The Most Hated Man in Yellowstone: Yellowstone National Park

It’s hard to get an entire National Park to hate you … unless your name is EC Waters. Considered one of the most despised men to have ever stepped foot in Yellowstone, Waters left his mark - for better or worse - on the world’s first park. The owner of the first boating company to operate on Yellowstone Lake, he was obnoxious, petty and ran a zoo from hell. He was kicked out of the park multiple times before being exiled forever, but his namesake - a ship that bears his name - can still be seen in Yellowstone today. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodes For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials: Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdark Support the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page! Thank you to this week’s partners! Bilt: Download the Bilt app and join the membership for where you live, at http://joinbilt.com/parkAvocado: Find an Avocado near you or shop online at http://AvocadoGreenMattress.com/ NPAD and check out their mattress and bedding sale! Jones Road Beauty: Use code NPAD at http://jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Gift with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty#adSmile Set: Go to smileset.com/npad to get started and earn an additional 35% discountWhatNot: Download Whatnot today and get $20 off your first purchase. Search Whatnot, W H A T N O T, in the app store, sign up, and start finding the best deals on the products you love with $20 off your first purchase. Betterhelp: See the reviews, see what stands out, and see if BetterHelp is right for you. Visit http://betterhelp.com/npad Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This season, we're turning Designer Shoe Warehouse into Designer Shoe Wonderland, the most wonderful place to step up your gifting. Wrap up the perfect shoes for them and for you, because when you give shoes, you're really giving joy. And who doesn't have more joy on their wish list? Good things come in shoeboxes, so find the perfect pairs from gift-worthy brands for you and yours, in stores and online. DSW, let us surprise you.

• 0:31Speaker 01

  Did you know that if your spouse goes missing, but you don't tell anyone, that's not necessarily a crime? That surprising fact is at the heart of the brand-new season of Bear Brook, the award-winning true crime podcast from New Hampshire Public Radio. I'm your host, Jason Moon. In season three of Private Matter, we investigate another New Hampshire mystery. A beloved Christmas tree farmer with dementia vanishes from his small town. His wife never reports him missing. Can he still be found?

• 1:03Speaker 02

  If you knew Jay as well as I do, he's private. He doesn't want everybody to know his business.

• 1:11Speaker 03

  Pat, I don't believe you.

• 1:13Speaker 04

  I kind of revert back to like that Bear Brook thing, like, what if we were to just come across something?

• 1:19Speaker 05

  You know, and I wrote down, she said, you know, I, I found him.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Follow Bear Brook on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 1:31Danielle LaRock?

  It was the tail end of summer 1905 in Yellowstone National Park. A party was being thrown to welcome the largest boat the park had ever seen. At 125 feet long and three stories tall, this steamboat promised to ferry 500 passengers at a time across the beautiful Yellowstone Lake. An editor for a local newspaper was emceeing the event, giving a rousing speech. He hailed the ship as the greatest the Northwest had ever seen and praised the man who built it, E.C. Waters, as a visionary. He said that Waters had risked his fortune, defied the odds, and given himself to the task of bettering public travel in

• 2:12Danielle LaRock?

  the young National Park. All true, depending on who you asked, because that wasn't the full story. To others, Waters was known as the most hated businessman in all of Yellowstone. By one estimate at the time, the source of almost every visitor complaint in the entire park. People called him a nuisance, a plague, a man of diseased imagination. Park superintendents tried to get rid of him, and even Theodore Roosevelt suggested that Waters be put out of the park. But by hook or by crook, Waters was determined to succeed. As the emcee went on, Waters must have looked on and dreamt of the future. This new steamboat could take

• 2:54Danielle LaRock?

  hundreds of passengers across the lake, with a stop at the personal zoo he built on Dot Island. At 8:45, as his daughter smashed a bottle of champagne across the bow, he might have cheered. He might have smiled and hugged his wife, and he probably thought, maybe, just maybe, this boat could save him. Alas, it would never carry a single paying customer, and one day, park rangers armed with kerosene and matches would burn it to the ground. Welcome to National Park After Dark.

• 3:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Hello, everyone. I'm Cassie.

• 3:47Danielle LaRock?

  I'm Danielle.

• 3:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'm wearing Yellowstone again. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Can't stay away. What do you mean? I love it. I have spent a lot. This is the first summer I've ever spent so much time in Yellowstone National Park, and I am here for all the stories. I think spending more time there just made me want to know everything there is to know about the park, and I am here for more Yellowstone.

• 4:13Danielle LaRock?

  Great. Lovely, because I just, I'm trying to space them out a bit, because I think that we need to share the love, spread the love a little bit. But this story in particular, it was a suggestion by someone that I forget their name. I'm sorry, but if you suggested this.

• 4:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  But we appreciate you.

• 4:33Danielle LaRock?

  Just know that I am thankful, because this is a story that I had never come across. It's might even, I don't even know if it's in my Death in Yellowstone book, because it's not a typical National Park After Dark episode, as far as like, somebody tragically losing their life in some way, shape, or form. But this guy has really cemented his place in the history of Yellowstone National Park, and I think we should talk about him, because he definitely was despised. So I want to see what you think.

• 5:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know very little about him. I know very surface level, so I'm very excited to hear this.

• 5:14Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. Well, I guess before we get into his story, we are going to be telling other stories on the road here pretty soon.

• 5:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes, we are, and we're traveling to a lot of different cities, but we actually sold out quite a few shows, which is exciting. But we still have tickets in Chicago, Boston, and New York. So come hang out with us, especially in Boston and New York. New York is just like the city that never sleeps and is such a cool place to be.

• 5:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, and East Coaster is like, come on.

• 5:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  And Chicago. Never been.

• 5:42Danielle LaRock?

  Let's, let's rise up a little bit here. Not to say, I mean, the tickets are low.

• 5:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Has you beat.

• 5:50Danielle LaRock?

  No, the Midwest was like, we've been waiting for this.

• 5:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Milwaukee and Minneapolis, they were on sale for literally not even a day.

• 6:01Danielle LaRock?

  I know. Yeah. You guys surprised us.

• 6:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  We love you guys.

• 6:03Danielle LaRock?

  So much. So thank you. Yeah, that was great. But okay, yeah, so come to our shows. It'll, they'll be really fun. We're in the midst, in the thick of preparing for them, because they are all going to be different, because we never do things the easy way of like, let's just do one show and tour it around like everyone else. No. We're like, let's make an individual show for every single city.

• 6:26Cassandra Yahnian?

  Why research one story to tell when we could research like seven or eight?

• 6:33Danielle LaRock?

  Right. Okay, well, let's get into good old Yellowstone here. So before E.C. Waters became the most hated man in Yellowstone, he was a kid growing up in Wisconsin. Ella Collins Waters, or E.C. for short, was born in 1849 in New York before his family moved to the Badger State. He came from a long line of American veterans. A couple of his great-grandfathers fought in different wars, like the Revolutionary War, and both his grandfather and father served in the War of 1812. And if that was one part of his family's story, the other seemed to be stubborn determination. His dad worked as a farmer, joined as a partner

• 7:15Danielle LaRock?

  in a shingle and lumber business, and even held several seats in local government. And just when things were starting to look up for the young family, his father passed away, and Waters was just nine years old at the time. So whether what happened next stemmed from this early grief and this experience of losing his father so young, or it was just his pure restlessness nature that was just gonna unfold in this way no matter what, Waters was expelled from school multiple different times. He hated being in the classroom and just kind of being constrained to the four walls of school, and he would just skip class all the time to go out and do.

• 7:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Being expelled is big.

• 8:01Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. Yeah. And but for him, he's like, great.

• 8:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's like, you can never come back. Yeah, he's like, I don't want to be here. But to get expelled, you gotta do something bad.

