The bizarre features that combine to make Yellowstone National Park unique- spewing geysers and bubbling mud pots, colorful mineral hot springs and wispy fumaroles- were known to Native Americans long before the descendants of Europeans encountered them. The first mountain man to visit the area, drawn by Indian accounts, was John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, who explored the region after his stint in the Corps of Discovery. Other mountain me followed, but their accounts of the area’s wonders were discounted by some as tall tales. The region’s renown kept growing, especially after the 1871 expedition led by federal geologist Ferdinand Hayden, who was accompanied by pioneering Western photographer William Jackson and the landscape artist Thomas Moran. Their accounts and images of the Wyoming area so captivated the American public that in 1872 Congress set aside more than 1 million acres of Yellowstone to be preserved as the first U.S. national park.
Golden Gate Bridge
Building the Golden Gate Bridge was a mammoth task in the 1930s.
