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FrontRangeLiving.com -> Home Design -> Yellowstone
 YELLOWSTONE: Postcards From Paradise
By Niki Hayden
Collectors spend a lifetime searching for objects of desire: silver,
glassware, jewelry and art. But what about collectors of a place? And what if
that place contains acres of astonishing beauty, geological wonders and majestic
animals? It’s no wonder that in Colorado, serious antique collectors turn to
national parks in an attempt to preserve photos, art and memorabilia inspired by
pristine natural beauty.
 For Gary and Cindy Adams, who love rustic antiques, collecting objects from
Yellowstone National Park documents both the history of the park and the people
who visit. A blizzard of souvenirs from the last 100 years is spread out on
their dining room table, nearly all sporting an agreeable looking bear. Within
that collection is a glimpse of a society that yearns to preserve and enjoy a
remarkable piece of land.
"There’s a social history that accompanies the park," Gary says.
"In the beginning it was mostly wealthy people who enjoyed the park. They
would arrive by train and be taken to the lodges. You can see them in photos and
postcards wearing a suit and tie, gloves and hats. Then, when the car campers
arrived, songbooks were printed and passed out. The campers came together in the
evenings to sing. You won’t see any of this now. We can’t imagine campers
getting together for an evening of song. Times have changed."
Both Cindy and Gary grew up in the Midwest but fell in love with the Rocky
Mountains as children. Cindy remembers vacationing at Yellowstone with her
parents, using the soap that came in a yellow wrapper with a brown bear on the
cover. She, like most tourists, found just the right bear souvenir, sent
postcards home to friends and described the park by its moniker,
"Wonderland," to classmates in Iowa.
 Both love American history, so when they moved to Colorado shortly after
college, it made sense to study and collect the homespun saga of our first
national park. Cindy and Gary collected scrapbooks, china, soap, key chains,
books, serigraphs, watercolors, furniture and pennants from Yellowstone. But
shoeboxes full of postcards form the nucleus of their collection. Over time,
postcards become a study in how powerful photography could be at shaping the image and
documenting the reality of a national park.
 The love
affair between the postcard and tourist all began, Gary says, with the penny
postcard. "In 1898 Congress passed a law that you could send a postcard for
a penny anywhere in the world. And for 2 cents you could get Rural Free
Delivery," or RFD, as it came to be known.
At the same time, photographer Frank Jay Haynes from Fargo, Dakota
Territories, set out to photograph the West, and along the way, he chanced upon
America’s first national park. So strong is his stamp on the park that his
family owned the concession at Yellowstone until 1963, when his son died. For
the better part of a century, Haynes and his family photographed and sold penny
postcards that chronicled Yellowstone. Through the lens of a camera, the Haynes
family captured the natural wonders as well as the
people who journeyed to catch a glimpse of Old Faithful, who danced and dined in
one of the lodges, were conveyed by horse and buggy into the wilderness, set off
in Model T cars on dusty roads and fed bears by hand. The idea of a national
park was astonishing to many in 1872, when land was set aside and decreed a
national treasure.
 "There’s something about the postcards from about 1900 to World War
II," Gary says, "Something so romantic about those years. People would
send them from small town to small town. It’s much like collecting stamps or
coins. Postcards are well documented. You know what you have."
Grateful recipients saved postcards for posterity. It took two weeks to see
the park in efficiently organized forays. A postcard for each view or day’s
destination was a bargain. Geological formations made up the most popular
subjects on cards, with Old Faithful faithfully appearing on the bulk.
Altogether there may have been 120 photographers who supplied photos to the
Haynes concession, but none were as prolific as Frank Haynes.
 "At one time he had his own railcar," Cindy says. "He first
began documenting the West when the railroads sent him out as a promoter. Today
you can stand in the same spot that he stood and photograph the same views. You’ll
see Japanese tourists taking the same photo someone took in 1906. People come
from countries all around the world, saying that there’s nothing like this on
the face of the earth."
Cameras are plentiful now, easier than ever to use. Home photos have replaced
much of the postcard trade. By the end of World War II, receiving a postcard
from a national park wasn’t the special event it had been in the past.
 And other sensibilities have changed, too. Tourists are not encouraged to
feed the bears, although early postcards catch unwary tourists handing a bear a
sandwich or two from the picnic hamper. And environmentally insensitive
tourists, as a take home souvenir, dipped china or hankies in the geological
springs, which would encrust them with chemicals. Barriers prevent such cavalier
behavior now.
Other changes have been jolting. The giant fire of a few years back has left
huge swaths of land scarred. "They say it will come back," Cindy says
with a sigh, "but not in my lifetime." The magnificent Mammoth Springs
have diminished and other geological formations have receded as well.
Yellowstone, is, after all, a natural formation and subject to the stresses and
strains of Mother Earth. Busy vacationers also can see the park in one day—as
many do who speed from destination to destination. But some things, perhaps the
best the park has to offer, haven’t changed much at all.
 The architecture of the Yellowstone lodge, built alongside Old Faithful, is
studied by architecture students everywhere. Gary, who is an architect, calls it
a true American indigenous style. "Made entirely from beetle-killed
pine," Cindy adds, "sitting up there in the balcony, you can almost
see the ghosts. We stayed at the Lake Lodge, which is almost as old as the
Yellowstone Lodge and also fabulous. We listened in the evening to a classical
quartet. And then you take your walk at night and hope you’ll see some
animals. Everyone still goes out to walk."
 Cindy and Gary traipse up to Yellowstone regularly, retracing steps, hoping
for a new vista, a new encounter. And they’ve been rewarded for their efforts.
They were present when Steamboat Geyser erupted, an occurrence that no one in
the park could remember. Coincidentally, they were on the same site when it
erupted again eight years later.
But one pastime hasn’t changed. Photographing the park remains the major
endeavor of nearly every visitor. Yellowstone, like many of our national parks,
is a place of majesty, a collection of natural jewels that can’t be bought or
sold, won’t be seen anywhere else or repeated in another place on earth. But
you can take it home with you, as long as it’s in a photograph.
Resources:
 Helpful
organizations: Denver Postcard Club meets on the first Thursday every
month at the Englewood Public Library, 1000 Englewood Parkway, Colorado, 80110
The Rocky Mountain States Postcard Show, Jefferson County Fairgrounds
Auditorium, 15200 W. 6th Ave., Golden, Colorado, 80401.
Also, the Denver Postcard and Paper Odyssey Show will take place on January
14 and 15, 2005, at the Fairgrounds.
Publication: Barr’s Postcard News, P.O. 601, Vinton, Iowa, 52349,
319-472-4713 or 800-397-0145, postcard collecting information
Yellowstone National Park: www.nps.gov/yell
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