Yellowstone Has Teeth

A Memoir of Living in Yellowstone

Marjane Ambler

Few people have experienced Yellowstone National Park like Marjane Ambler. She and her husband lived in a tiny community near the shores of Yellowstone Lake, deep in the park’s interior. The natural beauty was magnificent, but Ambler and her neighbors discovered that Yellowstone “had teeth.” It could be an unforgiving place where mistakes mattered.

In this well-constructed narrative, Ambler reveals a hidden Yellowstone, a place where delight and danger are separated by the slimmest of margins: a degree of pitch on an avalanche slope, a few inches of a buffalo’s horn, a moment during a deadly wildfire. She also tells about:

The rangers and maintenance workers who handled everything from thundering avalanches to man-eating grizzly bears
The mothers who carried their babies inside their snowmobile suits and prayed their machines would not fail on the long ride home
The old-timers who forged communities despite the odds against them.

With insight, love, and humor, Yellowstone Has Teeth paints a never-before-seen portrait of an iconic American landscape and the people who live there.

"We think of Yellowstone as one of the last vestiges of wilderness. In Marjane Ambler’s capable hands, we learn it is also one of the last places in North America where people live in a real community – isolated, buffeted by nature, and deeply, intimately dependent on one another. Life and death, love and loss – it’s all here, in an extraordinary setting, thanks to an extraordinary storyteller."

—Geoffrey O’Gara, author and Emmy-award winning documentary producer

"From 1984-1993, Marjane Ambler and her husband lived year-round in Yellowstone National Park. And what a life they led: struggling with recalcitrant snowmobiles in unpredictable winter weather to watching as the fires of 1988 blazed closer and closer to their door. But the stories of how women joined together to counter their extreme isolation are the ones that will stay with you long after you put the book down."

—Diane Smith, author of Letters from Yellowstone

"Readers with an interest in any of the more rugged national parks, from Maine to Alaska, will find this book a gratifying experience. It conveys cultural history, women's history, natural history, community awareness, survival stories, and humor."

—Cassandra Leoncini, Leoncini Book Consulting

"Marjane Ambler’s journals of her time spent living in the interior of Yellowstone interweave with the stories of pioneering earlier rangers and their families. With her natural story telling ability, she will pull you into the close-knit communities. By the end of her chronicle you won’t want to say good bye to the hardy souls she has introduced and brought into your life."

—Alice Siebecker, retired NPS Ranger, Yellowstone

"It wrapped itself around my heart, and I felt like I was going home."

—Cindy Mernin, wife of ranger and year-round resident of Yellowstone interior for 25 years (1971-1996)

Yellowstone Has Teeth

A Memoir of Living in Yellowstone

Paperback

Summary

Few people have experienced Yellowstone National Park like Marjane Ambler. She and her husband lived in a tiny community near the shores of Yellowstone Lake, deep in the park’s interior. The natural beauty was magnificent, but Ambler and her neighbors discovered that Yellowstone “had teeth.” It could be an unforgiving place where mistakes mattered.

In this well-constructed narrative, Ambler reveals a hidden Yellowstone, a place where delight and danger are separated by the slimmest of margins: a degree of pitch on an avalanche slope, a few inches of a buffalo’s horn, a moment during a deadly wildfire. She also tells about:
- The rangers and maintenance workers who handled everything from thundering avalanches to man-eating grizzly bears
- The mothers who carried their babies inside their snowmobile suits and prayed their machines would not fail on the long ride home
- The old-timers who forged communities despite the odds against them.
With insight, love, and humor, Yellowstone Has Teeth paints a never-before-seen portrait of an iconic American landscape and the people who live there.

"We think of Yellowstone as one of the last vestiges of wilderness. In Marjane Ambler’s capable hands, we learn it is also one of the last places in North America where people live in a real community – isolated, buffeted by nature, and deeply, intimately dependent on one another. Life and death, love and loss – it’s all here, in an extraordinary setting, thanks to an extraordinary storyteller."

—Geoffrey O’Gara, author and Emmy-award winning documentary producer

"From 1984-1993, Marjane Ambler and her husband lived year-round in Yellowstone National Park. And what a life they led: struggling with recalcitrant snowmobiles in unpredictable winter weather to watching as the fires of 1988 blazed closer and closer to their door. But the stories of how women joined together to counter their extreme isolation are the ones that will stay with you long after you put the book down."

—Diane Smith, author of Letters from Yellowstone

"Readers with an interest in any of the more rugged national parks, from Maine to Alaska, will find this book a gratifying experience. It conveys cultural history, women's history, natural history, community awareness, survival stories, and humor."

—Cassandra Leoncini, Leoncini Book Consulting

"Marjane Ambler’s journals of her time spent living in the interior of Yellowstone interweave with the stories of pioneering earlier rangers and their families. With her natural story telling ability, she will pull you into the close-knit communities. By the end of her chronicle you won’t want to say good bye to the hardy souls she has introduced and brought into your life."

—Alice Siebecker, retired NPS Ranger, Yellowstone

"It wrapped itself around my heart, and I felt like I was going home."

—Cindy Mernin, wife of ranger and year-round resident of Yellowstone interior for 25 years (1971-1996)

Details

Globe Pequot / Riverbend

Pages: 224 • Trim: 5½ x 8¾

978-1-60639-063-4 • Paperback • June 2013 • $19.95 • (£14.99)

Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Personal Memoirs

Yellowstone Has Teeth

A Memoir of Living in Yellowstone

Marjane Ambler

Yellowstone Has Teeth

A Memoir of Living in Yellowstone

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