REPORT OF THE ACTING SUPERINTENDENT OF THE

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK,

OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT,

Yellowstone Park, Wyo., September 30, 1915.

SIR: I have the honor to submit annual report of the condition of affairs in and the management of the Yellowstone National Park from October 15, 1914, to the present date.

GENERAL STATEMENT.

The Yellowstone National Park, set aside by act of March 1, 1872 (secs. 2474 and 2475, R. S., 17 Stat., 32), is located in the States of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. It has an area of about 2,142,720 acres and an average altitude of about 8,000 feet.

The military force available for duty in the park consists of a detachment of 200 soldiers of the Cavalry Arm of the service, trained in the different Cavalry regiments and detached therefrom for this special service.

The headquarters is located at Fort Yellowstone, but the command also garrisons 15 soldier stations scattered throughout the park, requiring 135 men during the tourist season and 75 during the remainder of the year.

A telephone system connects the soldier stations and the post.

In addition to the military force which is maintained by the War Department, the Interior Department furnishes certain civilian employees, namely, a clerk, scouts, a buffalo keeper, etc.

The detachments of soldiers at the 15 stations performed their duties in a very satisfactory manner.

TRAVEL.

An unusually early spring opened all roads to travel before the tourist season, but on account of heavy rains in May and up to past the middle of June, they were very muddy for a few days after the opening on June 14, but dried up so rapidly that they required sprinkling before the end of the month.

The aggregate number of persons making park trips during the season of 1915 was as follows:

Travel during the season of 1915.

Guests at hotels:

Entering via the western entrance with Yellowstone-Western
Stage Co..

20, 151

Entering via the northern entrance with Yellowstone Park Transportation Co......

6, 722

Entering via eastern entrance with Holm Transportation Co..

144

27, 017

With automobiles...

With other licensees of personally-conducted camping parties.
Making park trips with private transportation:

1,692 265

3, 513

With other private transportation as "private camping parties'

3, 448

6, 961

Total making park trips.

Number making short trips with special licensees.

51,703 192

Grand total of travel, season of 1915.

51,895

The Yellowstone Park Hotel Co. reports that 27,017 people were accommodated at the hotels in the park during the season of 1915, of which 6,722 entered at the northern entrance, 20,151 at the western entrance, and 144 at the eastern entrance.

The Yellowstone Park Boat Co. reports that 4,277 people took the boat trip across Yellowstone Lake during the season, of which 1,863 were traveling with the Yellowstone Park Transportation Co., 1,699 with the Yellowstone-Western Stage Co., 589 with Wylie Camping Co., 111 with Shaw & Powell Camping Co., 4 with Holm Transportation Co., and 11 miscellaneous.

The travel by way of Tower Falls by regular tourists returning to Mammoth Hot Springs from Grand Canyon was less, in proportion to total travel, then last year. The falling off in the number taking this trip, which is the most beautiful in the park, was due to a desire on the part of the transportation companies to spare their horses the pull up the mountain and the longer journey. All touring the park in automobiles took the Mount Washburn route and were most enthusiastic over the scenery.

The Wylie Permanent Camping Co. had 158 wagons in use during the season, the Shaw & Powell Camping Co. had 85 wagons in use. W. N. and O. M. Hefferlin had 42 wagons and 4 saddle horses in use transporting tourists and supplies to their 4 permanent camps in the park, and in addition movable camp licenses were issued during the season, covering a total of 43 wagons and 247 saddle and pack animals and 4 special wagons for livery work.

An inspection of the figures giving the travel for the season shows that about three-fifths of all the visitors to the park entered by the

western gateway. This was due to several causes, chief of which was the reduced rates on certain central western railways to the PanamaPacific Exposition in San Francisco, with side trips to National Parks and other points of interest. This concentration of travel to one entrance made the task of the transportation companies operating therefrom exceedingly difficult, but with the exception of a few days when the numbers arriving were too large for all to be given transportation the traveling public was well handled.

AUTOMOBILES.

Under instructions in connection with your announcement of April 21, 1915, that automobiles would be admitted to the park beginning August 1, such privilege to be extended to pleasure vehicles only, preparations were at once begun. Four extra first-class rangers were employed for the purpose of checking automobiles, telephone lines were extended and old ones repaired, and new telephones installed at several points along the roads where checking was necessary. On June 7 and 8 a trial trip was made by park officers and members of the transportation companies, as a result of which regulations and schedules were planned and recommended to the department, and these were printed and distributed before the opening date.

Prior to the opening date for automobiles, August 1, heavy rains throughout the West made the roads approaching and in the park heavy and difficult, yet 50 automobiles with 171 tourists entered the park on that day. No accidents to the occupants of horse-drawn vehicles due to automobiles marred this radical departure in viewing the park and the regulations and schedules worked perfectly, although travel was the heaviest in the history of the park. It was found possible to grant special schedules and night travel to those whose time was limited, and it is believed that new schedules can be added to those in force which will add to the pleasure of those touring the park in automobiles. Another season should find open to automobiles the road from Tower Falls to the northeast corner of the park, passing through the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek valleys, by the buffalo farm and on to the lofty and rugged mountains that border the northern boundary of the park. The officers, enlisted men, and rangers had no difficulty in handling the automobile travel, and their efforts to keep cars within the schedules were met by courteous and appreciative responses on the part of the occupants.

