Customer Reviews

Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

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Whenever I mention this book to anyone, they are horrified by the title. It is not a "Faces of Death" book of gore. Obviously, the book chronicles deaths within the Park and is therefore not exactly light reading. But, Mr. Whittlesley (the official NPS Yellowstone archivist) tells the stories of the deaths with a historian's tact. There are few - if any - people on earth that know as much about the park as Whittlesley. One version of his "Yellowstone Place Names" (the longer version of the one sold in tourist stores and on Amazon.com)is so comprehensive it is (only?) available on microfiche!

Having lived in the Park, I know it's a very different world. (The story noted by Rhonda, another reviewer, about the bison goring a car - a Lake Lodge employee's Geo Metro in 1991 - is actually quite true.) Many of the deaths are from things you might think of - like climbing falls, eating poisonous plants, and hot pot incidents. Even as I am writing this, another Old Faithful employee died yesterday (8/22/00) in the Park after falling into Cavern Spring in Lower Geyser basin (see Idaho Statesman, 8/23/00, p.2A). But, the book is also full of deaths of the kind you find everywhere else in the world - like heart attacks, suicide, murders (yes, several!), car accidents, plane crashes (six of them - one site of which I've visited - with 20 deaths!), etc. The earliest chronicled deaths are in 1839 and continue through 1994.

Some of the over 300 incidents are briefly related as the facts are slim. Others are told in great detail with quotes, newspaper stories, cemetery inscriptions and exact place names. The simple chronology takes up 5 pages, while the meat of the text takes 198 pages! If you are expecting John Grisham's spellbinding fiction and twists and conspiracy, then this book is not for you. If you want a very well told, fascinating historical look at Yellowstone from a different point of view, then this is the book for you.

At first glance, it sounds like a morbid book. Two hundred seventy six pages about people who have died in various ways in Yellowstone National Park. In reality, it is a fascinating book with an underlying message of safety and caution in National Parks. You might expect a book which is written by an historian to have an academic tone and be full of footnotes and an extensive bibliography. "Death in Yellowstone" by Yellowstone National Park Historian, Lee H. Whittlesey, does have the footnotes and bibliography. It also reads like a Stephen King novel, drawing the reader to the next page. Whittlesey even used a King technique of quoting song lyrics or some other source to introduce his chapters. Even many of the footnotes and bibliography entries are annotated with additional, interesting information.

The book's subtitle, "Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park", sets the tone. Nearly every chronicled death in the book really is due to carelessness on the part of the deceased; or on the part of someone else.

The historian's perspective gives Whittlesey the opportunity to dig into the archives of Yellowstone as well as newspaper accounts in cities in the area taking him (and the readers) back to the 1800's and the park's earliest deaths. For recent events he often spoke with "primary sources", witnesses and family members.

Each of the 25 chapters takes the reader to a different and bizarre way that death has occurred in Yellowstone National Park. The chapter titles, themselves, often give a light hearted and much needed break from the serious nature of the overall work. Chapter titles include: "I Think I Shall Never See --Yellowstone's Deaths from Falling Trees"; "Malice in Wonderland --Yellowstone Murders"; and "The Gloom of Earthquakes --Shaky Breaky Park".

The opening chapter deals with deaths by falling (or jumping) into hot springs and geysers. The first incident in the book sets the tone and the overall theme....."Don't do stupid things in Yellowstone". It is the 1981 account of David Allen Kirwan, who dove head first into the 202 degree water of Celestine Pool of the Lower Geyser Basin to save a friend's dog that had also jumped into the boiling water <---YOU DID read that correctly --a witness described Kirwan's dive as a flying, swimming pool type dive. Among his final words after his friends were able to pull him from the water....."That was a stupid thing I did".

In most instances, it was s "stupid thing" that caused a death in Yellowstone. Usually, it was because a visitor did not heed a warning, or made a conscious decision to ignore the warning. In "Death in Yellowstone", Whittlesey repeats those warnings...over and over again. He also explains in fairly graphic terms the consequences of ignoring them.

"Death in Yellowstone" may save lives. There are few history books, so entertaining and so engrossing that can claim that.

