There are several reasons for this.

The most important reason is simple. Yellowstone National Park was created so early in our nation’s history that people stopped exploring there. A very large tract of land was "taken out of circulation" in 1872. That insured the lock-up of beauty and protected the features from the inevitable, gradual discovery by settlers, which would have occurred anywhere else. It also slowed prospecting, poaching, and the general curiosity of those trying to make a living here.

Yellowstone is geographically remote. Even today, the park remains far from the urban centers of the nation. The southeast corner of the park contains the most remote wilderness (distance from a road of any kind) in the lower 48 states.

Yellowstone is huge. At 2.2 million acres it larger than some states. Flowing through it are no less than 500 rivers and creeks, some of them in very tricky areas to navigate. To date only about a third of them have been surveyed in their entirety.

Travel around and through Yellowstone even today is slow and not very complete. Its road and trail system covers less than one percent of the park. Thick forests and difficult canyon country dominate much of its backcountry.

The park is locked in snow a majority of the year. That fact has slowed historical exploration and today limits the season of potential discovery to only a few months.

The early explorations by David Folsom, Henry Washburn, F. V. Hayden, William A. Jones, William Ludlow, and Arnold Hague failed to completely cover of the park; they simply missed a lot of features. It was impossible to survey it all.

The park's massive other attractions eclipse its waterfalls. Geysers, lakes, canyons, rivers, and wildlife have always attracted more attention. People have not historically sought out backcountry waterfalls.

Today the park's backcountry regulations are quite strict. They require camping only in specific designated sites and restrict (or close) many other areas. This limits exploration to a significant degree.

2. How did you go about discovering waterfalls?

We did it in a variety of ways. We looked at over 100 different Yellowstone maps back through history, and, in some cases we found crude notations on the old maps indicating possible "falls" or "cascades." We read the various fishery reports of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As those scientists surveyed streams for fish-study purposes, they often noted where waterfalls occurred, because waterfalls represent critical barriers to upstream fish migration. We interviewed many of those fishery researchers, read their reports, and looked at their hand-drawn maps. We spoke to park rangers and longtime employee-hikers who knew of or had photographed unsung backcountry waterfalls. Finally, we examined park maps for relief lines and spent years hiking up streams where it looked to us as if there might be a waterfall.

There was extensive hiking, writing, and photography for all of us in the pursuit of these waterfalls. For this to have been a successful endeavor, the three of us have had to fulfill a variety of duties, while at the same time falling into our individual strengths. Without this melding of specialties into one cohesive unit, the success of our surveys would never have become a reality.

3. How do you know you discovered them?

It seems that we are the first-time documentors of perhaps as many as 200 waterfalls within the boundaries of the park. These features have never appeared in any Yellowstone book or article. As Yellowstone park archivist and historian, it is author Lee Whittlesey’s job to know everything and anything there is to know about the history of this park and surrounding area. Those who know him consider him a walking encyclopedia on Yellowstone. If any of these waterfalls had ever appeared in documentation anywhere, he would know.

We do not claim to have actually discovered all of these falls. Many have certainly been seen by Native Americans, early explorers or trappers, and later by adventurous hikers. However the majority have not been written of, photographed, mapped, or named.

There are a few unique exceptions: some falls were surveyed by the USGS from the air, but had never been ground truthed (visited by a party on land). Others were noted on hand-drawn maps in the journals of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as they studied fish migration on some of Yellowstone’s backcountry streams. We have credited them in these cases. Still these findings were never published outside of their original technical reports.

4. What is the difference between “discovered” and “first-time documented”?

One could make the case that there is no difference. In this society we often credit someone with discovery when obviously a particular locale was seen previously. (Columbus discovering America might be one example). For our purposes, we like to think of ourselves as discoverers of those falls for which not one word has ever appeared in anything, anywhere and the fall is remote enough that is unlikely to have been seen. (“Rocky Top Falls”, “Serendipity Falls,” and some of the falls in “Valhalla, ” are some examples.)

The vast majority of the falls we are presenting are first-time documented features. They would be in the category of those features that must have been visited by someone, but as yet no record exists of any their specific visits.

5. Why didn’t some of the true discoverers tell anyone about their discoveries?

This is an intriguing question. The most likely answer is that they didn’t realize that they had discovered something new. After the initial wave of explorations in the period 1870-1900, it appears that Yellowstone did not receive that many visitations to its backcountry for some time. In the 1950’s and 60’s when people in numbers finally started heading deeper into Yellowstone for recreation they most likely assumed that anything they saw had already been visited by someone. After all Yellowstone was arguably the most famous national park in the world. So the true discoverers of many of these falls simply did not report it.

