The First Tourists to America's National Parks

1887 Men on the edge - Glacier Point above Yosemite Valley

1871 The Annie, reportedly the first ever boat launched on Yellowstone Lake 

1899 Tourists driving along Yellowstone River 

Have you explored Retronaut? Its a website that I can loose a few hours in. I just love old photographs, something about the real people in them with real stories. The costumes so elaborate, the joy, the tragedy, some feel so very familiar and others shockingly different.

c.1900 The Geyser Basins at Yellowstone

1911 Tourist camp at Mt. Rainer National Park

1903 Two ladies slide down a snow covered slope in Yosemite

What sparked my interest today was a collection of photographs of the first American National Parks. Of course this land was very much inhabited by Native Americans, but the tourist didn't really enter these breath taking space until the 1860s. It was President Woodrow Wilson who paved the way for the first National Parks and brave intrepid explorers set about mapping and photographing these amazing spaces. 

1870 A government geological surveyor stands next to Old Faithful in Yellowstone, two years before it becomes a National Park

1880 two lady tourists peep over the edge to the Grand Canyon

1902 Amazing shot of a woman standing on Glacier Point with Yosemite Falls in the background

1911 How precarious does this look!! Tourists climb Paradise Glacier in Mt. Rainer National Park