The Yellowstone Story Teddy Roosevelt Had to Deny

[00:00:00] Jess Conaway: Hello everybody. Welcome to Shaka Guide: Stories We Love. This is our social series, and my name is Jess. I am a tour writer and occasional narrator for Shaka Guide, and with me today is one of my favorite people of all time.

[00:00:15] Rachel, would you like to introduce yourself, Rachel?

[00:00:18] Rachel: Thank you very much, Jess. Hi everybody. Rachel here.

[00:00:21] Jess Conaway: So we are talking today about Yellowstone and this tour is really special to both of us. Do you wanna talk a little bit about why.

[00:00:29] Rachel: Well, first of all, it was a tour that we co-wrote together, Jess and I. So of course there was a lot of teamwork, a lot of behind the scenes camaraderie and getting to know each other better as we're working together. And it made for a really, really fun experience. I mean, it's Yellowstone, it's pretty

[00:00:48] Jess Conaway: No, and it's, it's good that we're talking about it now because spring break is happening and people are starting to go to the national parks and starting to plan their summers and stuff. So Yellowstone's like the place. Right. Do you think it's--

[00:01:01] Rachel: Oh, for sure.

[00:01:01] Jess Conaway: --Is it one of your favorites, do you think?

[00:01:04] Like, could you honestly say it's one of your favorites? 

[00:01:06] Rachel: Absolutely. It couldn't not be because there's just so much there. There's something for everybody and it's probably one of your favorites, too. Jess-- 

[00:01:13] Jess Conaway: Oh yeah.

[00:01:14] Rachel: --Right?

[00:01:14] Jess Conaway: Absolutely. Yeah. So the story we're gonna talk about today, I am very ashamed to say that I, being the Teddy Roosevelt or the Theodore Roosevelt expert on staff, I had no idea this story happened until it showed up in this tour. Can you kind of give us a little introduction of what we're going to talk about today?

[00:01:33] Rachel: Yeah. I think of the biggest stories around Teddy kind of centered around myth or hearsay, and this is one of those stories. I'm sure everybody's heard the rumor of Teddy going out into Yellowstone and hunting a mountain lion. But, um, there's a little more to the story than that.

[00:01:53] Jess Conaway: So it's 1903, right? That's when this story takes place. Why did he go to Yellowstone? Why was he there?

[00:01:59] Rachel: So, as you know, he's kind of the 'western man', right? And he's all about being out in nature and wildlife. Of course, as you recall, he came into this presidency after the assassination of McKinley. It's at this point in time, it's fast approaching election season. There's a lot going on, there's a lot of stress.

[00:02:18] He's surrounded by people, and he just needs a break. And so what better place to check out than Yellowstone. Plus, it has the added benefit of him kind of doing a little bit of a showmanship, showing that he's still that same old 'western man'. He's gonna stop by and he's going to-- for those of you who have come from Gardner or plan on going to Gardner, you'll see this-- the Roosevelt Arch.

[00:02:44] He places the cornerstone there and it's a big to-do and celebration and there's lots of press and good for old Teddy.

[00:02:52] Jess Conaway: He wants both. He wants the press, but he also wants to like revisit his mountain man roots. I mean, as we know, he went to the Badlands for a long time and explored out there and he was known like-- Theodore Roosevelt on his horse and stuff.

[00:03:06] So he's out in Yellowstone now. He had been to Yellowstone before, right? Like this was not his first time.

[00:03:12] Rachel: That's right. He had been. But unfortunately, he wasn't super impressed with his first trip. He didn't get to see a lot of wildlife, and that's kind of Teddy's whole thing, right? He loves the animals and so this time he's hoping to see some more and he's hoping to do it in private, doesn't want a bunch of press scaring him, scaring the wildlife. So he's gonna go out by himself and he's saying, you know what guys? You're not invited. Stay back. I'll talk to you when I'm up at the arch.

[00:03:43] Jess Conaway: That like today, some high figure going into the woods and being like, 'peace out, Yo!' That would be funny.

