Welcome, Geography
Your bellwork lives here.
On class days a new bellwork appears below: a short reading, a bet, and three questions. Read it, make your guess before the reveal, and write real answers. You are graded on honest effort and completeness, not on guessing right — there are no wrong guesses before the reveal.
How to turn it in
Hit the gold Turn it in button at the bottom of the bellwork. On the form, choose Geography as your class, then pick your assigned number — the one your teacher gave you. No names, no sign-in. One submission per day.
GEO1 - Geography - National Parks
Yellowstone: the first national park on Earth
Grand Prismatic Spring — Wikimedia Commons (public domain / CC).
Before Yellowstone, no country on the planet had ever done this: taken a huge, beautiful piece of land and locked it away from buying, selling, mining, and building — forever, for everyone. Congress created Yellowstone National Park in the Wyoming territory before Wyoming was even a state. The idea was so new there was no word for it, no rangers to guard it, and no budget to run it. Early visitors boiled their laundry in the hot springs. The park sits on top of a gigantic sleeping volcano, which is why it has more geysers and hot springs than the rest of the world combined — including one so regular they named it Old Faithful.
Make your bet
Bet: what YEAR did Yellowstone become the world’s first national park? (Hint from the reading: before Wyoming was a state.)
Yellowstone photographed by William Henry Jackson on the 1871 survey — his pictures are what Congress saw before the vote — Wikimedia Commons.
Your turn
1. Check the reading. What made Yellowstone different from every park that came before it anywhere on Earth?
2. Compare the two photos. The black-and-white one is a Jackson survey photo — Congress saw his pictures before voting. Why did the photos matter more than written reports?
3. Go deeper. If you could protect one place in Mississippi the way Yellowstone is protected, what would it be? Explain.