Transcriber's Notes
Text emphasis is denoted as _Text_ for italic and =Text= for bold.
Whole and fractional parts are shown as 4-2/3.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Grand Falls of the Yellowstone and Old Faithful
Geyser.]
THE
Yellowstone National Park
HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE
Illustrated with Maps, Views and Portraits
BY
Hiram Martin Chittenden
Captain, Corps of Engineers, United States Army
[Illustration]
CINCINNATI
THE ROBERT CLARKE COMPANY
1895
Copyright, 1895,
By Hiram Martin Chittenden.
Dedication.
TO THE MEMORIES OF
John Colter
AND
James Bridger,
PIONEERS IN THE WONDERLAND
OF THE
Upper Yellowstone.
PREFACE.
Twenty-five years ago, this date, a company of gentlemen were encamped
at the Forks of the Madison River in what is now the Yellowstone
National Park. They had just finished the first complete tour of
exploration ever made of that region. Fully realizing the importance
of all they had seen, they asked what ought to be done to preserve so
unique an assemblage of wonders to the uses for which Nature had
evidently designed them. It required no argument to show that
government protection alone was equal to the task, and it was agreed
that a movement to secure such protection should be inaugurated at
once. So rapidly did events develop along the line of this idea, that
within the next eighteen months the "Act of Dedication" had become a
law, and the Yellowstone National Park took its place in our country's
history.
The wide-spread interest which the discovery of this region created
among civilized peoples has in no degree diminished with the lapse of
time. In this country particularly the Park to-day stands on a firmer
basis than ever before. The events of the past two years, in matters
of legislation and administration, have increased many fold the
assurances of its continued preservation, and have shown that even the
petty local hostility, which has now and then menaced its existence,
is yielding to a wiser spirit of patriotism.
The time therefore seems opportune, in passing so important an epoch
in the history of the Park, and while many of the actors in its
earlier scenes are still among us, to collect the essential facts,
historical and descriptive, relating to this region, and to place them
in form for permanent preservation. The present literature of the
Park, although broad in scope and exhaustive in detail, is
unfortunately widely scattered, somewhat difficult of access, and in
matters of early history, notably deficient. To supply a work which
shall form a complete and connected treatment of the subject, is the
purpose of the present volume.
It deals first and principally with the history of the Upper
Yellowstone from the days of Lewis and Clark to the present time. The
main text is supplemented by a considerable amount of appendical
matter, the most important features of which are a complete list of
the geographical names of the Park, with their origin and
signification; a few biographical sketches of the early explorers; and
a bibliography of the literature pertaining to this region.
The descriptive portion of the work contains a succinct, though
comprehensive, treatment of the various scientific and popular
features of the Park. While it is sufficient for all the requirements
of ordinary information, it purposely refrains from a minute
discussion of those details which have been, or are now being,
exhaustively treated by the scientific departments of the government.
In describing a region whose fame rests upon its natural wonders, the
assistance of the illustrative art has naturally been resorted to. The
various accompanying maps have all been prepared especially for this
work and are intended to set forth not only present geography but
historical features as well. The folded map embodies every thing to
date from the latest geographical surveys. It will bear careful study,
and this has been greatly simplified by a system of marginal
references to be used with the list of names in Appendix A.
The illustrations cover every variety of subject in the Park and
represent the best results of photographic work in that region. They
are mostly from the studio of Mr. F. J. Haynes, of St. Paul, the
well-known Park photographer, who has done so much by his art to
disseminate a knowledge of the wonders of the Yellowstone. A
considerable number are from views taken during the Hayden surveys by
Mr. William H. Jackson, now of Denver, Colorado. A few excellent
subjects are from the amateur work of Captain C. M. Gandy, Assistant
Surgeon, U. S. A., who was stationed for some years on duty in the
Park. The portraits are restricted to the few early explorers who
visited the Upper Yellowstone prior to the creation of the Park.
To any one who is familiar with the recent history of the Park, a work
like the present would seem incomplete without some reference to those
influences which endanger its future existence. A brief discussion of
this subject is accordingly presented, which, without considering
particular schemes, exposes the dangerous tendencies underlying them
all.
In the course of a somewhat extended correspondence connected with the
preparation of this work, the author has become indebted for much
information that could not be found in the existing literature of the
Park. He desires in this place to return his sincere acknowledgments
to all who have assisted him, and to refer in a special manner.
To the Hon. N. P. Langford, of St. Paul, whose long acquaintance with
the Upper Yellowstone country has made him an authority upon its
history.
To Dr. Elliott Coues, of Washington, D. C., who has contributed,
besides much general assistance, the essential facts relating to the
name "Yellowstone."
To Captain George S. Anderson, 6th U. S. Cavalry, Superintendent of
the Park, for the use of his extensive collection of Park literature.
To Prof. Arnold Hague, and others, of the U. S. Geological Survey, for
many important favors.
To Prof. J. D. Butler, of Madison, Wis., for biographical data
relating to James Bridger.
To Dr. R. Ellsworth Call, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for valuable assistance
pertaining to the entire work.
To the Hon. D. M. Browning, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for
important data relating to the Indian tribes in the vicinity of the
Yellowstone Park.
To the officers of the War and Interior Departments, the U. S. Fish
Commission, the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, and of the U. S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey, for public documents and other information of great
value.
To R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of Louisville, Ky.; Mr. J. G. Morrison, of
the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.; Mr. J. D. Losecamp, of
Billings, Mont.; Mr. George Bird Grinnell, of _Forest and Stream_, New
York City; Major James F. Gregory, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.;
Lieutenant Wm. H. Bean, Second Cavalry, U. S. A.; Hon. David E.
Folsom, White Sulphur Springs, Mont.; Washington Mathews, Major and
Surgeon, U. S. A.; Dr. A. C. Peale, of Philadelphia, Pa.; William
Hallett Phillips, of Washington, D. C.; Dr. Lyman B. Sperry, of
Bellevue, O.; Mrs. Matilda Cope Stevenson, of Washington, D. C.; Mrs.
Sirena J. Washburn, of Greencastle, Ind.; Miss Isabel Jelke, of
Cincinnati, O.; Mr. O. B. Wheeler, of St. Louis, Mo.; Mr. O. D.
Wheeler, of St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. J. H. Baronett, of Livingston, Mont.;
Mr. W. T. Hamilton, of Columbus, Mont.; Mr. Richard Leigh, of Wilford,
Idaho; Mr. Edwin L. Berthoud, of Golden, Colo.; and Miss Laura S.
Brown, of Columbus, O. H. M. C.
Columbus, Ohio, _September 19, 1895_.
CONTENTS.
PART I.--HISTORICAL.
Chapter I.--"Yellowstone" 1
Chapter II.--Indian Occupancy of the Upper Yellowstone 8
Chapter III.--John Colter 20
Chapter IV.--The Trader and Trapper 32
Chapter V.--Early knowledge of the Yellowstone 40
Chapter VI.--James Bridger 51
Chapter VII.--Raynolds Expedition 58
Chapter VIII.--Gold in Montana 65
Chapter IX.--Discovery 72
Chapter X.--The National Park Idea--Its Origin and Realization 87
Chapter XI.--Why So Long Unknown 98
Chapter XII.--Later Explorations 103
Chapter XIII.--An Indian Campaign through the National
Park 111
Chapter XIV.--Administrative History of the Park 127
Chapter XV.--The National Park Protective Act 142
PART II.--DESCRIPTIVE.
Chapter I.--Boundaries and Topography 148
Chapter II.--Geology of the Park 156
Chapter III.--Geysers 162
Chapter IV.--Hot Springs 172
Chapter V.--Fossil Forests of the Yellowstone 175
Chapter VI.--Fauna of the Yellowstone 181
Chapter VII.--Flora of the Yellowstone 187
Chapter VIII.--The Park as a Health Resort 193
Chapter IX.--The Park in Winter 198
Chapter X.--Roads, Hotels, and Transportation 201
Chapter XI.--Administration of the Park 206
Chapter XII.--A Tour of the Park--Preliminary 209
Chapter XIII.--A Tour of the Park--North Boundary to
Mammoth Hot Springs 211
Chapter XIV.--A Tour of the Park--Mammoth Hot Springs
to Norris Geyser Basin 217
Chapter XV.--A Tour of the Park--Norris Geyser Basin to
Lower Geyser Basin 221
Chapter XVI.--A Tour of the Park--Lower Geyser Basin
to Upper Geyser Basin 228
Chapter XVII.--A Tour of the Park--Upper Geyser Basin
to Yellowstone Lake 237
Chapter XVIII.--A Tour of the Park--Yellowstone Lake to
the Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone 248
Chapter XIX.--A Tour of the Park--Grand Cañon of the
Yellowstone to Junction Valley 260
PART III.--THE FUTURE.
Chapter I.--Hostility to the Park 267
Chapter II.--Railroad Encroachment and Change of Boundary 270
Chapter III.--Conclusion 281
APPENDIX A.
Geographical Names in the Yellowstone National Park 285
I.--Introductory 285
II.--Mountain Peaks 289
III.--Streams 313
IV.--Water-falls 324
V.--Lakes 327
VI.--Miscellaneous Features 338
VII.--Geysers 342
APPENDIX B.
Legislation and Regulations now in Force affecting the
Yellowstone National Park 345
APPENDIX C.
Appropriations on Account of the Yellowstone National
Park 357
APPENDIX D.
List of Superintendents of the Yellowstone National
Park 359
APPENDIX E.
Bibliography of the Yellowstone National Park 361
The Yellowstone National Park.
PART I.--Historical.
CHAPTER I.
"YELLOWSTONE."
Lewis and Clark passed the first winter of their famous
trans-continental expedition among the Mandan Indians, on the Missouri
River, sixty-six miles above the present capital of North Dakota. When
about to resume their journey in the spring of 1805, they sent back to
President Jefferson a report of progress and a map of the western
country based upon information derived from the Indians. In this
report and upon this map appear for the first time, in any official
document, the words "Yellow Stone" as the name of the principal
tributary of the Missouri.
It seems, however, that Lewis and Clark were not the first actually to
use the name. David Thompson, the celebrated explorer and geographer,
prominently identified with the British fur trade in the North-west,
was among the Mandan Indians on the Missouri River from December 29,
1797, to January 10, 1798. While there he secured data, mostly from
the natives, from which he estimated the latitude and longitude of
the source of the Yellowstone River. In his original manuscript
journal and field note-books, containing the record of his
determinations, the words "Yellow Stone" appear precisely as used by
Lewis and Clark in 1805. This is, perhaps, the first use of the name
in its Anglicised form, and it is certainly the first attempt to
determine accurately the geographical location of the source of the
stream.[A]
[A] Thompson's estimate:
Latitude, 43° 39' 45" north. Longitude, 109° 43' 17" west.
Yount Peak, source of the Yellowstone (Hayden):
Latitude, 43° 57' north. Longitude, 109° 52' west.
Thompson's error:
In latitude, 17' 15". In longitude, 8' 43", or about 21 miles.
Neither Thompson nor Lewis and Clark were originators of the name.
They gave us only the English translation of a name already long in
use. "This river," say Lewis and Clark, in their journal for the day
of their arrival at the mouth of the now noted stream, "had been known
to the French as the _Roche Jaune_, or, as we have called it, the
Yellow Stone." The French name was, in fact, already firmly
established among the traders and trappers of the North-west Fur
Company, when Lewis and Clark met them among the Mandans. Even by the
members of the expedition it seems to have been more generally used
than the new English form; and the spellings, "Rejone," "Rejhone,"
"Rochejone," "Rochejohn," and "Rochejhone," are among their various
attempts to render orthographically the French pronunciation.
Probably the name would have been adopted unchanged, as so many other
French names in our geography have been, except for the recent cession
of Louisiana to the United States. The policy which led the government
promptly to explore, and take formal possession of, its extensive
acquisition, led it also, as part of the process of rapid
Americanization, to give English names to all of the more prominent
geographical features. In the case of the name here under
consideration, this was no easy matter. The French form had already
obtained wide currency, and it was reluctantly set aside for its less
familiar translation. As late as 1817, it still appeared in newly
English-printed books,[B] while among the traders and trappers of the
mountains, it survived to a much later period.
[B] Bradbury's "Travels in the Interior of America." See Appendix E.
By whom the name _Roche Jaune_, or its equivalent form _Pierre Jaune_,
was first used, it would be extremely interesting to know; but it is
impossible to determine at this late day. Like their successor,
"Yellow Stone," these names were not originals, but only translations.
The Indian tribes along the Yellowstone and upper Missouri rivers had
names for the tributary stream signifying "yellow rock,"[C] and the
French had doubtless adopted them long before any of their number saw
the stream itself.
[C] The name "Elk River" was also used among the Crow Indians.
The first explorations of the country comprised within the present
limits of the State of Montana are matters of great historic
uncertainty. By one account it appears that, between the years 1738
and 1753, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, the Sieur de la Verendrye, and
his sons, particularly the Chevalier de la Verendrye, conducted
parties of explorers westward, from Lake Superior to the Assinnaboine
River, thence south to the Mandan country, and thence to the very
sources of the Missouri. Even the date, January 12, 1743, is given for
their first ascent of the Rocky Mountains. But such is the dearth of
satisfactory evidence relating to these explorations, that positive
inferences concerning them are impossible. The most that can be said
is, that if De la Verendrye visited these regions, as is generally
believed, to him doubtless belongs the honor of having adopted from
original sources the name of the Yellowstone River.
The goal of De la Verendrye's explorations was the Pacific Ocean; but
the French and Indian war which robbed France of her dominion in
America, prevented his ever reaching it. Following him, at the
distance of nearly half a century, came the traders and trappers of
the North-west Fur Company. As already noted, they were among the
Mandans as early as 1797, and the name _Roche Jaune_ was in common use
among them in 1804. They appear to have been wholly ignorant of the
work of De la Verendrye, and it is quite certain that, prior to 1805,
none of them had reached the Yellowstone River. Lewis and Clark
particularly record the fact, while yet some distance below the
junction of this river with the Missouri, that they had already passed
the utmost limit of previous adventure by white men. Whatever,
therefore, was at this time known of the Yellowstone could have come
to these traders only from Indian sources.[D]
[D] An interesting reference to the name "Yellowstone," in an entirely
different quarter, occurs on Pike's map of the "Internal Provinces of
Spain," published in 1810. It is a corrupt Spanish translation in the
form of "_Rio de Piedro Amaretto del Missouri_," (intended of course
to be _Rio de la Piedra Amarilla del Missouri_) river of the Yellow
Stone of the Missouri. No clue has been discovered of the source from
which Pike received this name; but the fact of its existence need
occasion no surprise. The Spanish had long traded as far north as the
Shoshone country, and had mingled with the French traders along the
lower Missouri. Lewis and Clark found articles of their manufacture
among the Shoshones in 1805. There is also limited evidence of early
intercourse between them and the Crow nation. That the name of so
important a stream as the Yellowstone should have become known to
these traders is therefore not at all remarkable. There is, however,
no reason to suppose that the Spanish translation antedates the
French. It certainly plays no part in the descent of the name from the
original to the English form, and it is of interest in this connection
mainly as showing that, even at this early day, the name had found its
way to the provinces of the south.
