58 
FOREST AND STREAM 
February, 1921 
THE PROPOSED YELLOWSTONE DAM 
HOW IT WOULD EFFECT THE SCENERY, WILD LIFE AND PUBLIC USE- 
FULNESS OF YELLOWSTONE LAKE AND THE SURROUNDING COUNTRY • 
By GEORGE SHIR AS III. 
I N some fifty years of exploration in 
many of the wilder portions of the 
northern continent, I have become fa- 
miliar with the scenic value and the 
varied uses of many inland lakes, both 
from a recreational and an economic 
standpoint. 
Few, if any, of these lakes can be 
compared with Yellowstone in beauty, 
as a resort for wild life, or with greater 
possibilities for popular use. With one 
exception it is the largest lake above an 
altitude of 7,000 feet and surrounded by 
still higher mountains. 
I have witnessed on very many occa- 
sions the direct and collateral effect in 
the raising of lake levels for irrigation, 
water-power, and for logging on outlet 
streams, and am, therefore, familiar 
with the effect such increased levels 
have upon the adjacent shores and the 
disturbances caused thereby to the 
fauna, flora, and general public uses. 
Many of the observations and conclu- 
sions that follow are based upon four 
seasons spent during the years 1904, 
1908, 1909 and 1910 on Yellowstone 
Lake and the valley of the upper river, 
where I went primarily to study the 
remnant of the Rocky Mountain moose, 
which, fostered by the protection afford- 
ed in the Park have now increased to 
several thousand, and promise in the 
course of time to become once more 
abundant in the adjoining States. 
In my opinion, the proposed irriga- 
tion dam on Yellowstone River just be- 
low the lake would cause more wide- 
spread and irreparable damage to Yel- 
lowstone Lake than the public, at the 
present time, have any conception of, 
or it would be almost unanimously op- 
posed. 
In the first 
place, one notion 
that has been 
sedulously culti- 
vated is the er- 
roneous one that 
raising the level 
of a lake such 
as the Yellow- 
stone some five 
or ten feet is 
only a matter of 
temporary i n - 
jury or incon- 
venience and 
that in the 
course of a short 
time conditions 
would adjust 
themselves t o 
this change 
without any par- 
ticular damage. 
It has taken 
thousa nds of 
years for Na- 
ture to create 
Y e 1 1 o w stone 
Lake in its pres- 
ent form, and it will take hundreds of 
years, at least, to overcome the dam- 
age caused by the proposed dam, and 
much of it would never be overcome if 
the level is intermittently raised. 
T HIS Lake has a shoreline of ap- 
proximately one hundred and fifty 
miles, much of it sand beaches, 
with attractive coves, some seven 
islands, and at the south end two large 
bays formed by a promontory four 
miles wide, and extending northerly out 
into the lake ten miles. 
In the southeast bay is the delta of 
the upper Yellowstone River, three and 
a half miles wide, and containing many 
small lakes and ponds, while the lake 
waters are equally shallow for several 
hundred yards; these warm, shallow 
waters being filled with aquatic vegeta- 
tion, almost the sole food of the moose 
in the summer and early fall, and equal- 
ly essential to the thousands of wild 
fowl as a breeding and feeding place, 
for the waters of the river are too cold 
for any form of vegetation. Further- 
more, in this bay is Molly Island, the 
only breeding ground of hundreds of 
white pelicans which would otherwise 
not be present in the Park during the 
summer months. The southeast bay is 
almost similar, with the beautiful, wood- 
ed Peale Island, suitable for camping, 
and an especially fine place to observe 
the dozens of moose feeding in the shal- 
low waters in the vicinity, and the hun- 
dreds of elk on the meadows near the 
shore, and on the nearby hillsides. By 
raising the Lake to the proposed level, 
all the sand beaches, coves, and all the 
islands with the exception of one that 
would still be marked by a sand dune, 
would be obliterated, while the water 
would cover thfe lower delta of the Yel- 
lowstone for a number of miles, and in 
addition would destroy the access of the 
moose and elk to the western bay by cut- 
ting off the shore approach under the 
precipitous rocks. This increased 
amount of water would also prevent the 
wild-fowl from feeding in the south 
end of the lake, or elsewhere, as they 
are of the non-diving, or marsh variety, 
besides wiping out the breeding islands 
of the white pelicans, gulls and terns. 
Furthermore, this increased level would 
kill thousands of trees along the shores 
and in the coves now the only suitable 
places for camping, and in a short time 
these dead trees, deprived of the support 
of their roots, would be blown over, 
forming an almost impassable barrier 
to the higher ground beyond, and where 
they woud remain undecayed twenty or 
thirty years in this dry and rarified at- 
mosphere. 
With the waters rising and falling at 
different periods, all bushes and ground 
vegetation near the shore would be per- 
manently destroyed, leaving only un- 
sightly and ill-smelling mud flats, while 
the now beautifully weathered gray 
rocks at the present water level would 
be bleached or banded with the discol- 
ored lines of a fluctuating surface. 
It must be remembered that the for- 
mation of the present shoreline and 
shallow bays has been caused by the 
gradual disintegration of a formerly 
rock-rimmed lake. This detritus, to- 
gether with the sand washed up by the 
waves, have in the course of time made 
permanent beaches, at the outer edge of 
which are many varieties of trees, 
shrubs and flowers, while the delta of 
the Yellowstone 
and the shallow 
waters adjacent 
have been 
formed by silt 
from the river, 
the low banks 
being covered 
with willow, the 
winter food of 
the moose, and 
by dense clumps 
of pine into 
which the moose 
retreat during 
severe weather. 
The injury to 
the driveway 
along the west- 
ern shore and 
the submersion 
of the peculiar 
geyser cone near 
the shore need 
not be discussed 
in detail since 
the purpose of 
this article is to 
describe fea- 
Photograph by Geo. Shiras III. 
Pelican Colony on Molly Island which would be submerged if the waters of 
Yellowstone Lake were raised. 