• 8:12Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. And he would just, you know, kind of lean into that, those expulsions, and go off, do whatever he wanted to do. He loved being outside, and anything that would get him away from the confines of a classroom was A-OK with him. And maybe that's why, at just 15 years old, he enlisted as a drummer boy in the Union Army during the Civil War. At the age teens today are stressed about different things, like driving exams, or maybe what to wear to school dances, Waters was marching into extraordinary bloodshed. In his first battle, 12,000 Union soldiers and 4,500 Confederate soldiers were killed

• 8:52Danielle LaRock?

  at Cold Harbor. As a musician, Waters was only required to carry an instrument, but soldiers recalled he carried a musket into every battle and displayed incredible bravery for such a young person.

• 9:05Cassandra Yahnian?

  That is a little crazy to be like, you just bring the drums. I know you're on a battlefield, but you don't need a weapon.

• 9:11Danielle LaRock?

  She's like, I would like to carry one, please.

• 9:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  I'd like a weapon in the middle of war. Thank you. This drum is great, but.

• 9:22Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So who's to blame him? It's like, was he brave or was he scared? Maybe both.

• 9:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Maybe both, maybe smart in the moment of like, hey, I'm on a literal battlefield right now. Maybe I should carry a gun with me.

• 9:36Danielle LaRock?

  Well, it's not hard to see why his pride in his military service would become a constant in his life later on. But it's also hard to imagine the experience of such a bloody war didn't mess him up a little bit, you know, like he survived, but of course, that's an extremely traumatic situation. After being discharged, Waters would spend about a decade trying to make his way in the world, one hustle after another. He became a traveling sewing machine repairman, started and then quit college and tried his hand at meatpacking. He went looking for gold, got shot in the leg by an indigenous riding party, and then immediately gave that up. He went home to care for his family in ailing health, got

• 10:18Danielle LaRock?

  a job at a timber company, and sold fancy New York tea door to door. It was during his stint as a tea salesman that he met Martha Amory, a well-read musician and socialite in his hometown of Fond du Lac. Soon, the two were married, and turns out, his tea job was the one that earned him the best salary of all his hustles. And with that salary, together, they started a family, eventually going on to have three children. But while his job paid really well, Waters always had his sights set higher and higher. He was an entrepreneur at heart, someone with business and political ambitions, and a social climber.

• 10:58Danielle LaRock?

  He wanted it all and believed that he could find it all out west. At the time, the Northern Pacific Railroad was closing a gap between Washington and Montana, soon to become the first railroad across the northern United States. As each new mile of track was laid, towns sprang up along the way. First, these towns just housed railroad workers. They were pretty bare bones. But Waters anticipated the explosion of travelers that would soon pour west when the railroad was complete. And if he got in on the action early, he could turn a profit. So that's how Waters wound up partnering with the Northern Pacific to start a hotel in Glendale, Montana, and it did really well. The town grew, his business

• 11:41Danielle LaRock?

  did as well, and after three years, he started a second hotel in Billings, moving further west and aiming even higher. During this time, Waters joined a group of Union Army veterans called the Grand Army of the Republic, and in time, would rise to be appointed the leader of the Montana chapter. He started making different forays into local politics, and in 1886 was elected as a representative in the Montana Territory Legislature. It was as a politician that he ended up crossing paths with a man named Russell Harrison. Russell was part of a powerful ranchers' association, the Montana Stock growers Association, that remains pretty powerful today. And the two shared ambitions in the business world and

• 12:26Danielle LaRock?

  became really fast friends. What made this friendship significant was that Russell's father, Benjamin Harrison, would soon become the president of the United States. So he's making really powerful connections that are going to come into play later in the story.

• 12:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Gotcha.

• 12:42Danielle LaRock?

  But no amount of success or social connections had settled Waters ambitions. He'd moved around his entire adult life, going from place to place, job to job, town to town. And now, he split his time between Montana and Wisconsin. But no place had ever quite captured his heart, no place until Yellowstone. Yellowstone became a national park in 1872, and despite the jaw-dropping scenery, almost no one came to visit, at least not at first. For 10 years, it was so remote that less than 1,000 people made it to the park every single year.

• 13:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's really wild to think of in comparison to today.

• 13:24Danielle LaRock?

  I know.

• 13:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Do you know what the numbers are now?

• 13:27Danielle LaRock?

  Well, I didn't look up the numbers specifically, but I believe in, obviously, the busy season, because Yellowstone still is, you know, pretty sparse comparatively in the winter. But there are thousands of people every single day that go into Yellowstone.

• 13:44Cassandra Yahnian?

  Versus a thousand per year.

• 13:45Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. So it is wild to think about, because especially when you're there in the height of tourist season, you're like, God, there's got to be a million people just in, within my eyesight right now.

• 13:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah.

• 13:57Danielle LaRock?

  So, anyhow, the park's first superintendent served five years and only visited the park three different times. So that's how...

• 14:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  How?

• 14:08Danielle LaRock?

  He's like, who cares? Like, no one's here anyway. What am I, what am I gonna do here?

• 14:13Cassandra Yahnian?

  Nothing's even here. What is this place?

• 14:17Danielle LaRock?

  But in 1883, the Northern Pacific Railroad completed a branch line to a place just outside of the park, where they hatched an idea. What if they started a hospitality business in Yellowstone?

• 14:31Cassandra Yahnian?

  Dang it.

• 14:31Danielle LaRock?

  So if you can put yourself in the shoes of these greedy, gilded-age corporate overlords, there is a pretty sweet deal to be had here. So imagine, to visit Yellowstone during this period of time, wealthy tourists would need to take your train to the edge of the park, they'd need to board your stagecoach to get inside of the park, where they would need a room in the hotel that you build and own, eat your food, and tip your guides. So you're basically...

• 15:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  A lot of money going straight to you.

• 15:04Danielle LaRock?

  That's right. You're the only game in town, and this budding industry and tourism spot is just like on the precipice of becoming huge. So a lot of people were really interested in cashing in on this idea. So to make that happen, the railroad used their deep pockets and political connections to pressure the government, who eventually granted a railroad-owned company a sizable lease and exclusive rights to operate in the park for 10 years. And with that, they set about building hotels, first at Mammoth, but with their sights also set on Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Lake. And in 1887, they hired E.C. Waters to become the general manager for all of their hotels.

• 15:49Danielle LaRock?

  The job of running a business in such a remote region would be difficult, but from their perspective, Waters was a rising figure in Montana politics and a successful businessman who already had a track record of working with the railroad dating back to his hotel along the route that he started years prior. Waters, meanwhile, was thrilled at this and eager to please his new employers. He managed the operation of five hotels and the construction of a new one. He oversaw staff, ordered supplies, and worked to ensure that visitors had their needs met. Honestly, things seemed to get off to a pretty positive start. Things were looking okay and going well. Two years in, in 1889, he was appointed as president of

• 16:33Danielle LaRock?

  one of the railroad's latest tourism schemes, the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company. And if you haven't seen it before, or have never been to Yellowstone, or at least this part of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake is hard to do justice with words alone. It's the largest high-elevation lake in the country, resting in the collapsed crater of an ancient volcanic eruption. It's wider than Lake Tahoe, deeper than Lake Erie, and is the kind of scene that just takes your breath away. It's kind of like a welcome relief of sparkling blue in the middle of the... Have you been? Recently?

• 17:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, yeah. Yeah, I was there this summer. And there's also, you have the lake, but then there's snow-capped mountains in the background, and there's geothermal pools and activity like in front of the lake. It's just really interesting and beautiful.

• 17:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, I actually read a, I've been thinking of like, getting a little thing on the table behind me. I have a little like Lorax-framed picture, but I have a little stand for a book, and I've been thinking of anytime I do an episode that has a book reference to have it like displayed behind me.

• 17:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  That'd be cute. I like that.

• 17:48Danielle LaRock?

