M. Mark Miller, Author

Category: Old Faithful Inn

  • An Event: Signing Books Again This Weekend at Old Faithful Inn

    FJHanes1883OldFaither LCI’ll return to Old Faithful Inn this weekend to sign copies of my book, Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales. I’ll be in the lobby of the Inn Saturday and Sunday (Aug. 17-18) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and and 3 to 5 p.m. If you’re in the area, stop by my table for a chat. I’d love to sigh a copy for you.

    I also hope I’ll get a chance to watch Old Faithful Geyser play again. I never get tired of that. I always remember the first time I saw it as a little boy when you could stand much closer than you can today. And I wonder what it was like in the 1800s when you could walk right up to the geyser like these people in an 1883 photo by the famous Yellowstone photographer, F. Jay Haynes.

    ∞§∞

    — Library of Congress Photo.

  • An Event: I’ll Be Signing Books on Two Weekends in August

    FJHaynes postcard wikipedia

    I’ll be signing copies of my book, Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales, at the Old Faithful Inn on two weekends in August. I’ll be in the lobby of the world famous hotel on Aug. 10-11 and Aug. 17-18 from 11 a.m to 2 p.m. and 3 to 5 p.m.

    This will be the fourth summer I’ve signed books at the world famous hotel, and I’ve blogged about the experience several times.

    Adventures in Yellowstone contains a dozen first-person accounts of early travel to the park. Several of the stories are about adventures the Yellowstone guides and road signs still talk about. Here’s a list of examples with links to excerpts:

    Other stories are less well known, but equally interesting:

    I got the idea for my next book, Shorter Stories of Greater Yellowstone, while talking to people at my earlier book signings. People told me they want a collection that contains short stories they can finish around the campfire at night or while driving between sights. When I heard that, I decided to compile such a book.

    Shorter Stories will contain about sixty stories of 400 to 2,000 words.  The first-person accounts will be organized in twelve parts with titles like “Mountain Men,” “Hunting,” and “Bear Stories.”  The entire book will be about 60,000 words including introductions for each part and story.  I expect to be signing copies of it at Old Faithful Inn in the Summer of 2014.

    I hope to see you soon in Yellowstone Park!

    ∞§∞

    — F.J. Haynes Postcard, Wikipedia Commons.

  • An Event: Returning to Old Faithful Inn to Sign Books

    I’m looking forward to returning to Old Faithful In on August 25 and 26 to sign my book Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales. Look for me between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. by the clock that tells the next time Old Faithful is expected to erupt.

    I enjoy talking with anyone about early travel to Yellowstone Park, but conversations with young people, like the fellow in the photo above, are the best.

    “Did you write this book?” he asks.

    “I did,” I confess. Then I add, “It’s a collection of adventure stories about early travel to Yellowstone.”

    “Are they true stories?” he asks.

    “Well,” I answer, “They’re stories in the words of the people who lived the adventures, but sometimes people exaggerate when they tell about themselves.”  I like to put it that way so people will know I didn’t make up the stories, and I can’t guarantee that every word is true.

    I sense that he’s losing interest, so I add, “It’s got great adventure stories like the time  a mountain man tangled with Blackfeet or when ‘Bird’ Calfee saved a man who fell into a geyser.”

    The boy brightens and turns on his heel to walk away.  “I’ll be be back,” he says over his shoulder. In a few minutes he returns with his mother—and more important her credit card—in tow.

    I sign his book and add a note wishing him “Great adventures in Yellowstone.”  He leaves with a smile.

    I’d love to chat with you next Saturday and Sunday at Old Faithful Inn. But if you can’t make it, remember you can buy Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales in gift shops all over the park. And it’s available at your favorite book store.  Amazon has both paperback and Kindle editions.

    ∞§∞

    — Photo by Tamara Miller.

  • An Event: Meet Me Next Summer at Old Faithful Inn

    Old Faithful Inn Crows Nest

    I’ll be returning to Yellowstone Park this summer to greet tourists and sign copies of my book, Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales, in the lobby of the world famous Old Faithful Inn. Why don’t you join me there on the weekends August 11-12 and August 25-26? [The dates of July 21-22 posted here earlier have been changed.]

    You can read about my book signing at the Inn in July last year here, and in August here.  For a complete list of my activities, click on “My Events” above.  Check back often because things are poppin’.