6. Who took the many photographs in your book?

The photography during our research was essentially split between two of the three authors, Paul Rubinstein and Mike Stevens. Between them they took roughly 90% of the images. In a few cases we did use the photographs of friends and colleagues. In the majority of those cases, they simply had nicer photos than we did. In a handful of cases however, they actually saw waterfalls that none of the authors were able to reach. In those situations we relied totally on our friends for specific information.

7. Did you videotape any of these falls?

A few of them. In the early years of our explorations, Paul Rubinstein carried an 8mm video camera on all hikes. However in recent year as the trips became more intense and weight became an issue we began only carrying gear for still photography. Some of the unusual falls that have been videotaped include “Iddings Falls,” Golden Fleece Falls, “Fall of the Valkyries,” and “Citadel of Asgard Falls.”

8. Did anyone else help in the exploration process?

Many friends accompanied us on over 100 separate surveys. Although not direct contributors, they walked every step with us even though they didn’t have any idea where they were or what they were getting themselves into. Several others did report some waterfalls independently to us (although in most cases we sent them looking). A list of these folks can be found in the book’s acknowledgements.

9. How did the project begin?

In the late 1970’s, Lee Whittlesey and a gentleman named John Barber began collaborating on a book that was to be the first ever to provide a history and photographs of all the known, mapped waterfalls in Yellowstone. Some time during that project, Barber decided he didn’t want to share authorship on the project so he broke from the partnership and subsequently put out Yellowstone’s first waterfall book, Ribbons Of Water, in 1984. It was a collection of waterfall photos and author musings. But it gave no details or locations on any falls and had numerous errors including miscaptioned photos and incorrect information.

Because of this, Lee decided that eventually he would redo the waterfall book when the time was appropriate and Ribbons of Water was no longer in print. In the early 1990’s when he was ready to try it again Lee invited Paul Rubinstein and Mike Stevens to join him in the project. At that time Lee felt he had already essentially written the entire book and just needed two backcountry experts that could do the photography for him. And for the first several years that’s exactly what happened.

However in 1995, author Paul Rubinstein began to discover materials and references in the Yellowstone Park archives that tantalizingly hinted at much more in the way of waterfalls than anyone had previously realized. At that point he began spearheading an overhaul of the book and taking his co-authors in a different direction. He proposed a massive undertaking where the trio would include every waterfall, no matter how trivial, that had ever been previously documented and include every feature over 15 feet that they could find on their own. Instead of just the known falls, the three would begin studying and surveying undocumented Yellowstone streams just to see what might be there.

In the end it became a true partnership, with Whittlesey and Rubinstein writing the entries, and Stevens and Rubinstein splitting the photography. Between them the three authors have to date hiked over 5,000 miles for this project.

10. What about those who say you are spoiling the park by giving up its secrets, and that these falls will now be ruined?

We certainly have had our "second thoughts" about exposing some of these places to more visitors. Thinking about this brings to mind Ashley Brilliant's humorous comment: "Why wasn't I told about this wonderful place, and how can I prevent others from discovering it?" However, aside from the usual if-we-don't-do-it-someone-else-will sentiment, we think we may actually help the situation by adding to the record yet another major reason why Yellowstone is one of the earth's most special places and thus deserving of special protection.

As Bill Schneider has noted in his book Hiking Yellowstone National Park, some "locals" often whisper that books like this are a bad idea because they reveal locations of backcountry features. We do not agree with that sentiment. Like Schneider, we believe that experienced backcountry users tend to have a loftier attitude about preserving wilderness than do inexperienced ones and that books like this one help people become experienced. Moreover, inexperienced folks usually don't even bother to go to these places, especially the more difficult locations. As evidence of that, we note the dozens of Yellowstone's backcountry waterfalls have been on park maps for over one hundred years, yet are hardly visited (Quiver Cascade, Plateau Falls, etc.). We simply don't believe that publication of this book will suddenly cause more than the most robust hikers to strike out to reach these difficult locations.

Some people in the National Park Service also believe that publishing a book like this one is a bad idea. Like the locals, they fear that the more people who know of such places, the more likely those places are to become spoiled. In this, we too are conflicted. Frankly, some irresponsible members of the public have given the rangers and the locals good reason to fear this possibility. On the other hand, keeping secrets is not a good "look" for the rangers, and the National Park Service is, to quote one district ranger, "not in the business of keeping secrets." There have been many occasions when the heavy support of great numbers of the public has actually resulted in better protection for sensitive places.

