"For over a century, Yellowstone National Park has been a monument to America's wilderness. But long before flames swept through Yellowstone in 1988, the natural wildness of the park was being encroached upon as it became one of our nation's most commodified pieces of real estate.".

"For as long as they have existed, the national parks have been the scene of some of the most intensive commercial activity in the American West. Selling Yellowstone recounts the story of such activities in our oldest park from the 1870s through the 1960s.

It is the first book to examine critically the role of business in the development of America's national parks, demonstrating how profit-driven entrepreneurs shaped the physical landscape of what is generally perceived as unaltered wilderness."--BOOK JACKET.