his left and right, and across the hall, wherein sat or had sat National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis, Deputy Director Michael Reynolds, and various National … [Read more...]
Yellowstone Whistleblower Attracts Federal Investigators
Office of Inspector General Asks Victims and Witnesses to Call Hotline: 800-424-5081 BY DAVID S. LEWIS As the direct result of a news report published in The Montana Pioneer in September about a Scandal in Yellowstone National Park, various federal investigations were alerted to alleged misconduct in Yellowstone National Park and directed investigators to interview the … [Read more...]
Scandal in Yellowstone
National Park Service Centennial Blackened By Disturbing Allegations BY DAVID S. LEWIS 9/07/16 The National Park Service, as it celebrates its 100th anniversary, has been plagued by documented cases of sexual exploitation of employees in the Grand Canyon, as boatman allegedly coerced and forced themselves upon female workers. Now NPS faces new allegations that … [Read more...]
Yellowstone Trout Are Thriving
News Reports Terribly Misleading BY DAVID S. LEWIS 09/09/16 News about the Yellowstone River recently has been bad, and terribly misleading, after Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks closed an unusually long stretch to fishing and recreation on August 19. The Associated Press has led stories with phrasings leading readers to believe that trout in the river have been … [Read more...]
Bison Tearing Up Private Property
Bison Tearing Up Private Property Where Do the Buffalo Roam? —Ask Bill Hoppe Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam; Where the deer and the antelope play; Where seldom is heard a discouraging word; And the sky is not cloudy all day. —My Western Home, Dr. Brewster Higley (1873) BY PETER J. RYAN 08-15-15 When Brewster Higley penned the poem that would later … [Read more...]
Killing Them to Save Them
FWP Allows Hunters to Cull an Entire Herd of Bighorns BY TOM DICKSON 01/08/15 Within just 48 hours of exposure to the pathogens that cause pneumonia, most bighorn sheep respond the same way people do. Their nose begins to drip. Breathing becomes difficult. They develop a hacking cough. Soon the animals become feverish and lethargic. But unlike humans, who … [Read more...]
The Other Yellowstone
Up in the Missouri River Territory, This Is How She Rolls BY RICK & SUSIE GRAETZ Rolling along for nearly 335 miles in Montana's Missouri River Country, the Missouri River takes top billing, but the Yellowstone River is far more than a bit player. The 670-mile long waterway's claim to fame is that it remains the nation's longest undammed river. While it only logs 50 … [Read more...]
Gold Mining Proposed Near Yellowstone
BY PAT HILL 01/08/16 Another proposal to explore for gold in Park County has surfaced, this time near Jardine, Montana, not far from Gardiner. It’s even closer to Yellowstone Park than the proposed Emigrant Peak gold exploration that was scaled back by Lucky Minerals late last year after widespread public comment against the plan. The Crevice Mining Group, headed up by … [Read more...]
Governor’s Bison Decision Irks Montana Farm Bureau
Objections: Year-Round Bison in the Gardiner Basin, Cars Hitting Bison at 70 mph 01/07/16 The Montana Farm Bureau has expressed dismay with the Montana Governor Steve Bullock’s decision to allow for the presence of bison year-round in Montana on the perimeter of Yellowstone National Park (YNP). According to the decision, bison will be permitted to occupy suitable habitat in … [Read more...]
Secret Service on the Yellowstone
They Stand Out Like, Well, the Secret Service 09/01/15 BY DAVID S. LEWIS So I’m driving down Hwy 89 in Paradise Valley near Point of Rocks. It’s August, but freakishly cold and wet. I see a small fleet of identical silver SUVs parked at the fishing access. At 80 mph, I fly by, then turn around, drive back to the entrance, and roll down the gravel road to the … [Read more...]
Bison Tearing Up Private Property
Where Do the Buffalo Roam? Ask Bill Hoppe BY PETER J. RYAN 08-15-15 Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam; Where the deer and the antelope play; Where seldom is heard a discouraging word; And the sky is not cloudy all day. —My Western Home, Dr. Brewster Higley (1873) When Brewster Higley penned the poem that would later become the Western anthem Home on the … [Read more...]
Living in Gardiner, Montana
BY LISA BARIL 05/12/15 The small mountain town of Gardiner, Montana, lies nestled in the shadows of the Absaroka Mountains to the east and the Gallatin Range to the west. Its southern edge meets Yellowstone National Park at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Gardner Rivers, and then stretches three miles northwest along a narrow swath of dry sagebrush scrublands. If … [Read more...]
Gardiner, Montana—End of the Line
A Town's Raw Mountain Mood at Yellowstone's North Entrance BY LISA BARIL During the summer of 1911, Dorothy Pardo boarded a south-bound locomotive at the red brick train depot in Livingston, Montana. She was destined for the small mountain town of Gardiner at Yellowstone National Park's doorstep. During the leisurely two-hour ride through Paradise Valley, Dorothy leaned out … [Read more...]