We thus find that the name, which has now become so celebrated,
descends to us, through two translations, from those native races
whose immemorial dwelling-place had been along the stream which it
describes. What it was that led them to use the name is easily
discoverable. The Yellowstone River is pre-eminently a river with
banks of yellow rock. Along its lower course "the flood plain is
bordered by high bluffs of yellow sandstone." Near the mouth of the
Bighorn River stands the noted landmark, Pompey's Pillar, "a high
isolated rock" of the same material. Still further up, beyond the
mouth of Clark's fork, is an extensive ridge of yellow rock, the
"sheer, vertical sides" of which, according to one writer, "gleam in
the sunlight like massive gold." All along the lower river, in fact,
from its mouth to the Great Bend at Livingston, this characteristic
is more or less strikingly present.
Whether it forms a sufficiently prominent feature of the landscape to
justify christening the river from it, may appear to be open to doubt.
At any rate the various descriptions of this valley by early explorers
rarely refer to the same locality as being conspicuous from the
presence of yellow rock. Some mention it in one place, some in
another. Nowhere does it seem to have been so striking as to attract
the attention of all observers. For this reason we shall go further in
search of the true origin of the name, to a locality about which there
can be no doubt, no difference of opinion.
Seventy-five miles below the ultimate source of the river lies the
Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone, distinguished among the notable cañons
of the globe by the marvelous coloring of its walls. Conspicuous among
its innumerable tints is yellow. Every shade, from the brilliant
plumage of the yellow bird to the rich saffron of the orange, greets
the eye in bewildering profusion. There is indeed other color,
unparalleled in variety and abundance, but the ever-present background
of all is the beautiful fifth color of the spectrum.
So prominent is this feature that it never fails to attract attention,
and all descriptions of the Cañon abound in references to it.
Lieutenant Doane (1870) notes the "brilliant yellow color" of the
rocks. Captain Barlow and Doctor Hayden (1871) refer, in almost the
same words, to the "yellow, nearly vertical walls." Raymond (1871)
speaks of the "bright yellow of the sulphury clay." Captain Jones
(1873) says that "about and in the Grand Cañon the rocks are nearly
all tinged a brilliant yellow." These early impressions might be
repeated from the writings of every subsequent visitor who has
described the scenery of the Yellowstone.
That a characteristic which so deeply moves the modern beholder should
have made a profound impression on the mind of the Indian, need hardly
be premised. This region was by no means unknown to him; and from the
remote, although uncertain, period of his first acquaintance with it,
the name of the river has undoubtedly descended.
Going back, then, to this obscure fountain-head, the original
designation is found to have been
_Mi tsi a-da-zi_,[E] Rock Yellow River.
And this, in the French tongue, became
_Roche Jaune_ and _Pierre Jaune_;
and in English,
_Yellow Rock_ and _Yellow Stone_.
Established usage now writes it
_Yellowstone_.
[E] Minnetaree, one of the Siouan family of languages.
CHAPTER II.
INDIAN OCCUPANCY OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE.
It is a singular fact in the history of the Yellowstone National Park
that no knowledge of that country seems to have been derived from the
Indians. The explanation ordinarily advanced is that the Indians had a
superstitious fear of the geyser regions and always avoided them. How
far this theory is supported by the results of modern research is an
interesting inquiry.
Three great families of Indians, the Siouan, the Algonquian, and the
Shoshonean, originally occupied the country around the sources of the
Yellowstone. Of these three families the following tribes are alone of
interest in this connection: The Crows (_Absaroka_) of the Siouan
family; the Blackfeet (_Siksika_) of the Algonquian family; and the
Bannocks (_Panai'hti_), the Eastern Shoshones, and the Sheepeaters
(_Tukuarika_) of the Shoshonean family.
The home of the Crows was in the Valley of the Yellowstone below the
mountains where they have dwelt since the white man's earliest
knowledge of them. Their territory extended to the mountains which
bound the Yellowstone Park on the north and east; but they never
occupied or claimed any of the country beyond. Their well-known tribal
characteristics were an insatiable love of horse-stealing and a
wandering and predatory habit which caused them to roam over all the
West from the Black Hills to the Bitter Root Mountains and from the
British Possessions to the Spanish Provinces. They were generally,
although by no means always, friendly to the whites, but enemies of
the neighboring Blackfeet and Shoshones. Physically, they were a
stalwart, handsome race, fine horsemen and daring hunters. They were
every-where encountered by the trapper and prospector who generally
feared them more on account of their thievish habits than for reasons
of personal safety.
The Blackfeet dwelt in the country drained by the headwaters of the
Missouri. Their territory was roughly defined by the Crow territory on
the east and the Rocky Mountains on the west. Its southern limit was
the range of mountains along the present north-west border of the
Park and it extended thence to the British line. The distinguishing
historic trait of these Indians was their settled hostility to their
neighbors whether white or Indian. They were a tribe of perpetual
fighters, justly characterized as the Ishmaelites of their race. From
the day in 1806, when Captain Lewis slew one of their number, down to
their final subjection by the advancing power of the whites, they
never buried the hatchet. They were the terror of the trapper and
miner, and hundreds of the pioneers perished at their hands. Like the
Crows they were a well-developed race, good horsemen and great rovers,
but, in fight, given to subterfuge and stratagem rather than to open
boldness of action.
In marked contrast with these warlike and wandering tribes were those
of the great Shoshonean family who occupied the country around the
southern, eastern, and western borders of the Park, including also
that of the Park itself. The Shoshones as a family were an inferior
race. They seem to have been the victims of some great misfortune
which had driven them to precarious methods of subsistence and had
made them the prey of their powerful and merciless neighbors. The
names "Fish-eaters," "Root-diggers," and other opprobrious epithets,
indicate the contempt in which they were commonly held. For the most
part they had no horses, and obtained a livelihood only by the most
abject means. Some of the tribes, however, rose above this degraded
condition, owned horses, hunted buffalo, and met their enemies in open
conflict. Such were the Bannocks and the Eastern Shoshones--tribes
closely connected with the history of the Park, one occupying the
country to the south-west near the Teton Mountains, and the other that
to the south-east in the valley of Wind River. The Shoshones were
generally friendly to the whites, and for this reason they figure less
prominently in the books of early adventure than do the Crows and
Blackfeet whose acts of "sanguinary violence" were a staple article
for the Indian romancer.
It was an humble branch of the Shoshonean family which alone is known
to have permanently occupied what is now the Yellowstone Park. They
were called _Tukuarika_, or, more commonly, Sheepeaters. They were
found in the Park country at the time of its discovery and had
doubtless long been there. These hermits of the mountains, whom the
French trappers called "_les dignes de pitié_," have engaged the
sympathy or contempt of explorers since our earliest knowledge of
them. Utterly unfit for warlike contention, they seem to have sought
immunity from their dangerous neighbors by dwelling among the
inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains. They were destitute of even
savage comforts. Their food, as their name indicates, was principally
the flesh of the mountain sheep. Their clothing was composed of skins.
They had no horses and were armed only with bows and arrows. They
captured game by driving it into brush inclosures. Their rigorous
existence left its mark on their physical nature. They were feeble in
mind, diminutive in stature, and are always described as a "timid,
harmless race." They may have been longer resident in this region than
is commonly supposed, for there was a tradition among them, apparently
connected with some remote period of geological disturbance, that most
of their race were once destroyed by a terrible convulsion of
nature.
[Illustration: HISTORICAL CHART OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
_Opp. page 11._]
Such were the Indian tribes who formerly dwelt within or near the
country now embraced in the Yellowstone National Park. That the
Sheepeaters actually occupied this country, and that wandering bands
from other tribes occasionally visited it, there is abundant and
conclusive proof. Indian trails,[F] though generally indistinct, were
every-where found by the early explorers, mostly on lines since
occupied by the tourist routes. One of these followed the Yellowstone
Valley entirely across the Park from north to south. It divided at
Yellowstone Lake, the principal branch following the east shore,
crossing Two-Ocean-Pass, and intersecting a great trail which
connected the Snake and Wind River Valleys. The other branch passed
along the west shore of the lake and over the divide to the valleys of
Snake River and Jackson Lake. This trail was intersected by an
important one in the vicinity of Conant Creek leading from the Upper
Snake Valley to that of Henry Fork. Other intersecting trails
connected the Yellowstone River trail with the Madison and Firehole
Basins on the west and with the Bighorn Valley on the east.
[F] See historical chart, opposite.
The most important Indian trail in the Park, however, was that known
as the Great Bannock Trail. It extended from Henry Lake across the
Gallatin Range to Mammoth Hot Springs, where it was joined by another
coming up the valley of the Gardiner. Thence it led across the
Black-tail Deer plateau to the ford above Tower Falls; and thence up
the Lamar Valley, forking at Soda Butte, and reaching the Bighorn
Valley by way of Clark's Fork and the Stinkingwater River. This
trail was certainly a very ancient and much-traveled one. It had
become a deep furrow in the grassy slopes, and it is still distinctly
visible in places, though unused for a quarter of a century.
Additional evidence in the same direction may be seen in the
wide-spread distribution of implements peculiar to Indian use. Arrows
and spear heads have been found in considerable numbers. Obsidian
Cliff was an important quarry, and the open country near the outlet of
Yellowstone Lake a favorite camping-ground. Certain implements, such
as pipes, hammers, and stone vessels, indicating the former presence
of a more civilized people, have been found to a limited extent; and
some explorers have thought that a symmetrical mound in the valley of
the Snake River, below the mouth of Hart River, is of artificial
origin. Reference will later be made to the discovery of a rude
granite structure near the top of the Grand Teton, which is
unquestionably of very ancient date.
Dr. A. C. Peale, prominently connected with the early geological
explorations of this region, states that the Rustic Geyser in the Hart
Lake Geyser Basin is "bordered by logs which are coated with a
crystalline, semi-translucent deposit of geyserite. These logs were
evidently placed around the geyser by either Indians or white men a
number of years ago, as the coating is thick and the logs firmly
attached to the surrounding deposit."[G]
[G] Page 298, Twelfth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden. See Appendix E. It
is more than probable that this was the work of trappers.
More recent and perishable proofs of the presence of Indians in the
Park were found by the early explorers in the rude wick-e-ups, brush
inclosures, and similar contrivances of the lonely Sheepeaters; and it
is not improbable that many of the arrow and spear heads were the work
of these Indians.
The real question of doubt in regard to Indian occupancy of, or visits
to, the Park, is therefore not one of fact, but of degree. The
Sheepeaters certainly dwelt there; but as to other tribes, their
acquaintance with it seems to have been very limited. No word of
information about the geyser regions ever fell from their lips, except
that the surrounding country was known to them as the Burning
Mountains. With one or two exceptions, the old trails were very
indistinct, requiring an experienced eye to distinguish them from game
trails. Their undeveloped condition indicated infrequent use. Old
trappers who have known this region for fifty years say that the
great majority of Indians never saw it. Able Indian guides in the
surrounding country became lost when they entered the Park, and the
Nez Percés were forced to impress a white man as guide when they
crossed the Park in 1877.
An unknown writer, to whom extended reference will be made in a later
chapter, visited the Upper Geyser Basin in 1832, accompanied by two
Pend d'Oreilles Indians. Neither of these Indians had ever seen or
apparently heard of the geysers, and "were quite appalled" at the
sight of them, believing them to be "supernatural" and the "production
of the Evil Spirit."
Lieutenant Doane, who commanded the military escort to the Yellowstone
Expedition of 1870, says in his report:[H]
"Appearances indicated that the basin [of the Yellowstone Lake] had
been almost entirely abandoned by the sons of the forest. A few lodges
of Sheepeaters, a branch remnant of the Snake tribe, wretched beasts
who run from the sight of a white man, or from any other tribe of
Indians, are said to inhabit the fastnesses of the mountains around
the lakes, poorly armed and dismounted, obtaining a precarious
subsistence, and in a defenseless condition. We saw, however, no
recent traces of them. The larger tribes never enter the basin,
restrained by superstitious ideas in connection with the thermal
springs."
[H] Page 26, "Yellowstone Expedition of 1870." See Appendix E.
In 1880, Col. P. W. Norris, Second Superintendent of the Park, had a
long interview on the shore of the Yellowstone Lake with We-Saw, "an
old but remarkably intelligent Indian" of the Shoshone tribe, who was
then acting as guide to an exploring party under Governor Hoyt, of
Wyoming, and who had previously passed through the Park with the
expedition of 1873 under Captain W. A. Jones, U. S. A. He had also
been in the Park region on former occasions. Colonel Norris records
the following facts from this Indian's conversation:[I]
"We-Saw states that he had neither knowledge nor tradition of any
permanent occupants of the Park save the timid Sheepeaters.... He said
that his people (Shoshones) the Bannocks and the Crows, occasionally
visited the Yellowstone Lake and River portions of the Park, but very
seldom the geyser regions, which he declared were '_heap, heap, bad_,'
and never wintered there, as white men sometimes did with horses."
[I] Page 38, Annual Report of Superintendent of the Park for 1881.
It seems that even the resident Sheepeaters knew little of the geyser
basins. General Sheridan, who entered the Park from the south in 1882,
makes this record in his report of the expedition:[J]
"We had with us five Sheep Eating Indians as guides, and, strange to
say, although these Indians had lived for years and years about Mounts
Sheridan and Hancock, and the high mountains south-east of the
Yellowstone Lake, they knew nothing about the Firehole Geyser Basin,
and they exhibited more astonishment and wonder than any of us."
[J] Page 11, Report on Explorations of Parts of Wyoming, Idaho and
Montana, 1882. See Appendix E.
