Every dangerous selfie, step off a boardwalk or tourist getting stuck on a closed road is nearly instantly shared, reshared and forwarded thousands of times through social media sometimes within seconds of an incident happening.
Some of the most popular Yellowstone-themed Facebook pages have hundreds of thousands of followers each posting just about everything that happens in America’s first national park.
But for a short five-year window from 1978 to 1982 before smartphones and expensive long-distance calls weren’t wasted on trivial chitchat, the window into Yellowstone news and happenings was the park’s own newspaper, the Old Faithful Times.
All This For A Quarter
Question of the Week Asked by a Visitor: I brought my wife and seventeen children up here (to Yellowstone) to see the bears. Where will I find them?
Yellowstone Joe of the Old Faithful Times: “I would bet four bits that Yellowstone’s wildlife biologists would like for the bears to see you. Maybe give them a little pep talk. But a rendezvous with a bear is pretty hard to arrange. They are here, but seeing them is a very chancey affair.”
Yellowstone visitors could pay 25 cents to buy the latest issue of the Old Faithful Times, a 64-page weekly newspaper dedicated to current events, history and humorous anecdotes from the park.
At its height, the Old Faithful Times was available at dozens of places in the park and its gateway communities. It was distributed at more than 100 locations in the Greater Yellowstone area and even as far away as Los Angeles and Chicago.
Today, it’s a mostly forgotten blip of Yellowstone’s history. The Old Faithful Times might have fallen into historical oblivion if Park County Archivist Robyn Cutter hadn't found a box containing several issues in her father-in-law’s attic.
“Nobody knows anything about this publication,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I've gone to the annual meetings of the Yellowstone Coalition, going from booth to booth and talking to the people selling Yellowstone memorabilia. Only one person from West Yellowstone had heard of the Old Faithful Times.”
That’s why Cutter is on a personal and professional mission to find and preserve what’s left of Yellowstone’s first and only weekly newspaper.
Comedy Cutter
Question of the Week Asked by a Visitor: “Are bears good to eat?”
Yellowstone Joe: “Oh, my goodness, yes! Especially if they have stepped in something sweet and you're not neurotic or squeamish about wormy meat.”
The short-lived legacy of the Old Faithful Times has fallen through the cracks of Yellowstone’s history. Even Cutter, a professional archivist, might not have known about the newspaper if she didn’t have a personal connection to it.
“My father-in-law, Joe Cutter, published it and was very passionate about it,” she said.
When he began publishing the Old Faithful Times, Joe Cutter was a comedy writer living in West Yellowstone, Montana. The earliest existing issue dates back to 1978, but it’s possible that the paper started a few years earlier.
Cutter’s passion is evident on every page of the Old Faithful Times. Each issue was up to 64 pages, complete with articles, photos, cartoons, letters to the editor, and every other feature expected in a weekly newspaper. There was even an Old Faithful Times crossword.
The Old Faithful Times also boasted it had several writers, although Cutter knows her father-in-law inflated his “staff.” Several issues include a column credited to Robyn’s husband, John, even though he didn’t write a single word.
“My husband didn't write,” she said. “It could have been my father-in-law or sister-in-law that wrote that, and they just put different names (on the bylines).”
Nevertheless, the full 64-page paper was published and distributed every week. The Old Faithful Times was available in all of Yellowstone’s gateway communities and several locations in the park itself.
“He actually had the coin-operated stands where you could buy them,” Cutter said. “It was a very successful newspaper.”
All that, plus local advertising, for only 25 cents.
Everybody Reads The Times
Question of the Week asked by a Visitor: “Where can we see some wildlife?”
Yellowstone Joe: “You might try the Marmot Bar about 2 a.m. on a Saturday night. However, I suppose you mean other kinds of animals. The best way to see Yellowstone wildlife is to drive slow, look carefully, and take your time. Lots of animals here waiting to take a look at you.”
Unlike many publications available in Yellowstone, the Old Faithful Times was its own entity. The publication was not reviewed or endorsed by the National Park Service, even though it was commercially available in Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
Each issue of the Old Faithful Times featured a mix of current events, historical features and important information for tourists. The front page always featured the weekly headline and the Question of the Week, and often included a guide to every naturalist program in Yellowstone and Grand Teton.
