Wyoming
Momentum builds to save tree ‘Yellowstone Forest Reserve’ surveyors inscribed 132 years ago – WyoFile
Right now there’s a tree frozen up in the wilderness outside of Yellowstone National Park with names scrawled into the trunk. The vandals? A survey crew stranded in a snowstorm 132 years ago.
“Probably out of boredom, more than anything else, they carved their names,” said historian Lawrence Todd, a Colorado State University emeritus professor who lives in Meeteetsee.
Some 340 miles away, a tentative new home awaits the cultural artifact. Wyoming State Museum Director Kevin Ramler has already selected the place to display the hulking piece of history, which has become a source of debate in the State Capitol.
If extricated from the wilderness, the tree would go to a wing of the museum that pays tribute to Wyoming’s spectacular federal lands — all 30-plus million acres, owned by all Americans, even amid renewed hostility toward the very concept.
Surveyors marked up the historically significant tree while mapping out the Yellowstone Forest Reserve, which preceded the Shoshone National Forest.
“Telling the story of Wyoming, that’s the first national forest,” Ramler said during a January tour of the tree’s likely new home. “We have some stuff tied to the first national park [Yellowstone] … but we don’t have a lot of artifacts to tell the story of the first national forest.”
The tree engraved in all caps by P.M. GALLAHER, J.L. DORSH, C.L. SAWYER AND J.E. SHAW and others on Oct. 3, 1893 “is an opportunity,” the museum director said.
Inscribed just 21 years after Yellowstone’s establishment and three years after Wyoming gained statehood, the tree is a reminder of some of the earliest efforts to “reserve” forestland rather than harvest it all.
There’s also a detailed historical record, thanks in part to the efforts of Todd, who’s published his research about the tree. He even dug up field notes that Phillip M. Gallaher jotted during an extended stretch of inclement weather when carving up a tree must have seemed compelling.
“A heavy snow storm prevailed during the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th of October without interruption day or night, rendering it impossible to take a sight or do any work,” Gallaher journaled. “During this time I camped on the head of a small stream about ½ mile south of the flag at Sta. K, at an altitude of 10,500 feet. The snowfall at this time was in the neighborhood of 5 ft.”
But displaying even a section of the tree in the Cheyenne museum will require a heavy lift and not everyone is a fan of the plan.
For one, recovering it won’t come easy. It’s about 28 miles from the nearest trailhead just outside of Yellowstone National Park’s boundary. The conifer grove where Gallaher, Dorsh, Sawyer and Shaw became stranded sits near the banks of Younts Creek within what’s known as the Thorofare, famous for its extraordinary remoteness and wildness.
It’s a familiar and beloved place for many backcountry travelers, including John Winter, a former Thorofare outfitter and current Republican state representative from Thermopolis.
There’s also the expense to consider. On Wednesday, Winter stood on the House floor and encouraged his budget-slashing Wyoming Freedom Caucus counterparts to make a relatively small investment — $35,000 — to recover a section of the survey tree. Sen. Larry Hicks, a Baggs Republican, made the same pitch the same day across the Capitol in the Wyoming Senate.
“It’s part of the cultural history of the United States of America and part of the history of this state,” Hicks said. “You will not find another tree in this state with an inscription from 1893 that’s still standing today. Folks, it’s 132 years old.”
Hicks also imparted a history lesson, recounting how Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act, extending the forest boundaries around Yellowstone National Park in 1891. Two years later, the federal government contracted with Gallaher to measure and map the new boundary.
Todd, the Meeteetse historian, has visited the tree and recognized that it’s threatened by wildfire, or of toppling over from decay.
“It’s an amazing record that’s in danger,” he said.
Although supportive of the effort to preserve it, he wants to see the job done correctly, which would require a “lot of planning.”
“Being an archeologist that’s interested in data, rather than just objects, I would say removing it without doing more detailed documentation on the site would also put it in danger,” Todd said. “It’d be almost like stealing an arrowhead from a site on public land.”
