Yellowstone: The Great Fires of 1988

The Yellowstone fires of 1988 together formed the largest wildfire in the recorded history of the Yellowstone National Park. Starting as many smaller individual fires, the flames spread quickly out of control with increasing winds and drought and combined into one large conflagration, which burned for several months. The fires almost destroyed two major visitor destinations and, on Sept. 8, 1988, the entire park was closed to all non-emergency personnel for the first time in its history.