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--Memorial Day Weekend is a time for remembrance. On our visit this Friday we stopped at the grave of Mattie Culver. It reminds us of the life, (and death,) of the early pioneers in Yellowstone National Park.
-- Mattie was the consumptive wife of a loving husband who brought her west in the hope that the 'air' would help her condition. She had lived the hard life of a child laborer in a textile mill in New England and died the wife of a 'winter keeper' in Yellowstone.
-- Mattie died in 1889, at the age of 32, and was buried at a peaceful site on the peninsula between the Firehole River and Nez Perce Creek. Local folks make a spring pilgrimage to the site and leave a single wildflower on her grave.
-- Mattie would would be only a gravestone, (with an incorrect age,) were she not discovered by Nan Weber. Nan Weber has spent countless hours in her pursuit of the historical Martha "Mattie" Shipley Culver. Her Book "Mattie A Woman's Journey West" has developed both a local and international following. The book is a sympathetic treatment of a most troubling life story. We take this space to remember both Mattie & Nan. They shall always be linked to Yellowstone.
Mattie's Home Page
Nan's Home Page
Local News Article
