Entering Wonderland

The eagle's nest. Yellowstone Park. August 1889.

In Wonderland. Yellowstone Park. August 1889

Northern Pacific publicity established Yellowstone National Park in the national imagination as a Wonderland. Numerous guides to the Park used the term, so it's not surprising that our travelers did as well.

The first Yellowstone photograph probably shows Eagle Nest Rock in Gardner Canyon, "inhabited historically by ospreys rather than eagles," according to the editors of Ho! for Wonderland.  The stage-coach route likely followed the twists and turns of the Gardner River, much as today's scenic highway does.