These kinds of debates within the National Park Service, between those who want to keep things secret and those who believe that public support actually helps protect special places will no doubt continue. They illustrate the NPS's own dichotomous mandate: allow the public to use and enjoy park resources while simultaneously preserving them for future generations. It is an inherent conflict, and one which is reflected in the philosophies of two different NPS divisions: law enforcement rangers have a duty to protect park resources while interpretive rangers have a duty to give people information to aid in their use and enjoyment of park resources.

Our goal is to provide enjoyment through pictures and through the knowledge that these beautiful falls are out there in the wilderness, in their natural, untouched state. This comes under that area of appreciation known as "existence value": the waterfalls have value for their very existence even if one never sees them.

There is history to this idea of finding new features to help protect a place. In 1920, when the Bechler region of Yellowstone was threatened by Idaho developers who wanted to inundate the entire Cascade Corner with a reservoir, a private individual named W.C. Gregg took it upon himself to explore the region, looking for specific reasons why the area should be preserved. He discovered dozens of waterfalls and thereafter spearheaded a drive to defeat the reservoir-developers by publicizing the place in national magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Outlook. We want to align ourselves with the historic efforts of W.C. Gregg at a time when Yellowstone is threatened by developers outside of its boundaries. With our documentation of around 230 "new" waterfalls, it is clear that now more than ever, we must all work together to protect this region which is home to earth's most special wonders.

11. Why did you name the unnamed falls and how did you decide what to name them?

There are around 230 waterfalls and cascades that we have documented which have never had names. For most of these features, we have used “working” names, and we have indicated those names in the book by placing them in quotation marks. With this number of waterfalls, names were badly needed in order to differentiate the numerous features. Can you imagine the difficulty of our task without these suggested names? ("Boy, waterfall number 56 is neat, but you really should see number 109!")

In some cases, our names have been formulated from the fall’s proximity to nearby natural features (i.e. “Robinson Canyon Falls”). In other cases, we have originated a name based upon our impressions (usually descriptive of the feature itself or its surroundings), upon the long history of Yellowstone, or upon human folklore of which Yellowstone itself is arguably an entrenched part.

Where place names are concerned, folklore has played an important historical role in Yellowstone. Place names such as Minerva Terrace, Prometheus Spring, Tantalus Creek, Undine Falls, Treasure Island, River Styx, and Narcissus Geyser represent only a few of the many park names that come from mythology and literature.

We have had to be very careful with our name proposals, not only to follow established naming history but also to make them as suitable as possible for a place as beautiful and magical as Yellowstone. Such an idyllic place evokes for us metaphorical comparisons to Shangri-La, the Garden of Eden, the Elysian Fields, Valhalla, Zion, Mount Olympus, and of course Heaven. Thus we have tried hard to keep names originated by us within the framework of the history of names in Yellowstone and within the rules of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names.

As first documentors of many of these waterfalls, we have the right to at least propose names (similarly, the world has the right to ignore us). There is a long tradition in Western America that says discoverers or first documentors have the right to propose names. Members of the 1870 Washburn expedition knew this tradition well and gave names in recognition of it. Dr. F.V. Hayden, one of the great surveyors of the American West and discoverer of many western land features, mentioned this fact in 1871:

"In attaching names to the many mountain-peaks, new streams, and other geographical localities, the discovery of which falls to the pleasant lot of the explorer in the untrodden wilds of the West, I have followed the rigid law of priority, and given the one by which they have generally been known...but if...no suitable descriptive name can be secured from the surroundings, [others] may then be attached."

And Roger Payne, chief of the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, recently confirmed, in a phone call to us, this history and tradition about first documentors and the giving of names. Of course only Yellowstone National Park itself has final authority to affirm names and submit them to the USBGN; our names are merely suggestions. But as we thought of them, especially the names that evoke folklore and beauty, we were reminded over and over of how truly high Yellowstone is on the list of the world's most special places.

12. Why is the naming of these new waterfalls controversial?

We understand that there are some wilderness advocates who truly hate the idea of names in wilderness areas and who truly love the idea of large spaces on maps where there are no names. While we sympathize with this idea in theory, there are a number of reality-based reasons why historians recognize that it will not and cannot work.

