The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, YELLOWSTONE PARK, Wyo., Sunday—When we are doing as interesting things as we have been doing these past two days, Sunday is a bad day for my column. There is so much I want to write about and so little space in which to write it!

We got off the train at ten a.m. and started in the open car for our drive through Yellowstone Park. Each of our national parks seems to have distinctive features of its own, and the more I visit them, the more surprised I am that there can be such a variety throughout this country. Of course, the first thing that strikes one is the extraordinary hot springs, bubbling up and changing constantly so that what is a colorful terrace today with the hot water flowing over it, will in a little while be white as chalk when the water ceases to bubble and flow and keep the tiny plants alive which give the color to the hillsides.

The next greatest interest is the animals. The herd of Buffalo was interesting though we only saw it from a distance, but we saw a wonderful sight in a great elk with fine antlers close to the road, herding his harem of ladies. A little later we saw a lone elk all by himself against a background of pines and wondered if he had been driven off and had lost his ladies to the other gentleman. Even in the animal world the ladies seem to cause some trouble!

A number of deer and antelopes came quite near us and three bears were fed on the trip into the Park by the President. One of them become a little too friendly and put his paws up on the side of the car right next to my husband and immediately the Superintendent of the Park, Mr. Rogers, ordered the car to move on. The thought of a nice tear from his claw on the President's coat was too great an anxiety to allow us to loiter any longer, but the bear held up all the other cars by standing in the middle of the road.

When we got back to Mr. and Mrs. Nichol's house, which they have very kindly turned over to us, Anna and John and the children were waiting for us, and they hugged their grandfather warmly for they had not seen him since January. Then I went to tea with Mrs. Rogers, wife of the Superintendent of the Park, and the family had supper together at six-thirty. With so much talk going on we were barely ready for the broadcast at eight o'clock, which was made from the living room. This is a charming house and we are so grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Nichols for letting us have it, as it has really given us a feeling of being at home.

This morning one of the rangers took Eleanor and Curtis to look for animals in his car, and they dropped another ranger-naturalist and myself at the top of the Mammoth Hot Springs terraces. We walked down them and I seldom have had a more interesting hour. The children and I then went over to the store and purchased some little bears which Swiss carvers come all the way over here to do. I can't help feeling we might encourage some of our North Carolina mountain carvers to do a number of the park animals as they would be more interesting as souvenirs if done by American talent.

E.R.


Names and Terms Mentioned or Referenced

Geographic
  • Mammoth Hot Springs (Yellowstone Park, Wyo., United States) [ index ]


About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, September 27, 1937

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

  • Brick, Christopher (Editor)
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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a draft version of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. My Day column draft dated September 26, 1937, FDR Library, Hyde Park, NY
TMsd, 26 September 1937, AERP, FDRL