Most areas of the United States are defined by the towns and cities that occupy the spaces on the map. Yellowstone National Park is distinct for its absence of towns, cities, and other landmarks that compose our increasingly urban world.

Instead, Yellowstone is an empty space on the map surrounded by a small number of Gateway Communities like Dubois, Cody, and Jackson, Wyoming; Red Lodge, Livingston, Bozeman, Ennis, and West Yellowstone, Wyoming; and Island Park, Idaho.

Inside this area is the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, an area including two national parks, parts of three states, and a host of different national forests, state parks, and national wildlife refuges.

This system overlays parts of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho. At the center lies Yellowstone National Park, defined, in large part, by the barriers that separate it from the rest of the world.

All the states are highly reliant on public lands for their economies, whether for tourism and recreation, ranching, mining, forestry, or a combination of them all.