The Wyoming Companion

Having visited the park i can see how foolhardy accidents happen but don't understand why they happen since all kind of warnings are given out by rangers when entering the park and sign posted with same messages. This book goes into as much detail as could be found about various deaths in the park, geyeser, drowning, bear, bison, hiking, murder, plane accidents etc.. Its strange to be looking at a particular geyeser or steaming pool to know someone died there and how and when it happened. To see a bison walking closely by and giving proper respect for the animal only to see a father trying to put their child on the bison for a picture (saw this myself). This book will give you a different perspective about the park and help to identifiy potential dangers for foolhardy behavior.

Growing up in southeast Alaska, I've heard stories of tourists chasing a bear cub down the road near the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau as well as a tourist getting bitten while trying to feed a sandwich to a bear. I've been yelled at by a tourist for clapping and making noise to alert bears to my presence while hiking because they were concerned they would not see a bear with all the noise I was making (well, that is the point). With my experience with how dumb tourists can be in Alaska, I was interested to find out stories of tourists and others in Yellowstone.

This was a book that I had mixed feelings about. The first three chapters were the best. These chapters were on deaths from hot springs, death by park animals (except bears), and death by bears. The remaining 22 chapters range from death by poison gasses to death by vehicles. I felt these chapters while factual, were not very exciting.

Overall, I found the book decently researched, but overall I found it kind of depressing. I found the first chapter on the hot springs quite horrific (especially when some of the victims were young kids like my children and a couple involved dogs that just wanted to go swimming). As I read the book, I kept thinking the victims were someone's children, spouse, SO, friends, or other loved one. With this being said, I did find the book respectful and tasteful.

This is a book I think people can take a lesson from. Nature is real and while it should be enjoyed, people need to be reminded that it can be dangerous.

Having visited the park several times, I can attest that even the seemingly most bizarre examples of death an injury found in this book happen all the time. People act as though Yellowstone is a theme park when in fact it is the wilderness - beautiful, amazing, but certainly dangerous. The park rangers at the entrances hand out literature warning visitors of the dangers, but many do not even read the materials, much less heed the advice. The last time I visited, I saw the following:

1) A man climbed out onto a slippery rock at the base of an enormous waterfall, with an infant strapped to his back. His other child was scrambling over dangerous rocks to join them.

2) A bear cub was rolling in the grass of a meadow, and a man got within 5 feet of the cub, trying to "play" with the cub. As if Mama Bear was not far behind!

3) A woman stepped off the wooden pathway at the Old Faithful Geyser basin, standing on the thin, crusty earth in order to hold her hand over a steaming hot pool.

4) A car abruptly swerved around a pack of bison that were walking down the road, and a large 18-wheel truck proceeded to blow his airhorn at the bison, distressing them and driving them off the road. They were travelling with calves and heading in my direction - I just prayed that they would not get upset enough to ram into my car as they attempted to get out of the road!

And on and on...fortunately, I've never seen injuries or death while visiting the park, but you look at the behavior of some visitors to the park and know that they are just accidents waiting to happen. This book is engrossing because it's full of real-life accounts of what can (and does) happen when people fail to heed common sense. Do people really need to be told not to feed bears? Not to step into boiling pools of water? Not to run along dangerous paths? Sadly, the answer to these questions is yes.

I picked up a copy of Whittlesey's book while on vacation in Yellowstone in July of 2000. The cover captured my attention because the day before two of my kids narrowly escaped becoming statistics.

We had just entered the park through the northwest gate when, as we were driving along, we spotted our first plumes of steam. Anxious to begin exploring we eased the camper onto the side rode and drove to a parking spot, pulling off the road near a dirt trail that led to the hot spring.

As usual, my kids were out of the car in a flash and dashing down the trail where they immediately set up a game of tag, darting around the edge of the boiling water. Also, as usual, I got out of the car and hollered after them to "get back here and settle down." This time, though, I was a bit more concerned because as I drew near the hot spring I could see it bubbling and steam was rising off the surface. Again, I yelled after the kids to settle down, but they just ignored me and continued their game of tag.

Knowing the water was probably hot I decided to test it. With calculation I quickly dipped the index finger of my right hand into the pool up to the first knuckle, withdrawing it as fast as I could. What I felt sent terror up my spine - it was the cutting pain and persistent dull ache of scalding, boiling water.

