LEOPOLD OF SWEDEN
TAKES ELEVEN
TAKES ELEVEN
The Way It Was
MSU helps us remember
.. With his rubber boots, an Hardy "CORKER" rod, an Allcock bait reel, and a wild flower in his tweedy lapel the Crown Prince managed to gather up 11 lovely trout near the present day Fishing Bridge in 1926.
.. A tip from the Yellowstone Park News, points us toward access to an historic collection of photographs... The family and professional photos from Frank Jay Haynes, (official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad AND Yellowstone National Park,) are available online -- in two places, no less: FLICKR (just posted,) and Montana State University Library. The latter is complete, the former has 60 creative commons images.
.. For those of you from Alpha Centauri, Haynes was the photographer that
defined and initially captured all the classic Yellowstone photos... He turned many into hand-colored postcards, and later printed color-tinted B&W postcards.
.. Jack Haynes continued the tradition and the postcards have become genuine collectors items - both here and abroad.
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.. The Haynes Family Collection contains images of presidents, tourists, bears, superintendents, rangers, old buildings, features long gone, fish, fishing, and other western Americana found in very few other places... Among the treasure trove of images, (we've not scanned all 5,000 - yet,) are some that are particularly pertinent to the interested fly fisher.
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.. Just as a 'for instance,' the common misconception about "The Barns Holes" on the Madison River, is that they were named after a famous fly fisher named Barnes, (yes that one.)
[We've even heard them referred to as Barnes' Holes.].. Au Contraire, Mon Ami, They were named long before he arrived on the scene and the reference is to the horse barns at the encampment called 'Riverside,' (later 'Yellowstone,' - later yet 'West Yellowstone.)
.. The barns in question served both the military, and the Monida to Yellowstone Stage Line, (at both different and the same time.)
.. Should you bother to venture away from the crowd - either upstream or downstream - at the Barns Holes you can still see the old stage road's ruts. A bit farther afield you can even find some foundation remnants.
.. The Haynes Family Collection includes a wonderful image of the "Barns at Riverside" and a map of the Monida to Yellowstone stage depot.
.. If you've fished away from the crowd, (you've probably caught fish in the lessor known 'local hole') and you have walked across the lobby of the stage depot.
.. There is an even more secret hole in the river bottom where fall-run fish park right under the bank.
.. This depression is the remnant of a 'stream well' for the hydraulic rams that brought water to the stage line compound. History is useful for the fly fisher, - (the neighbors are going to castrate me for this.)
.. For your edification, we've posted these images here. If you click on the images you can see other surprisingly telling clues about where to fish - this is certain death.
.. Just wait until the Gardiner Gateway hints are revealed, (that's right Gardiner Gateway - not Gallatin Gateway - oops!)
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