West Yellowstone Entrance Yellowstone's volcanic history has been dramatically powerful - and its future could match the past. Yellowstone sits on a volcanic hot spot. Three times in its history Yellowstone has exploded with such power and fury that the world's weather changed. The scale of these eruptions was so immense that it is almost incomprehensible. The very mention of the the word Wyoming evokes the essence of the American West. Wyoming is all that innumerable movies, novels and legends have tried to capture. This Western Spirit thrives to this day in the Cowboy State. The name Wyoming has its origins in an Algonquin word meaning \"large prairie place \".