Patrons who picked up the Old Faithful Times could read about a controversial commercial drilling project proposed outside the western border of Yellowstone. Geyser Gazing with Dr. John S. Reinhardt was on the next page, followed by photos from the park’s first years of existence.
Another issue celebrates President Jimmy Carter's 1978 visit to Yellowstone with his family. It also includes “Life and Death of Railroads in Yellowstone” and the tragic story of Snaggletooth, a Yellowstone grizzly.
Articles were written to be insightful and informative, but Cutter’s comedic sensibilities permeate each page, and not only through the hapless answers of Yellowstone Joe. One headline proclaims, “Visitors Enjoy Uncrowded Parks. Fishing Best In Years. Gasoline Plentiful. President Urges People Not To Travel.”
Beyond the big picture, the paper also included glimpses into the park's smaller, personal stories. One issue featured Jake Kindsvatter, a warehouseman in the gifts department at the Fishing Bridge Store, as the Yellowstone Employee of the Week.
Each issue included a healthy stable of advertisements for businesses and activities in the gateway communities. Every time she opens an issue, Cutter finds new information that helps her chronicle the history of Cody and northwest Wyoming.
“Every single time I look, I see something different, another story,” she said. "I'm finding people from Cody who wrote articles and a lot of ads that pertained to Cody back in those years. It’s been a wealth of information.”
For All Times
Question of the Week asked by a Visitor: “What kind of clothes should I wear to Yellowstone this fall?”
Yellowstone Joe: “You should consider seriously leaving your shantung suit and two-tone perforated bluchers at home. If you’re from the South, you’ll find the days pleasant but the nights quite chilly, and we are not many days now from the time the well-dressed Yellowstone visitor is a festival of goose feather and wool, laminated into several layers about his or her person.”
The box of Old Faithful Times issues Robyn Cutter found in her father-in-law’s attic is now preserved in the Park County Archives in Cody. Since its rediscovery and Cutter's efforts to find more issues, it's become a sought-after resource in the Greater Yellowstone community.
“I called all of the archives surrounding the park, and nobody had ever heard of it,” she said. “Now, I have five different archives who want this collection.”
Cutter isn’t sure why her father-in-law stopped publishing the Old Faithful Times in 1982. Plans to expand its distribution to Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City and beyond never happened.
“I have no idea,” she said. “My husband doesn’t know either. He was very passionate about this when they lived in West Yellowstone, and I think it was a successful and very popular newspaper. But I don’t know why he stopped.”
Hundreds of issues of the Old Faithful Times may have been published during its five-year run. The Park County Archives collection, the largest known collection with some duplicates, contains only 30 issues.
Cutter wants to acquire more issues of the paper for the Park County Archives. Preserving and digitizing each story, photo and anecdote will ensure its unique history and information are available and accessible to whoever wants a look.
“I think there are a lot of people who would be interested in knowing it exists and in looking at and reading these issues,” she said. “If a complete collection is available, or as much as we can come up with, it can contribute to the archives surrounding the park and serve as a reference for people who are doing books, stories, and advertising.”
Cutter has a lead that another six issues are preserved in West Yellowstone, and a historian in Gardiner claims to have several in a collection. But if someone happens to find an issue or two in their own attics, she hopes they consider donating it to the Park County Archives, preserving the past and ensuring a future for the Old Faithful Times.
“It’s a lot of my family history, but it’s also the history of Yellowstone,” she said. “There are a lot of wonderful stories here, and there's certainly plenty to be written and learned about it.”
Question of the Week Asked by a Visitor: “What do people do here in the winter?”
Yellowstone Joe: “Oh, about the same as you city folks, only under a lot more cover. Yellowstone’s gateway towns are jumping places in the winter with skiing and snowmobiling, and just the greatest sightseeing in the whole, entire world. You oughta try it!”
Contact Andrew Rossi at arose@cowboystatedaily.com
Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.