1) Trying to leave a place unnamed usually causes it to become named in a de facto kind of way.
2) Trying to avoid giving names goes against the entire history of the American West and the tendency of the first discoverer or documentor to give names.
3) In Yellowstone, even park rangers themselves give names.

Let us elaborate. When we queried him on the subject, our friend Paul Schullery, author of more than twenty-five books on Yellowstone and the West, noted to us that "bare spots" on the map are theoretically wonderful but that as soon as you try to consciously keep something unnamed, "you've named it." Then it quickly becomes known as the "Bare Spot," the "Unnamed Area," "The Place With No Name," or something similar. Whether one likes it or not, once a place has come to someone's (anyone's) attention and there is a need to discuss it, it is going to get a name. By way of existing examples, in Yellowstone there is one stream now known as Unnamed Creek and another stream now known as No Name Creek.

This fact, that trying not to give names often causes names, segues perfectly into our second argument: trying to avoid giving names goes against history and culture. In the history of the American West, discoverers (or first documentors) have always given names; if they did not give them consciously, they generally gave them unconsciously simply through the process of talking about places. One simply cannot stop names from happening, and if we do not propose them someone else will! A place is probably going to get a name one way or another, whether purposefully or through happenstance.

Finally, it is interesting to note that Yellowstone rangers have given names to park natural features since 1916, and that the army protectors of Yellowstone before them gave names beginning in 1886. Before the army came to Yellowstone, park superintendents and other park employees gave names to natural features. Rangers themselves today routinely give names in Yellowstone---in their reports, on hand-drawn maps, and in backcountry logbooks. Anderson Mountain and Chaw Pass are two examples of ranger-given names that are now completely entrenched in local usage. So although we sympathize with those who do not share our naming philosophy we do not share their views on this sensitive subject.

13. What is the largest fall you found?

That depends on what you mean by largest. But the one we are probably most proud of is a spectacular fall on the north side Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that we call “Citadel of Asgard Falls.” It free falls for roughly 200 feet before cascading steeply for nearly 300 more. It is on an unmapped, unnamed creek, which makes it all the more intriguing. In spring when this fall is full, it is one of the more impressive falls in America, let alone Yellowstone.

14. What is your favorite fall?

There are just too many to name and at that I think you would get strong disagreement from the three authors. In general they include: “Citadel of Asgard Falls,” “Alfheim Falls,” “Birdseye Falls,” “Cloistered Falls,” "Enchantress Falls," "Zephyr Falls," and "Elysian Falls."

15. What were some of your more harrowing experiences while on the trail?

We have had quite a few unsettling encounters in the wilderness. Here are some of them:

Collectively we had no less then 3 heart-stopping Grizzly Bear encounters and at least 4 other black bear incidents.

Two of the authors were struck by lightning.

One multi-day trip in late summer saw record cold temperatures drop the thermometer to near zero degrees Fahrenheit, and our group was over thirty miles from civilization without proper clothing.

In an effort to capture the perfect photograph, we many times found ourselves on cliff faces or riverbanks where we were literally one slip away from death. This has happened so many times that we have lost count.

We have careened down rocky hillsides, slid down snow fields, spent unplanned, freezing nights in the woods with only emergency space blankets, forded flooded rivers at life threatening depths, and survived hypothermia and heat stroke.

We have been surrounded by moose, stalked by bears, charged by elk, and scattered by buffalo herds.

We have narrowly avoided severe burns or worse in thermal areas with thin crusts. Breaking through on at least three occasions and if not for thick boots would have suffered third degree burns from boiling mud.

We have encountered every kind of weather imaginable and have survived snowstorms in every month of the year.

All in all it has been a thrilling and rewarding experience, but as you can see by the list above, even for seasoned backcountry travelers, Yellowstone’s wilderness is no playground.

16. Where can I get this book outside of Yellowstone?

You can order this book through any major bookstore in the nation. Published by Westcliffe Publishers, Englewood, Colorado, it is available through their website at the following URL:
http://www.westcliffepublishers.com/detail.php?id=113

It is also available on the internet at amazon.com and at barnesandnoble.com.

17. How can I see some of these new falls and where are some of the easiest new waterfalls to access?

The book will have over 15 maps that detail the distribution of these falls. Different scales will illustrate the spatial relationships of these features to varying degrees.

The easiest to see include “Picnic Falls,” “Devil’s Elbow Falls,” and “The Falls of Hayden Valley.”