The following table shows the total number of automobiles, and number of tourists carried by them, that have taken advantage of the opportunity to make the park trip from August 1 to the end of the season:

This travel is included in the aggregate number of tourists taking park trips, heretofore mentioned.

On April 21, 1915, authority was granted by the department to issue a permit to Robt. I. McKay, of Cooke, Mont., to transport machinery, ore, and supplies between Gardiner and Cooke, Mont., using 15 automobile trucks and 25 trailers, under proper restrictions as to schedules, etc., and to use one car as a utility or repair car, all on condition that he make certain repairs to the roads between Soda Butte and Mammoth Hot Springs, and pay a license fee of $20 per annum for each truck used, $10 per annum for each trailer used, and $10 per annum for repair and utility car. Mr. McKay arrived at Gardiner about July 15 with one truck and one utility car. He deposited funds to cover license fee on these and the following morning went to Cooke with them, after having made arrangements with the engineer officer in regard to repairing the roads. Since that time he has had the truck at work in connection with the work of repairing the road between Tower Falls and Cooke, but the improvements have not progressed up to the present time sufficiently as to render it practicable to haul heavy loads over the roads with trucks, but his crews are still at work.

Hon. Stephen T. Mather, Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior, visited the park twice during the season, once before and once after the admission of automobiles.

CONCESSIONERS.

The Shaw & Powell Camping Co. completed the work begun last season of constructing log dining rooms, kitchens, and storerooms at permanent night camps.

The Wylie Permanent Camping Co. constructed a temporary log building for use as a hospital at its Swan Lake Camp, and another at the Riverside camp which accommodates the offices and news stand, and is also used as a recreation room.

Mr. Henry J. Brothers completed his bathhouses and plunge at Upper Geyser Basin and opened them to the public on July 1. These baths have proven popular with travelers as well as with employees of the park. Mr. Brothers reports that the total number of bathers since July 1 was 7,681.

Mr. C. A. Hamilton bought the Klamer general store at Upper Geyser Basin and took charge of it at the beginning of the season.

STREAM GAGING.

Mr. G. Clyde Baldwin, district engineer of the water-resources branch of the United States Geological Survey, with headquarters at Boise, Idaho, who has charge of this important feature, has furnished the following report on this work for the year:

Records were obtained from the following gaging stations which were established during June, 1913:

Madison River near Yellowstone, Mont.

Gibbon River at Wylie Lunch Station, near Yellowstone, Mont.
Yellowstone River above Upper Falls, near Canyon Station.

Snake River at south boundary of the Yellowstone National Park.

The small allotment of funds available for this work has proved sufficient only to keep up the necessary office work connected therewith and to permit the making of one visit during the year to each

of the gaging stations. Consequently it is still impossible to compute discharges of Snake and Yellowstone Rivers for anything except low stages of flow because of the impossibility of securing high-stage measurements until cables have been installed at these stations.

Detailed descriptions of the gaging stations, together with summaries of current meter measurements, and gage height and discharge data for each will be published in the annual Water-Supply Papers of the United States Geological Survey, Parts VI and XII, respectively, for Missouri and Snake River drainage areas.

ROADS.

The road work in the park is in charge of Maj. Amos A. Fries, United States Engineer Corps, who has furnished the following notes on the work in the park under his department:

The sundry civil bill of March 3, 1915, appropriated money as follows for road work in Yellowstone National Park and the adjacent forest reserve on the east and south:

Yellowstone National Park: For maintenance and repair of improvements, $125,000, including not to exceed $7,500 for maintenance of the road in the forest reserve leading out of the park from the east boundary, and not to exceed $2,500 for maintenance of the road in the forest reserves leading out of the park from the south boundary, to be expended by and under the direction of the Secretary of War, to be immediately available: Provided, That no portion of this appropriation shall be expended for the removal of snow from any of the roads for the purpose of opening them in advance of the time when they will be cleared by seasonal changes.

For widening to not exceeding eighteen feet of roadway and improving surface of roads and for building bridges and culverts from the belt-line road to the western border from the Thumb Station to the southern border, and from the Lake Hotel Station to the eastern border, all within Yellowstone National Park, to make such roads suitable and safe for animal-drawn and motor-propelled vehicles, to be immediately available, $50,000.

For completing the widening to not exceeding eighteen feet of roadway and improving the surface of roads and for building bridges and culverts in the forest reserve leading out of the park from the east boundary, to make such roads suitable and safe for animal-drawn and motor-propelled vehicles, to be immediately available, $20,000.

In addition there remained available on October 1, 1914, about one-half of the $255,000 appropriated for the same purposes in the sundry civil bill of August 1, 1914 (pp. 8 and 9, report of acting superintendent, September 30, 1914).

On account of early spring and the desire to expedite work in anticipation of record travel through the park during 1915, due to the combined influence of the European war and of the San Francisco and San Diego Expositions, work was vigorously prosecuted during the spring and summer of 1915 under both appropriations, and consequently almost all crews have either exhausted their apportioned funds or completed their work prior to the date of this report and have been disbanded.

The work during the year included general repair and maintenance of the entire system, including the west, south, and east approaches, both in the park and in the forest reserve on the east, and the Cooke City road; widening and improving the west, south, and east approaches, including the east forest reserve; sprinkling of 100 to 112 miles of belt line and west approach road; repair and construction of bridges; construction of concrete, wood, and galvanized-iron culverts; clearing of dead and fallen timber from the roadside; reshaping and ditching roads; maintenance of trees, shrubs, vines, and lawns.