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Yellowstone visitation as compared to national population 

This chart shows the visitation to Yellowstone National Park as a percentage of the total U.S. population for 1904-1999. There's a huge dip caused by World War II. Otherwise, it rises rather steadily, and increasingly, from about 1918 to 1970. After 1970, there are many more fluctuations, but the general trend is steady or ever-so-slightly increasing.
To me, the trend clearly relates to the nationwide increase in automobile usage and appreciation. Autos weren't allowed into Yellowstone until 1915 (although the numbers don't start rising for a few years after that). And by 1970, I suspect every family that wanted a car had one.

Other possible causation factors: 1) In 1916 Yellowstone was taken over by the new National Park Service,  which focused on publicity much more than previous administrators had. Not only did it have bigger advertising budgets, but it better understood what Yellowstone (should) mean to the public. Those messages may have become less powerful in the 1970s. 2) The Progressive Era, starting in the 1910s, was a time of general public trust in the federal government. Highways, dams, and other public works projects including parks were well loved. By the 1970s this trust was no longer rising, and perhaps even starting to erode.

Do you have other ideas? I'd love to hear them.

(Sources: http://www.census.gov/population/estimates/nation/popclockest.txt and https://irma.nps.gov/Stats/SSRSReports/Park%20Specific%20Reports/Annual%20Park%20Visitation%20(All%20Years)?Park=YELL)

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