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Posted by albee (216.224.253.141) on 22:51:30 05/02/17

GARDINER A few years back, a woman driving through Yellowstone National Park stopped near Tower Junction. There was a bird on the side of the road and she thought it looked hurt, so she caught it with a blanket and drove with it to the park gate near Cooke City.

Tonya Mathews was working the window.

She turned around and put it in the window and she said, Here, I think it s hurt. And she let it go, Mathews said. It was a woodpecker. It went crazy in the building.

They got the bird out of the building eventually, but the story remains. It s one of many that Mathews has collected during her years of working Yellowstone s entrance windows.

She s the north entrance supervisor, meaning she oversees the cheery people who lean out the window here and welcome visitors to the park. In the slower times of year, she s often the one leaning out the window.

Her first gig was at the Cooke City gate as a seasonal employee. She s from Cody, Wyoming, so Yellowstone has been her backyard for a long time.

I was spending most of my time off up here and I thought they might as well pay me to do it, she said.

She spent eight years as a seasonal at Cooke City before taking over the north entrance in 2009.
She stuck around because she likes the work. Interacting with visitors can be fun, she said, and she doesn t mind answering questions from first-time visitors like the time a man wondered if a radio-collared coyote was remote control.

Angry visitors can be a challenge, but the happy ones make up for it. Last week, an older man visiting the park for the first time drove up during her shift.


He was giggling. He was so excited to be here, she said.

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/everyday/welcome-to-yellowstone-life-at-the-window-of-ynp/article_c067845f-6e51-55c8-9fb1-5c8e5a0282a9.html?utm_content=buffer2cb17&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/everyday/welcome-to-yellowstone-life-at-the-window-of-ynp/article_c067845f-6e51-55c8-9fb1-5c8e5a0282a9.html?utm_content=buffer2cb17&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer












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