I would say removing it without doing more detailed documentation on the site would also put it in danger. It’d be almost like stealing an arrowhead from a site on public land.”
larry todd
There are also bureaucratic hurdles. Extracting objects using mechanical equipment like a chopper is not ordinarily permitted in federally managed wilderness and requires a “minimum requirements analysis.” Non-emergency helicopter flights into the wilderness can spark controversy: That was the case when the Bridger-Teton National Forest replaced the Hawks Rest Bridge, also in the Thorofare.
Cody outfitter and former Park County Commissioner Lee Livingston is heading up the outreach to the Shoshone National Forest to get authorization. Federal officials, he said, would prefer that the helicopter that long-lines the tree section do so “without a skid touching the ground.”
Livingston also plans to pack in a string of laborers and specialists on horseback to use chainsaws and prep the tree for extraction.
“I just think it’s very important,” he told WyoFile. “We need to get it out of there before it rots away.”
Whether that happens anytime soon will depend in part on the Wyoming Legislature.
Influential players within the majority-holding Wyoming Freedom Caucus urged a no vote in response to Winter’s $35,000 budget request on the House floor.
“I’m not opposed to the concept, I just don’t know if it’s something we need to bring at this point in time,” Wheatland Republican Rep. Jeremy Haroldson said. “Hopefully next year, we will bring this as something in our budget. I think it’d be sweet if I could even be part of the team going up in there to get it down.”
But Winter, who is also aligned with the Freedom Caucus, prevailed during the second reading of his budget amendment. The House voted 40-21 to put some money toward recovering the tree. Down the hall, the Wyoming Senate did the same, voting in favor of the investment 22-6.
“This is critical,” Devils Tower Republican Sen. Ogden Driskill said in support of Hicks’ amendment. “It’s a bug tree, and I think it’s time. We need to get it out. This is our history. This is a good spend of state money.”
Most 18-year-olds focus on deciding what they want to do after high school.
Alyssa Shade already knows.
The Yoder teen already is a certified EMT, a red-carded wildland firefighter and a member of the all-volunteer Yoder Fire Department.
Another 18-year-old, J.R. Ruiz, joined the department only a few months ago. He recently returned from a wildfire-severity assignment in Colorado and, this past week, was helping on the South Fork Fire near Cody.
Behind them is another generation waiting in the wings. Fire Chief Justin Burkart’s 17-year-old son, Jayden, is already part of the department, while his 16-year-old daughter, Maykayla, recently joined as a junior firefighter.
In a profession where volunteer departments nationwide are struggling to recruit younger members, Yoder appears to be on a different track.
How does a town of just 134 people keep producing firefighters sought out and trusted to fight some of the nation’s biggest wildfires?
The answer starts with volunteers investing in one another.
“We’re 100% volunteer,” Burkart told Cowboy State Daily.
Beyond Wyoming
The tiny Goshen County community sits along U.S. Highway 85 south of Torrington, surrounded by hay fields and open prairie.
The Yoder Volunteer Fire Department protects roughly 248 square miles and serves about 700 residents throughout its fire district.
Yet those volunteers routinely deploy across the West, cutting fire lines with bulldozers, staffing engines on major incidents and supporting wildfire operations from Colorado to Virginia.
“We have a reputation of really sending out some professional firefighters to these incidents,” Burkart said. “It’s not a game to us. It’s something that we really take some pride in.”
Burkart joined the department as an 18-year-old in 1999 after discovering federal wildfire assignments could help pay for college.
“I found out it was a good way for me to pay for college,” he said.
Today, the department routinely sends engines, a water tender and two dozers on federal assignments, with about 22 members participating regularly in the federal fire program.
Last year, Yoder firefighters collectively spent about three months helping battle wildfires in California. Burkart said the department paid roughly $1 million to firefighters and seasonal personnel through federal assignments in 2025.
For a department staffed entirely by volunteers, those assignments have become far more than an opportunity to earn extra income.