  Next time. But I read a book called Rect in Yellowstone for this episode, and describing Yellowstone Lake in the book, the author does a really good job of giving like more context of the lake and all of that. And he gives a lot of different examples of how, like you said, there's geothermal features around it, and fishermen, we love to fish the lake and then dunk the fish right into the geothermal pots and boil it alive.

• 18:16Cassandra Yahnian?

  And like eat it like that, cook it right away like that. Wow.

• 18:20Danielle LaRock?

  It's interesting.

• 18:21Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's an experience. That's cool. I never even thought of that.

• 18:25Danielle LaRock?

  Don't do that, guys. It's illegal now. I'm probably, I'm pretty sure. Like that guy, remember he tried to cook a turkey and got arrested? Did you see that?

• 18:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, my God, yes. I do remember that.

• 18:39Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. For Thanksgiving.

• 18:42Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's one way to do it, for sure.

• 18:44Danielle LaRock?

  These things. They could only do it in the 1800s, and you weren't born then, so you missed out. Okay. So Waters, with his new title, hatched a scheme to bring the first steamboat to Yellowstone Lake shores, which turned out to be pretty hard. The nearest boat he could find was in Wisconsin, like the nearest boat of the size he needed.

• 19:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay. What? Wisconsin is so far from Yellowstone.

• 19:13Danielle LaRock?

  They didn't have boats. It's crazy.

• 19:14Cassandra Yahnian?

  There's gotta be a boat somewhere.

• 19:16Danielle LaRock?

  Of the size that he needed. And to get it back to Yellowstone, he chopped it into three different pieces so it could fit on the train. When it arrived just outside of the park, each piece was then pulled by a team of horses over 60 miles to the lake. Progress was slow, grueling, and filled with physical obstacles that were usually removed with dynamite. Finally, on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, it was welded back together and made ready for its maiden voyage. Waters christened it the Zilla, named after the daughter of the Northern Pacific Railroad's president. But if the Northern Pacific Railroad is one major force in early Yellowstone, it's worth zooming out for a second to talk about

• 19:59Danielle LaRock?

  the other player in town. And this is a part of a chapter of Yellowstone history that I was not super familiar with, and I've seen references to and research over the years, but I don't think we've ever really focused on it. And that's the US Army. After the railroad arrived, new arrivals, so the first tourists in Yellowstone, um, once it was a little bit easier to access the park, they went wild in the park and they were wreaking havoc in the region. Tourists were carving their names into the hot springs and hacked off chunks of thermal features to take home. Poachers arrived and illegally hunted and

• 20:40Danielle LaRock?

  trapped wildlife. It was just chaos. People were just so enamored in with this place. They're like, how is this real? I want to take pieces of this home, show people, they're never going to believe me. I want to leave my mark here. I want to take, you know, it just seems like such a plentiful.

• 20:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  Really write your name in a geyser. That'll, everyone needs to know that you were here on June 1st, 1873.

• 21:07Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you for saying that. And now I really have to go get the book because there's a quote that I put a little tab on and I didn't write it in my notes, but I think it's so funny. Hold on. Okay. So I guess here's the book after all, after all that talk. Okay. So in wrecked in Yellowstone, they're talking about this like repulsive behavior, the behavior that we shun now and publicly shame. Um, and at first, you know, it was just kind of accepted. A lot of people just did it without thinking about it. But one early visitor was a writer for, um, like a local paper and he actually went on to become kind of a bigger, uh, writer of the time. And he was writing of his experience

• 21:48Danielle LaRock?

  there and what he was witnessing. And he wrote, quote, "Why will people scrawl their silly names on the scenery? Why thus disclose to thousands who will read this evidence that you are a thoughtless ass?"

• 22:06Danielle LaRock?

  And I get it.

• 22:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  I love that.

• 22:10Danielle LaRock?

  And he wrote that in like 18 to 80.

• 22:12Cassandra Yahnian?

  I've never understood when people like, I guess, I, and I don't understand this either, like writing it in Yellowstone. That's crazy on these beautiful geologic features. However, one of the things I've never gotten is people who write in bathroom stalls, like their name or like, "Cathy loves Al" or something. I'm like, why are you writing that where people are literally defecating? Like, what? Why do you, why is this the place? I've just never, never gotten the bathroom graffiti thing.

• 22:43Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, no, I don't understand. I don't think, I'm sure at some point when I was a kid, I wrote my initials somewhere, but.

• 22:49Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, I definitely did.

• 22:50Danielle LaRock?

  I kicked that habit a while ago.

• 22:53Cassandra Yahnian?

  I did it in a bathroom too, once.

• 22:55Danielle LaRock?

  What? You just said you didn't understand.

• 22:57Cassandra Yahnian?

  I know, but it was in elementary school in our bathroom specifically, it was a really old building and there was this tiny little like slit in the wall where you could crawl into it and it brought you to like this tunnel behind the bathroom stalls and everyone would write their names and stuff back there. So I did it there.

• 23:20Danielle LaRock?

  So it was like a.

• 23:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  So it wasn't in a stall. Yeah. It wasn't in a stall. It was a better.

• 23:25Danielle LaRock?

  Okay. So going back to the army, they're all up in here in the early days of Yellowstone because they're there to combat all the bad, bad, bad behavior of the tourists.

• 23:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's crazy. The military sent in to stop the graffiti.

• 23:41Danielle LaRock?

  Seriously, honestly, yeah. Amongst other things, but yes. So the park's earliest manager, the Department of the Interior, was not up to the task of figuring out and mitigating and controlling what was going on in Yellowstone. So that's why the army was called in. So 30 years before the National Park Service was founded, soldiers arrived in Yellowstone to restore order. The army took control of the park in 1886 and set up temporary forts near Mammoth Hot Springs and sent soldiers out throughout the park on foot and on horseback to patrol the park that one historian noted as honeycombed with error, corruption, confusion, and suspicion. And it worked. They cracked down on poaching

• 24:26Danielle LaRock?

  and timber harvesting, protected the park's geothermal features, kept visitors away from wildlife, and fought fires. Their mission was pretty simple. It was essentially to protect Yellowstone and its wildlife from the newfound tourists that were now kind of crawling all over the place. But interestingly, with an exception that I couldn't help but call out because it sounds lovely and great. And they're there to protect all of Yellowstone.

• 24:52Cassandra Yahnian?

  Except for its apex predators.

• 24:54Danielle LaRock?

  Thank you. Yes. Except for, they were ordered to kill any wolves or mountain lions they saw on sight.

• 25:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  I've heard of that before and it's horrific.

• 25:06Danielle LaRock?

  It's just, I know the history of park rangers and different things with the predator control and all of that. And, but like, I just felt like that, I don't know. Maybe, uh, I was ignorant, but I thought maybe that was just like separate or different. But it's like, okay, the army is like, protect everything from tourists. Except these animals, you can kill them.

• 25:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah. Like, well, there was this huge thought that tourists didn't want to be around these apex predators. And they actually made the experience more scary, which of course now we know is totally false. I mean, you go to Yellowstone to see these apex predators. Yeah. I mean, I saw a grizzly feeding on a bison carcass and there were so many other people. It was across the river and there were so many people there that were watching. And then there's people who are dedicated volunteers who go and photograph and talk to visitors and are in these points because people are so interested in it. So it's like.

• 26:09Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah. They do like a daily newsletter at like 4am. It's like, this is what the, this is what the wolf activity is looking like today and this and that. And it's just, yeah, if you think about it now, anytime you see people pulled off on the side of the road, not even just in Yellowstone, just other parks that do have these apex predators. And people are like, what is it? What is it? If you were like, oh, it's a deer. They're gonna be like, all right, whatever, and just drive away.

• 26:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  No one's like, I hope it's a deer.

• 26:39Danielle LaRock?

  Second, it's a bear or mountain lion or wolf or whatever. Oh my gosh. People come flocking. But anyway, okay. Sorry. Don't want to get too hung up on that, but I just, it had to be called out.

• 26:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, they were doing so many great things, except for they were decimating the species that call it home.