My perspective changed in an instant. I no longer saw the water as a clear, sparkling, blue-green emerald, but as a death trap more dangerous than a gaping hole thousands of feet deep. Just then Jacob and Christopher flew around the corner, and darted between the pool and me. Jacob tottered but regained his balance and, with a holler of delight, and scampered quickly to escape Christopher who was in hot pursuit.

Using the most authoritarian and urgent language in my vocabulary, I shouted at the kids to get away NOW! Jacob and Christopher stopped. They recognized that tone of voice and the twitch that develops in my left eye when I mean business. They moved away from the hot spring, and for the next 15 minutes endured a parental lecture on what it would mean to be dunked in boiling water. I described third degree burns over their entire bodies, flesh that comes off the bones like a boiled chicken, a scalded esophagus, blindness and certain death after languishing for hours in the hospital's burn center as parents and siblings wept in the waiting room.

Being kids, they looked at me askew, doubting my warnings and admonitions while calculating the price of defiance. They obeyed, if not with reluctance, and stayed by my side as we visited the rest of (a small sampling of) the park's geothermal features. Wanting backup, however, I was immediately convinced when I read the first few pages of the first chapter in Whittlesey's book. I bought it on the spot, and read it in less than a week. The kids read it too, and finished it with a new appreciation for minding their father's warning in the wilderness.

The book is divided into two parts. Part 1 talks about how people have died in the park from nature. This includes things like falling into hot springs, getting killed by wild animals (bison and bears, mostly), poisonous plants, noxious fumes from geothermal vents, lightning, falling trees, fires, etc. Part 2 describes how people have died from human-related causes such as accidents, fights, murder, getting kicked by horses, and even suicide.

Prior to reading Whittlesey's book I'd established a mental picture of Yellowstone as a place that's dangerous because of bears. Bears are dangerous, of course, and must be respected, but there are lots of things in the park that are far more likely to get you killed than bears. Some of the most likely ways to die are from drowning, falling, or boiling to death.

It's true that some of the book's material can be tedious - especially when it consists of lists of fatalities and related statistics. However, much of it consists of some pretty interesting stories in which Whittlesey does a respectable job of bringing together a human-interest narrative that treats the tragic end of the story - which almost always ends in human death - with a remarkable mixture of interest, dignity, and respect. I found him compassionate in the telling of particularly tragic accounts of death, and rather blunt about those that might have been a candidate for the Charles Darwin award. In spite of the subject matter, this is not a book filled with sensationalism. Neither is it a book that glosses over the gruesome facts of death. Rather, it is a book that accurately portrays the dangers within the park and the unforgiving consequences of ignoring those dangers. Sprinkled throughout the text are reminders that wilderness is dangerous, but to make it benign would be to destroy one of its essential characteristics. Yellowstone cannot, and should not, be made perfectly safe. Rather, those who visit it must respect it for what it is.

Overall, this is a nice book, and it was just the ticket for a relaxing evening in the camper at the day's end. The kids loved it - they were so engrossed - and I frequently found myself in a war of wits trying to keep it hid and available for my reading pleasure. The pages are dog-eared, covered with dirt, and folded back. The spine is broken. It's one well-read book and appreciated by many people. I'm sure you will find the same enjoyment. If you are going to Yellowstone, you really must pick up this book and read it first. It literally could save your life - and it's not bad reading to boot.

The last decade has seen a slew of books dealing with deaths in the national parks. The authors assure us that they publish these volumes to warn visitors of the dangers they face in the parks. The reality of course is that many in the literate public are fascinated by death, especially in unusual or exotic circumstances, and these books cater to that morbid demand. Nonetheless, they make for interesting reading and serve as a cautious reminder that visits to the wilderness, while safer than certain neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas, still contain very real hazards. This volume by Lee Whittlesey, was one of the first in this genre, and is still one of the best.

From grizzly attacks to death by poisonous gasses and murders, Whittlesey exhaustively covers all known deaths in Yellowstone from before the founding of the park to 1995 when the book was published. For me the descriptions of people falling into the hot springs were by far the most riveting, and the most grusome, portions of the book. Cooked alive, the victims of these accidents rarely died quickly, but often instead lingered on for many hours, a pretty horrific way to go. Whittlesey also catalogs the many mistakes victims and some lucky survivors made to help visitors to the park avoid similar fates.

