This year is the 150th anniversary of the world's first national park of its kind, Yellowstone. Each year nearly four million people visit the park but many are unaware of how it was founded.Its founding act as a snapshot of key forces in post Civil War America; reconstruction and the Republican parties national project; industrialisation and the coming of the railways, and; and the resistance of Native Americans at risk of losing their homelands to white settlers moving westward.In this episode, we are joined by Megan Kate Nelson, author of Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, who will unpick the complicated legacy of this iconic landmark.If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.