Evidence like the foregoing clearly indicates that this country was
_terra incognita_ to the vast body of Indians who dwelt around it, and
again this singular fact presents itself for explanation. Was it, as
is generally supposed, a "superstitious fear" that kept them away? The
incidents just related give some color to such a theory; but if it
were really true we should expect to find well authenticated Indian
traditions of so marvelous a country. Unfortunately history records
none. It is not meant by this to imply that reputed traditions
concerning the Yellowstone are unknown. For instance, it is related
that the Crows always refused to tell the whites of the geysers
because they believed that whoever visited them became endowed with
supernatural powers, and they wished to retain a monopoly of this
knowledge. But traditions of this sort, like most Indian curiosities
now offered for sale, are evidently of spurious origin. Only in the
names "Yellowstone" and "Burning Mountains" do we find any original
evidence that this land of wonders appealed in the least degree to the
native imagination.
The real explanation of this remarkable ignorance appears to us to
rest on grounds essentially practical. There was nothing to induce the
Indians to visit the Park country. For three-fourths of the year that
country is inaccessible on account of snow. It is covered with dense
forests, which in most places are so filled with fallen timber and
tangled underbrush as to be practically impassable. As a game country
in those early days it could not compare with the lower surrounding
valleys. As a highway of communication between the valleys of the
Missouri, Snake, Yellowstone, and Bighorn Rivers, it was no
thoroughfare. The great routes, except the Bannock trail already
described, lay on the outside. All the conditions, therefore, which
might attract the Indians to this region were wanting. Even those
sentimental influences, such as a love of sublime scenery and a
curiosity to see the strange freaks of nature, evidently had less
weight with them than with their pale-face brethren.
Summarizing the results of such knowledge, confessedly meager, as
exists upon this subject, it appears:
(1.) That the country now embraced in the Yellowstone National Park was
occupied, at the time of its discovery, by small bands of Sheepeater
Indians, probably not exceeding in number one hundred and fifty souls.
They dwelt in the neighborhood of the Washburn and Absaroka Ranges, and
among the mountains around the sources of the Snake. They were not
familiar with the geyser regions.
(2.) Wandering bands from other tribes occasionally visited this
country, but generally along the line of the Yellowstone River or the
Great Bannock Trail. Their knowledge of the geyser regions was extremely
limited, and very few had ever seen or heard of them. It is probable
that the Indians visited this country more frequently in earlier times
than since the advent of the white man.
(3.) The Indians avoided the region of the Upper Yellowstone from
practical, rather than from sentimental, considerations.
The legal processes by which the vast territory of these various
tribes passed to the United States, are full of incongruities
resulting from a general ignorance of the country in question. By the
Treaty of Fort Laramie, dated September 17, 1851, between the United
States on the one hand, and the Crows, Blackfeet and other northern
tribes on the other, the Crows were given, as part of their territory,
all that portion of the Park country which lies east of the
Yellowstone River; and the Blackfeet, all that portion lying between
the Yellowstone River and the Continental Divide. This was before any
thing whatever was known of the country so given away. None of the
Shoshone tribes were party to the treaty, and the rights of the
Sheepeaters were utterly ignored. That neither the Blackfeet nor the
Crows had any real claim to these extravagant grants is evidenced by
their prompt relinquishment of them in the first subsequent treaties.
Thus, by treaty of October 17, 1855, the Blackfeet agreed that all of
their portion of the Park country, with much other territory, should
be and remain a common hunting ground for certain designated tribes;
and by treaty of May 17, 1868, the Crows relinquished all of their
territory south of the Montana boundary line.
That portion of the Park country drained by the Snake River was always
considered Shoshone territory, although apparently never formally
recognized in any public treaty. By an unratified treaty, dated
September 24, 1868, the provisions of which seem to have been the
basis of subsequent arrangements with the Shoshonean tribes, all this
territory and much besides was ceded to the United States, and the
tribes were located upon small reservations.
It thus appears that at the time the Park was created, March 1, 1872,
all the territory included in its limits had been ceded to the United
States except the hunting ground above referred to, and the narrow
strip of Crow territory east of the Yellowstone where the north
boundary of the Park lies two or three miles north of the Montana
line. The "hunting ground" arrangement was abrogated by statute of
April 15, 1874, and the strip of Crow territory was purchased under an
agreement with the Crows, dated June 12, 1880, and ratified by
Congress, April 11, 1882, thus extinguishing the last remaining Indian
title to any portion of the Yellowstone Park.
CHAPTER III.
JOHN COLTER.
Lewis and Clark passed the second winter of their expedition at the
mouth of the Columbia River. In the spring and summer of 1806 they
accomplished their return to St. Louis. Upon their arrival at the site
of their former winter quarters among the Mandans, an incident
occurred which forms the initial point in the history of the
Yellowstone National Park. It is thus recorded in the journal of the
expedition under date of August 14 and 15, 1806:[K]
"In the evening we were applied to by one of our men, Colter, who was
desirous of joining the two trappers who had accompanied us, and who
now proposed an expedition up the river, in which they were to find
traps and give him a share of the profits. The offer was a very
advantageous one, and, as he had always performed his duty, and his
services might be dispensed with, we agreed that he might go provided
none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. To this
they cheerfully answered that they wished Colter every success and
would not apply for liberty to separate before we reached St. Louis.
We therefore supplied him, as did his comrades also, with powder,
lead, and a variety of articles which might be useful to him, and he
left us the next day."
[K] Pages 1181-2, Coues' "Lewis and Clark." See Appendix E.
To our explorers, just returning from a two years' sojourn in the
wilderness, Colter's decision seemed too remarkable to be passed over
in silence. The journal continues:
"The example of this man shows us how easily men may be weaned from
the habits of civilized life to the ruder but scarcely less
fascinating manners of the woods. This hunter has now been absent for
many years from the frontiers, and might naturally be presumed to have
some anxiety, or some curiosity at least, to return to his friends and
his country; yet just at the moment when he is approaching the
frontiers, he is tempted by a hunting scheme to give up those
delightful prospects, and go back without the least reluctance to the
solitude of the woods."
Colter seems to have stood well in the esteem of his officers. Besides
the fair character given him in his discharge, the record of the
expedition shows that he was frequently selected when one or two men
were required for important special duty. That he had a good eye for
topography may be inferred from the fact that Captain Clark, several
years after the expedition was over, placed upon his map certain
important information on the strength of Colter's statements, who
alone had traversed the region in question. In another instance, when
Bradbury, the English naturalist, was about to leave St. Louis to join
the Astorians in the spring of 1811, Clark referred him to Colter, who
had returned from the mountains, as a person who could conduct him to
a certain natural curiosity on the Missouri some distance above St.
Charles. Colter had not seen the place for six years. In the _Missouri
Gazette_, for April 18, 1811, he is referred to as a "celebrated
hunter and woodsman." These glimpses of his record, and a remarkable
incident to be related further on, clearly indicate that he was a man
of superior mettle to that of the average hunter and trapper.
Colter's whereabouts during the three years following his discharge
are difficult to fix upon. It may, however, be set down as certain
that he and his companions ascended the Yellowstone River, not the
Missouri. Captain Clark's return journey down the first-mentioned
stream had made known to them that it was better beaver country than
the Missouri, and Colter's subsequent wanderings clearly indicate that
his base of operations was in the valley of the Yellowstone near the
mouth of the Bighorn, Pryor's Fork, or other tributary stream.
In the summer of 1807, he made an expedition, apparently alone,
although probably in company with Indians, which has given him title
to a place in the history of the Yellowstone Park, and which was
destined in later years to assume an importance little enough
suspected by him at the time. His route appears upon Lewis and Clark's
map of 1814, and is there called "Colter's route in 1807." There is no
note or explanation, and we are left to retrace, on the basis of a
dotted line, a few names, and a date, one of those singular individual
wanderings through the wilderness which now and then find a permanent
place in history.
The "route," as traced on the map, starts from a point on Pryor's
Fork, the first considerable tributary of the Yellowstone above the
mouth of the Bighorn. Colter's intention seems to have been to skirt
the eastern base of the Absaroka Range until he should reach an
accessible pass across the mountains of which the Indians had
probably told him; then to cross over to the headwaters of Pacific or
gulf-flowing streams; and then to return by way of the Upper
Yellowstone.
[Illustration: /* _Opp. page 22._ */
Colter's Route in 1807.]
Accordingly, after he had passed through Pryor's Gap, he took a
south-westerly direction as far as Clark's Fork, which stream he
ascended for some distance, and then crossed over to the
Stinkingwater. Here he discovered a large boiling spring, strongly
impregnated with tar and sulphur, the odor of which, perceptible for a
great distance around, has given the stream its "unhappy name."
From this point Colter continued along the eastern flank of the
Absaroka Range, fording the several tributaries of the Bighorn River
which flow down from that range, and finally came to the upper course
of the main stream now known as Wind River. He ascended this stream to
its source, crossing the divide in the vicinity of Lincoln or Union
Pass, and found himself upon the Pacific slope. The map clearly shows
that at this point he had reached what the Indians called the "summit
of the world" near by the sources of all great streams of the west.
That he discovered one of the easy passes between Wind River and the
Pacific slope, is evident from the reference in the _Missouri Gazette_
already alluded to and here reproduced for the first time. It is from
the pen of a Mr. H. M. Brackenridge, a contemporary writer of note on
topics of western adventure. It reads:
"At the head of the Gallatin Fork, and of the Grosse Corne of the
Yellowstone [the Bighorn River], from discoveries since the voyage of
Lewis and Clark, it is found less difficult to cross than the
Allegheny Mountains. Coulter, a celebrated hunter and woodsman,
informed me that a loaded wagon would find no obstruction in passing."
The "discoveries" are of course those of Colter, for no other white
man at this time had been in those parts.
From the summit of the mountains he descended to the westward; crossed
the Snake River and Teton Pass to Pierre's Hole, and then turned
north, recrossing the Teton Range by the Indian trail in the valley of
what is now Conant Creek, just north of Jackson Lake.[L] Thence he
continued his course until he reached Yellowstone Lake,[L] at some
point along its south-western shore. He passed around the west shore
to the northernmost point of the Thumb, and then resumed his northerly
course over the hills arriving at the Yellowstone River in the valley
of Alum Creek. He followed the left bank of the river to the ford just
above Tower Falls, where the great Bannock Trail used to cross, and
then followed this trail to its junction with his outward route on
Clark's Fork. From this point he re-crossed to the Stinkingwater,
possibly in order to re-visit the strange phenomena there, but more
probably to explore new trapping territory on his way back. He
descended the Stinkingwater until about south of Pryor's Gap, when he
turned north and shortly after arrived at his starting point.
[L] For the names given by Captain Clark to these bodies of water, see
Appendix A, "Jackson Lake" and "Yellowstone Lake."
The direction of Colter's progress, as here indicated, and the
identification of certain geographical features noted by him, differ
somewhat from the ordinary interpretation of that adventure. But,
while it would be absurd to dogmatize upon so uncertain a subject, it
is believed that the theory adopted is fairly well supported by the
facts as now known. It must in the first place be assumed that Colter
exercised ordinary common sense upon this journey and availed himself
of all information that could facilitate his progress. It is probable
that he was under the guidance of Indians who knew the country; but if
not, he frequently stopped, like any traveler in an unknown region, to
inquire his way. He sought the established trails, low mountain
passes, and well-known fords, and did not, as the map suggests, take a
direction that would carry him through the very roughest and most
impassable mountain country on the continent. It is necessary to
orient his map so as to make both his outgoing and return routes
extend nearly due north and south, instead of north-east and
south-west, in order to reconcile his geography at all with the modern
maps. With these precautions some of the difficulty of the situation
disappears.
Colter, it is therefore assumed, followed the great trail along the
Absarokas to the Wind River Valley, and crossed the divide by one of
the easy passes at its head. His two crossings of the Teton range were
along established trails. He evidently lost his bearings somewhat in
the vicinity of the Yellowstone Lake, but as soon as he arrived at the
river below the lake he kept along the trail until he reached the
important crossing at Tower Falls. If he was in company with Indians
who had ever been through that country before, he learned that it
would be no advantage to cross at Mud Geyser, inasmuch as he would
strike the great Bannock Trail at the next ford below. Moreover, the
distance below the lake to the point where Colter touched the
Yellowstone is clearly greater than that to the Mud Geyser Ford. The
bend in the river at the Great Falls, and the close proximity of the
Washburn Range to the river, are distinctly indicated. The locality
noted on the map as "Hot Springs Brimstone" is evidently not that near
the Mud Geyser, as generally assumed, but instead, that of the now
world-renowned Mammoth Hot Springs. As will be seen from the map, it
is nearer the Gallatin River than it is to the Yellowstone _where
Colter crossed_. If Colter visited the Springs from Tower Falls, as is
not unlikely, a clue is supplied to the otherwise perplexing reference
to the Gallatin River in the above extract from the _Missouri
Gazette_, for it would thus appear that he was near the sources of
both the Grosse Corne and of the Gallatin.
The essential difficulties in the way of this theory (and they exist
with any possible theory that can be advanced) are the following: (1.)
There is no stream on the map that can stand for the Snake River
either above or below Jackson Lake, although Colter must have crossed
it in each place. "Colter's River" comes nearest the first location,
and may possibly be intended to represent that stream; but Clark's
evident purpose to drain Jackson Lake into the Bighorn River doubtless
led to a distortion of the map in this locality. (2.) The erroneous
shape given to the Yellowstone Lake will be readily understood by any
one who has visited its western shore. The jutting promontories to
the eastward entirely conceal from view the great body of the lake and
give it a form not unlike that upon Clark's map. (3.) The absence of
the Great Falls from the map is not easily accounted for, although the
location and trend of the Grand Cañon are shown with remarkable
accuracy. (4.) The absence of the many hot springs districts, through
which Colter passed, particularly that at the west end of the
Yellowstone Lake, may be explained by the same spirit of incredulity
which led to the rejection of all similar accounts for a period of
more than sixty years. It is probable that Clark was not willing to
recognize Colter's statements on this subject further than to note on
his map the location of the most wonderful of the hot springs groups
mentioned by him.
The direction in which Colter traveled is a matter of no essential
importance, and that here adopted is based solely upon the
consideration that the doubling of the trail upon itself between
Clark's Fork and the Stinkingwater River, and the erratic course of
the route around Yellowstone Lake, can not be well accounted for on
the contrary hypothesis.[M]
[M] In adopting, as Colter's point of crossing the Yellowstone, the
ford at Tower Creek, the author has followed the Hon. N. P. Langford,
in his reprint of Folsom's "Valley of the Upper Yellowstone." (See
Appendix E.) All other writers who have touched upon the subject have
assumed the ford to be that near the Mud Geyser.