• 26:57Danielle LaRock?

  Yes.

• 27:01Danielle LaRock?

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• 28:28Danielle LaRock?

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• 29:10Danielle LaRock?

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• 29:48Danielle LaRock?

  So in the view of the army captains in charge of Yellowstone, when Waters arrived, these rules applied to everyone, which is where Waters' image as an enterprising businessman gets a bit complicated. In the summer of 1888, Waters was giving a tour to some bigwigs from the Northern Pacific, including the railroad's vice president. He took them over to Beehive Geyser, not far from Old Faithful, but unfortunately for him, he was embarrassed because it wasn't erupting. And he's here with all these people, like, look how cool Yellowstone is, and look at this cool geyser, and it's like, not doing anything. So instead of, you know, maybe waiting patiently, or talking about something else, or I don't

• 30:33Danielle LaRock?

  know, moving on to one of the other dozens of geysers nearby, Waters took matters into his own hands. He reached into his pocket, grabbed a bunch of soap, and dumped it into Beehive Geyser. And it triggered a chemical reaction that essentially forced an eruption on demand. And it was a trick that wasn't unique, even though it seems crazy now. It was something that people did often in the park at this time, and it was explicitly forbidden by the army. As his guests cheered, soldiers on horseback arrived and arrested Waters, and some of his guests on the spot. Superintendent Moses Harris didn't care

• 31:14Danielle LaRock?

  for the sob story, or for the important people involved. He didn't care who was doing it, or why. It's against the rules, and the rules are being broken. He personally escorted all of them out of the park and banned Waters from returning. And this was not the first or the last time that Waters would be in hot water. There was another earlier incident where one of Waters' employees attacked and tried to shoot a visiting doctor. The army demanded the employee be fired, and Waters said that he would do that. And he's like, oh, yeah, I took care of it. He's gone. But he lied, and kept that employee on the payroll. And when the army found out, they kicked him out of the park, for the, like,

• 31:56Danielle LaRock?

  one of the first times. So this happened before the geyser incident. And then there was the time that he was caught using his position to extort huge sums of money from a meat contractor in the park. And once again, he was escorted out and expelled from the park. So you might be wondering, if he keeps getting kicked out, how the hell does he keep getting back in?

• 32:17Cassandra Yahnian?

  I am wondering.

• 32:18Danielle LaRock?

  Which is a very fair question. And the answer is, by and large, his old friend, Russell Harrison. By now, Russell's father is serving as the President of the United States. So whenever Waters felt like he was being unfairly treated, he would write a strongly worded letter to the park superintendent asserting his innocence. And then he would essentially just like, complain or tattle on the situation to his friend Russell, and asked his dad to intervene, and like, basically speak on his behalf. And it worked repeatedly.

• 32:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, having a connect to the President of the United States is a pretty, pretty good connection to have.

• 33:02Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. In 1890, as Waters was reassembling the Zilla on Yellowstone Lake, the army caught him with contraband. Some of Waters' staff, along with the head of transportation for the Yellowstone Parks Association, and Yellowstone's head of construction, who also, side note, had also been banned from the park several times themselves, were found smuggling rifles into the park, along with traps, and quote, enough strychnine, which is a poison used to bait wildlife traps, to kill half the game in the entire park. The latest army superintendent, a captain named Frasier Butell, had been warned about Waters before he took his position.

• 33:45Danielle LaRock?

  They're like, hey, just so you know, you're about to get this spot here. This guy's trouble. And you're probably gonna hear from him, and have to deal with him. So when he caught the businessman smuggling guns and poison, which was likely for Cummins, the head of construction, who allegedly had plans to stay out on Yellowstone Lake over the winter to illegally hunt and trap game for money, he recommended to his superiors that Waters and the other two guys be banned from the park, but forever. He's like, okay, clearly they keep snaking their way back in here. The bans aren't taking, being taken seriously. We need to, like, cut this off for good.

• 34:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  Actually get him out of here.

• 34:26Danielle LaRock?

  Waters, meanwhile, caught wind of his letter of recommendation to get him expelled from the park forever. And he rushed to DC. With his buddy Russell's help, he landed a private meeting with the Secretary of the Interior, and spent the entire meeting badmouthing Butell. While the story was big news, this like, whole smuggling thing that got caught, it even got a large feature in the magazine Field and Stream. Like, this was not just a, something that wasn't considered, like, okay, this stuff happens all the time. It's not good, but it's not a huge deal. Like, there was a ton of stuff confiscated.

• 35:07Danielle LaRock?

  It was huge news. So despite that, and all the publicity it received, bad publicity, less than a year later, Butell was fired, and Waters was allowed to stay. The army knew that Waters was under powerful political protection. And this set up a pattern that would repeat for the rest of his life. Anytime someone told him to do something, like, I don't know, maybe just try and follow the law, he would do the opposite. The greatest crime in his mind was someone telling him what to do, and he would do everything in his power to ruin anyone who attempted to do that. And that list was growing rather long. But it turns out, this approach to life wasn't without consequence. People in

• 35:52Danielle LaRock?

  Washington were catching on to the corrupt dealings of the president's son, and Russell's relationship to Waters would eventually land both men in trouble. Waters was summoned to appear before Congress to testify about illegally dealing National Pacific Railroad stock, which is a whole nother scandal that we don't have time for. Let's focus on the Yellowstone stuff. But just know, he was doing other shady things.

• 36:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Busy man.

• 36:16Danielle LaRock?

  He is busy. How does he have the time? Throughout all of this, Northern Pacific was losing their patience with him. The railroad had had enough of water scandals and shit talking, and fired him. A decision that Waters, for the first time, was unable to overturn, at least not completely. He may have lost his job with the railroad, but he was able to negotiate ownership of the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company. So to recap, the army is in charge of managing Yellowstone, and they hate Waters. The Northern Pacific Railroad Company, one of the richest corporations in all of the country, owns essentially a monopoly on tourism in Yellowstone. And

• 36:58Danielle LaRock?

  they think that Waters is an ass. And they see his boat company as a threat to their monopoly. Stopping for a moment to assess the situation, Waters realized that this was kind of a chance to mend some fences. He decided to set aside his ego and rehabilitate these relationships for the sake of his business and his family. Just kidding. Of course he didn't. He doubled down.

• 37:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  I was like, wow.

• 37:25Danielle LaRock?

  Wow, he's turning a leaf.

• 37:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  The end.

• 37:27Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, the end. Isn't that sweet? So now we're in the summer of 1891, and a brand new tourist season in the park is beginning. Zilla, the steamboat he brought in to Yellowstone from pieces in Wisconsin, was a genuinely compelling opportunity for tourists who had arrived at Yellowstone Lake by stagecoach. Horse-drawn carriages on treacherous dirt roads filled with potholes, you can kind of imagine the experience that they had entering the park. The carriage ride could rattle passengers to the bone, sometimes caking their teeth with dust when they dared to open their mouths or smile. One early traveler to the

• 38:06Danielle LaRock?

  park in this way was a man named Rude Yard Kipling. And he wrote, like, the original one-star review. And he said, quote, "Today I am in Yellowstone National Park, and I wish I were dead."

• 38:24Danielle LaRock?

  Wow.

• 38:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  The drama.

• 38:28Danielle LaRock?

  So imagine after a long, bumpy, hot, and at times dangerous ride, all of the sudden, a very 1800s looking guy with a white streaked goatee emerges from the shores of a beautiful, glimmering blue lake and offers you a refreshing boat ride. Not only will the ride be smooth and free of dust, but it will offer a better view than any stagecoach ever could, perhaps the best view in all of the park. And the boat would take you straight to the Lake Hotel, shaving hours off of your ride.

• 38:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  That sounds nice.

• 39:00Danielle LaRock?

