The Yellowstone Fellowship was started by Adam Burningham and Ryan Syme in the Autumn of 2005, during a trip to the park.
Adam had gone to Yellowstone with his friend Ryan Syme to rejuvenate himself after the successful birth of his seventh child, the hospitalization and recovery of his wife from complications after the birth and the loss of his job as an alternative high school teacher in the same week. The trip to Yellowstone worked a miracle on his outlook, and he realized just how many times this had been the case in his life. He then began to wonder how many others had experienced the same sort of rejuvenation from Yellowstone.
During discussions with Ryan, the crazy notion of a spiritually and metaphysically supportive construct based on Yellowstone came up. As they bantered back and forth (as is often the case with these two), they began tongue-in-cheekedly throwing about the idea of a "Church of Yellowstone." Though the idea of a traditional "church" didn't quite work for either of them, in reality, it was like a light clicked on in Adam's heart. No matter what form the idea took, he knew that it needed to be a supportive community of like minds and souls dedicated to enabling people to enjoy, learn from and otherwise better experience the land known as the "Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem."
The Yellowstone Fellowship is the result of that simple idea, and Adam has obtained ecclesiastical licensure just for the fun of it and to make it official.