Yellowstone fires of 1988

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 were the largest wildfires in the history of the Yellowstone National Park. They began as smaller individual fires. They spread quickly out of control. The fires were made worse by increasing wind and severe drought in the Western United States.

The fires burned for several months. On September 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency people for the first time in its history. The arrival of cool and moist weather in the late autumn brought the fires to an end.

Yellowstone Fires Of 1988 Media

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  1953: a firefighter hikes to a distant fire

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  Typical Yellowstone lodgepole pine forest in the year 1965

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  Firefighting at Norris on August 20, 1988, a day that was later dubbed "Black Saturday" due to the huge amount of land that was burned as well as the dense smoke that turned daytime to night in some places

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  Ground fires in Grant Village quickly climbed trees into the canopy and became crown fires.

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  Yellowstone fires of 1988

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  Progression of various fires in the Greater Yellowstone region, July to October 1988.

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  The North Fork fire approaches the Old Faithful complex on September 7, 1988.

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  Firefighters on the fireline near Mammoth Hot Springs, September 10, 1988

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  In this 2006 image, dead snags still stand almost 20 years after the fires, but lodgepole pines are thriving in the understory.

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  A bull elk in a recently burned area