  Very nice. It's like, of course, I would love to take a ride on the Zilla. This sounds lovely. Many who rode aboard the Zilla wrote glowing reviews of the ride, calling it commodious and comfortable, and a delightful afternoon among the bays and islands. Others praised the scenery, writing of gorgeous sunsets on clear days and comparing the haze in the distance to "the bloom upon a grape," which I have no idea what the fuck that means, but it sounds really nice. Along the way, Waters would point out wildlife in different places of interest, providing an experience that one New York congressman described as the best feature of the entire trip. Waters worked to build on this early success, adding boat docks, smaller fishing

• 39:44Danielle LaRock?

  boats for rent, and even building grocery and blacksmith shops. He added a home of his own to the lake shore where his family lived each and every summer, which is bold considering he's been kicked out of the park multiple times. He's like, "Actually, I'm gonna live here every summer. I'm not just gonna work here, I'm gonna spend all of my time here." For food, they added a ranch full of cows, horses, and sheep. And for fun, they played croquet, they had a piano and a violin. Imagining it, it's a picturesque way to grow up as a kid. They had fond memories of basking in the cool evening sun, running around with their dog, and even feeding wildlife like bears, which was the thing to do back then, which we've talked about at length. But of course, neither Waters' business or his home

• 40:29Danielle LaRock?

  life would remain untouched by his temper or its consequences. So for the next bit, I'm just gonna list off some of the many types of complaints and controversies that Waters got caught up in during this time as an owner of the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company, because it's better in bullet point form, because he is, uh, this is the time where people really start disliking him and he gets into a lot of different situations that are kind of long and convoluted.

• 41:03Cassandra Yahnian?

  Gotcha.

• 41:04Danielle LaRock?

  When a federal boat inspector refused to license the Zilla, pointing to critical safety hazards, Waters rushed to his friend Russell to try and get the inspector fired. Uh, and this time, it didn't work. But again, just an example of someone's trying to get in my way and I, so I'm gonna get rid of them type of thing.

• 41:23Danielle LaRock?

  Which, this is something I didn't even talk about, but the Zilla was, he named this boat the Zilla, but when it was in Wisconsin, it had kind of a really bad reputation and its nickname was useless. Like, it was a pretty bad boat, like, just like structurally and people were, didn't like it. And the reason they were selling it is because they wanted to get rid of it. So that inspector was like legitimately, you know, had founded concerns.

• 41:56Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's not like he was out to get him or something. The boat was actually bad.

• 41:59Danielle LaRock?

  Yes, yeah. But next came letters of complaint from his actual customers. According to Army officials, passengers on the Zilla sent most of the complaint letters the park received, writing things like, "I had gone down to examine the boat and it was such an old rattletrap, I would not risk passage on it." Another one read, "This man is a very obtrusive person. Complaints were in the mouths of nearly all persons who came in contact with him. The general verdict was that he is a public nuisance." Another one says, "He has the most detestable dishonest face," which is like, okay.

• 42:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, I hate his face.

• 42:41Danielle LaRock?

  Another one says, "He inflicts himself on all travelers in an odious and unpleasant fashion. His trickery amounts to absolute swindling. And if this man is not a rogue and a fraud, then the Lord does not write in a legible hand," which is like, then bears don't shit in the woods, I guess, type of energy. Plenty of his employees grew to hate him, too. Some reported being overworked and having their wages withheld. They also described him frequently pushing himself on women around the hotel who were not his wife. In one case, he extorted three of his female employees who were stuck in the park with no money. One coworker openly wrote that Waters' management

• 43:24Danielle LaRock?

  was a disgrace and that his unsavory reputation was richly deserved. And his competitors were trying to shut him down. Hotel employees and stagecoach drivers who all worked for the railroad were instructed to never mention the boat ride to tourists. After Waters started showing up at the stagecoach stop every day, pestering captive passengers to buy a ticket, hotel staff took a different approach. When stagecoach drivers neared the lake, they warned their passengers about the boat. They claimed it was an old tub and that it was highly unsafe. It was liable to be struck by lightning, sink, or even worse. It was boring. They're like, "Don't go over there. That's way worse than being struck by lightning."

• 44:10Danielle LaRock?

  To get around this, Waters promised the stagecoach drivers a kickback program. He'd give them 50 cents for every passenger that bought a ticket aboard his boat. And just like that, they turned it into an advertising program. However, Waters never bothered to tell his wife about this arrangement that he made. So, so there is an occasion where he went out somewhere on business, uh, outside of the park, and a stagecoach driver asked Martha for their kickbacks, like, "Hey, where's the money that you owe us? Like, we've been driving customers over to your business." And Martha, clueless, said she had no idea what he was talking about. So the drivers went back to scaring customers away from

• 44:52Danielle LaRock?

  the boats until Waters returned with their back pay. They're like, "Okay, then we're gonna, not only are we not gonna advertise you, we're gonna tell people to stay away."

• 45:02Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's like, until you get us our money.

• 45:04Danielle LaRock?

  After Waters got the last superintendent fired, the Army was cautiously accepting of his boat company for a little while, but they still aimed to enforce the law and cut back on Waters' growing ambitions. They arrested one of his winter employees for trapping beaver and expelled the man from the park. And around this time, Waters began sending complaint letters of his own, often to defend himself to park officials. Sprinkled with insults and attacks on others, he loudly proclaimed that everyone in the park was out to get him, that there was a conspiracy against him and his business. And he wasn't entirely wrong, but he left out how much he was to blame for his own situation. And then in

• 45:47Danielle LaRock?

  1893, the economy collapsed. The panic of 1893 hit, and it hit hard. The Northern Pacific Railroad went bankrupt and tourism in the park collapsed. Waters was growing desperate and was looking for a silver bullet, something so big, so compelling, that nobody could deny its success. He first hoped that it would be building hotels of his own, but the park denied the proposal. They basically said that they lacked confidence that he could fulfill the financial obligation and they didn't want to take a risk on him. So he set his sights on bison. When Waters was born in 1849, an estimated 30 million

• 46:29Danielle LaRock?

  bison roamed the Great Plains. But by the time he was running the Zilla on Yellowstone Lake, that number had plummeted to roughly 1,000. Killed by the fur trade, killed by cattle born disease, and killed by the military as a tactic in their Indian wars, bison died by the millions in a single lifetime. Some of the few remaining wild bison roamed Yellowstone, but they were so few and far between that many visitors arrived in Yellowstone, spent weeks there, and never saw one. So Waters wondered, "What if I could guarantee my customers could see a bison?" And so he sent a letter to the Army Superintendent proposing a private

• 47:11Danielle LaRock?

  zoo. He wanted to put bison, elk, and antelope on Dot Island in Yellowstone Lake. Aptily named, the island is truly a mere dot on this 20-mile-long lake. It is tiny, less than half a mile in width. He argued that because it would be on an island, and he would construct fencing and stuff, but just in case, you know, these are large ungulates, he's like, "There's not gonna be a chance. They can't escape. They're in the middle of a lake on an island. They're gonna be self-contained. Um, they won't escape, they won't disrupt the wild population." And it went without saying that the only way to access this zoo, because it's out in the middle of the lake, would be to take his boat.

• 47:55Cassandra Yahnian?

  Smart.

• 47:56Danielle LaRock?

  Yes.

• 47:58Danielle LaRock?

  So somehow, and for some reason, the army said, oh, my God, fine, whatever. Just go for it. Like, stop bugging us. Get away from us.

• 48:07Cassandra Yahnian?

  Why are you so obsessed with me?

• 48:10Danielle LaRock?

  Like, fine, okay, just build your zoo. So by 1896, he had shipped bison from Texas, ferried them to Dot Island on a raft towed by the Zilla, and set the animals loose in their new home. Soon after, he brought elk, bighorn sheep, and deer. And for a time, it was a really big hit. Visitors marveled at the wildlife, writing with fascination about bull buffalo charging at the fence until they were pacified by feed, like they would, uh, workers would give them hay, kind of just like draw them up to the visitors, so visitors could see them up close.