Such, in the main, is "Colter's route in 1807." That he was the
discoverer of Yellowstone Lake, and the foremost herald of the strange
phenomena of that region, may be accepted as beyond question. He did
not, as is generally supposed, see the Firehole Geyser Basins. But he
saw too much for his reputation as a man of veracity. No author or
map-maker would jeopardize the success of his work by incorporating in
it such incredible material as Colter furnished. His stories were not
believed; their author became the subject of jest and ridicule; and
the region of his adventures was long derisively known as "Colter's
Hell."[N]
[N] This name early came to be restricted to the locality where Colter
discovered the tar spring on the Stinkingwater, probably because few
trappers ever saw the other similar localities visited by him. But
Colter's descriptions, so well summed up by Irving in his "Captain
Bonneville," undoubtedly refer in large part to what he saw in the
Yellowstone and Snake River Valleys.
The story of Colter's subsequent experience before he returned to St.
Louis is thrilling in the extreme. Although it has no direct bearing
upon this narrative, still, since it is part of the biography of the
discoverer of the Upper Yellowstone, it can not be omitted. The
detailed account we owe to the naturalist Bradbury, already referred
to. He saw Colter above St. Louis in the spring of 1811, one year
after his return from the mountains, and received the story directly
from him. All other accounts are variations from Bradbury. Irving, who
has made this story an Indian classic, borrows it _in toto_. Perhaps
in all the records of Indian adventure there is not another instance
of such a miraculous escape, in which the details are throughout so
clearly within the range of possibility. It is a consistent narrative
from beginning to end. In briefest outline it is as follows:
When Colter returned from his expedition of 1807, he found Manuel
Lisa, of the Missouri Fur Company, already in the country, where he
had just arrived from St. Louis. With him was one Potts, believed to
be the same person who had been a private in the party of Lewis and
Clark. In the spring of 1808, Colter and his old companion in arms set
out to the headwaters of the Missouri on a trapping expedition. It was
on a branch of Jefferson Fork that they went to work, and here they
met with their disastrous experience.
One morning while they were in a canoe examining their traps they were
surprised by a large party of Blackfeet Indians. Potts attempted
resistance and was slain on the spot. Colter, with more presence of
mind, gave himself up as the only possible chance of avoiding
immediate death. The Indians then consulted as to how they should kill
him in order to yield themselves the greatest amount of amusement.
Colter, upon being questioned as to his fleetness of foot, sagaciously
replied that he was a poor runner (though in fact very swift), and the
Indians, believing that it would be a safe experiment, decided that he
should run for his life. Accordingly he was stripped naked and was led
by the chief to a point three or four hundred yards in advance of the
main body of the Indians. Here he was told "_to save himself if he
could_," and the race began--one man against five hundred.
The Indians quickly saw how they had been outwitted, for Colter flew
away from them as if upon the wings of the wind. But his speed cost
him dear. The exertion caused the blood to stream from his mouth and
nostrils, and run down over his naked form. The prickly pear and the
rough ground lacerated his feet. Six miles away across a level plain
was a fringe of cottonwood on the banks of the Jefferson River. Short
of that lay not a shadow of chance of concealment. It was a long race,
but life hung upon the issue. The Indians had not counted on such
prodigious running. Gradually they fell off, and when Colter ventured
for the first time to glance back, only a small number were in his
wake. Encouragement was now added to hope, and he ran even faster than
before.
But there was one Indian who was too much for him. He was steadily
shortening the distance between them, and at last had arrived within a
spear's throw. Was Colter to be slain by a single Indian after having
distanced five hundred? He would see. Suddenly whirling about, he
confronted the Indian, who was astounded at the sudden move and at
Colter's bloody appearance. He tried to hurl his spear but stumbled
and broke it as he fell. Colter seized the pointed portion and pinned
the Indian to the earth.
Again he resumed his flight. He reached the Jefferson, and discovered,
some distance below, a raft of driftwood against the head of an
island. He dived under this raft and found a place where he could get
his head above water. There, in painful suspense, he awaited
developments. The Indians explored the island and examined the raft,
but Colter's audacious spirit was beyond their comprehension. It did
not occur to them that he was all the time surveying their movements
from his hiding place under the timber, and they finally abandoned the
search and withdrew. Colter had saved himself. When evening came he
swam several miles down the river and then went ashore. For seven
days he wandered naked and unarmed, over stones, cacti, and the
prickly pear, scorched by the heat of noon and chilled by the frost of
night, finding his sole subsistence in such roots as he might dig,
until at last he reached Lisa's trading post on the Bighorn River.
Even this terrible adventure could not dismay the dauntless Colter,
and he remained still another year in the mountains. Finally, in the
spring of 1810, he got into a canoe and dropped down the river, "three
thousand miles in thirty days," reaching St. Louis, May 1st, after an
absence of six years.
Colter remained in St. Louis for a time giving Clark what information
he could concerning the places he had seen, and evidently talking a
great deal about his adventures. Finally he retired to the country
some distance up the Missouri, and married. Here we again catch a
glimpse of him when the Astorians were on their way up the river. As
Colter saw the well appointed expedition setting out for the
mountains, the old fever seized him again and he was upon the point of
joining the party. But what the hardships of the wilderness and the
pleasures of civilization could not dissuade him from doing, the
charms of a newly-married wife easily accomplished. Colter remained
behind; and here the curtain of oblivion falls upon the discoverer of
the Yellowstone. It is not without genuine satisfaction that, having
followed him through the incredible mazes of "Colter's Hell," we bid
him adieu amid surroundings of so different a character.
CHAPTER IV.
THE TRADER AND TRAPPER.
For sixty years after Lewis and Clark returned from their expedition,
the headwaters of the Yellowstone remained unexplored except by the
trader and trapper. The traffic in peltries it was that first induced
extensive exploration of the west. Concerning the precious metals, the
people seem to have had little faith in their abundant existence in
the west, and no organized search for them was made in the earlier
years of the century. But that country, even in its unsettled state,
had other and important sources of wealth. Myriads of beaver inhabited
the streams and innumerable buffalo roamed the valleys. The buffalo
furnished the trapper with means of subsistence, and beaver furs were
better than mines of gold. Far in advance of the tide of settlement
the lonely trapper, and after him the trader, penetrated the unknown
west. Gradually the enterprise of individuals crystallized around a
few important nuclei and there grew up those great fur-trading
companies which for many years exercised a kind of paternal sway over
the Indians and the scarcely more civilized trappers. A brief resumé
of the history of these companies will show how important a place they
occupy in the early history of the Upper Yellowstone.
The climax of the western fur business may be placed at about the year
1830. At that time three great companies operated in territories whose
converging lines of separation centered in the region about
Yellowstone Lake. The oldest and most important of them, and the one
destined to outlive the others, was the world-renowned Hudson's Bay
Company. It was at that time more than a century and a half old. Its
earlier history was in marked contrast with that of later years.
Secure in the monopoly which its extensive charter rights guaranteed,
it had been content with substantial profits and had never pushed its
business far into new territory nor managed it with aggressive vigor.
It was not until forced to action by the encroachments of a dangerous
rival, that it became the prodigious power of later times.
This rival was the great North-west Fur Company of Montreal: It had
grown up since the French and Indian War, partly as a result of that
conflict, and finally took corporate form in 1787. It had none of the
important territorial rights of the Hudson's Bay Company, but its lack
of monopoly was more than made up by the enterprise of its promoters.
With its bands of Canadian frontiersmen, it boldly penetrated the
north-west and paid little respect to those territorial rights which
its venerable rival was powerless to enforce. It rapidly extended its
operations far into the unexplored interior. Lewis and Clark found its
traders among the Mandans in 1804. In 1811 the Astorians saw its first
party descend the Columbia to the sea. Two years later the American
traders on the Pacific Coast were forced to succumb to their British
rivals.
A long and bitter strife now ensued between the two British companies.
It even assumed the magnitude of civil war, and finally resulted in a
frightful massacre of unoffending colonists. The British government
interfered and forced the rivals into court, where they were brought
to the verge of ruin by protracted litigation. A compromise was at
last effected in 1821 by an amalgamation of the two companies under
the name of the older rival.
But in the meantime a large part of their best fur country had been
lost. In 1815 the government of the United States excluded British
traders from its territory east of the Rocky Mountains. To the west of
this limit, however, the amalgamated company easily forced all its
rivals from the field. No American fur company ever attained the
splendid organization, nor the influence over the Indians, possessed
by the Hudson's Bay Company. At the time of which we write it was
master of the trade in the Columbia River valley, and the eastern
limit of its operations within the territory of the United States was
nearly coincident with the present western boundary of the Yellowstone
Park.
The second of the great companies to which reference has been made was
the American Fur Company. It was the final outcome of John Jacob
Astor's various attempts to control the fur trade of the United
States. Although it was incorporated in 1809, it was for a time
overshadowed by the more brilliant enterprises known as the Pacific
Fur Company and the Southwest Fur Company. The history of Mr. Astor's
Pacific Fur Company, the dismal experiences of the Astorians, and the
deplorable failure of the whole undertaking, are matters familiar to
all readers of Irving's "Astoria."
The other project gave for a time more substantial promise of
success. A British company of considerable importance, under the name
of the Mackinaw Company, with headquarters at Michilimacinac, had for
some time operated in the country about the headwaters of the
Mississippi now included in the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Astor succeeded in forming a new company, partly with American and
partly with Canadian capital. This company bought out the Mackinaw
Company, and changed the name to South-west Fur Company. But scarcely
had its promising career begun when it was cut short by the War of
1812.
The failure of these two attempts caused Mr. Astor to turn to the old
American Fur Company. The exclusion Act of 1815 enabled him to buy at
his own price the North-west Fur Company's posts on the upper rivers,
and the American Company rapidly extended its trade over all the
country, from Lake Superior to the Rocky Mountains. Its posts
multiplied in every direction, and at an early date steamboats began
to do its business up the Missouri River from St. Louis. It gradually
absorbed lesser concerns, such as the Missouri Fur Company, and the
Columbia Fur Company, and in 1823 was reorganized under the name of
The North American Fur Company. In 1834, Astor sold his interests to
Chouteau, Valle and Company, of St. Louis, and retired from the
business. At this time the general western limit of the territory
operated in by this formidable company was the northern and eastern
slope of the mountains which bound the Yellowstone Park on the north
and east. Its line of operations was down the river to St. Louis, and
its great trading posts were located at frequent intervals between.
The third of the great rival companies was the Rocky Mountain Fur
Company, which originated in St. Louis in 1822, and received its full
organization in 1826 under the direction of Jedediah Smith, David
Jackson and William Sublette. Among the leading spirits, who at one
time or another guided its affairs, was the famous mountaineer James
Bridger to whom frequent reference will be made.
This company had its general center of operations on the head waters
of Green River to the west of South Pass. Unlike the other companies,
it had no navigable stream along which it could establish posts and
conduct its operations. By the necessities of its exclusively mountain
trade it developed a new feature of the fur business. The _voyageur_,
with his canoe and oar, gave way to the mountaineer, with his saddle
and rifle. The trading post was replaced by the annual rendezvous,
which was in many points the forerunner of the later cattle "roundups"
of the plains. These rendezvous were agreed upon each year at
localities best suited for the convenience of the trade. Hither in the
spring came from the east convoys of supplies for the season's use.
Hither repaired also the various parties of hunters and trappers and
such bands of Indians as roamed in the vicinity. These meetings were
great occasions, both in the transaction of business and in the round
of festivities that always prevailed. After the traffic of the
occasion was over, and the plans for the ensuing year were agreed
upon, the convoys returned to the States and the trappers to their
retreats in the mountains. The field of operations of this company
was very extensive and included about all of the West not controlled
by the Hudson's Bay and American Fur Companies.
Thus was the territory of the great West practically parceled out
among these three companies.[O] It must not be supposed that there was
any agreement, tacit or open, that each company should keep within
certain limits. There were, indeed, a few temporary arrangements of
this sort, but for the most part each company maintained the right to
work in any territory it saw fit, and there was constant invasion by
each of the proper territories of the other. But the practical
necessities of the business kept them, broadly speaking, within the
limits which we have noted. The roving bands of "free trappers" and
"lone traders," and individual expeditions like those of Captain
Bonneville and Nathaniel J. Wyeth, acknowledged allegiance to none of
the great organizations, but wandered where they chose, dealing by
turns with each of the companies.
[O] A singular and striking coincidence at once discloses itself to
any one who compares maps showing the territories operated in by these
three companies, and those which belonged to the three great families
of Indians mentioned in a preceding chapter. By far the larger part of
the Hudson's Bay Company's territory, as far west as the main range of
the Rocky Mountains, was Algonquian. The American Fur Company's
territory was almost entirely Siouan, and that of the Rocky Mountain
Fur Company, Shoshonean.
Nor did any company maintain an exclusive monopoly of its peculiar
methods of conducting business. The American Fur Company frequently
held rendezvous at points remote from its trading posts; and the Rocky
Mountain Fur Company in later years resorted to the Missouri River as
its line of supplies. In fact, the interests of the two companies
finally became to such an extent dependent upon each other that a
union was effected, in 1839, under the firm name of P. Chouteau, Jr.
The records of those early days abound in references to the fierce
competition in trade which existed between these great organizations.
It led to every manner of device or subterfuge which might deceive a
rival as to routes, conceal from him important trapping grounds,
undermine the loyalty of his employes or excite the hostility of the
Indians against him. It often led to deeds of violence, and made the
presence of a rival band of trappers more dreaded than a war party of
the implacable Blackfeet.
The vigor and enterprise of these traders caused their business to
penetrate the remotest and most inaccessible corners of the land.
Silliman's Journal for January, 1834, declares that--
"The mountains and forests, from the Arctic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico,
are threaded through every maze by the hunter. Every river and
tributary stream, from the Columbia to the Rio del Norte, and from the
Mackenzie to the Colorado of the West, from their head waters to their
junctions, are searched and trapped for beaver."
