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Lee Whittlesey

Whittlesey, Lee H.

1950 -

Yellowstone Park, WY 82190

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Biographical and Professional Information

Park Archivist (History, Yellowstone National Park. JD, University of Oklahoma, 1988. PhD (Hon.), Idaho State University, 2001.

Lee Whittlesey’s thirty-five-year studies in the history of the Yellowstone region have made him an expert on Yellowstone’s vast literature and have resulted in numerous publications. He is the author, co-author, or editor of eight books and more than twenty-five journal articles, including: A Yellowstone Album: A Photographic Celebration of the First National Park; Death in Yellowstone; Lost in the Yellowstone (with Truman Everts); Yellowstone Place Names, and the voluminous Wonderland Nomenclature (2,123 pages). Another book in which (Dr.) Paul Schullery joins him as co-author is Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park (University of Nebraska Press, 2004). Their book A History of Large Mammals of the Yellowstone Region, 1806-1883 is also forthcoming.

Whittlesey has a master’s degree in history from Montana State University and a law degree (Juris Doctor) from the University of Oklahoma. On May 19, 2001, because of his extensive writings and long contributions to Yellowstone National Park, Idaho State University conferred upon him an Honorary Doctorate of Science and Humane Letters. Since 1996, he has been an adjunct professor of history at Montana State University.

His most recent book is Storytelling in Yellowstone: Horse and Buggy Tour Guides, available now from University of New Mexico Press. Whittlesey also published an updated and revised edition of his Yellowstone Place Names in 2006, as well as The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery (2000) in which he and two co-authors revealed to the world for the first time the existence of more than 225 previously unknown waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park. For this accomplishment, he was featured on ABC News, NBC News, the Discovery Channel, the Travel Channel, and People magazine, and he is often seen on regional and local television talking about Yellowstone’s history.

Genres

Titles

Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park (2003). Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN: 0803243057. Co-author Paul Schullery.

The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and their Discovery (2000). Englewood, CO: Westcliffe Publishers. ISBN: 156579351X. Co-authors Paul Rubinstein and Mike Stevens.

A Yellowstone Album: A photographic celebration of the first national park (1997). Boulder, CO: Roberts Rinehart Pub. ISBN: 1570981477.

Lost in the Yellowstone: Truman Everts's thirty-seven days of peril (Editor) (1995). Salt Lake City, UT: University of Utah Press. ISBN: 0874804817.