Philetus Walter Norris

Philetus Walter Norris

Philetus Walter Norris (born August 17, 1821 in Palmyra , Wayne County , New York , † January 14, 1885 in Rocky Hill , Kentucky ) was the second superintendent of Yellowstone National Park .

Childhood and youth

Norris grew up in Palmyra, New York, near the great falls of the Genesee River . When he was ten, he was leading tourists to the falls. This activity came to an end when his family bought and moved land in Michigan . The father's health soon deteriorated and Philetus Norris was the only son who had to take over most of the work. The school education fell by the wayside. He only learned through experience and books. At age 17, Norris accepted a position with the Hudson's Bay Company in Manitoba .

Postmaster and Farmer

Five years later he bought land on the edge of the Great Black Swamp in Ohio . It took him two years to clear the land and build a hut. In 1845 he and his bride Jane Cotrill moved in from Fayette . After other families moved into their neighborhood, a post office was built under the name " Pioneer , Ohio". Norris became the first postmaster. In 1853, Norris divided his land into different parcels, some of which he sold. As an immediate consequence, Pioneer was officially established. Norris built a large farmhouse near the previous cabin. He lived there until the outbreak of the civil war in 1861.

Officer and politician

On May 2, 1862, Norris volunteered in the Northern Army and put together a company that was incorporated into the Hoffman Battalion of the Ohio Infantry . In West Virginia he was so badly injured that he had to retire from the army on January 5, 1863 with the rank of captain .

Norris was elected to the Ohio Senate and ran for Inspector General of the newly formed Montana Territory , but could not prevail against Henry Dana Washburn . For the time being, Norris worked for the Medical Commission of the Union Army and then looked after a military prison on Kelley Island .

Real estate brokers and newspaper publishers

After the war, he laid drainage lines to turn swampland into valuable farmland. In total, he sold 40 km² of good land near Detroit . Instead, he bought 8 km² of land in Hamtramck , a borough of Detroit, and moved his entire family there. He built a thriving real estate company and published a newspaper called Norris Suburban . In it he repeatedly published articles about the West, including about expeditions through what is now Yellowstone National Park. The national park was established in 1872 . Norris continued to report on the area and criticized the park's first superintendent, Nathaniel P. Langford .

Second Superintendent of Yellowstone National Park

Philetus Walter Norris

Because of the criticism of Langford, Norris was put in charge of the park. He held this office from April 18, 1877 to February 2, 1882. Norris devoted himself energetically to the administration of the park. In 1878 he was able to obtain the first US $ 10,000 grant from Congress . He used it to build Norris Street to the Geyser Basin and an administration building on Capitol Hill . He also carried out various surveys of the park area. His scientific curiosity led to valuable knowledge in the disciplines of ethnology , archeology and geology . Because of a lack of money, Norris was also unable to manage the park adequately. His opponents used this to depose him.

Retirement

Norris returned to Illinois in 1882. In 1884 his book "The Calumet of the Coteau" was published . On the side he investigated the prehistoric mounds in the Ohio Valley for the Smithsonian Institution .

Norris died on January 14, 1885 in Rocky Hill, Kentucky. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery near Detroit.

The Norris Geyser Basin , Norris Junction, Norris Pass and Mount Norris , all in Yellowstone National Park, are named after him.

literature

• Aubrey L. Haines: The Yellowstone Story. A History of our First National Park , Volume Two, University Press of Colorado, Niwot, 1996, ISBN 0-87081-391-9