Earl of Dunraven as pictured by Vanity Fair, 1878.

Dunraven's book, however, had significant effect on public perception of Yellowstone. Henry Gannett (1846-1914), later chief geographer for the United States Geological Survey, removed Philetus Norris' name from a peak in the Park and renamed it for Dunraven. Philetus Norris, the second superintendent of the park, in a moment of modesty had named it for himself. Gannett later explained, "This I have named Dunraven Peak in honor of the Earl of Dunraven, whose travels and writings have done so much toward making this region known to our cousins across the water." The Dunraven Trail is also named for the Earl.

Today, getting to the Park is comparatively easy. It is less than a day from Cheyenne. Only a matter of an hour or two from Jackson. But in the the days of the Earl, one would allow several months. Merely getting to the Park in the early days was an adventure in itself. Dunraven proceeded by train from Denver to Ogden, thence to Corinne, Utah, and from there northward by chartered stagecoach to Virginia City. Originally, the Earl had planned going northward from Green River City via Camp Brown (present-day Lander) but had been warned not to by Gen.Sherman because the Indians had gotten restless. The Earl described the conveyance:

[W]e piled ourselves and traps into a lumbering, heavy, old-fashioned stage-coach, and, under the guidance of a whisky bottle and an exceedingly comical driver, started for Virginia City. Jehu was a very odd man and wore a very odd head-dress, consisting of a chimney-pot hat elongated by some strange process into a cone, having the brim turned down and ventilated by large gashes cut in the sides. He was very garrulous, and, I grieve to add, profane.

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The coach was a strange vehicle, mostly composed of leather. It was decorated with decayed leather; the sides were leather curtains; the top was leather; it was hung upon leather straps, and thongs of the same material dangled from the roof.

The arrangements along the road are not good. The accommodation for travellers at the stations, and the food supplied, are, with one or two exceptions, infamously bad. The horses are grass-fed all through the summer, and the poor brutes are quite unfit for the work they are called upon to perform. As they are generally out grazing on the prairie or hill-side when a coach arrives at a changing place, and have to be driven in and caught, a great deal of time is lost and delays are frequent. In fact nobody dreams of being in time; and, unless you arrive at the station for changing teams six or eight hours or half a day late, you will probably find no one at the ranch. The boys will have gone out visiting or shooting, not expecting to see you so soon. The consequence is that meals get very ' mixed ;' you find yourself having dinner at 7 A.M., supping at noon, and breakfasting somewhere about sundown, or in the middle of the night. As all the repasts are much the same, consisting of beefsteaks, pork, potatoes, hot biscuit (a hot roll is in America termed a biscuit, and Avhat we call biscuit is there denominated a cracker) and coffee, this dislocation of meals does not so very much signify.

The interior of the coach was occupied by three seats, the spaces between which we filled in with baggage, and over the comparatively level surface thus formed we were shot about like shuttles in a loom for four days and nights. The vehicle laboured a great deal in the heavy roads, producing at first in most of us a feeling of sea-sickness, which gradually wore off. Friday, our first day out, was not pleasantly spent. The sun was intensely powerful The road, many inches deep in alkaline dust, traversed a level plain, following the course of Bear River ; and there was nothing to break the dull monotony of the scene, except a few stuilted artemisia and sage bushes, and very distant views of mountains. Clouds of the salt dust, agitated by the sultry breeze, covered our clothes, and filled our eyes, ears, noses and mouths; dinner-time and tea-time were hailed with delight, and a little private eating and drinking was also indulged in to while away the tedious hours. There was no difficulty about eating, but to take a drink amidst the heavings and kickings of the carriage, without swallowing bottle and all, required considerable skill.

Packing the Earl of Dunraven's mules for the trip to Yellowstone National Park, 1874. Drawing by Valentine Walter Bromley.

From Bozeman, the Earl and his party prceeded southward to the Park by mule pack train. This, itself, was not without interest:

McCartney Hotel, Mammoth Hot Springs.

After better hotel facilities were constructed, the hotel was converted into a Chinese laundry. It burned down in 1912. Nevertheless, Dunraven found Mammoth Hot Springs to be the most interesting springs in the world. He was impressed by the canyon, maybe not as impressed as he was by Niagara, but still impressed. Nevertheless, he urged those who "spend perspiring nights struggling on a staircase, inhaling your fellow-creatures, absorbing fat dowagers, breathing men and women!" to come to the American West.

Texas Jack Omohundro, 1874. Drawing by Valentine Walter Bromley.

The Earl returned to the park two years later, again with Omohundro and Dr. Kingsley. The visit was ill-timed. It was at the same time as the visit by Chief Joseph on his flight to seek the protection of the Queen-Empress. A tourist was somewhat betaken by the costume of the earl's entourage passing through the park. The party consisted of one man driving a remuda of loose horses, followed by Texas Jack, "a tall powerfully built man, and as he rode carelessly along, with his rifle crossed in front of him, he is a picture. He was dressed in a complete suit of buckskin and wore a flaming red neckerchief, a broad sombrero, fastened up on one side with a large eagle feather, and a pair of beautifully beaded moccasins." Shortly thereafter, came the earl and Dr. Kingsley "both of whom were dressed in buckskins and wore large sombreroes."

In 1872, Dr. Kingsley and Dunraven had been hunting together in Nebraska with Buffalo Bill and Texas Jack acting as guides. In an account of those adventures, Notes on Sport and Travel, London, 1900, Kingsley described Omohundro:

If Buffalo Bill belongs to the school of Charles I., pale, large eyed, and dreamy, Jack, all life, and blood, and fire, blazing with suppressed poetry, is Elizabethan to the back-bone! He too is an eminently handsome man, and the sight of him in his fringed hunting buckskins, short hunting shirt decorated with patches of red and blue stained leather, pair of delicate white moccasins embroidered by the hand of some aesthetic and loving squaw, with his short, bright brown curls covered by a velvet cap with a broad gold band around it, would play the very mischief with many an eastern girl's heart.

"Pourpoint of black Epingle velvet, richly embroidered steel and black jet tiny beads, with passementarie of jet. Trunks formed of bands of black Epingle velvet embroidered steel over full bouillonne of steel grey silk. Mantle of black Sicilian silk with white cross of Malta. Haute de Chausse, black silk sword belt of black velvet with steel mountings. Sword, black scabbard, steel belt, with cross of Malta in white enamel. High turretted top boots. Crispin gloves, hat and feathers with diamond cross of Malta. Order-Ribbon of Order of Malta, with jewelled cross of Malta. Order of the Garter, with pale blue ribbon round neck. Ruff."
The Echo, 3 July 1897.

Lady Randolph Churchill appeared as Theodora and the 8th Duke of Devonshire as the Emperor Charles V.

The Earl is also closely associated with the Rocky Mountain National Park at Estes Park, Colorado. There he acquired over 9,000 acres of land and constructed a hotel. The acquisition of the land in Colorado was perhaps not entirely by legitimate means. Land was acquired by American citizens ostensibly for their own use. In actuality it was acquired on behalf of the Earl.

The impact of the Earl's visit and his book on visitation to the Park should not be underestimated. President Roosevelt in his dedication of the Arch noted that more Europeans visited the Park than did Americans from the eastern states.

Next Page, Yellowstone continued.