That a business of such all-pervading character should have left a
region like our present Yellowstone Park unexplored would seem
extremely doubtful. That region lay, a sort of neutral ground, between
the territories of the rival fur companies. Its streams abounded with
beaver; and, although hemmed in by vast mountains, and snow-bound most
of the year, it could not have escaped discovery. In fact, every part
of it was repeatedly visited by trappers. Rendezvous were held on
every side of it, and once, it is believed, in Hayden Valley, just
north of Yellowstone Lake. Had the fur business been more enduring,
the geyser regions would have become known at least a generation
sooner.
But a business carried on with such relentless vigor naturally soon
taxed the resources of nature beyond its capacity for reproduction. In
regions under the control of a single organization, as in the vast
domains of the Hudson's Bay Company, great care was taken to preserve
the fur-bearing animals from extinction; but in United States
territory, the exigencies of competition made any such provision
impossible. The poor beaver, as at a later day the buffalo, quickly
succumbed to his ubiquitous enemies. There was no spot remote enough
for him to build his dam in peace, and the once innumerable multitude
speedily dwindled away. The few years immediately preceding and
following 1830 were the halcyon days of the fur trade in the United
States. Thenceforward it rapidly declined, and by 1850 had shrunk to a
mere shadow of its former greatness. With its disappearance the early
knowledge of the Upper Yellowstone also disappeared. Subsequent
events--the Mormon emigration, the war with Mexico, and the discovery
of gold--drew attention, both private and official, in other
directions; and the great wonderland became again almost as much
unknown as in the days of Lewis and Clark.
CHAPTER V.
EARLY KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE.
On the west bank of the Yellowstone River, a quarter of a mile above
the Upper Falls, in a ravine now crossed by a lofty wooden bridge,
stands a pine tree, on which is the oldest record, except that of
Colter, of the presence of white men within the present limits of the
Park. It is an inscription, giving the initials of a name and the date
when inscribed. It was discovered in 1880 by Col. P. W. Norris, then
Superintendent of the Park. It is now practically illegible from
overgrowth, although some of the characters can still be made out.
Col. Norris, who saw it fifteen years ago, claims to have successfully
deciphered it. He verified the date by counting the annual rings on
another tree near by, which bore hatchet marks, presumably of the same
date. The time that had elapsed since these cuts were made
corresponded well with the inscribed date. The inscription was:
J O R
Aug 19 1819
Efforts have been made to trace this inscription to some of the early
noted trappers, but the attempt can hardly succeed. Even if an
identity of initials were established, the identity of individuals
would still remain in doubt. Nothing short of some authentic record of
such a visit as must have taken place can satisfy the requirements of
the case. In the absence of any such record, the most that can be
said is that the inscription is proof positive that the Park country
was visited by white men, after Colter's time, fully fifty years
before its final discovery.
Col. Norris' researches disclosed other similar evidence, although in
no other instance with so plain a clue as to date. Near Beaver Lake
and Obsidian Cliff, he found, in 1878, a cache of marten traps of an
old pattern used by the Hudson's Bay Company's trappers fifty years
before. He also examined the ruins of an ancient block-house
discovered by Frederick Bottler at the base of Mt. Washburn, near the
Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone. Its decayed condition indicated great
age. In other places, the stumps of trees, old logs used to cross
streams, and many similar proofs, were brought to light by that
inveterate ranger of the wilderness.
The Washburn party, in 1870, discovered on the east bank of the
Yellowstone, just above Mud Geyser, the remains of a pit, probably
once used for concealment in shooting water fowl.
In 1882, there was still living in Montana, at the advanced age of one
hundred and two years, a Frenchman by the name of Baptiste Ducharne.
This man spent the summers of 1824 and 1826 on the Upper Yellowstone
River trapping for beaver. He saw the Grand Cañon and Falls of the
Yellowstone and the Yellowstone Lake. He passed through the geyser
regions, and could accurately describe them more than half a century
after he had seen them.
A book called "The River of the West,"[P] published in 1871, but
copyrighted in 1869, before the publication of any modern account of
the geyser regions, contains the record of an adventure in the
Yellowstone three years after those of Ducharne. The book is a
biography of one Joseph Meek, a trapper and pioneer of considerable
note. The adventure to which reference is made took place in 1829, and
was the result of a decision by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to
retire from competition with the Hudson's Bay Company in the Snake
River Valley. In leaving the country, Captain William Sublette, the
chief partner, led his party up Henry Fork, across the Madison and
Gallatin Rivers, to the high ridge overlooking the Yellowstone, at
some point near the present Cinnabar Mountain. Here the party was
dispersed by a band of Blackfeet, and Meek, one of its members, became
separated from his companions. He had lost his horse and most of his
equipment and in this condition he wandered for several days, without
food or shelter, until he was found by two of his companions. His
route lay in a southerly direction, to the eastward of the
Yellowstone, at some distance back from the river. On the morning of
the fifth day he had the following experience:
"Being desirous to learn something of the progress he had made, he
ascended a low mountain in the neighborhood of his camp, and behold!
the whole country beyond was smoking with vapor from boiling springs,
and burning with gases issuing from small craters, each of which was
emitting a sharp, whistling sound. When the first surprise of this
astonishing scene had passed, Joe began to admire its effect from an
artistic point of view. The morning being clear, with a sharp frost,
he thought himself reminded of the City of Pittsburg, as he had beheld
it on a winter morning, a couple of years before. This, however,
related only to the rising smoke and vapor; for the extent of the
volcanic region was immense, reaching far out of sight. The general
face of the country was smooth and rolling, being a level plain,
dotted with cone-shaped mounds. On the summit of these mounds were
small craters from four to eight feet in diameter. Interspersed among
these on the level plain were larger craters, some of them from four
to six miles across. Out of these craters, issued blue flames and
molten brimstone."[Q]
[P] See Appendix E.
[Q] Page 75, "River of the West."
Making some allowance for the trapper's tendency to exaggeration, we
recognize in this description the familiar picture of the hot springs
districts. The precise location is difficult to determine; but Meek's
previous wanderings, and the subsequent route of himself and his
companions whom he met here, show conclusively that it was one of the
numerous districts east of the Yellowstone, which were possibly then
more active than now.
This book affords much other evidence of early knowledge of the
country immediately bordering the present Park. The Great Bend of the
Yellowstone where Livingston now stands, was already a famous
rendezvous. The Gardiner and Firehole Rivers were well known to
trappers; and a much-used trail led from the Madison across the
Gallatin Range to the Gardiner, and thence up the Yellowstone and East
Fork across the mountains to the Bighorn Valley.
In Vol. I, No. 17, August 13, 1842, of _The Wasp_, a Mormon paper
published at Nauvoo, Ill., occurs the first, as it is by far the best,
of all early accounts of the geyser regions prior to 1870. It is an
extract from an unpublished work, entitled _Life in the Rocky
Mountains_. Who was the author will probably never be known; but that
he was a man of culture and education, altogether beyond the average
trader, is evident from the passing glimpse which we have of his work.
He apparently made his visit from some point in the valley of Henry
Fork not far west of the Firehole River, for, at the utmost allowance,
he traveled only about sixty or seventy miles to reach the geyser
basins. The evidence is conclusive that the scene of this visit was
the Upper Geyser Basin. It fits perfectly with the description, while
numerous insuperable discrepancies render identification with the
Lower Basin, which some have sought to establish, impossible.
Following is this writer's narrative:
"I had heard in the summer of 1833, while at rendezvous, that
remarkable boiling springs had been discovered on the sources of the
Madison, by a party of trappers, in their spring hunt; of which the
accounts they gave, were so very astonishing, that I determined to
examine them myself, before recording their description, though I had
the united testimony of more than twenty men on the subject, who all
declared they saw them, and that they really were as extensive and
remarkable as they had been described. Having now an opportunity of
paying them a visit, and as another or a better might not occur, I
parted with the company after supper, and taking with me two Pend
d'Oreilles (who were induced to take the excursion with me, by the
promise of an extra present,) set out at a round pace, the night being
clear and comfortable. We proceeded over the plain about twenty miles,
and halted until daylight, on a fine spring, flowing into Camas Creek.
Refreshed by a few hours' sleep, we started again after a hasty
breakfast, and entered a very extensive forest, called the Pine Woods;
(a continued succession of low mountains or hills, entirely covered
with a dense growth of this species of timber;) which we passed
through and reached the vicinity of the springs about dark, having
seen several lakes or ponds on the sources of the Madison, and rode
about forty miles; which was a hard day's ride, taking into
consideration the rough irregularity of the country through which we
traveled.
"We regaled ourselves with a cup of coffee, the materials for making
which we had brought with us, and immediately after supper, lay down
to rest, sleepy and much fatigued. The continual roaring of the
springs, however, (which was distinctly heard,) for some time
prevented my going to sleep, and excited an impatient curiosity to
examine them, which I was obliged to defer the gratification of until
morning, and filled my slumbers with visions of waterspouts,
cataracts, fountains, _jets d'eau_ of immense dimensions, etc., etc.
"When I arose in the morning, clouds of vapor seemed like a dense fog
to overhang the springs, from which frequent reports or explosions of
different loudness, constantly assailed our ears. I immediately
proceeded to inspect them, and might have exclaimed with the Queen of
Sheba, when their full reality of dimensions and novelty burst upon my
view, 'the half was not told me.'
"From the surface of a rocky plain or table, burst forth columns of
water, of various dimensions, projecting high in the air, accompanied
by loud explosions, and sulphurous vapors, which were highly
disagreeable to the smell. The rock from which these springs burst
forth was calcareous, and probably extends some distance from them,
beneath the soil. The largest of these beautiful fountains projects a
column of boiling water several feet in diameter, to the height of
more than one hundred and fifty feet, in my opinion; but the party of
Alvarez, who discovered it, persist in declaring that it could not be
less than four times that distance in height--accompanied with a
tremendous noise. These explosions and discharges occur at intervals
of about two hours. After having witnessed three of them, I ventured
near enough, to put my hand into the waters of its basin, but withdrew
it instantly, for the heat of the water in this immense cauldron was
altogether too great for my comfort; and the agitation of the water,
the disagreeable effluvium continually exuding, and the hollow
unearthly rumbling under the rock on which I stood, so ill accorded
with my notions of personal safety, that I retreated back
precipitately to a respectful distance. The Indians, who were with me,
were quite appalled, and could not by any means be induced to approach
them. They seemed astonished at my presumption in advancing up to the
large one, and when I safely returned, congratulated me upon my
'narrow escape.' They believed them to be supernatural and supposed
them to be the production of the Evil Spirit. One of them remarked
that hell, of which he had heard from the whites, must be in that
vicinity. The diameter of the basin into which the waters of the
largest jet principally fall, and from the center of which, through a
hole in the rock, of about nine or ten feet in diameter, the water
spouts up as above related, may be about thirty feet. There are many
other smaller fountains, that did not throw their waters up so high,
but occurred at shorter intervals. In some instances the volumes were
projected obliquely upward, and fell into the neighboring fountains,
or on the rock or prairie. But their ascent was generally
perpendicular, falling in and about their own basins or apertures.
"These wonderful productions of nature are situated near the center of
a small valley, surrounded by pine-covered hills, through which a
small fork of the Madison flows."
Here we have a description, as from the pen of some earlier Doane or
Langford, free from exaggeration and true to the facts. No one who has
seen the Upper Geyser Basin will question its general correctness. The
writer then goes on to relate what he has learned from others, but
here exaggeration creeps in and this part of his narrative is less
reliable. It continues:
"From several trappers who had recently returned from the Yellow
Stone, I received an account of boiling springs that differ from those
seen on Salt River only in magnitude, being on a vastly larger scale;
some of their cones are from twenty to thirty feet high, and forty to
fifty paces in circumference. Those which have ceased to emit boiling,
vapor, etc., of which there were several, are full of shelving
cavities, even some fathoms in extent, which give them, inside, an
appearance of honey-comb. The ground for several acres extent in
vicinity of the springs is evidently hollow, and constantly exhales a
hot steam or vapor of disagreeable odor, and a character entirely to
prevent vegetation. They are situated in the valley at the head of
that river near the lake, which constitutes its source.
"A short distance from these springs, near the margin of the lake,
there is one quite different from any yet described. It is of a
circular form, several feet in diameter, clear, cold and pure; the
bottom appears visible to the eye, and seems seven or eight feet below
the surface of the earth or water, without meeting any resistance.
What is most singular with respect to this fountain is the fact that
at regular intervals of about two minutes, a body or column of water
bursts up to the height of eight feet, with an explosion as loud as
the report of a musket, and then falls back into it; for a few seconds
the water is roily, but it speedily settles and becomes transparent as
before the effusion. A slight tremulous motion of the water, and a low
rumbling sound from the caverns beneath, precede each explosion. This
spring was believed to be connected with the lake by some subterranean
passage, but the cause of its periodical eruptions or discharges, is
entirely unknown. I have never before heard of a cold spring, whose
waters exhibit the phenomena of periodical explosive propulsion, in
form of a jet. The geysers of Iceland, and the various other European
springs, the waters of which are projected upwards, with violence and
uniformity, as well as those seen on the head waters of the Madison,
are invariably hot."
The cold water geyser above described, although, apparently a myth,
may not have been so after all. In many places along the west shore of
the Yellowstone Lake there are visible protuberances in the water
surface where boiling springs from beneath force the cold water
upward. It is quite possible that this spring was so connected with
the lake as to keep constantly filled with cold water to a
considerable depth; and that the eruptive energy of the spring was
expended in lifting the superincumbent mass without giving any visible
indication of the thermal action below.
The whole article forms the most interesting and authentic reference
to the geyser regions published prior to 1870. It proves beyond
question that a knowledge of this region existed among the early
trappers, and confirms our previous deduction that the wide range of
the fur business could not have left it unexplored.
In a letter addressed by General Bonneville to the Montana Historical
Society,[R] since the creation of the Yellowstone Park, he states
that, at the time of his sojourn in the mountains, in 1831-4, the
geyser regions were known to his men, although he had not personally
seen them. He also remembered having seen the trader Alvarez, referred
to in the above article.
[R] See Appendix E, "Transactions Montana Historical Society."
In 1844, a large party of trappers entered the Upper Yellowstone
Valley from the south, passed around the west shore of the Yellowstone
Lake to the outlet, where they had a severe battle with the Blackfeet
Indians, in a broad open tract at that point. The remains of their old
corral were still visible as late as 1870.
