The chilling tome that launched an entire genre of books about the often gruesome but always tragic ways people have died in our national parks, this updated edition of the classic includes calamities in Yellowstone from the past sixteen years, including the infamous grizzly bear attacks in the summer of 2011 as well as a fatal hot springs accident in 2000. In these accounts, written with sensitivity as cautionary tales about what to do and what not to do in one of our wildest national parks, Whittlesey recounts deaths ranging from tragedy to folly – from being caught in a freak avalanche to the goring of a photographer who just got a little too close to a bison. Armchair travellers and park visitors alike will be fascinated by this important book detailing the dangers awaiting in our first national park.
Lee H. Whittlesey is a historian and the author of Storytelling in Yellowstone and Yellowstone Place Names. He has appeared in numerous documentaries on the national parks and the West in general, most notably Ken Burns’s recent series. He lives in Gardiner, Montana.