[00:03:48] Rachel: Yep. Well, that's pretty much what he did.

[00:03:51] Jess Conaway: Okay. So he's in nature, he's surrounded. It's April I think. It's the springtime, right? So tell us the story of Teddy Roosevelt in the woods.

[00:04:02] Rachel: So he's out there with a close friend and a fellow conservationist, and he's having fun exploring, and the press are sitting outside and they're getting more and more antsy and Teddy's just in there vibing, right? Like he's having a good old time.

[00:04:19] Well, he comes out and-- surprise! There's all these press stories. But, how can that be? The press weren't invited. They couldn't see him. They couldn't hang out with him. Where did these stories come from?

[00:04:32] Well, they made them up, Jess. They made them up. And in fact, it was such a dry run for them that they decided to make up that The New York Times did a story about Teddy hunting a mountain lion, which is a big deal at the time because Yellowstone had been fighting off poachers and conservation as a concept is pretty new to the United States, and Teddy is an avid conservationist. Of course, Teddy loved to hunt, but he hunted legally and this press story is painting him as some rich politician who can do whatever he wants, doesn't have to play by the rules, and conservation may not be as important to him. But it wasn't true. It, it never happened. Teddy never shot a mountain lion. In fact, he-- well, I'd like to say he didn't really shoot anything and that's true, but there was one casualty on the Teddy Roosevelt Yellowstone trip.

[00:05:30] Jess Conaway: He didn't shoot anything-- I didn't think he shot anything.

[00:05:34] Rachel: A mouse.

[00:05:36] Jess Conaway: He shot a mouse?!

[00:05:38] Rachel: Well, I don't know if he shot it, but I can tell you some poor little mouse ended up skinned on the Teddy Roosevelt trip. Now, he wasn't being sinister. He is not some villain who's just angry and decided to take it out on a mouse. He thought he had discovered a new species. Unfortunately for him, and the mouse-- the evidence he needed-- the mouse skin was analyzed, and it was just a regular old, tragically unfortunate mouse.

[00:06:08] Jess Conaway: So the president of the United States goes into the wilderness, leaves all the press behind him, does his thing, is vibing, comes out of the wilderness and people are so, I don't know-- mad, cranky, upset? They didn't get a good story. They just made one up. And that's upsetting. And, but he actually did kill the mouse.

[00:06:31] So what happened? It must have run on all the papers... this man is not who he says he is, and he's not a conservationist at heart. What happened? Like where did it run and what was the repercussion from that?

[00:06:44] Rachel: Yeah, it was a pretty big deal, not only for Teddy, but for everybody who read it and it blew up and eventually, the paper had to rescind it and give apologies. So, not great. But hey, the truth comes around. But unfortunately, when you retract a story like that, of course it doesn't have quite the pull that, you know, that initial big, 'ah, breaking news! Teddy is out there hunting in the National Park!'

[00:07:08] Jess Conaway: What newspaper was it?

[00:07:10] Rachel: Oh, It was New York Times. Yeah.

[00:07:11] Jess Conaway: So just not a regular newspaper. New York Times had to write a retraction. Oh, I bet that hurt. Oof.

[00:07:17] Rachel: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:17] Jess Conaway: Teddy still remained the conservation president. Right? I mean, that followed him throughout his presidency. He was very much into conservation. He was responsible for the national park system, or one of the people, if I'm recalling correctly, right?

[00:07:33] Rachel: Yeah. And you know, some people get confused because they think that hunters can't be conservationists, but in fact, many hunters are some of the most avid conservationists we have, um, back then and even to this day.

[00:07:46] Jess Conaway: Yeah,

[00:07:46] Rachel: So.

[00:07:46] Jess Conaway: I agree. Absolutely. So, let's switch gears. Like I said, I didn't know that story, and I didn't remember that you wrote that story and I helped write Yellowstone. So maybe people caught up on that and thought, wait, how does she not know what, what she's writing about? Do you wanna kind of give a little insight into how we wrote this tour and why we wrote it together?

