Yellowstone place names (A Montana Historical Society guide)

Yellowstone National Park, the world's first national park and a place of spectacular natural wonders, is a fantastic and surprising landscape of names. Since the time of the fur trappers, who called it the place "where hell bubbled up," names have bee laid down on Yellowstone. Rivers, mountains, creeks, hot springs, lakes, and valleys in the Park have been named after famous and not-so-famous personalities, after wildly imaginative images suggested by thermal features, and after the flora and fauna of this magnificent region. The list of place names in this book is at once a guide to the Park, a complementary on unique places, and a capsule history of Yellowstone. After 12 years of intensive research, author Lee H. Whittlesey has written Yellowstone Place Names, the first book of its kind to be published. Digging his facts out of government records, tourist narratives, old guidebooks, and newspaper articles, Whittlesey introduces us to the fascinating histories of more than 650 place names. You can discover how places received their names, who named them, why they were named, and their anecdotal histories. You can find out who named Old Faithful and why, who first floated a boat on Yellowstone Lake, and why places such as Roaring Mountain and Handkerchief Pool got their names. Illustrated with reference maps and historical photographs, Yellowstone Place Names is a book that will introduce everyone-even those who know the Park well-to a Yellowstone they have not seen before.