• 48:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's so crazy to picture a zoo inside of Yellowstone.

• 48:47Danielle LaRock?

  I know. I know. It's like, wow, a bison.

• 48:51Cassandra Yahnian?

  Like, you're guaranteed to see a bison if you go to Yellowstone now. So that's just the, the contrast and the, obviously, the conservation efforts that have happened since this story.

• 49:02Danielle LaRock?

  But surprising to no one, the park started receiving complaint letters. Waters had begun charging any passenger. This guy is, here, this is like, God, he just, I get it from a business perspective, but it's just like, not a good move as, to get people to like you. Um, so he had begun charging passengers that stepped off the boat. So you, they get onto the Zilla, he takes them out onto the lake, they pay their ticket to, to board, and then he brings them to the zoo on Dot Island. They get off, they see the animals. But then when they go to reboard, he's like, uh, uh, uh, uh, your ticket didn't include the price of admission to the zoo, so pay up, or you can't get back on the boat.

• 49:46Danielle LaRock?

  So you would charge them again to reboard the Zilla.

• 49:50Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's crazy. Why not just charge them at the beginning for all of it, instead of pissing them off?

• 49:56Danielle LaRock?

  It's right. It's just a way to like, force people into this situation.

• 50:01Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's a crazy business tactic.

• 50:03Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. The army, meanwhile, got a new superintendent, a man named John Pitcher, a tough man who quickly grew to hate Waters. One of his first tasks was overseeing the survey of a new wagon road around the lake. And when Waters heard about this, he exploded, arguing that it was a corporate plot to bypass his boat docks. And like usual, he went to try and get the park's engineer fired. However, his ally in Washington was no longer in power. Russell Harrison's father, the president, had served out his term. That didn't mean Waters didn't try. He somehow always managed to find some sympathetic politician, but his tattling stopped working as well, and the engineer kept his job.

• 50:47Danielle LaRock?

  Superintendent Pitcher also warned Waters to stop bothering tourists by aggressively sewing them on his boat tour. He's like, please, you're making everyone uncomfortable. I can just imagine him just like, being one of those people that just wears me down, personally. It's like, fine, I will like-

• 51:04Cassandra Yahnian?

  You're like, fine, I'll go.

• 51:07Danielle LaRock?

  Like, I just need you to stop talking to me like this, and I will give you my money. And, I mean, I'm sure he did that intentionally. He knew that, what he was doing.

• 51:18Danielle LaRock?

  Waters exploded, again, demanding proof of these complaints that Pitcher was speaking about, and he actually provided sworn statements that he was an upstanding citizen businessman in the park, and he had never once heard a complaint about himself. And these sworn statements were from his own staff.

• 51:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  I was like, I've never heard of this before.

• 51:39Danielle LaRock?

  Have you guys? No.

• 51:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  This is crazy. Who doesn't like me?

• 51:45Danielle LaRock?

  Waters then attempted to get Pitcher fired. He's like, okay, then you gotta go. He's just, it's like, who are you to be, Dick?

• 51:55Danielle LaRock?

  And the way he went about this is so lame. Um, but essentially, Pitcher reportedly had soldiers dig a trench for a water line to his horse stables. And Waters paid $50 to gather signature from those soldiers in order to expose Pitcher's illegal abuse of military labor. He's like, hey, this is fucked up, that he's having you dig this trench for his horse stables. He's explored, exploiting you. Like, that's how he tried to get him fired.

• 52:28Cassandra Yahnian?

  Sign this petition.

• 52:32Danielle LaRock?

  A local bartender leaked the plot before Waters could actually do anything about this, and Pitcher caught him in the act. Pitcher later wrote to his superiors, warning that there was nothing that Waters would not stoop to. In fact, for the first time, Waters seemed to have met his match in John Pitcher. Pitcher had friends in high places, too. On one ride on the Zilla, Waters heard a passenger mention Pitcher's name, just overhearing a conversation. He heard his name, and he was like, oh, I fucking hate that guy. So he proceeded to badmouth the superintendent for two straight hours, the whole duration of the boat ride, calling Pitcher a despot, which is a ruler or person who holds absolute

• 53:16Danielle LaRock?

  unlimited power and uses it in a cruel or oppressive way. And essentially-

• 53:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  What are we to ruin someone's tour?

• 53:24Danielle LaRock?

  He's like, I can't get away from you. I'm trapped on this boat.

• 53:29Danielle LaRock?

  But it turns out that that passenger that he was just like, bad mouthing Pitcher to for, for 120 minutes straight, was Montana's game warden and a very close, personal friend of Pitcher, who went off and told him the entire thing as soon as he got off the boat.

• 53:48Cassandra Yahnian?

  So he just sat there and ate it up? He's like, yeah, tell me more. What else about this guy?

• 53:53Danielle LaRock?

  Tell me everything. And Pitcher was also friends with Teddy Roosevelt, who became president in 1901. Oh, shit.

• 54:06Danielle LaRock?

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• 55:09Danielle LaRock?

  Pitcher was not afraid of Waters. After learning about his two-hour tirade, he informed Waters that he and his staff were banned from setting foot in any Yellowstone National Park Association building, the successor of the Northern Pacific Company that built the hotels. Waters wasn't allowed in the Lake Hotel anymore, which he had frequently roamed to find customers for his boat rides. He was essentially forbidden from entering any other hotels, lunch stations, or even tents throughout the park that he didn't own. Meanwhile, Pitcher petitioned his supervisors to get rid of Waters by breaking open his monopoly on boat travel. In Pitcher's mind, if any other company could come in and squeeze and like, force

• 55:53Danielle LaRock?

  him out of the whole monopoly on Yellowstone Lake, they could be free of him once and for all. Waters fell back on the old playbook, trying to get Pitcher fired. He hired a shady taxidermist to go undercover and sent him to Washington DC. This taxidermist sent dramatic, allegedly damning letters accusing Pitcher of corruption and collusion with the Northern Pacific officials. He also claimed that Pitcher was running illegal saloons in the park, and Pitcher, of course, hears about this, easily traced the money back to the source, like, who hired you to say all this stuff?

• 56:33Danielle LaRock?

  Obviously, it's like, this guy and it's Waters. So Pitcher literally was like, I've had it a damn enough. So he finds this out, and he writes to his superiors about this whole thing, and he's like, Waters is mentally disordered. He's like, I don't know how else to say this. This guy's messed up, and I can't stop him. Like, he's just on a tirade to everyone all the time, if he's not getting his way. So with that plot foiled, Waters himself sent a lengthy letter to the Department of the Interior claiming Pitcher had a direct corrupt investment in the transportation company, conspiring to steer tourists away from his boat company. Pitcher replied to that, calling Waters an unmitigated liar.

• 57:18Danielle LaRock?

  Waters had failed again, but as always, was looking for the next thing. With the walls closing in on him, how could he stay on top? He tried to buy out the Yellowstone Park Association, essentially the hotel company he had once worked for and had been fired by, and they did hear him out for a hot minute, but decided he lacked the cash and said, no. Then, in April of 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt toured Yellowstone with Pitcher. Pitcher, like, led him around the park, and it attracted a flock of attention. So Waters thought, with any luck, the publicity that this was drawing would result in a great

• 58:02Danielle LaRock?

  tourist season that he could cash in on. So to capitalize on this momentum, he announced his next big scheme in the local paper. A massive, three-story schooner capable of carrying hundreds of passengers across Yellowstone Lake. He was going to build the largest ship between the Great Lakes and the Pacific. Most thought this report was fake. Like, this guy is just, we never know what he's up to, what he's doing. He wasn't necessarily like, a compulsive liar, but obviously, he wasn't to be trusted, so they weren't like, sure.

• 58:36Cassandra Yahnian?

  He was like embellishing on a lot of things, and just didn't know where the funds for this would come from, or like, how logistically he was gonna make this happen.

• 58:44Danielle LaRock?