    ∞§∞

    — Image from The Coppermine  Photo Gallery.

  • An Event & A Tale: A Book Signing at Old Faithful Inn and a 1912 Ballgame

    I’ll return to the lobby of Old Faithful Inn on Saturday and Sunday (August 20 and 21) to sign copies of my book Adventures in Yellowstone: Early Travelers Tell Their Tales. It’s a great venue and I always have fun there.

    The Inn probably is the most impressive man-made feature in Yellowtone Park and has been a favorite of visitors since it was finished in 1904, even those who were staying in other accommodations. Below is a description of the Inn by a man who was touring “The Wylie Way,” that is, spending his nights in tents put up for the season. Wylie Way tents weren’t as plush as the park hotels, but they had wooden floors and wood stoves to keep them warm.

    Employees of the park concessioners called both hotel guests and Wylie Way tourists “Dudes.” That distinguished them from “Sagebrushers,” people who had their own transportation and horses. Here the story of a baseball game between hotel and Wylie Way Dudes.

    ∞§∞

    We can’t sit and watch Old Faithful forever, so we step over to Old Faithful Inn and inspect that property. This is indeed a wonderful building, rustic throughout, with a chimney that must be at least fifteen feet square at the base. It runs up through the building and out the roof and has an enormous old-fashioned fireplace on each of the four sides. When we see the log fire sending out its cheerful warmth and glow, and the mammoth pans of hot popcorn passing around, and which we sample generously, it suddenly occurs to us that this is a “pretty happy world” after all.

    Right here I am reminded of the ball game that occurred directly in front of Old Faithful Inn the next afternoon. One team was made up from the “dudes” stopping at the Inn and the other from the “dudes” that were going the “Wylie Way.” Both teams played good ball in spite of the stiff wind that was blowing, but the Inn “dudes” were a little better than their opponents, the score being somewhere in the neighborhood of 8 to 5. The feature of the game proved to be the first-class, all round rooting of the Wylie drivers who, forty strong, were massed back of third base and cheered every good play made by their men, and kicked at every decision that went against them.

    ∞§∞

    — Excerpt from Fred W. Ellsworth, “Though Yellowstone Park with the American Institute of Banking.” Moody’s Magazine: The National Investors Monthly, November 1912, 14(5)369-375.

    — Photo, Coppermine Photo Gallery.

    — You can read other descriptions of Old Faithful Inn and my book signings there here, here, and here.

     

  • An Event & A Tale: Inside Old Faithful Inn — 1912

    Old Faithful Inn Lobby
    Old Faithful Inn Lobby

    On Friday and Saturday, I’ll be signing copies of my book, Adventures in Yellowstone, in the lobby of the world famous Old Faithful Inn.  When it was completed in 1903-04, the inn ranked as one of the finest hotels in the world. In 1912, a travel writer offered this description of park accomodations.

    ∞§∞

    The comfort and convenience of the hotels have been so carefully looked after that even the experienced traveler will be surprised at the excellence of the services.  These remote inns will compare very favorably with the best resort hotels of the East, and despite the disadvantages they suffer by bringing supplies so far by wagon, the bill-of-fare is excellent in quality and variety.  Almost every convenience is supplied and the more modern hotels have numerous rooms with bath in connection.  Everything is quite informal and comfortable.

    The Old Faithful Inn is quite as unique as the wilderness in which it stands.   Its design and construction are peculiarly appropriate to it location in the heart of the mountains and forests of the Park, from which it’s materials are drawn.

    Yet with all this rusticity, comfort, convenience and even elegance are everywhere. The polished hardwood floors are strewn with oriental rugs and the furniture is of the Mission pattern is dark weathered oak.  The windows are of heavy plate glass in leaded panes and the furnishings of bed and bathrooms are of the best.  Yet the rustic idea is carefully maintained; even in the private rooms the walls are of rough planks or ax-dressed slabs and everything is redolent with the fragrance of the mountain pine.  Verily, this inn is a pleasant place, set down as it is in a weird, enchanted land.

    ∞§∞

    — From Three Wonderlands of the American West by Thomas D. Murphy, 1912.

    — Photo by F. J. Haynes, Yellowstone Digital Slide File.