Geologist Ferdinand Hayden directed the first scientific exploration of Yellowstone in 1871, leading directly to the founding of the world’s first national park the following year.
Geologist Ferdinand Hayden directed the first scientific exploration of Yellowstone in 1871, leading directly to the founding of the world’s first national park in the following year. Hayden’s noteworthy achievements in science and conservation, however, are clouded by his views of Indigenous people.
The area now known as Yellowstone National Park or the “ land of the burning ground” has been known to Indigenous people for at least 11,000 years. In fact, in 1805 the governor of the Louisiana Territory described a map drawn on a bison hide by an Indigenous American showing a “volcano”.