  Right. But Waters was serious, perhaps because this was his, like, last hope of, of staying in Yellowstone, keeping his businesses alive. Waters pinned all of the money he had on this scheme, and some he didn't. When his wife Martha's father passed away, she put her inheritance into this boat. This time, the boat would be delivered piece by piece and assembled on shore. 125 feet long, 500 passengers at a time, it would be glorious and undeniable, and it could make him rich. And then suddenly, even as his plans seemed to be coming together, tragedy struck.

• 59:25Danielle LaRock?

  On January 6th, 1905, the winter before he would christen his new steamship, Waters' 18-year-old daughter Anna died by suicide. She used a mixture of chloroform and carbonic acid and was found in the bathroom of their Wisconsin home. Other members of the family tried to make sense of the sudden loss. Anna had always been popular and was a deep thinker, often prone to melancholy, loneliness, and periods of depression. And that winter, her beloved aunt had passed away, which left her despondent. A week after her funeral, Waters published his thoughts in a scathing letter, addressed to the many that had kindly written in their condolences.

• 1:00:08Danielle LaRock?

  He wrote that his daughter was unmoored by grief and despondent over the family's potential financial collapse. She was afraid that the Northern Pacific Railroad Company would ruin the family and worried about the indignities and slander heaped upon her father and his businesses by Superintendent Pitcher and the railroad company. He said that she begged him to quit the boat company and give up everything in the park rather than continuing to suffer. At least one copy of this letter was sent to Yellowstone's headquarters. For all the cruelty, infidelity, and deceit throughout this entire story, this is the hardest to move past. Of course, grief hits everyone differently, and Waters faced tremendous loss and trauma

• 1:00:52Danielle LaRock?

  early in life, but to use his daughter's suicide in this back-and-forth rivalry with various people in the park and companies is a brand-new low. Late that summer, it was his older daughter, Edna, who held the champagne bottle aboard his new steamship. At 21 years old, she wore a black hat, black gloves, and a black armband to signify mourning for her sister. She and her brother, her mother, and even Waters might have teared up at that moment, wishing Anna was there. It would have been her on the boat, holding the champagne with her bubbly personality. And it certainly would be fitting to name the boat after the daughter he had lost too soon, keeping with the tradition of naming the boat something feminine.

• 1:01:37Danielle LaRock?

  But instead, he dubbed the new steamship, the EC Waters. So he named it after himself.

• 1:01:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's just like everything's about him.

• 1:01:46Danielle LaRock?

  Mm-hmm. Waters had hoped his new boat would be a new beginning for his business, one last chance to salvage his massive investment, but it seemed to mark the beginning of the end. By the time it was christened, the hull of the EC Waters was finished, and it could float, but it wasn't furnished inside, and it would take another two years to complete. It was then that they submitted a request for it to be inspected and approved for transportation in the park. Administrators refused to inspect it at all. It sat anchored and unused for years. They also refused to renew Waters' lease to operate any boat in the park.

• 1:02:27Danielle LaRock?

  Waters' daughter, Edna, eloped without his wishes, running away with a clerk from a nearby hotel. Meanwhile, park officials decided to follow up on complaints about Waters' zoo. After a visit, one official wrote the following after watching staff pour a bucket of "food", quote-unquote "food", which was essentially slop made from garbage and trash from the nearby hotels. He wrote, "These poor, emaciated creatures, driven to desperation by hunger, fought for an opportunity to eat at the trough, where, for the first time in my life, I saw an elk eat flesh." He went on to describe vile smells, filthy corrals, and a repulsion that tourists had

• 1:03:10Danielle LaRock?

  to bear witness to this every day that they visited. And he even described that, yes, they were eating garbage and leftover pieces of meals and meat and things like that, which were clearly unnatural to their diets. But they also, some of them, were getting so desperate because they weren't being fed regularly that they, when one of them died, they would cannibalize each other and start eating each other in desperation.

• 1:03:35Cassandra Yahnian?

  Which is also not normal in a

• 1:03:37Danielle LaRock?

  Correct, yeah.

• 1:03:37Cassandra Yahnian?

  In a wild setting.

• 1:03:39Danielle LaRock?

  In August of 1907, Pitcher's successor as superintendent ordered the permanent closure of Waters' zoo and the relocation of the animals that survived the ordeal. And if you read about this more, it's usually referred to or nicknamed as Waters' Zoo from Hell, because it was so awful. Near the end of the summer season, they also ordered Waters to get rid of the cattle, sheep, and chickens that he kept in pens near his family's lake house. Waters refused and left the park. The superintendent, not bothering to wait for approval from his superiors, tore down the corrals himself. The next day, he wrote a letter that many before him had wished and prayed that they themselves could have wrote.

• 1:04:23Danielle LaRock?

  And it said, "Having rendered himself obnoxious, EC Waters, president of the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company, is barred from the park and will not be allowed to return without permission from the Secretary of the Interior or the superintendent of the park." At each step, Waters tried to fight back, but age and illness were catching up with him. He fell ill with tuberculosis and was committed to the state-run TB Sanatorium. Too sick to travel, Martha attempted to get permission to enter the park and salvage what they had left behind and sell their last remaining goods to the visitors. She wrote in a letter later, "We are thrust aside, and our life earnings have been taken from us."

• 1:05:06Danielle LaRock?

  The park refused to let her in for good, to like do all this stuff and basically just like take over operations for her husband, because they suspected that something else was going on and that like she was gonna plot to stay, to find another way to basically weasel her way back into the park, even in the absence of Waters.

• 1:05:27Cassandra Yahnian?

  They wanted this whole family out, it feels like.

• 1:05:30Danielle LaRock?

  Yep. So basically, they're like, yeah, you can come and collect your things, but you need to get out immediately after. Bedridden, Waters attempted to swallow his pride if that meant getting any money back on their investment. He fielded offers to sell the business for less than he believed it was worth. And like always, he sent desperate pleas to politicians in Washington, including a long letter to the Secretary of the Interior that detailed his profit margins and expenses. Scrawlings of a ruthless entrepreneur focused on money. But halfway through the letter, his writing changed a bit. He wrote, "For 21 years, the park has been the home of the majority stockholders of the boat company. Their children have been raised there.

• 1:06:12Danielle LaRock?

  It is the place that has been called home, the place where the cool, dry, crisp, and bracing mountain air keeps them in good health in their declining years. The one place on earth where they had hoped to spend their summers as long as they lived, and at the end of life, hand over to their children an established business." So for a moment, a different part of Waters surfaced, a part of the man that held a deep love for Yellowstone National Park and Yellowstone Lake, the first place he landed and didn't want to move on from, the first place he wanted to spend the rest of his life coming back to. As he was writing this letter and his life was falling apart, maybe some part of him accepted that it was his fault too, but then again, maybe not.

• 1:06:55Danielle LaRock?

  Though seriously weakened, Waters would survive his belt with tuberculosis. Two years later, Martha died of cancer. She had been his partner in life and in business for 31 years and defended him his entire life. His daughter, Edna, who had eloped against his wishes, died four years after her mother, leaving his son as his only living family member. Whatever was left of his business was sold to his rivals, confiscated by soldiers, or in the case of the EC Waters, the boat, left to rot. His massive schooner was beached one winter by shifting ice tilted on its side, having never carried a single paying passenger. As he grew older, Waters' mind decayed.

• 1:07:40Danielle LaRock?

  Eventually, he had no memory of his 20 years in Yellowstone, not the Zilla, not the zoo, not getting kicked out of the park on four separate occasions, not getting the superintendent fired, or putting soap in beehive geyser to impress his boss. And on August 18th, 1926, he died. Waters' obituary described him as an entrepreneur, but made no mention of his time in Yellowstone or his many controversies. Yellowstone, too, was moving on. The National Park Service was founded in 1916 and immediately set about distancing itself from its rough and rowdy past, seen in the park's earliest years. After all, Yellowstone should stand as an example of how to manage a place.