One thing that sets this book apart from others in this genre is that Whittlesey, in addition to experience as a park tour guide and ranger, is a lawyer. This background shows itself in various ways. The book includes, for example, extensive discussion of court cases that resulted from fatalities in Yellowstone and how they have influenced park management. It also shows in the author's broader philosophy about the deaths in the park. True accidents, he argues, are rare. For the most part, people who have died in the parks were, he argues, actually negligent when it came to their own safety and sometimes the safety of others. This attitude towards the victims shows itself throughout the book, and most of the time Whittlesey makes a pretty convincing case.

But not always. When discussing the 1986 death of William Tesinsky (by mauling from a grizzly bear) Whittlesey notes, "Bear 59 was a semi habituated bear, ... But she had never even approached a human aggressively." This is not entirely true. I should know, because I was chased by Bear 59 on June 20 of that very year while hiking (alone) between the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake. Indeed, it was my report to the Lake ranger station that led to the temporary closure of that trail, and the bear's eventual relocation by the Park Service. At that time, Bear 59 had two cubs and a large person walking nearby was, as the ranger explained to me, considered a threat. But 59 no longer had the cubs with her when she killed and partially ate the unfortunate Mr. Tesinsky. No doubt, as Whittlesey says, he was too close for 59's liking while trying to get the perfect photograph. But the retelling of this story, that follows the park's official report which I saw a few years later, is interesting in that it does not mention my earlier encounter with 59. Whittlesey the lawyer argues that, much as we don't want to admit it, negligence is more common than accident. He forgot to add that humans, including park rangers, might sometimes unintentionally omit certain bits of information that do not fit their preconceived notions.

(I asked a ranger about what had become of my incident report during a 1998 visit to the park. She said that it had not been included since the bear had not actually come into physical contact with me. I understand that answer, but it certainly does undermine the claim the bear had never before shown aggressive tendencies. In my case, I was unaware of her existence till I saw her charge out of the woods, two cubs at her heals, and easily 50 yards away.)

We picked this up on our last trip to Yellowstone. I visited when I was in the 4th grade and then again at 26. After reading the book I decided to wait until my kids were a little older for their first visit.

After readind this book I was amazed at some of the dumb things people do. They leave their brains home while on vacation. I recommend this book to anyone going to or visiting Yellowstone. I was amazed on my trip at how many people go near the bison, stray from the paths or even drink from the run off of Old Faithful. Read this book and you will have a better understanding of the natural magnitude of this truly unique park.

I read this book in a few days this summer while in Yellowstone after a friend picked it up in the bookstore (I pilfered it from him and would not give it back until I was finished, despite his pleading.) Reading this book could absolutely save your life in Yellowstone (and other wilderness situations); as other reviewers have mentioned, some of the possible dangers don't truly seem life-threatening if you haven't thought about them as such.

I must admit that before reading this I was hanging a bit over the hot spring boardwalks to take better pictures (I was *never* dumb or careless enough to actually step off or stick my hand in!!), but after reading the absolutely horrific accounts of death by boiling alive I was almost reluctant to even get out of the car at any springs afterwards! I learned from this book that something as seemingly-innocuous as lip balm can attract bears - I therefore spent a few sleepless nights in my tent listening for bears entering camp and waiting for them to rip into me (melodramatic, perhaps, but quite scary when you're in a tent in the middle of the wilderness.)

Anyway, this book was gripping enough to keep me engrossed for days on end while in the park, and certainly gave me a refresher lesson about respecting mother nature.

I grew up near YNP. I have worked at Old Faithful Inn. I've visted the park so many times I've lost count. And during my most recent visit in Aug 05, I saw a whole assortment of tourons behaving badly. I've seen people walk up to geysers, stick their hands in hot pools, attempt to pet elk and bison, and drive like they're weaving around LA. For some reason, it never sinks in that Yellowstone is not a rocky mountain Disneyland.

This book has always been one of my favorites about the park. I think it should be given out at the entrances. However, most folks don't read the pamphlets handed out in the first place. Death in Yellowstone, while morbidly entertaining, is a book that has to exist in the hopes that someone may take a lesson away from it.

It is my hope that the author will put out a second edition sometime soon, as I know of a few interesting deaths that have happened not only the summer I worked there but others as well.

This is a must read for anyone who loves Yellowstone.