There are numerous other interesting, though less definite, references
to an early knowledge of the Yellowstone; but those we have given show
their general character. The important fact to remember is that this
knowledge was barren of result. For the most part it existed only in
the minds of illiterate men, and perished with them. It never caught
the public ear and did not in the least degree hasten the final
discovery. Historically interesting these early adventures will always
be; as are also the Norse voyages to America; but they are very far
from being the Columbus voyage of discovery.
CHAPTER VI.
JAMES BRIDGER.
Of the early characters whose names are closely linked with the
history of the Yellowstone, the most distinguished is James Bridger, a
sketch of whose life is given in Appendix A, under "Bridger Lake."
That he had often been in the region of the Yellowstone Park, and was
familiar with its unique features, is now well known. His first
personal knowledge of them is believed to date from 1824, when he is
supposed to have been upon the upper Yellowstone. It is certain that
before 1840 he knew of the existence of the geysers in the Firehole
Valley, although at that time he had probably not seen them himself.
Between 1841 and 1844 Bridger was leader of a grand hunting and
trapping expedition, which for upward of two years, wandered over the
country from the Great Falls of the Missouri to Chihuahua, Mexico. At
some time during this expedition he entered the region of the upper
Yellowstone and saw most of its wonders. His descriptions of the
geysers and other remarkable features of that locality can be traced
back nearly to this period and present an accuracy of detail which
could come only from personal observation.
Among the records of these descriptions the earliest is that by
Captain J. W. Gunnison, of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, who
was associated with Captain Howard Stansbury, of the same corps, in
the Salt Lake Expedition of 1849-50. The record is found in
Gunnison's History of the Mormons,[S] and dates back to this
expedition. It reads:
"He [Bridger] gives a picture, most romantic and enticing, of the head
waters of the Yellow Stone. A lake, sixty miles long, cold and
pellucid, lies embosomed among high precipitous mountains. On the west
side is a sloping plain, several miles wide, with clumps of trees and
groves of pine. The ground resounds with the tread of horses. Geysers
spout up seventy feet high, with a terrific, hissing noise, at regular
intervals. Water-falls are sparkling, leaping and thundering down the
precipices, and collect in the pool below. The river issues from this
lake, and for fifteen miles roars through the perpendicular cañon at
the outlet. In this section are the 'Great Springs,' so hot that meat
is readily cooked in them, and as they descend on the successive
terraces, afford at length delightful baths. On the other side is an
acid spring, which gushes out in a river torrent; and below is a cave,
which supplies 'vermillion' for the savages in abundance."
[S] Page 151, Gunnison's History of the Mormons. See Appendix E.
In this admirable summary we readily discover the Yellowstone Lake,
the Grand Cañon, the Falls, the geyser basins, the Mammoth Hot
Springs, and Cinnabar Mountain. Prior to 1860, Bridger had related
these accounts to Captain Warren, Captain Raynolds, Doctor Hayden, and
others, and although he seems to have convinced these gentlemen that
there was something in his stories, they still attributed less to fact
than to fancy.
In his efforts to disseminate a knowledge of this region, Bridger was
as determined as Colter had been before him, and with little better
success. He tried to have his narratives published, but no periodical
would lend itself to his service. The editor of the _Kansas City
Journal_ stated editorially in 1879 that Bridger had told him of these
wonders fully thirty years before. He prepared an article from
Bridger's description, but suppressed it because his friends ridiculed
the whole thing as incredible. He later publicly apologized to
Bridger, who was then living at Westport, Missouri.[T]
[T] Of interest in this connection is the following extract from a
recent letter to the writer by the present managing editor of the
_Kansas City Journal_:
"The interview had with Bridger was in the year 1856. He told Col. R.
T. Van Horn, Editor of the _Journal_, which was published at that
time, the story of the Park with the geysers, and at the same time,
drew with a piece of charcoal on a piece of wrapping paper an outline
of the route necessary to be taken by a railroad should it ever cross
the continent, which route is exactly on the line that is now crossed
by the Union Pacific.
In this conversation, he told the Colonel about the mud springs and
the other wonders of that part of the country, or to use his own
expression, 'it was a place where hell bubbled up.'
The Colonel was much interested in the matter at the time and took
notes of the account, but did not print it because a man who claimed
to know Bridger, told him that he would be laughed out of town if he
printed 'any of old Jim Bridger's lies.'"
The persistent incredulity of his countrymen, and their ill-concealed
suspicion of his honesty, to say nothing of his mental soundness, were
long a cloud upon Bridger's life; but, more fortunate than his
prototype, Colter, he lived to see himself triumphantly vindicated.
Whether from disgust at this unmerited treatment, or because of his
love of a good story, Bridger seems finally to have resolved that
distrust of his word, if it must exist, should at least have some
justification. He was in fact noted for "drawing the long bow to an
unparalleled tension," and for never permitting troublesome scruples
of conscience to interfere with the proper embellishment of his yarns.
These were generally based upon fact, and diligent search will
discover in them the "soul of truth" which, according to Herbert
Spencer, always exists "in things erroneous." These anecdotes are
current even yet among the inhabitants of the Yellowstone, and the
tourist who remains long in the Park will not fail to hear them.
When Bridger found that he could not make his hearers believe in the
existence of a vast mass of volcanic glass, now known to all tourists
as the interesting Obsidian Cliff, he supplied them with another glass
mountain of a truly original sort. Its discovery was the result of one
of his hunting trips and it happened in this wise.
Coming one day in sight of a magnificent elk, he took careful aim at
the unsuspecting animal and fired. To his great amazement, the elk not
only was not wounded, but seemed not even to have heard the report of
the rifle. Bridger drew considerably nearer and gave the elk the
benefit of his most deliberate aim; but with the same result as
before. A third and a fourth effort met with a similar fate. Utterly
exasperated, he seized his rifle by the barrel, resolved to use it as
a club since it had failed as a firearm. He rushed madly toward the
elk, but suddenly crashed into an immovable vertical wall which proved
to be a mountain of perfectly transparent glass, on the farther side
of which, still in peaceful security, the elk was quietly grazing.
Stranger still, the mountain was not only of pure glass, but was a
perfect telescopic lens, and, whereas, the elk seemed but a few
hundred yards off, it was in reality twenty-five miles away!
Another of Bridger's discoveries was an ice-cold spring near the
summit of a lofty mountain, the water from which flowed down over a
long smooth slope, where it acquired such a velocity that it was
boiling hot when it reached the bottom.[U]
[U] This story, which is taken from the report of Captain W. F.
Raynolds, was one of Bridger's favorites, and it is even said that he
did not regard it as pleasantry at all, but as plain matter of fact.
Mr. Langford, who often heard him relate it, says that he generally
described the stream as flowing over the smooth surface of a rock, and
reasoned that, as two sticks rubbed together produce heat by friction,
so the water rubbing over the rock became hot. In proof, he cited an
instance where the water was hot only in close proximity to the rock
and not at the surface. Mr. Langford found a partial confirmation of
the fact, but not of the theory, in fording the Firehole River in
1870. He passed over the smooth deposit of an active hot spring in the
bed of the stream, and found that the stream bottom and the water in
contact with it were hot.
An account, in which the "soul of truth" is not so readily apparent,
is that of a mining prospector of this region, who, in later times,
met a unique and horrible fate. He had for days been traveling with a
party toward a prodigious diamond set in the top of a mountain, where,
even at noonday, it shone with a luster surpassing the sun. He arrived
at length on the top of the mountain only to see the diamond on
another summit apparently as far away as ever. Disheartened and weary,
he thought to save the labor of descent by taking advantage of an
extremely smooth face of the mountain, and accordingly sat down upon
his shovel, as upon a toboggan, and let slide. There was a vacant
place around the camp-fire that evening, and next day the rest of the
party, passing along the base of the mountain, found an infusible clay
pipe and the molten remains of a shovel. Warned by the fate of their
comrade, the superstitious survivors forbore any further search for
the diamond.
To those who have visited the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake, and
know how simple a matter it is to catch the lake trout and cook them
in the boiling pools without taking them from the line, the ground
work of the following description will be obvious enough. Somewhere
along the shore an immense boiling spring discharges its overflow
directly into the lake. The specific gravity of the water is less than
that of the lake, owing probably to the expansive action of heat, and
it floats in a stratum three or four feet thick upon the cold water
underneath. When Bridger was in need of fish it was to this place that
he went. Through the hot upper stratum he let fall his bait to the
subjacent habitable zone, and having hooked his victim, cooked him _on
the way out_!
In like manner the visitor to the region of petrifactions on Specimen
Ridge in the north-east corner of the Park, and to various points in
the hot springs districts, will have no difficulty in discovering the
base material out of which Bridger contrived the following picturesque
yarn. According to his account there exists in the Park country a
mountain which was once cursed by a great medicine man of the Crow
nation. Every thing upon the mountain at the time of this dire event
became instantly petrified and has remained so ever since. All forms
of life are standing about in stone where they were suddenly caught by
the petrifying influences, even as the inhabitants of ancient Pompeii
were surprised by the ashes of Vesuvius. Sage brush, grass, prairie
fowl, antelope, elk, and bears may there be seen as perfect as in
actual life. Even flowers are blooming in colors of crystal, and birds
soar with wings spread in motionless flight, while the air floats with
music and perfumes siliceous, and the sun and the moon shine with
petrified light!
In this way Bridger avenged himself for the spirit of distrust so
often shown for what he had related. The time presently came, however,
when the public learned, not only how large a measure of truth there
was in his stories, but also how ingenious a tale he could weave from
very inadequate material.
CHAPTER VII.
RAYNOLDS' EXPEDITION.
On the 13th of April, 1859, Captain W. F. Raynolds, of the Corps of
Topographical Engineers, U. S. A., was ordered to explore "the region
of country through which flow the principal tributaries of the
Yellowstone River, and the mountains in which they, and the Gallatin
and Madison Forks of the Missouri, have their source." This was the
first government expedition[V] directed to the precise locality which
is now embraced in the Yellowstone National Park. It is interesting to
us, not for what it accomplished--for it fortunately failed to
penetrate the Upper Yellowstone country--but because it gives an
admirable _resumé_, in the form of a report and a map, of the
geographical knowledge of that country down to the date of actual
discovery.
[V] Accompanying this expedition as geologist was Dr. F. V. Hayden,
whose name is so intimately connected with the history of the
Yellowstone Park. James Bridger was guide to the party.
Captain Raynolds was in the field during the two seasons of 1859 and
1860; but it was only in the summer of 1860 that he directed his
efforts toward the country in which we are particularly interested. In
May of that year the expedition left its winter quarters at Deer
Creek, Wyo., and marched to the junction of the Wind River and the
Popo Agie where these streams unite under the name of Bighorn River.
Here the party divided. One division under Captain Raynolds was to
ascend the Wind River to its source and then cross to the head waters
of the Yellowstone. This stream they were to follow down to the Great
Bend, and then cross over to the Three Forks of the Missouri. The
other party, under Lieutenant Maynadier, was to skirt the east and
north flanks of the Absaroka Range and to join the first party at the
Three Forks, if possible, not later than July 1st.
Captain Raynolds was charged with other instructions than those
mentioned in his order, which must be kept in mind in order properly
to account for the final outcome of the expedition. A total eclipse of
the sun was to occur on July 18th of that year, and its line of
greatest occultation lay north of the British boundary. It was desired
that Captain Raynolds should be present in that locality in time to
observe the eclipse. This condition, rather than impassable mountains
or unmelted snows, was the chief obstacle to a thorough exploration of
the Upper Yellowstone.
The two parties separated May 24th. Captain Raynolds, according to his
programme, kept up the Wind River valley, and with much difficulty
effected a crossing by way of Union Pass--which he named--to the
western slope of the mountains. He then turned north seeking a passage
to the head waters of the Yellowstone. When nearly opposite Two-Ocean
Pass, he made a strenuous effort to force his way through, spending
two days in the attempt. But it was still June and the snow lay deep
on the mountains. It was a physical impossibility to get through at
that point, and the risk of missing the eclipse forebade efforts
elsewhere. The Captain was deeply disappointed at this result. He
writes:
"My fondly cherished schemes of this nature were all dissipated by the
prospect before us; ... and I therefore very reluctantly decided to
abandon the plan to which I had so steadily clung."
It seems not a little singular that so experienced a guide as Bridger
should not have conducted the party up the valley of the Snake River
and thence over the low divide between that stream and the Yellowstone
Lake--a route which was perfectly practicable even as early as June.
But the plan does not appear to have been entertained, and the
expedition passed around the Park region to the west, arriving at the
Three Forks on the 29th of June.
Lieutenant Maynadier wisely made no attempt to cross the Absaroka
Range, which rose continuously on his left. Had he done so, the deep
snow at that season would have rendered his efforts futile. He kept
close to the flank of the mountains until he reached the valley of the
Yellowstone north of the Park, and then hastened to join his
commanding officer at the appointed rendezvous. He reached the Three
Forks on the 3d day of July.
The expedition had now completely encircled the region of the Upper
Yellowstone. At one point Captain Raynolds had stood where his eye
could range over all that country which has since become so famous;
but this was the limit of his endeavor. The Yellowstone wonderland was
spared the misfortune of being discovered at so early a day--a fact
quite as fortunate as any in its history.
It will be interesting now to survey this region as known at the time
of the Raynolds Expedition. Nothing of importance occurred to increase
public knowledge of it until 1870, and Captain Raynolds'[W] Report is
therefore the latest authentic utterance concerning it prior to the
date of actual discovery. In this report Captain Raynolds says:
"Beyond these [the mountains south-east of the Park], is the valley of
the Upper Yellowstone, which is as yet a _terra incognita_. My
expedition passed entirely around, but could not penetrate it....
Although it was June, the immense body of snow baffled all our
exertions, and we were compelled to content ourselves with listening
to marvelous tales of burning plains, immense lakes, and boiling
springs, without being able to verify these wonders. I know of but two
men who claim to have ever visited this part of the Yellowstone
Valley--James Bridger and Robert Meldrum. The narratives of both these
men are very remarkable, and Bridger, in one of his recitals,
described an immense boiling spring, that is a perfect counterpart of
the geysers of Iceland. As he is uneducated, and had probably never
heard of the existence of such natural wonders elsewhere, I have
little doubt that he spoke of that which he had actually seen....
Bridger also insisted that immediately west[X] of the point at which
we made our final effort to penetrate this singular valley, there is a
stream of considerable size, which divides and flows down either side
of the water-shed, thus discharging its waters into both the Atlantic
and Pacific Oceans."
[W] See Bibliography. Appendix E, "Explorations of the Yellowstone,"
etc.
