W. Andrew Marcus

The Atlas of Yellowstone is a masterpiece, written in accessible language for the non-academic; I read it cover-to-cover. Magnificent graphics illustrate the history, geography, flora, fauna, economics and so much more to offer a thorough, comprehensive and well-researched publication which also puts Yellowstone into perspective spanning a broad audience from layman to scientist. Finally, after decades of accumulating questions about what I have seen during my travels throughout the West; one volume has addressed it all! Some of the maps are scaled too low for me to read. I thank all of those that contributed to this extraordinary, timeless and easy to read work.… (mehr)

A coffee-table book covering “Greater Yellowstone” (the park, Grand Teton National park, and the surrounding counties of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming). The first two thirds are various thematic maps showing archaeology, history, geology, demographics and wildlife; the final third is maps proper, with the surrounding area at 1:500000 and the parks themselves at 1:100000. I’m a little annoyed that none of the topographic maps include contour lines; instead they’re shaded relief – more dramatic but less useful.


Fascinating just to browse, although the choice of emphasis is sometimes a little odd; there are only a few pages on geology and a long section on demographics. At first I was nonplussed; Yellowstone is one of the premier geological sites of the world, while it would seem to be of limited interest to want to know (for example) the Presidential election choices of the surrounding counties or their religious preferences. OTOH if found myself browsing the economic and demographic sections longer than the geological ones, perhaps because the demographic data was less familiar. All the geological quads for the park and surroundings are available online from the USGS while I’m not sure where I would go for the demographics; Bureau of the Census I expect but I’m less adept at navigation there.


Apparently this was intended to be a much larger book; the editors apologized for omitted maps – for example, Vegetation Change; Light Pollution; and Small Mammals – apparently because the identified experts in those topics didn’t get the information submitted in time. They also noted that radio collar data could have identified the paths of every wolf and grizzly bear in the park, but they omitted that one because they were afraid it would lead people to den or hibernation areas. (As it is there are maps of wolf and bear use areas that could lead to “encounters with wildlife” – Lamar Valley for wolves and the area north of Fishing Bridge for bears). Although there’s a map of Native American names for major places in the park, the editors noted that many more could have been mapped but were omitted because “…many of the names are so descriptive that they could lead people to sites and resources that are best left undisturbed.”
… (mehr)