“They’ll have more contact with live fire over a two-week period than most volunteers would have in a three- or four-year period,” Burkart said.
The knowledge comes home.
Heather Trompke, who serves on a Rocky Mountain incident management team, works in the finance section tracking personnel and equipment time during major incidents.
“We get to bring all of this stuff back,” Trompke said. “We can train and show how to fill out documents properly, and that translates into a smoother fire for everyone else when they go out.”
“There’s always something to learn in wildland firefighting,” added firefighter Bailey Powell. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve been doing it for 60 years or five.”
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With flames consuming palm trees behind him, Yoder firefighter Shane Tromke pauses during a federal wildfire assignment. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Father and daughter Robert and Alyssa Shade are volunteers who work side-by-side. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Yoder firefighters spend countless hours training on specialized equipment and techniques before deploying incidents across the West. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Alyssa Shade is only 18, but she is confident that wildland firefighting is going to be a part of her future. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department)
Growing Firefighters
Like volunteer departments across America, Yoder faces a challenge that has nothing to do with flames.
Recruiting.
“If you look nationwide, the volunteer fire service is aging out,” Burkart said. “The younger generation is not really involved in that.”
Instead of waiting for volunteers to walk through the station doors, Yoder and neighboring Goshen County departments are trying to grow their own.
Robert Shade helps coordinate a countywide junior firefighter program that introduces teenagers to the fire service before they turn 18.
“Right now, nationally, pretty much every trade, every job there is, there’s a lack of young people getting involved,” Shade said.
Junior firefighters learn equipment familiarization, truck maintenance, hose deployment, pump operations and safety procedures before becoming full firefighters.
“They’re the future,” Shade said. “We’ve got to make sure that we get them involved.”
Rather than keeping the program confined to Yoder, departments across Goshen County work together so young firefighters train alongside one another.
“We’re reaching out and kind of working with the whole county,” Shade said. “It helps everyone get to know each other.”
The program appears to be paying off.
Shade started attending meetings as a teenager after encouragement from her boyfriend, who happens to be Burkart’s son.
“I kind of started coming for fun,” she said. “Then I got a true understanding of everything, and it just became really interesting.”
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Flames creep across the landscape behind Yoder Volunteer Fire Department trucks. The tiny Goshen County department has become an outsized force in Wyoming’s wildfire response efforts. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Firefighters with the Yoder Volunteer Fire Department serve roughly 248 square miles in Goshen County. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department) -
Pink fire retardant streams from an air tanker above a dozer carving a containment line during a wildfire operation. (Yoder Volunteer Fire Department)
A Family Tradition
Volunteer firefighting isn’t just passed from one generation to the next in Yoder.
It’s often passed around the dinner table.
Burkart’s wife left this week for a federal wildfire assignment in Colorado. Robert Shade serves alongside daughter Alyssa.
“There are families on the department,” Shade said. “Husbands and wives, fathers and sons, fathers and daughters.”
For him, volunteering alongside Alyssa is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
“It’s a lot of fun to go out with Alyssa and do what we both love,” he said.
The work isn’t without sacrifice.
“When the pager goes off, you could be at a dinner with your family,” Burkart said. “You could be at your kid’s birthday party. You could be at a track event for your kids.”
And the sacrifice isn’t limited to firefighters.
“It’s not only the members that have to make that sacrifice,” he said. “It’s also the family.”
When firefighters deploy on federal assignments, the department still has to answer calls at home.
“We do have a lot of members that deploy nationally, but we also have to protect home when they’re gone,” Burkart said.
That responsibility is shared with neighboring departments through mutual-aid agreements.
Last year alone, Yoder firefighters assisted neighboring agencies 26 times, while local farmers and ranchers helped firefighters cut fire lines during large grass fires.
Yoder’s firefighters have built something much larger than a volunteer department.
They’ve built a pipeline to answer the call.
One generation trains the next.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
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