[00:08:08] Rachel: Yeah, so, the whole process of writing Yellowstone genuinely took us what, over, over a year from start to finish to make the Yellowstone tour. That's how much detail, care, and time went into this project. That's because we wanted it to be perfect, but also because it is unfathomably large, it's 3,400 square miles. So that's like the size of Rhode Island and Delaware together. And when you're writing a tour and you're packing it full of all of these stories, sometimes the best approach is gonna be kind of divide and conquer. So as Jess knows, we kind of split things up geographically and then also based on like what our specialties are, I guess you could say. So, Jess usually is more the history person and I'm more the science person. So sometimes I would take science tracks from her section, she would take history tracks from mine, and then I focused a lot on the northern region and she focused more on the south and together--

[00:09:10] Jess Conaway: We made a tour.

[00:09:12] Rachel: It came together to make, yeah, one of the best tours.

[00:09:16] Jess Conaway: Look, I know the company pays us. However, I would buy this tour if I didn't work for the company. I think it's phenomenal-- the production value, all the science you get. I mean, we have stories like every single point going into the park, going outta the park. We have like, what is it-- seven starting points, eight starting points? Something like that.

[00:09:39] So, where on the tour can we find this mountain lion story though?

[00:09:43] Rachel: So this particular story is told in Lamar Valley. Lamar Valley, if you aren't super familiar, is sort of the wildlife mecca of Yellowstone. It's where everybody goes to see bison and wolves and potentially, mountain lions. Yeah, it's a great time to just sort of like look around you and imagine, you know, what Teddy was seeing himself. And like you said, there's so many different ways to go around Yellowstone that you could explore for days and days and days and hear more and more news stories and see more and more locations. This particular one is kind of located near the Northeastern exit of Yellowstone.

[00:10:26] Jess Conaway: Which makes sense because I didn't know it because I wrote the southern portion and Grand Teton, which is a whole other story. It's crazy to think that it was not that long ago that we wrote it, but it just seems we. We've written so many other tours since then.

[00:10:40] It just, it's great. So what, Rachel, what was your favorite part about writing the Yellowstone tour?

[00:10:48] Rachel: Oh, that's, that's a tough one.

[00:10:50] Jess Conaway: Yeah. Sorry.

[00:10:51] Rachel: We have such a diverse array of stories, I think that's really fun. I got to write about lots of different things. But if I'm being honest, I think the biggest pull for me was being a big nature nerd and going to school for things like environmental policy and conservation, I loved just learning about our first national park. All of the effects and consequences of the choices made and how we ended up with this beautiful, wonderful place today. It's almost like meeting a celebrity.

[00:11:27] Jess Conaway: Yeah. That's a really good way of putting it.

[00:11:30] Rachel: And how about you, Jess?

[00:11:32] Jess Conaway: Oh, well, thanks for asking. I'm a history nerd. I love American history. There's so much history. Yes, absolutely, it's a nature park, but there's so much history in those trails and Old Faithful... to think about everything, all of the people that came before us and kind of established it to what it is today. And even talking to the Rangers...

[00:11:55] Rachel: Yeah.

[00:11:56] Jess Conaway: And hearing their personal histories about the park. I think that's so cool. I loved digging into all of it. Also, there's ghost stories there, I like the ghost stories as well. Which we'll have to talk about in a different social series, but yeah.

[00:12:12] I think to close out-- we are by no means experts in this park, but we love the park. We know a lot about the park. So this is gonna be a really tough question for you, I know, but if you were to give the people out there one thing, like one can't miss thing when they go to Yellowstone, what would it be?

[00:12:31] Rachel: Hmm. So many people are already gonna go to Grand Prismatic or Old Faithful, and those are great for sure, do not miss. But for me, national parks are about being in places that let you feel that quiet and that connection with nature.

