Death in Yellowstone Quotes

“Dangers and wilderness go hand in hand. That is part of the attraction of wilderness, and danger is part of the allure”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“stimulate”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“It is a mystery why anyone would dive headfirst into a Yellowstone hot spring merely to save a dog, but that is precisely what happened on July 20, 1981.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“it is impossible to “safety proof” a national park, and those parks are often more akin to Jurassic Park than to Disneyland.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Of course, collaring and tracking all bears is illogical, unreasonable, and unnatural from the point of view of park managers, regardless of one judge’s opinion. It can traumatize the bears, make the bears look artificial instead of natural, cost a lot of money in radios and monitoring personnel, and give the public the perception that a national park is like the movie Westworld (all mechanical) rather than a natural preserve.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honor by the locks. —William Shakespeare, King Henry IV”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Correct in his later assessment of war in general, Sherman was decidedly incorrect in this statement. The Nez Perce had both just cause and provocation for going to war. The whites were in the process of stealing their ancestral lands and had cheated, robbed, and killed some of them.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Without hesitating, he said, “Can you tell me something? These animals that are just running around out here . . . they couldn’t be wild, could they, or you wouldn’t just have them running around loose?”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Some folks require the park’s wildness and yet deny its right to exercise its wildness upon them.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“To develop a national park is to not have one.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“People who live in Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho are used to cold temperatures, but even those of us who live here can become complacent. Many of us sometimes walk out the door at night without a coat in order to retrieve something that we have left in our car or to run a quick errand while thinking, “I’ll only be out for a moment.” It is easy for a door to accidentally slam shut, thus locking us in the cold without proper protection. When one lives “out in the country” and no one else is around to help, that hasty decision can be a lethal one, especially at night.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“The worst possible situation is a person hiking alone who surprises a bear that is feeding (as on a carcass) and also has cubs. If this last situation happens to you, we will not expect to see you back at the trailhead.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Oils from its body later made the hot spring have small eruptions.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Don’t do that!” said Welch, and Kirwan responded very tiredly, “It doesn’t matter.” Near the spring, rangers found two large pieces of skin shaped like human hands.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park

“Frank Welch was literally sleeping on a slab of bacon at the time of the event.”
― Lee H. Whittlesey, Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park