[X] Actually north-east.
The Captain concludes this particular part of his report as follows:
"I can not doubt, therefore, that at no very distant day, the
mysteries of this region will be fully revealed; and, although small
in extent, I regard the valley of the Upper Yellowstone as the most
interesting unexplored district in our widely expanded country."
Lieutenant Maynadier also contributes a few interesting observations
upon this region. The vast importance of that extensive mass of
mountains, as a reservoir of waters for the country round about,
impressed him deeply. He says, somewhat ostentatiously:
"As my fancy warmed with the wealth of desolation before me, I found
something to admire in the calm self-denial with which this region,
content with barren magnificence, gives up its water and soil to more
favored countries."
Of the Yellowstone River, he was told that it had its source "in a
lake in the impenetrable fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains;" and that
for some distance below the lake it flowed through a narrow gorge, up
which "no one has ever been able to travel."
[Illustration:
MAP
OF THE
SOURCES of the YELLOWSTONE
AS KNOWN BETWEEN 1860 AND 1870
FROM THE MAP
_OF_
RAYNOLDS EXPEDITION OF 1860
_Opp. page 62._]
But it is the map prepared by Captain Raynolds that tells a more
interesting story even than his written report. It reveals at once to
the eye what was known as well as what was unknown of the Upper
Yellowstone. Extending in a south-easterly and north-westerly
direction, is a large elliptical space, within which geographical
features are represented by dotted lines, indicating that they are put
in by hearsay only. In the midst of a surrounding country, which is
already mapped with great accuracy, there is a region wholly unknown
to the geographer. A cordon of mountains encircles it, and shows the
limit of official effort to gain a correct knowledge of it. Within
this enchanted inclosure lies the region approximately defined by the
44th and 45th parallels of latitude and the 110th and 111th meridians
of longitude, which now constitutes the Yellowstone National Park.
There one may catch glimpses, through the uncertain haze of tradition,
of the geysers, hot springs, Lake, Falls, Grand Cañon, Mammoth Hot
Springs, and Two-Ocean Pass. This was the net result of fifty years'
desultory wandering in and about and over this "mystic" region.
Raynolds' report, it must be remembered, was the first official
recognition in any form of the probable existence of extensive
volcanic phenomena in the region of the Upper Yellowstone. Had it been
published immediately after the expedition, and had not public
attention been totally engrossed with other matters of overshadowing
importance, this region must have become fully known in the early
Sixties. But within a month after the return of Captain Raynolds to
civilization there had taken place the national election which was the
signal for attempted armed disruption of the Union. A year later found
every officer of the Army called to new fields of duty. Western
exploration entirely ceased until 1865, and was not vigorously resumed
for some years thereafter. Captain Raynolds' report did not appear
until 1868, although his map was published several years earlier in
order to meet a demand for it by the new settlers in western Montana,
Nothing transpired in the meantime to make the general public familiar
with this region, and the picture here given is therefore
substantially correct down to the date of the celebrated Washburn
expedition.
CHAPTER VIII.
GOLD IN MONTANA.
Perhaps the most fascinating pages of American history are those which
recount the annals of the discoveries of gold and silver. No one can
appreciate the magnitude of those various movements by a simple
perusal of statistics of the mineral wealth which they disclosed. He
must pass through the mining belts and note how almost every rod of
ground, over vast tracts of country, is filled with prospect holes
that attest the miner's former presence. If the trapper carried the
tools of his trade to haunts remote and inaccessible, the miner, with
his pick and shovel, certainly outdid him. One can readily understand
that, as soon as such a movement should be directed toward the region
of the Upper Yellowstone, the wonders of that region would speedily be
revealed.
The presence of gold in the mountains of Montana was first noticed as
far back as 1852. Later, in 1858, the Stuart brothers, James and
Granville, founders of Montana, discovered gold in the Deer Lodge
Valley; but they were destitute of equipments, and so constantly
exposed to the hostility of the Blackfeet, that they went to Fort
Bridger in the south-west corner of Wyoming, and did not return until
late in 1860.
It was in 1860 and 1861 that the rich mines on the Salmon and Boisé
rivers were discovered. In 1862 the tide of discovery swept across
the mountains into Montana. The rich mines on Pioneer Creek, the Big
Prickly Pear, the Big Hole River, North Boulder Creek, and at Bannock
and other points, became known. Although there were scarcely a
thousand people in Montana in the winter of 1862-3, the news of the
great discoveries marshaled a host of immigrants ready to enter the
territory in the following spring. These were largely re-enforced by
adventurers from both the northern and southern states, who, with
little credit to their courage or patriotism, sought in these remote
regions exemption from the tributes and levies of war. The immigrants
were welcomed in the spring of 1863 by the news of the discovery of
Alder Gulch, the richest of all gold placers. The work of prospecting,
already being pushed with vigor, was stimulated to an extraordinary
degree by this magnificent discovery. Prospecting parties scoured the
country in all directions, often with loss of life through the
Indians, but rarely, after the first two or three years, with any
substantial success. Some of these expeditions have a particular
connection with our narrative because they passed across portions of
what is now the Yellowstone Park.
The most important of them occurred in August and September, 1863. It
was led by Walter W. DeLacy, an engineer and surveyor of some
distinction in the early history of Montana. The party at one time
numbered forty-two men, although this number did not continue constant
throughout the expedition. Its sole object was to "prospect" the
country. Evidently nothing in the line of topographical reconnaissance
was thought of, for Captain DeLacy says "there was not a telescope,
and hardly a watch, in the whole party."
The expedition left Virginia City, August 3d; passed south into Idaho
until it struck the Snake River, and then ascended that stream to the
region about Jackson Lake. Near the mouth of Buffalo Fork a halt was
made, a corral was built to hold the stock, and a miners' meeting held
at which rules were adopted to govern the miners in the contemplated
examination of the country. The party then broke up into small groups
and set out in different directions so as to cover as much ground as
possible. The last four days of August were spent in this search, but
with failure in every direction. This discouragement led to the
abandonment of the expedition. Fifteen men set out for home by the way
they had come, while DeLacy and twenty-seven men resolved to reach the
Madison River and the settlements by going north. A day later this
party entered the territory which is now the Yellowstone Park.
The route lay up the Snake River to its junction with Lewis River
where the hot springs of that locality were discovered. Here another
separation occurred. About half the party went back down the river to
re-examine a locality where they thought they had found some fair
prospects. They soon returned, however, unsuccessful. The main party
under DeLacy ascended the hills to the west of the river to seek a
more practicable route. They soon reached the summit of the plateau
where they discovered what are now Hering and Beula lakes, and noted
their divergent drainage. Thence they passed north over Pitchstone
Plateau until they struck the valley of Moose Creek. They descended
this stream for a few miles and came to a large lake, which they
supposed to be tributary to either the Madison or the Yellowstone
Rivers. To their great surprise they found, upon rounding its southern
point, that it drained _south_ into the Snake. This is what is now
called Shoshone Lake.
From the outlet of the lake, DeLacy sent a man down stream to examine
the river. This reconnaissance resulted in the discovery of Lewis Lake
and the hot springs basin there. When DeLacy resumed his route, he
followed along the east shore of the lake to its northern extremity,
and then ascended the beautiful open valley of DeLacy Creek. He
crossed the Continental Divide at the head of the valley, and camped
on the evening of September 8th some miles beyond the Divide toward
the Firehole River. The next morning, September 9, 1863, he came upon
the considerable stream of hot water which flows down a mountain
ravine into the Lower Geyser Basin close by the Great Fountain Geyser.
The reader will learn with some amazement that our party thought
little enough of this wonderful locality to pass directly through it
without halt or perceptible delay. Before the camping hour of the
afternoon had arrived, they were many miles away at the junction of
the Gibbon and Firehole rivers.
The other section of the party, which had gone down the Snake from its
junction with Lewis River, soon returned, followed up the river to
Lewis and Shoshone lakes, passed around the western end of the latter
lake discovering its extensive geyser basin, and thence crossed over
to the Madison. This stream they descended through the geyser basins,
and followed the main party to the settlements.
DeLacy might have passed into history as the real discoverer of the
Yellowstone wonderland, but for the fact that he failed to appreciate
the true importance of what he saw. In that, however, he was no
exception to the general rule of immigrants. The search for gold with
them so far overshadowed all other matters, that it would have
required something more than geysers to divert them, even momentarily,
from its prosecution. Although DeLacy kept a daily journal of his
expedition, and noted therein the various items of interest along his
route, he did not publish it until 1876, long after public interest
had been strongly attracted to the geyser regions. He did, however,
publish a map of the country through which he passed, and on this map
he correctly noted the drainage of Shoshone Lake--something which the
Folsom, Washburn, and Hayden (1871), expeditions all failed to do. He
also noted the various hot springs localities through which the party
passed. In a letter published in Raymond's "Mineral Resources of the
States and Territories West of the Rocky Mountains," in 1869, before
the date of the Washburn Expedition, he called attention to the
existence of geysers at the head of Shoshone Lake and on the Madison
River.
DeLacy's account, as finally published, is an interesting early view
of this region, and is remarkable for its general correctness. That he
failed to publish his discoveries must be regarded as fortunate so far
as the Park is concerned, for the time had not yet come when it was
desirable that the real character of this country should be made
known.
From 1863 to 1869 there were many other prospecting parties in the
region of the Upper Yellowstone. In 1863 one of these parties,
numbering thirty or forty men, ascended the Yellowstone and the East
Fork to the mouth of Soda Butte Creek, and thence crossed an
intervening ridge to the next northern tributary of the East Fork.
Here all their horses were stolen by Indians. There were left only one
or two mules on which was packed all the baggage they could carry, the
rest being concealed in a cache. The party then separated into two
portions and prospected the country for several days in the vicinity
of Clark's Fork. They finally returned, emptied the cache, and
descended to the Yellowstone where they found fair prospects near the
present north boundary of the Park. The expedition has no permanent
interest for this narrative except that it left the two geographical
names, "Cache Creek" and "Bear Gulch."
In 1864, a party of seventy-three men under James Stuart passed from
Deer Lodge, Montana, to the Yellowstone Valley, and thence around the
east base of the Absaroka Range into the valley of the Stinkingwater.
The object of this expedition was to punish the Indians for outrages
of the previous year, and also to prospect the country for gold. At
the Stinkingwater, Stuart was compelled to return home. The party then
separated into groups that gradually worked their way back to the
Montana settlements. One of these small parties went as far south as
the Sweetwater River, then crossed to the Green and Snake Rivers, and
re-crossed the Continental Divide at Two-Ocean Pass. They descended
the Yellowstone, past the Lake and Grand Cañon, and beyond the
present limits of the Park. Norris found remnants of their camp
debris seventeen years afterward.
In 1866, a party under one George Huston left Virginia City, Montana,
and ascended the Madison River to the geyser basins. Thence they
crossed to the Yellowstone at Mud Geyser, ascended the river to the
lake, passed completely around the latter, discovering Hart Lake on
their way, and then descended the Yellowstone by the Falls and Cañon,
to Emigrant Gulch. Here they were interviewed by a newspaper reporter,
and an account of their travels was published in the _Omaha Herald_.
They had seen about all there was to be seen in the whole region.
At least two parties traversed the Park country in 1867. One of these
gave names to Crevice, Hell-roaring and Slough Creeks. An account of
the wanderings of the other party appeared in the _Montana Post_ of
that year.
Many other parties and individuals passed through this region during
the Montana mining craze. Their accounts appeared now and then in the
local papers, and were reprinted throughout the country. By 1869,
probably very few of the reading public had not heard rumors of a
strange volcanic region in the Far West. In Montana, particularly,
repeated confirmation of the old trappers' tales was gradually
arousing a deep interest, and the time was fast approaching when
explorations for the specific purpose of verifying these rumors were
to begin.
CHAPTER IX.
DISCOVERY.
The discovery of the Yellowstone Wonderland--by which is here meant
its full and final disclosure to the world--was the work of three
parties who visited and explored it in the years 1869, 1870, and 1871,
respectively. The first of these expeditions was purely a private
enterprise. It consisted of three men, and was the first party to
enter this country with the express purpose of verifying or refuting
the floating rumors concerning it. The second expedition was of a
mixed character, having semi-official sanction, but being organized
and recruited by private individuals. This was the famous "Yellowstone
Expedition of 1870"--the great starting point in the post-traditional
history of the Park. The third expedition was strictly official, under
the military and scientific departments of the government. It was a
direct result of the explorations of 1870, and was intended to satisfy
the public demand for accurate and official information concerning
this new region of wonders. It was the final and necessary step in
order that the government might act intelligently and promptly for the
preservation of what was believed to be the most interesting
collection of wonders to be found in the world.[Y]
[Y] For diagram of routes, see Historical Chart, p. 11.
THE EXPEDITION OF 1869.
The question of setting definitely at rest the constantly multiplying
rumors of wonderful volcanic phenomena around the sources of the
Yellowstone, began to be seriously agitated among the people of
Montana as early as 1867. An expedition was planned for that year but
came to nothing. A like result attended a similar effort the following
year. In 1869, the proposition came near materializing, but fell
through at the last moment owing to the failure to obtain a military
escort. There were three members of this proposed expedition, however,
who refused to be frightened off by any dangers which the situation at
that time promised. They had already provided themselves with an
elaborate equipment, and were determined, with escort or without it,
to undertake the trip. The names of these men were David E. Folsom, C.
W. Cook, and William Peterson, the last named being a native of
Denmark. Armed with "repeating rifles, Colt's six-shooters, and
sheath-knives," with a "double-barreled shot gun for small game;" and
equipped with a "good field-glass, pocket compass and thermometer,"
and utensils and provisions "for a six weeks' trip," they set out from
Diamond City on the Missouri River, forty miles from Helena, September
6, 1869.
The route lay up the Missouri to the Three Forks; thence _via_ Bozeman
and Fort Ellis to the Yellowstone River; and thence up the Yellowstone
to its junction with the East Fork inside the present limits of the
Park. From this point they crossed to the east bank and followed up
the river, passing through the many groups of hot springs to be found
east of the Grand Cañon. On September 21st, they arrived at the Falls
of the Yellowstone, where they remained an entire day. Some distance
above the rapids they re-crossed to the west shore and then ascended
the river past Sulphur Mountain and Mud Volcano to Yellowstone Lake.
They then went to the extreme west shore of the lake and spent some
time examining the surpassingly beautiful springs at that point.
