Yellowstone Park has been a national park for 153 years. The original deal for Yellowstone Park was a lease of $1 a year to the railroad magnet that owned the area. There have been at least 250 deaths in Yellowstone Park alone since 1872, when the park was formed. At one point, Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce tribe marched through the middle of Yellowstone. The Nez Perce creek is where they crossed the Firehole River.