The traditional Memorial Day weekend season opener in Yellowstone is just around the corner. I’ve fished the Firehole every Memorial Day for the last 13 years and vividly remember the first time I fished the Firehole on Memorial Day back in 1972. Over the years I’ve learned to avoid the Firehole on Saturday and Sunday of the opening weekend as it’s a zoo of over eager and many inexperienced anglers. By Memorial Day Monday the crowds dissipate a bit and an early start can bring some real solitude on this fabled river.
When I first started fishing the park in 1972 I was essentially oblivious to its history, particularly the period of time when it was administered by the US Army—1886-1917. Poaching, vandalism and careless campfires threatened this beautiful park in its early decades. The Department of the Interior proved incapable of protecting the park and the US Army was tasked to administer the park which started a three decade period where the park developed into pretty much what we experience today.
As anglers, we owe a great debt of gratitude to Captain Frazier Augustus Boutelle, Commandant, Fort Yellowstone 1889-1891. Captain Boutelle was not only a soldier, he was an angler and conservationist. The exceptional angling we experience today in the Firehole, Gibbon and Madison are a direct result of Captain Boutelle’s initiative.
In 1889 he wrote the following to the U.S. Fish Commission:
Besides the beautiful Shoshone and other smaller lakes, there are hundreds of miles of as fine streams as any in existence without a fish of any kind. I have written Col. Marshall McDonald, U.S. Fish Commission, upon the subject, and have received letters from him manifesting a great interest. I hope through him to see all of these waters so stocked that the pleasure-seeker in the Park can enjoy fine fishing within a few rods of any hotel or camp. — Acting Superintendent's Report, 1889, Captain Frazier Augustus Boutelle
Protecting the park from poachers, vandals and careless campers wasn’t always easy and twenty soldiers died in the park during the Army’s administration. Seven soldiers died while on winter patrol protecting park wildlife from poachers. When you fish the Firehole or any other park water on Memorial Day or any other day for that matter, you should remember the fallen servicemen who gave their lives in the service of Yellowstone National Park. Here’s a few names we know.
- Sgt James Pruitt – Horse kick
- Pvt Andrew Preiber- Froze to death
- Pvt Ellis Lindgard – Horse wreck
- Pvt David J. Matthews – Froze to death
- Lt Lundsford Daniel – Horse runaway
- Pvt John W. H. Davis – Froze to death
- Pvt Harry E. Donaldson – Drowned
- Pvt Richard R. Hurley – Froze to death
- Pvt Harry E. Allen – Drowned
- Pvt Presley H. Vance – Froze to death
- Pvt Frank F. Monaghan – Drowned
- Pvt Frank Cunningham – Self-defense shooting
- Lt Joseph McDonald – Avalanche
- Sgt Arthur S. Brewer – Drowned
- Pvt Victor Manterfield – Drowned
