If there was ever a place to commit the perfect crime, this patch of American land would likely be it.
As well as being brimming with extraordinary hydrothermal and geologic features, the conservation area also boasts a 'Zone of Death' where you could theoretically kill someone and get off scot free.
You may be wondering why on earth this kind of information is public knowledge as, let's be honest, it sounds like a criminal's paradise - but US officials just still haven't got around to sorting the whole thing out.
Advert
You see, Yellowstone National Park is incredible in many ways, including because of the sheer size of it.
It basically takes up a huge chunk of Wyoming, but it also stretches into neighbouring states Montana and Idaho too.
Believe it or not, this has created a massive headache for law enforcement and park rangers alike, as it opens up a bizarre legal loophole which essentially makes it impossible to get prosecuted for any major crime.
Advert
To be clear, this only applies in the 50-square-mile Zone of Death rather than the entire national park being completely lawless, so don't get any ideas.
Crime is bad, let's not forget.
But if you hypothetically ever had to break the law, the Zone of Death would probably be the place to do it.
That's because there is something of a get-out-of-jail-free clause in the fine print of the US Constitution.
According to the sixth amendment, juries in federal criminal cases have to be made up of people who are from the district as well as the state where the crime was committed.
Advert
So, in this case - let's say the crime was committed in the Zone of Death, by Colonel Mustard, with the candlestick.
As we know, Yellowstone spills into Idaho, yet no one lives in these parts of the national park apart from bears, elk and other wildlife - who aren't going to get called up for jury duty.
But interestingly, because a larger part of Yellowstone lies in the other state, the District of Wyoming has complete jurisdiction over the entirety of the national park.
This means that if Colonel Mustard was hauled to court over the grisly murder and invoked his right under the sixth amendment to have jurors from both areas, it would technically be impossible.
Advert
The US justice system would be unable to fulfil this as no one lives in the Yellowstone area of Idaho, which means that a jury would be unable to be formed and Colonel Mustard could, in theory, walk free.
Pretty bonkers, right?
This very important nugget of knowledge only came to light in 2005, when law professor Brian C Kalt was writing about the sixth amendment and imagined a hypothetical part of the US where there might not be enough people to form a jury.
Horrified to discover that such a place actually existed, he's since petitioned the US government to close the loophole just in case anyone actually tries to exploit it...though shutting down the Zone of Death is still on Congress' to-do list.
Advert
The incredible legal loophole ended up being the basis for bestselling crime novel Free Fire, with author C.J. Box consulting professor Kalt about the details surrounding the Zone of Death.
Regardless of the supposed lawlessness of the zone, nobody yet has really tested the legality of the Zone of Death as there have been no recorded felonies in the zone.
The closest anyone has come is a poacher illegally shooting an elk in a different part of Yellowstone where it would have been difficult but not impossible to form a jury.
Instead, a federal judge decided the poacher could be tried in another court, the poacher appealed on similar legal grounds to the Zone of Death but the court dismissed the argument and he ended up pleading guilty.
Put it this way, if you got caught murdering people in the Zone of Death they'd certainly find a way to prosecute you.
Boise Democratic Rep, Colin Nash, an attorney, said of the loophole in 2022: "No crimes have been committed, that I'm aware of, and gone unprosecuted.
"But every time there's a high-profile disappearance in this area, I think about this — and there were two last year."
Olivia Burke