18. Who are the three authors?

A former air traffic controller, Paul Rubinstein holds a degree in geography, specializing in land-based and aerial cartography. He has spent the last eleven seasons in Yellowstone National Park, amassing thousands of miles of off-trail exploration. During this time, he has filmed and edited seven full-length Yellowstone videos and photographed thousands of images from some of Yellowstone's remotest locations. His photos have been featured in American Heritage Magazine, Death in Yellowstone, and the upcoming, revised Yellowstone Placenames. Rubinstein is currently working on his next book, a true account of some of his more harrowing experiences in Yellowstone's deepest wilderness. Come winter he and girlfriend Barbara can be found in Calabasas, California.

Lee Whittlesey is archivist for the National Park Service at Yellowstone National Park. A historian who has published five other books on Yellowstone, Whittlesey has spent 27 summers and 15 winters in the "Grand Old Park." In his many years at Yellowstone, he has worn the hats of bus tour guide, snowcoach driver, communications specialist, law enforcement ranger, ranger-naturalist, and technical writer. A backcountry expert, he has hiked all 1,200 miles of Yellowstone's marked trails, and hundreds of miles off-trail. Whittlesey holds a law degree from the University of Oklahoma and lives year-round in the park at Mammoth with his wife Tami and daughter Tess.

A high school mathematics teacher for 30 years, Mike Stevens has had the opportunity to enjoy many a summer in the great outdoors. He has worked 17 seasons in Yellowstone National Park, often as a park service volunteer or tour guide. An avid hiker and nature photographer, Stevens has had several of his nature photographs published in A Yellowstone Album, and, after logging over 5,000 miles, has developed his reputation among his peers as the best foot soldier in all of Yellowstone. When he isn't traversing the park, Stevens makes his home in Simi Valley, California.

19. What did each author contribute to the project?

A book of this magnitude could not have happened without six things: an experienced and talented writer, an uncompromising researcher, a superior historian, an all-out hiker, a skilled photographer, and a project coordinator to oversee all the facets of the information gathering process.

Paul Rubinstein could probably be called the project coordinator. He oversaw all facets of the exploration process. He also oversaw the book’s development and editing (writing about half the entries and shooting nearly half the photos). His work also included construction of each of the new Yellowstone maps showing waterfall distribution. As group coordinator, he was responsible for much of the archival research, exhaustive topographic mapping, precise scheduling, and complex cross-country orienteering. This included the sorting and cataloging of thousands of slides, the planning and scheduling of each specific hiking trip, the calculating of each waterfall's precise earth coordinates, and the examination of large numbers of ranger logs, private diaries, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service survey notes.

Lee Whittlesey, is probably the closest thing to a walking "Yellowstone Encyclopedia" that there is. With works like Wonderland Nomenclature, Yellowstone Place Names, and Death in Yellowstone already under his belt, there were no concerns about the book's text or historical accuracy. Lee wrote the entries for virtually all of the previously known falls and a good deal of the new falls that he personally visited.

Mike Stevens, is (bar none) the best foot soldier in all of Yellowstone: a man who routinely hikes thirty miles in a single day, only to "strike right back out" the following morning for another twenty-five. For this book he went “the extra mile" in any weather, any day, any time, and over any type of terrain, no matter how difficult or how great the distance. He shot the majority of photos in the book and contributed heavily in the book editing process.

20. Who funded this operation?

We received no funding of any kind: official or unofficial. This undertaking was completed on pure love of the Yellowstone backcountry and an overwhelming desire to explore. While Lee and Mike diligently worked part-time on this endeavor (after all they both have full-time jobs), Paul spent the better part of 5 years working full-time on every aspect of this project.

21. If there are still falls yet to be discovered, why have you chosen to publish now?

This project could continue for 20 more years and we would still find new falls. Basically it would never end. Yellowstone is that extensive. We felt the amount of new information was getting quite large. In order to keep our book at a respectable size and price we felt it was time to announce or discoveries at this time.

22. Even though the book is complete, will the three of you still continue to search for new waterfalls?

Absolutely! While it may no longer be our hiking priority each week, we will continue to scour the backcountry for new waterfalls and any other feature that until now has gone undocumented. This includes thermal areas, creeks, and archeological and cultural sites. And we want to hear from anyone else doing the same. While we believe that we have labored valiantly to find many waterfalls in Yellowstone, there are undoubtedly others that await discovery. If you find such a waterfall in the park which is fifteen feet high or higher, which is permanent, and which is largely vertical, please contact us at the Yellowstone Center for Resources, [c/o Lee H. Whittlesey], P.O. Box 168, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming 82190.