The Yellowstone Park 



region, which, owing to the rough and 

 rugged nature of its barriers, had defied all 

 earlier attempts at exploration. It stood out 

 alone as a broad unknown mountain mass 

 when the surrounding country had been 

 fairly well explored. It had been visited 

 only by a few venturesome pioneers, mining 

 prospectors, and fur-hunters, who found little 

 or no encouragement to seekers after wealth. 

 Only one trans-continental railway spanned 

 the Rocky Mountains, crossing Wyoming far 

 to the south of the Park, the Union and 

 Central Pacific having been opened to traffic 

 in 1869. At that time, wild animals roamed 

 freely over prairie, plain, and mountain slope, 

 from the Canadian border to the Rio Grande. 

 In Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, elk, 

 deer, and antelope abounded in favorable lo- 

 calities. In the North Park in northern Col- 

 orado, I saw almost daily numerous bands of 

 antelope, hundreds in each, grazing along 

 the shallow bottom-lands. Over the Laramie 

 plains, antelope and deer might be seen 

 almost any day from the railway. Buffalo 

 roamed the great plains in vast numbers. In 

 1872 I saw buffalo in the North Park, but 

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