Getting too close to full-grown bison and trying to "save" newborn bison calves from the cold are some of the illegal and downright dangerous and inappropriate behaviors visitors to Yellowstone National Park have taken in recent weeks, prompting park officials to warn all visitors to behave appropriately in the park.

With his signature President Obama on Monday signed off on legislation that makes the bison the national mammal of the United States. But that doesn't mean the icon of the National Park Service won't be hunted if it wanders out of Yellowstone National Park.

Abraham Lincoln saw in the name renewal—the Union Pacific. Chartered by Congress in 1862, it was a railroad forged out of the depths of civil war. Lincoln then fervently hoped to heal the Union by stretching its tracks across the West. Finally, with Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, the great undertaking could begin. By then, Lincoln had been assassinated, but the Union would indeed endure.

There was a large grizzly bear that roamed Yellowstone National Park, purposeful in his long stride. His profile distinct, due to the indentation of the collar he normally wore, his thin neck and long nose, and a mangled right ear and scars on his face from a battle.