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| Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park | 
| Author: Lee Whittlesey
Publisher: Roberts Rinehart Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $5.00
You Save: $11.95 (71%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  45 reviews
Sales Rank: 193752
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 0.8
ISBN: 1570980217
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.752
EAN: 9781570980213
ASIN: 1570980217
Publication Date: June 25, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Intriguing stories of how people have died in Yellowstone warn about the many dangers that exist there and in wild areas in general.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 40 more reviews...
 Worth reading before going there June 7, 2008
We are going to yellowstone this summer so I thought this would be a good read, as sad and gross as some of it is, it was a real eye opener and I think anyone with kids should read it before they go. I will be taking a child and I will be watching him like a hawk. The book itself starts out well but it does putter out towards the end like other readers reported. Still worth a read.
If you ever plan on visiting YNP read this book!!! April 5, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I've lived in Yellowstone Park for about 6 years now, and every summer I'm appalled how easily the tourists leave thier common sense at the gate. This should be required reading before anyone is allowed to enter. This book is as entertaining as the Darwin Awards, with a few sad twists, and some fun wild west shinanigans thrown in. Some of the accounts are far more detailed than others, as there was more research information available. It has personal meaning to me, because I frequent the cemeteries mentioned in the book, and it gives more depth to that experience. (If you're ever in the Gardiner, MT area check out Tinker Cemerery--very cool, very old. There's also one by the horse corrals at Maammoth Hot Springs, you can park there and take a short hike on the trail--it's mostly employees from the days the army was running the place.) Bottom line--this is a terrific, necessary book. If you fall or jump into a pool of boiling geyser water you will die--if you're lucky it'll be quick. The animals are wild, and most of them a hell of alot stronger and faster than you. Yellowstone is definitely worth the trip. Just, please, if you come here don't be stupid. Happy trails!
 Morbid but very interesting! January 8, 2008
As the title suggests, many stories are recounted in detail. Some of these stories are a bit shocking, and we are reminded that the wildness of nature knows nothing about the sanctity of human life. The book would be especially interesting to prior visitors who are somewhat familiar with Yellowstone National Park.
Morbidly Interesting, and a Personal Note December 23, 2007
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
The last decade has seen a slew of books dealing with deaths in the national parks. The authors assure us that they publish these volumes to warn visitors of the dangers they face in the parks. The reality of course is that many in the literate public are fascinated by death, especially in unusual or exotic circumstances, and these books cater to that morbid demand. Nonetheless, they make for interesting reading and serve as a cautious reminder that visits to the wilderness, while safer than certain neighborhoods in major metropolitan areas, still contain very real hazards. This volume by Lee Whittlesey, was one of the first in this genre, and is still one of the best.
From grizzly attacks to death by poisonous gasses and murders, Whittlesey exhaustively covers all known deaths in Yellowstone from before the founding of the park to 1995 when the book was published. For me the descriptions of people falling into the hot springs were by far the most riveting, and the most grusome, portions of the book. Cooked alive, the victims of these accidents rarely died quickly, but often instead lingered on for many hours, a pretty horrific way to go. Whittlesey also catalogs the many mistakes victims and some lucky survivors made to help visitors to the park avoid similar fates.
One thing that sets this book apart from others in this genre is that Whittlesey, in addition to experience as a park tour guide and ranger, is a lawyer. This background shows itself in various ways. The book includes, for example, extensive discussion of court cases that resulted from fatalities in Yellowstone and how they have influenced park management. It also shows in the author's broader philosophy about the deaths in the park. True accidents, he argues, are rare. For the most part, people who have died in the parks were, he argues, actually negligent when it came to their own safety and sometimes the safety of others. This attitude towards the victims shows itself throughout the book, and most of the time Whittlesey makes a pretty convincing case.
But not always. When discussing the 1986 death of William Tesinsky (by mauling from a grizzly bear) Whittlesey notes, "Bear 59 was a semi habituated bear, ... But she had never even approached a human aggressively." This is not entirely true. I should know, because I was chased by Bear 59 on June 20 of that very year while hiking (alone) between the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and Yellowstone Lake. Indeed, it was my report to the Lake ranger station that led to the temporary closure of that trail, and the bear's eventual relocation by the Park Service. At that time, Bear 59 had two cubs and a large person walking nearby was, as the ranger explained to me, considered a threat. But 59 no longer had the cubs with her when she killed and partially ate the unfortunate Mr. Tesinsky. No doubt, as Whittlesey says, he was too close for 59's liking while trying to get the perfect photograph. But the retelling of this story, that follows the park's official report which I saw a few years later, is interesting in that it does not mention my earlier encounter with 59. Whittlesey the lawyer argues that, much as we don't want to admit it, negligence is more common than accident. He forgot to add that humans, including park rangers, might sometimes unintentionally omit certain bits of information that do not fit their preconceived notions.
(I asked a ranger about what had become of my incident report during a 1998 visit to the park. She said that it had not been included since the bear had not actually come into physical contact with me. I understand that answer, but it certainly does undermine the claim the bear had never before shown aggressive tendencies. In my case, I was unaware of her existence till I saw her charge out of the woods, two cubs at her heals, and easily 50 yards away.)
First Hand December 19, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I read this book while I was an employee in the park (called a savage in the book). I know first hand how amazingly bizarre some people will behave in the park. On my most recent return to yellowstone I saw a family of 4 (2 kids under ten) less than 10 ft away from a grizzly and her cubs. I have seen tourists trying to get their children close to Bison to take a picture, people touching the hot springs to "see how hot it is" (you would think steam in the middle of summer would give them a good idea)and I myself have 3rd degree burns on my right foot from breaking through thin ground that was covering a hot pot.
This book does a wonderful job of describing just how wonderful but dangerous Yellowstone can be. I do not consider this to be morbid book at all, just informative. I think that the narrative is as entertaining as it can possibly be covering this kind of subject matter.
If you are familiar with the park at all I think that you would find this book will give you a somewhat different view of the park than most uninformed visitors may have.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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