• 1:08:25Danielle LaRock?

  It was the world's first national park, and a bunch of rundown, old cabins, half-burnt barns, and shoddy tent frames kind of damaged the whole like brand they were going for. They were wanting to like spruce things up, clean things up. So to protect that carefully controlled image they were starting to achieve, rangers started removing or burning old buildings and sheds around Yellowstone Lake. Eventually, their attention drifted to the EC Waters. Prohibition was in full swing by the mid-1920s, but the shipwreck was a known hotspot for covert parties, or, in some of the rangers' words, "wild drinking orgies", carried out by members of the boat and hotel companies.

• 1:09:10Danielle LaRock?

  But I think maybe perhaps some rangers participated themselves. They're like, yeah, it's all those

• 1:09:18Cassandra Yahnian?

  I bet they do.

• 1:09:19Danielle LaRock?

  Wild guys.

• 1:09:20Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's almost wild kids.

• 1:09:21Danielle LaRock?

  Not us.

• 1:09:23Cassandra Yahnian?

  I mean, it sounds like a cool place to have a party.

• 1:09:28Danielle LaRock?

  I mean, it's a massive

• 1:09:29Cassandra Yahnian?

  A lot of history.

• 1:09:30Danielle LaRock?

  Boat. You know, just like

• 1:09:32Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's deteriorating, so it seems like it's probably not like super nice, but it's a cool story and you're out in the middle of the woods and

• 1:09:39Danielle LaRock?

  While it even aren't a nickname, the Moonshine Inn.

• 1:09:43Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh.

• 1:09:44Danielle LaRock?

  So it was pretty well-established for prohibition parties. In 1926, one of the heating boilers in the Yellowstone Lake Hotel went out. As a solution, the boiler from the wrecked EC Waters was stolen, as the boat technically still belonged to Waters. It was his property. And it was used to heat the hotel until 1972.

• 1:10:08Cassandra Yahnian?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:10:09Danielle LaRock?

  So it gets just sitting here. We might as well use it. So in January of 1931, some Rangers skied out on the thick ice that had frozen over Yellowstone Lake with a jug of kerosene, poured it over the bow of the boat and lit it on fire. The blaze kicked up plenty of smoke, but didn't spread too far. The wreck was singed, but survived. The Rangers originally said that they had been out on the lake when they witnessed a bolt of lightning come down from the sky and strike the boat.

• 1:10:41Cassandra Yahnian?

  Wow.

• 1:10:42Danielle LaRock?

  Which caused the fire. Yeah, it's crazy that we were there. Saw that.

• 1:10:47Cassandra Yahnian?

  Right at that moment.

• 1:10:50Danielle LaRock?

  And when the kerosene and the matches were found and everything was put together and the truth eventually came out, the Rangers were scolded for their actions because even though they were deployed out to burn and different structures and things down and clean up the lake, this technically wasn't their property, so they shouldn't have done it, but they did. So they did get a slap on the wrist for that. And those Rangers, for the most part, were an outlier. Upon learning of Waters' death, Yellowstone's first National Park Service Superintendent, Horace Albright, wrote to the Waters home to see if any of his books and writings could be sent to Yellowstone. And archaeologists have since studied the wreck of the E.C. Waters. You don't have to like this guy to appreciate the significance he held during this early

• 1:11:34Danielle LaRock?

  chapter of the park's history. And if you make it to Stevenson Island today, the shipwreck is still there, even after being lit on fire and 100 years of wind, waves and time. Just like its long ago owner, it is not going down without a fight. Today, while the National Park Service does run Ranger-led boat tours occasionally on the lake, every summer operated by the Yellowstone National Park Lodges Company, you can hop aboard either the Lake Queen or Lake Queen II Bay Marina for guided tours of the spectacular Yellowstone Lake. The boat, which is far from the Zilla or the E.C. Waters, it's like a small boat, it holds roughly 40 people, and it takes passengers

• 1:12:19Danielle LaRock?

  out on the very same waters so many early Victorian park visitors were eager to see for themselves. Aboard the boat, you can learn all about the lake area historical district and look for wildlife along the shores, free and uncontained by zoo fences. It offers view of the Lake Yellowstone Hotel, the oldest operating hotel in the whole park and the same hotel that Waters managed and then was banned from and fired from and all that.

• 1:12:46Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yeah, all that.

• 1:12:47Danielle LaRock?

  And of course, you will cruise past one of the lake's seven islands, Stevenson Island, where you will be regaled with the tale of E.C. Waters, his ill-fated ship and his troublemaking, maddening years in the world's first national park. And that is the story of E.C. Waters.

• 1:13:06Cassandra Yahnian?

  That's crazy. I didn't realize that the shipwreck would still be there, that you could see it on tours and stuff, too. That's really cool.

• 1:13:14Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, of course, I haven't taken this tour myself, but of course, I had to look on YouTube and take it virtually.

• 1:13:24Cassandra Yahnian?

  See what it's like.

• 1:13:25Danielle LaRock?

  Thankfully, people have posted their experiences there and I watched like a 45 minute. It wasn't the entire tour from tip to tail, but it was a good portion of it. And it was from last summer. So I got to see, you know, pieces of what they're talking about, the different views, and of course, the footage of them pulling up to the wreck of the E.C. Waters to see. And there it is. It's, I mean, you would never know nowadays. Like, if you were to just pass by, that just looks like a hunk of metal and wood. But that's why these important, these stories are important because you would never know. And there's just such a layered, crazy history behind so many different things in all of

• 1:14:10Danielle LaRock?

  the parks. So it just adds so much, it just adds to the experience to know the histories of things. And yeah, even if it just looks like a pile of junk, you know?

• 1:14:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Well, I love that you told this story because I think Yellowstone is such an interesting place because it is the first national park in the world. There are so many different people and histories that have happened here. And like you mentioned, this is one that you would never know unless you know. And now I feel like you don't even have to go see, of course, going to see this wreck would be really cool, but I feel like now everyone who hears this story will look at Yellowstone Lake a little bit differently.

• 1:14:53Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, it's like there was some guy that was just losing his marbles, just had a whole operation going here. And the hotel, you know, historic hotels are just like the love of my life. And I just, I think that in Yellowstone in particular, Old Faithful gets all the, all the love as far as like, because it's, it is a historic hotel. It's beautiful. But this one, you know, it's the oldest one still in operation and it has such a.

• 1:15:25Cassandra Yahnian?

  It's beautiful, too. It's really beautiful.

• 1:15:28Danielle LaRock?

  Yeah, we'll post pictures of it. But just to wrap up again, if you want a book recommendation, here it is. It's titled Wrecked in Yellowstone: Greed, Obsession, and the Untold Story of Yellowstone's Most Infamous Shipwreck, and it's by Mike Stark. So if you're looking, I got this on thrift books used, so it's great. It's short, sweet, 175 pages, can read it in a day. And it goes deeper into E.C. Waters and all his fuckery. So, yeah.

• 1:15:59Cassandra Yahnian?

  Amazing. Well, thanks for taking us back to Yellowstone this week. This is fun. And we'll see you all next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view.

• 1:16:10Danielle LaRock?

  Buy tickets to our shows in Chicago, New York, and Boston, but watch your back.

• 1:16:15Cassandra Yahnian?

  Yes. Bye, everyone.

• 1:16:18Danielle LaRock?

  Okay, bye.

• 1:16:19Cassandra Yahnian?

  Okay, bye.

• 1:16:22Cassandra Yahnian?

  Thanks for joining us for another episode. We hope you learned something new and have another location to put on your list. If you want more NPAD content, make sure to follow along with our adventures on all socials at National Park After Dark. For more stories just like this one, with the added bonus of exclusive content, you can join us on Patreon or Apple subscriptions. If you prefer to watch our episodes, head over to our YouTube channel. And if you're enjoying the show, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe on your favorite listening platform.

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