November 7, 2023 – THEME WEEK DAY 2

We’re continuing our theme week on World Heritage Sites today. The first World Heritage Site in the United States to be recognized was Yellowstone National Park. It was established and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872 as the first national park in the country. The park is close to 3500 square miles, which includes lakes, canyons, rivers, and mountain ranges. It’s well known for its abundance of wildlife and for the many geothermal features within the park. Yellowstone is home to more than half of the world’s geothermal features and around 60% of the world’s geysers. Old Faithful is the most famous of the more than 1,200 geysers in the park.
Yellowstone has the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states. The 67 species of mammals include wolves, coyotes, cougars, and black and grizzly bears. The parks is also home to America’s oldest and largest natural herd of bison. But the largest population of any large mammal species is elk, with more than 30,000 roaming the park.
Yellowstone is one of the most popular national parks in the country. Since the mid-60s, at least 2 million tourists have visited every year. Visitation peaked in 2016 with a record 4.25 million visitors.
Yellowstone is the subject of a unique legal anomaly and constitutional loophole dubbed the Zone of Death. All of Yellowstone National Park falls under the legal jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, even though parts of the park are in Idaho and Montana. That means Wyoming’s district court is the only one in the country that oversees lands in more than one state. District court trials are normally held at the federal courthouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, the 6th amendment stipulates that jurors in federal criminal trials must live in both the federal judicial district and the state where a crime was alleged to have been commited. Here’s the loophole – charges for crime alleged to have been commited in the 50-square miles of Yellowstone that are in Idaho would have be tried before a jury made up entirely of residents from that area. The problem is that area is uninhabited, so it would be impossible to assemble a jury. No jury, no trial. So theoretically, you could avoid conviction for any major crime, up to and including murder. However, no known felonies have been commited in the Zone of Death since the discover of the loophole. Learn more here.