Reconnecting with the Pioneers

With Pioneer Day/ Days of 47 being celebrated throughout the intermountain area this week, many travel to Island Park to enjoy the extended weekend. It isn’t difficult to understand why. Island Park’s environment harkens back to the days of the pioneers. The Lodgepole pine forest and the volcanic formations are unaltered from the days of the earliest trappers.

The forest environment is ideal for extended families to gather together in a reunion of shared love and heritage. The serenity allows for sincere conversations and reminiscing. Many find that a one-time reunion morphs into an annual event. The smell of a pine log campfire and the unobstructed night-time view of the heavens is calming, adding prospective to life in these complicated times.

Moose graze between small clusters of rustic log cabins. A night heron dives into the Henry’s Fork and ascends clutching a cutthroat trout. A glimpse of an elk standing behind the forest tree line or a herd of pronghorn grazing on the meadows of the Flat are all reminders of the country in an earlier time. Even the necessary precautions of bear spray and running a clean camp to avoid grizzly encounters are concerns shared by our ancestors.

With all the emphasis on electronics and twenty-four hour news cycles, Island Park allows us to reconnect with ourselves and contemplate life’s priorities. For all but a few hardy souls, Yellowstone Country is a short vacation from life’s grind. For our ancestors, this WAS their life. Take a few minutes this week to give thanks for those who came before us. They lived difficult lives so that our lives could be better.