Elizabeth A Watry

El Parque Nacional de Yellowstone es uno de los lugares mas conocidos en el mundo. Fundado en 1872 como el primer parque nacional en el mundo, ha logrado preservar maravillas como el geiser Old Faithful e iconos culturales como el hotel Old Faithful Inn. Durante varios siglos fue el hogar de los shoshones, crow, bannock, pies negros y otras tribus indias. Sin embargo, estos grupos fueron desterrados durante la decada de 1870 por los propietarios del parque, que temian que no hubiera afluencia de turistas debido a los indios americanos que vivian alli. Casi inmediatamente despues de su fundacion, Yellowstone se convirtio enel destino principal para viajes turisticos al oeste de los Estados Unidos tras la Guerra de Secesion. En 1900 era todo un exito turistico, y actualmente ha sido declarado una reserva de la biosfera y patrimonio de la humanidad.

"Betsy Watry tells the tales of a dozen women, some of whom had short-lived adventures in Yellowstone National Park, but most of whom spent decades as rangers, scientists, interpreters, and entrepreneurs, shaping the Park's physical and cultural landscape. This is a wonderful 'hidden' history, full of surprising stories, grounded in intensive research and written with charm." --Dr. Mary Murphy, historian and author of Hope in Hard Times "For so long, Yellowstone National Park has needed a book about the women who stood and today stand tall in its history. At long last, Elizabeth Watry has produced it. Women across the nation should celebrate this book for its noteworthy contribution to women's history, as we professional historians do." Lee Whittlesey, Park Historian, National Park Service, --Yellowstone National Park "To read about Yellowstone National Park too often means viewing it through the eyes and exploits of men. By sharing the experiences and contributions of women who visited, lived, and worked in Yellowstone, Elizabeth Watry places women front and center in the Park's wondrous history. Women in Wonderland is sure to become a treasured resource." --Diane Smith, author of Letters from Yellowstone

Since it became the world's first national park in 1872, Yellowstone has welcomed tourists from all corners of the globe who returned to their hometowns and countries with reports of this American wonderland. Stories from the park's earliest visitors began to spread so rapidly that by 1897 Yellowstone became solidly established as a successful tourist destination with more than ten thousand tourists passing through its entrances. Travelers in the park's first years faced long, dusty, and tediously slow stagecoach trips and could choose only between rather primitive hotels and tent camps for their overnight accommodations. Devoured by nineteenth-century readers, many of the narratives from this era are long forgotten today and are only gradually being recovered from historical archives. Park historians Lee Whittlesey and Elizabeth Watry have combed thousands of firsthand accounts, selecting nineteen tales that offer unique and engaging perspectives of visitors during Yellowstone's stagecoach era. From an 1873 newspaper serial that represents one of the earliest park's recorded trips to the 1914 ""Little Journey"" that popular writer Elbert Hubbard took with his wife Alice, the chronicles included here reveal the enduring captivation that Yellowstone held in the popular imagination, as it does today.