[00:12:51] And so northern range at the top of the Northern Loop is a lot more peaceful and a lot more-- a place where you can kind of tune yourself in, right?

[00:13:03] There's this little hike and it's super short and nobody ever takes it. It's called the Ice Lake Trailhead. And you go through this burned forest and you just see these little charred tree skeletons on either side of you, and eventually when it finally clears out and opens up, there's this really placid, peaceful lake surrounded by these grasses. It's just very ethereal feeling, especially when I went there, it was like very foggy and misty. It felt like I had transported to somewhere else and there was no one else around. And it was just a really nice moment to just feel like the atmosphere, to feel-- for lack of a better word-- the energy of the place that you're in.

[00:13:47] It was very cool.

[00:13:48] Jess Conaway: Amazing. I had, I had never heard that before.

[00:13:51] Rachel: Yeah, I'm sure you've got your own.

[00:13:53] Jess Conaway: Yeah, I guess... but, okay- there are two. Now I wanna go back and I wanna go on that hike. For me, on the Southern Loop, there's just a really small little pullout, where the Kepler cascades are. You'd blink and you'd miss it. You stand there on the platform and you're watching the falls and I've never really been able to put it into words, but I think you did that really well.

[00:14:18] You're able to tune in to the place around you and I love that. 

[00:14:23] Rachel: But Jess, I'm sure you've got your own special place in Yellowstone, right?

[00:14:27] Jess Conaway: Yeah, I mean, not like that I guess. I really wanna go back and do that hike now. But, on the Southern Loop, there is a little turnoff called the Kepler Cascades, and it's kind of like a 'blink and you miss it,' and a lot of people do because it's kind of on a direct route to go to Old Faithful. But it's really cool to just stand there, listen to the falls-- again, not a lot of people go, not a lot of people around-- and just like you said, tune into the place around you. It's great. And then there is a great little convenience store in the West Thumb Geyser Basin District, and they're some of the nicest people in the world that run that. So I, I love snacks, obviously.

[00:15:11] Rachel: Hey, every park trip?

[00:15:13] Jess Conaway: Every part trip you gotta get the good snacks.

[00:15:16] Rachel: But Jess- I'm sure you've got your own special place that you can't miss in Yellowstone, right?

[00:15:22] Jess Conaway: I do. I feel like it's not as magical as yours, which-- man, I really wanna go back there and do that hike now. I love the Old Faithful Inn. I think the oldest structure in the park, if not one of the oldest structures in the park. It's so full of crazy history. And when you walk in it's just dark wood and it's just, it's almost like you're walking into the past. And it gets crowded. It does. But, I think it's really cool and I could spend days exploring that place.

[00:15:59] All the people watching, I hope that you find your own special place in Yellowstone.

[00:16:03] And, I guess we should wrap it up. Do we have any final words, any words of wisdom as people are exploring the parks this spring?

[00:16:11] Rachel: I would just say, if you're heading to Yellowstone this spring or summer, take your time. Take a moment. Breathe it in. Enjoy the stories. Enjoy the ride. And, you know, pull a Teddy. Just decompress. Cut off that phone, for a few minutes at least, and just tell everybody you'll get back to them when you get back to your hotel. Just, you know, absorb it.

[00:16:34] Jess Conaway: The best advice I think. That's the best travel advice ever. Thank you so much, Rachel. Thank you for sitting down with me. I know it's hard with our schedules, but it was really exciting to talk about Yellowstone again.

[00:16:45] And for everybody out there, as you're exploring the National Parks this summer, please, please, please download Shaka Guide. Take us with you.

[00:16:53] If you have any comments, concerns, please send us a line. We are real people behind this app and we'd love to hear from you! I know that sounds kind of corporate, but we do really love to hear from you.

[00:17:03] Thank you everybody for being here and watching today. If you have any questions, drop 'em in the comments. Again, I am Jess.

[00:17:11] Rachel: And I'm Rachel.

[00:17:13] Jess Conaway: On behalf of all of Shaka Guide, thank you and let's explore together!