Yellowstone is one of my most favorite National Parks. I visited the park in 2023 and would love to go back again! I loved reading this book and learning more about the park.

A Place Called Yellowstone is a must-read for anyone passionate about national parks and environmental history. Wilson’s ability to weave together the park’s natural and human history makes this book both informative and engaging.

●This book delves into the rich history of Yellowstone, from its geological origins to its establishment as the world’s first national park.

●Wilson explores how Yellowstone became a symbol of America’s natural beauty and conservation efforts, highlighting its influence on environmental policy and tourism.

●The narrative doesn’t shy away from the park’s complex history, including Native American land dispossession and ongoing tensions between commercial interests and conservation efforts.

●Wilson’s engaging prose and thorough research make this a compelling read for anyone interested in environmental history and national parks.

A Place Called Yellowstone is not a traveler’s guide, is not a hiking guide, is not a tourism guide. What it is is an excellent, concise, informative and often vivid history of how Yellowstone became Yellowstone. That how encompasses a range of elements: it’s geography and topography, its early exploration by both indigenous and non-indigenous people, its arrival as the first National Park and how that happened, obstacles it had to overcome to remain a “park for the people”, and finally how its ecology has been managed and mismanaged whether we’re talking its treatment of bears, the reintroduction of wolves, the increase in bison, the changes in how wildfires are dealt with. And Wilson doesn’t shy away from the uglier elements either: the expulsion of native people from their traditional home and/or hunting grounds, the rapacity of profiteers, the corruption that some of its stewards became entangled in.

It's a thorough exploration. True, some may find it too thorough perhaps in parts as names and legislative acts can start to pile up, and years may be difficult to keep straight at times, but I don’t think Wilson expects anyone to remember all those details. It’s all about covering things fully and placing them in a full context, which I personally appreciated even if now and then I wondered “did I really need to know that person?” Nor is this a dull recitation of facts: dates and names. There ae lots of vivid passages and sections throughout. A compelling story of one explorer who got separated and had to survive for weeks on his own, several vivid, tautly related stories involving an earthquake and a forest fire.

Yellowstone is one of our favorite places. I’ve been there now nearly a dozen times. Wilson’s book gave me a wonderful new view and context on the place, which will allow me to appreciate it all the more during our next visit. Highly recommended.

I was disappointed in this book because, to me, it is a history textbook. It goes into great detail about the origins and happenings of this special place. It gives a history of explorers and Native Americans and describes some early and not so early encounters that you just can't run through the woods with them fast enough to see what happens. You meet so many historical figures, government bureaucracy, Native American tribes, animal slaughter, the National Park Service, and much more. It tells all of this history.

I did not read about how it feels when you see your first wild buffalo. When you see them lying in the morning mist with their young ones near the thermal pools, and it is so quiet...you feel as if you are special just for being there. When you hear a big bison bull literally ripping the grass from the ground by its roots, you know it is a sound you will never forget. Seeing a huge herd of elk, makes you stop and gasp. All the different colors in thermal pools...are they truly colors you have never seen before? And the magnificent Grand Tetons... you can't even imagine.

This book gives a good history of this place we call Yellowstone. Although at times I felt it was more facts than feeling. But I guess history books aren't supposed to have feeling. But there is no way you can visit Yellowstone and not be overcome.

I give it four stars for the history and one and a half for the feeling.

This book details a lot of history surrounding Yellowstone National Park. The author did an immense amount of research to create this book, and I I'll be excited to see what the final product looks like with the added maps. One day I hope to witness the natural beauty of this national park, and when I got I will have some added insight into the park.

A great history of Yellowstone that covers the key figures that shaped the park into the modern marvel it has become. I was captivated by the beautiful description of the park, as well as the major conservations and animal reintroduction programs the park has spearheaded. Visiting Yellowstone tops my 'bucket List' but this work was an enchanting and informative prelude