Here, Fuller is outside his historic quarters near the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. But Steve has stuck out this solitary existence for 42 years, ever since the winter of 1973. He also is author of several critically-acclaimed books. Meet Steve Fuller: Yellowstone's winterkeeper.
I was a college student who had come out West to work in Yellowstone, like thousands of American young people used to do.My job was cooking meals for tourists in the dining room and cafeteria at Canyon Village, located near the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.Fuller was there taking photographs at the request of his wife, Angela, who oversaw the operations for park concessionaire TW Services, which over the years morphed into today’s Amfac. Steven Fuller is Yellowstone's longest-serving winterkeeper. Steven Fuller welcomed his 45 th consecutive New Year’s morning in Yellowstone by skiing into a whirl of falling graupel and trees jangling like wind chimes.
"You work with the Winter. Five months a year, Fuller is virtually alone. In an instant, hundreds of us smiled, our visages frozen in time, and then I seldom caught a glimpse of Fuller again, until four years later.In 1986, I moved West permanently from a job with the City News Bureau of Chicago, where I wrote stories as a violent crime reporter.
"Watch CBS News anytime, anywhere with the our 24/7 digital news network. Modernity, however, is steadily rendering those jobs obsolete, with advances in snow-machine technology making a place like Canyon seem less remote.“Wilderness? Winter keepers originally were tasked with shoveling the heavy snows off the rooftops of structures in the park interior to prevent them from collapsing. It is another mile or so by snowmobile to Fuller's home. "When you're out alone, you don't want to make any noise. ""I usually start off with caretaker, and their immediate response is, 'Have you seen 'The Shining'?" "He lives in one of the oldest structures in the park, a small cabin on a hill that boasts the only light for miles.He doesn't have a television, but does have a vast library.At night, when Yellowstone's temperatures can dip to 20 below zero, his books keep him company, as well as his cats. Although covering homicides in the Windy City had, at times, been a hair-raising experience, this was a visceral reminder of what natural wildness meant.Two years later, as I was covering the historic Yellowstone forest fires of 1988, Fuller’s residence came close to burning to the ground.
Mar 1, 2015 - Explore Marilynn Layden's board "Steve Fuller" on Pinterest. His work has appeared in publications ranging from National Geographic to The Guardian and The Washington Post. Stream CBSN live or on demand for FREE on your TV, computer, tablet, or smartphone. Steve Fuller carves through the giant snow cornices that form on rooftops with a two-man timber saw he modified with a shovel handle. Mr. STEVE FULLER (Winter Keeper): My choice has been to get to know one place really well, and this is a very special place to get to know. "The expectation was that you were in here for the winter," he said. Photo: Neal Herbert // NPS. I had taken a job with the then-Jackson Hole News and during one of my first free weekends in the autumn, I drove north through the Tetons and spent a couple nights with the Fullers at their rustic home.The two-bedroom structure rests a quarter of a mile above the breathtaking river chasm and adjacent to a rise in topography where the famous Canyon Hotel, designed by architect Robert Reamer, stood until the 1950s when a fire destroyed it. Little did we know that only a short distance away that same weekend, wildlife photographer William Tesinsky had gotten fatally mauled and partially consumed by a grizzly bear. His column, The New West, was not long ago named best column for small-town newspapers in America. he laughed.
CBS News But consider just a few of the many paradoxes and ironies swirling around Yellowstone “winter keeper” Steven Fuller.While today legions of young people would probably daydream of having his job in the middle of America’s first national park, back in 1973 when he was hired as the only applicant, his position was regarded as a notorious hardship post where others had gone crazy—like being sent to a gulag on the movie set for The Shining.Today, as record numbers of visitors stream past his rustic home on a highway below it in summer, Fuller’s backyard, if based on the recovery of grizzly bears and restoration of wolves to the park, is actually wilder than when he first moved in.The first time I ever encountered Fuller was in the summer of 1982. His kitchen is crammed with just enough food to make it through the winter. Snow and miles isolate Fuller in the heart of Yellowstone. Yellowstone winter keeper Steven Fuller with his standard tool of the trade, a saw, to release huge snowpacks from the roofs of buildings. You wanna whisper if you're talking.
From Mammoth Hot Springs, it is a three-hour ride by snow coach to Canyon Village 33 miles away. Forty miles from the nearest town, 19 miles from his nearest neighbor. See more ideas about Fuller, Yellowstone, Yellowstone national park.
Todd Wilkinson has been an award-winning journalist for more than three decades and is best known for his coverage of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. The sign … They've gone on to live their own lives -- as did his wife -- but Steve says he fit best, staying put.
I was paid $13.24 a day. CBS News “You screw up, you die, or at least suffer the consequences.”During the mid-1970s, National Geographic published an essay with photographs by Fuller. ""Well, the opportunity for self-knowledge, reflection," Fuller replied.