How did Yellowstone Park get its name?

Answer 1

1. How did Yellowstone get its name?

Reference: Resources and Issues Handbook 2000, Yellowstone National Park

Who would doubt that the name "Yellowstone" derived from the brightly colored volcanic rock in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. It would be an appropriate origin, afterall, since thermal features like geysers and hot springs were the primary reason Yellowstone Park was established and thermal features refashioned the canyon's rhyolite to its present brilliance. But then that would be re-writing history.

The name actually derives from the Yellowstone River which flows some 670 miles from the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in Wyoming to the Montana/North Dakota border.

French-Canadian trappers, in the 1700s, first learned of the "Rock Yellow River" or "Mi tse a-da-zi" from the Minnetaree tribe in what is today eastern Montana. The Indian name likely referred to the sandstone bluffs that overlook the lower Yellowstone near its confluence with the Missouri River. The trappers applied the French translation "Roche Jaune" to the river.

David Thomson, an explorer-geographer, made the first translation of the river's name into English, "Yellow Stone," in 1797. In the journals of the Corps of Discovery, Lewis and Clark refer to the Yellowtone River in both French and English forms.

In the decades after the Lewis and Clark trek across the continent, the wild and wondrous landscapes through which this river flows came to be known as the "Yellowstone Country," the core of which would one day give birth to the world's first national park.

Answer 2

The name "Yosemite" means literally "among them are killers" or "there are killers among them" and is a corrupted form of an American Indian word used to describe the Ahwahneechee people. So just in case you don't know, The park covers an area of 761,268 acres (3,080.74 km) and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain.

Answer 3

It is commonly believed Yellowstone derives its name from the yellowish rocks in the river that runs through its "Grand Canyon".

More on the naming of Yellowstone can be found on the National Park Services February 2006 article: "The Origin of the name "Yellowstone"" Yellowstone: A Brief History of the Park.

Answer 4

The valley, and the park, were named after the tribe of Native Americans who inhabited it.

Answer 5

The word is a Miwok term for the people who lived in the area. It's a pejorative that means literally "they are killers."

Answer 6

Came from the old diamond mine...the diamonds were and they are still yellow..about 37 Miles from the park

Also, take a look at the color of the stone in Yellowstone Valley.

Answer 7

The photo in the link below should give you some idea on where the word "yellow stone" came from.

Answer 8

some kind of indinan tribe saw a bonch of Yellowstone rocks where Yellowstone was created

Answer 9

Yellow stones from the acid in th pools