Thence they crossed the mountains to Shoshone Lake, which they took to
be the head of the Madison, and from that point struck out to the
north-west over a toilsome country until they reached the Lower Geyser
Basin near Nez Percé Creek. Here they saw the Fountain Geyser in
action and the many other phenomena in that locality. They ascended
the Firehole River to Excelsior Geyser and Prismatic Lake, and then
turned down the river on their way home. They were absent on the
expedition thirty-six days.
It is said that these explorers were so astonished at the marvels they
had seen that "they were, on their return, unwilling to risk their
reputations for veracity by a full recital of them to a small company
whom their friends had assembled to hear the account of their
explorations." But Mr. Folsom later prepared a most entertaining
narrative of his journey which was published in the _Western Monthly_,
of Chicago, in July, 1871.[Z] This article deserves a high rank in the
literature of the Park. It is free from exaggeration and contains
some descriptions unsurpassed by any subsequent writer. The article,
and personal interviews with the author and his companions, had a
strong influence in leading to the important expedition next to be
described.
[Z] It is only through the undiminished loyalty of Mr. N. P. Langford
to every thing pertaining to the welfare of the Yellowstone National
Park that this article has been saved from oblivion. The office of the
_Western Monthly_ was destroyed by the great Chicago fire of 1871, and
all the files of the magazine were lost. Mr. Folsom had lost or given
away all copies in his possession. So far as is known there is but one
remaining copy of this issue and that is owned by Mr. Langford. In
1894, Mr. Langford caused the article to be reprinted in handsome
pamphlet form, with an interesting preface by himself, and it will now
receive the recognition which it justly deserves.
THE EXPEDITION OF 1870.
The Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, more commonly known as the
Washburn-Doane Expedition, was the culmination of the project of
discovery to which frequent reference has already been made. At this
time the subject was exciting a profound interest throughout Montana,
and the leading citizens of the territory were active in organizing a
grand expedition. General Sheridan, who passed through Helena just
prior to his departure for the scene of the Franco-German War, spent
some time in arranging for a military escort to accompany the party.
The project did not assume definite shape until about the middle of
August, and when the time for departure arrived, Indian alarms caused
a majority of the party to repent their decision to join it. Finally,
their were only nine persons who were willing to brave all dangers for
the success of the undertaking. These nine were:
General Henry D. Washburn, Surveyor-General of Montana, chief of the
expedition, and author of a series of valuable "notes" describing
it.[AA]
[AA] See Appendix E.
Hon. Nathaniel P. Langford, who published a series of articles in
_Scribner's Magazine_,[AB] which gave general publicity to the news of
discovery. He became first Superintendent of the Park.
[AB] See Appendix E.
Hon. Cornelius Hedges, who first proposed setting apart this region as
a National Park.
Hon. Truman C. Everts, ex-U. S. Assessor for Montana, whose experience
upon the expedition forms the most painful and thrilling chapter in
the annals of the Yellowstone.
Hon. Samuel T. Hauser, President of the First National Bank of Helena,
and later Governor of Montana.
Walter Trumbull, son of the late Senator Trumbull. He published an
account of the expedition in the _Overland Monthly_ for June,
1871.[AC]
[AC] See Appendix E.
Other civilian members of the expedition were Benjamin Stickney, Jr.,
Warren C. Gillette, and Jacob Smith.
The personnel of this party is sufficient evidence of the wide-spread
interest which was being taken at the time in the region of the Upper
Yellowstone.
The party proceeded from Helena to Fort Ellis, one hundred and
twenty-five miles, where they were to receive a military escort
promised by General Hancock, at that time commanding the department in
which Fort Ellis was located. The post order detailing this escort is
dated August 21, 1870, and directs Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane,
Second Cavalry, with one sergeant and four privates, "to escort the
Surveyor-General of Montana to the falls and lakes of the Yellowstone
and return." There is a significant absence in this order of any
reference to geysers or hot springs; and the discreet post commander
evidently did not intend to commit himself to a recognition of their
existence on the strength of such knowledge as was then available. His
incredulity was indeed largely shared by the members of the party
themselves. Mr. Hedges subsequently said:
"I think a more confirmed set of skeptics never went out into the
wilderness than those who composed our party, and never was a party
more completely surprised and captivated with the wonders of nature."
Lieutenant Doane, than whom no member of the expedition holds a more
honorable place in its history, has left on record a similar
confession.
The party as finally organized, including two packers and two colored
cooks, numbered nineteen individuals. Thirty-five horses and mules,
thoroughly equipped for a month's absence, completed the "outfit," and
made altogether quite an imposing cavalcade.
August 22, 1870, the expedition left Fort Ellis, crossed to the
Yellowstone, and ascended that stream through the First and Second
Cañons, past the "Devil's Slide" and Cinnabar Mountain, to the present
north boundary line of the Park at the mouth of the Gardiner River. At
this point they were within five miles of the celebrated Mammoth Hot
Springs which are now the first attraction to meet the tourist's eye
on entering the Park. But the party kept close to the Yellowstone,
instead of taking the modern route up the Gardiner, and missed this
wonder altogether.
It was August 26th when the expedition entered the present territory
of the Park. Lieutenant Doane and Mr. Everts, with one soldier and two
hunters picked up on the way, rode in advance along the brink of the
Third Cañon and across the high plateau between the Gardiner and Tower
Creek, camping at nightfall upon the latter stream. In the broad open
valley near the junction of the Yellowstone and East Fork, a small
tepid sulphur spring gave them the first evidence of their approach to
the regions of volcanic activity.
Next day, the remainder of the party arrived. Two days were spent in
examining the beautiful Tower Falls, and--to our tyros in geyser
exploration--the wonderful hot spring formations to be seen at that
point. Here they also had for the first time glimpses of the Grand
Cañon of the Yellowstone.
The party left Tower Creek on the 29th of August, and followed up the
river over the east flank of Mount Washburn. As their progress lifted
them rapidly above the surrounding country, a marvelously beautiful
landscape unfolded itself to their view. Presently an interesting
incident occurred, which shall stand here in Lieutenant Doane's own
language:
"Through the mountain gap formed by the cañon, and on the interior
slopes some twenty [evidently a misprint] miles distant, an object now
appeared which drew a simultaneous expression of wonder from every one
of the party. A column of steam, rising from the dense woods to the
height of several hundred feet, became distinctly visible. We had all
heard fabulous stories of this region, and were somewhat skeptical of
appearances. At first it was pronounced a fire in the woods, but
presently some one noticed that the vapor rose in regular puffs, as
if expelled with great force. Then conviction was forced upon us. It
was indeed a great column of steam, puffing away on the lofty mountain
side, escaping with a roaring sound audible at a long distance, even
through the heavy forest. A hearty cheer rang out at this discovery,
and we pressed onward with renewed enthusiasm."
The party then ascended the lofty mountain to their right, now known
as Mt. Washburn, and from its summit looked around upon the vast
panorama which is now included in the Yellowstone National Park. Had
old James Bridger been present at that moment, he would have received
ample vindication for long-standing injustice at the hands of his
incredulous countrymen. _There_ were the Cañon and Falls and Lake of
the Yellowstone, with evidence enough of boiling springs and geysers!
The enthusiasm of the party was unbounded, and Lieutenant Doane
exultingly declares that they were "more than satisfied with the
opening up of the campaign."
The pack-train continued its course along the side of the mountain,
and went into camp after a march of only twelve miles. That evening,
Messrs. Washburn, Doane, and Hedges went on ahead of the main party,
discovering the extensive mud springs at the southern base of the
mountain, and finally reached the verge of a cliff beyond which yawned
the stupendous cañon of the Yellowstone. It was the first real view
from near by, but darkness prevented further examination.
The next day saw the arrival of the party at the Falls of the
Yellowstone, close by the mouth of Cascade Creek, which, with its
Crystal Falls, received that day their present names. The remainder of
this day, August 30th, and the next, were spent in exploring the cañon
and measuring the heights of the falls. Messrs. Hauser and Stickney
descended the sides of the cañon to the brink of the river about two
miles below the falls; and Lieutenant Doane and Private McConnell
accomplished the same difficult feat further down. It needs not to be
said that the members of the party were profoundly impressed with the
incomparable scenery of the Grand Cañon, although their descriptions
of it are, perhaps, least satisfactory of any they have left us.
From the Cañon the party ascended the now placid river amid
ever-changing wonders. They passed Sulphur Mountain and the uncanny
region around the Mud Volcano and Mud Geyser, then crossed to the east
shore of the river, and finally went into camp, September 3d, on the
shore of the Yellowstone Lake. Here our explorers were again in
ecstacies, and not without cause; for, seen under favoring conditions,
this "watery solitude" is one of the most beautiful objects in nature.
After a day spent in this camp, the expedition continued by slow
stages up the east shore of the lake. Messrs. Doane and Langford
scaled the lofty Absaroka Range just east of the lake, being the first
white men known to have accomplished this feat, and their names now
designate two of its noblest summits.
September 7th, the party forded the Upper Yellowstone and traversed
the almost impassable labyrinths of fallen timber between the several
projecting arms. on the south of the lake. It was on this portion of
the route, September 9th, that Mr. Everts became separated from his
party, lost his horse with all his accoutrements, and commenced those
"thirty-seven days of peril," which so nearly cost him his life. This
unfortunate affair cast a deep gloom over the little party and
seriously interfered with the progress of the expedition. A week was
spent in searching for the lost companion, without other result than
the discovery of the hot springs basins at Hart Lake and on the west
shore of the Yellowstone Lake.
At length it was concluded that Mr. Everts had either been killed or
had wandered back home; and it was resolved to wait no longer. The
party were surfeited with sight-seeing, and believed that they had now
covered the whole ground. They therefore determined to strike across
the mountains to the Madison and follow that stream to the
settlements. They set out on the morning of September 17th, over
rugged hills and through fallen timber, crossing the Continental
Divide twice, and camping that night in an open glade on a small
branch of the Firehole. While passing the second time over the Divide,
they caught a glimpse of Shoshone Lake and erroneously thought it to
be the head of the Firehole River.
At 9 A. M., September 18th, the march was resumed. The party soon
reached the Firehole just above Kepler Cascade and thence followed
down the course of the stream. Tourists who have visited the Park
since 1891, when the new road from the Upper Basin to the Lake was
opened, will remember that immediately after leaving "Old Faithful"
they plunge into an unbroken pine forest and see no other evidences
of geyser action until they reach the Lake. The situation of our
homeward-bound explorers can thus be easily understood. They were
traveling toward the geysers. The dense forest concealed every thing
beyond the radius of a few hundred feet. In unsuspecting mood, bent
only on getting home to tell their wonderful story, and perhaps to
find their missing companion, they moved down the river, crossing it
considerably below the site of the present bridge above the Upper
Basin, and suddenly emerged from the timber into an open treeless
valley. It was nearly noon of a clear, cool September day. Directly in
front of them, scarcely two hundred yards away, a vertical column of
water and steam was shooting upward a hundred and fifty feet into the
air. The bright sunlight turned the clear water into a mass of
glittering crystals, and a gentle breeze wafted the vast white curtain
of steam far to the right across the valley. Thus it was that "Old
Faithful," as if forewarned of the approach of her distinguished
visitors, gave them her most graceful salutation; and thus she bowed
out the era of tradition and fable, and ushered the civilized world
into the untrodden empire of the Fire King. Little wonder that our
astonished explorers "spurred their jaded horses," and "gathered
around the wonderful phenomenon."
The party spent only the remainder of the day and the following
morning in the Upper Basin; but in that time saw seven of the
principal geysers in action, and gave them their present names.[AD]
They then passed down the river through the Middle and Lower Basins,
but stopped to examine only such curiosities as were close by the
river. Their rations were nearly gone, their lost companion was not
found, and the desire to tell what they had already seen was greater
than the desire to see more. They therefore made haste for home, and
on the evening of September 19th encamped where the Firehole and
Gibbon Rivers unite to form the Madison. From this point the party
journeyed steadily homeward, conversing on the expedition of the past
month, and planning how their great discovery might best be brought to
the attention of the world.
[AD] See list of geysers, Appendix A.
The news of this expedition created intense and wide-spread interest
throughout the country. Messrs. Washburn, Hedges, Trumbull, and
others, prepared numerous descriptive articles for the local Montana
papers, many of them among the best that have ever been written upon
the Park, and these were reproduced in every important paper in the
land. The _Helena Herald_, of October 27, 1870, only a month after the
return of the party, refers to the extraordinary interest aroused by
these articles, so unlike the sixty years' indifference which had
marked the history of this region.
These preliminary and hasty reports were followed by more studied
efforts. Lieutenant Doane's masterly report was completed December 15,
1870. Besides its intrinsic merit, it has the distinction of being the
first official report upon the Upper Yellowstone country. It passed
through the customary military channels and was finally sent to
Congress, February 24, 1871. Prof. S. F. Baird, of the Smithsonian
Institution, also presented the information gathered by Lieutenant
Doane to the Philosophical Society of Washington during the winter.
Messrs. Langford and Trumbull prepared entertaining magazine articles,
which, however, could not be gotten to press until the following May
and June. But Mr. Langford in the meantime did effective work from the
lecture stand. In Helena, Minneapolis, New York and Washington, he
told the story of what he had seen. In Washington, the Hon. James G.
Blaine, Speaker of the House, presided at the lecture, and in the
audience was Dr. F. V. Hayden, who was destined to play a prominent
part in the history of the Yellowstone Park.
From whatever point of view considered, this expedition is one of the
most remarkable in our annals. From Helena to the farthest point
reached by the party, the route passed over was nearly three hundred
miles long. The region of the Upper Yellowstone is perhaps the most
difficult of access in the entire country. Even to-day, it is an
almost certain place in which to get lost, if one is not thoroughly
familiar with wilderness travel and happens to stray away from the
beaten path. In 1870, moreover, the danger from hostile Indians was a
constant and formidable menace, and the party was more than once
reminded of it during the progress of the expedition. But in spite of
all these difficulties, the success of the enterprise was so complete,
its incidents were so full of romance, and its results were so
far-reaching and important, that it well deserves the wide attention
it has received.
THE JOINT GOVERNMENT EXPEDITION OF 1871.
The direct result of the expedition of 1870 was to cause the U. S.
Geological Survey to change its programme for the season of 1871, so
as to give attention to the new wonderland; and also to cause the
military authorities to send a well-appointed engineer party to the
same locality. These two expeditions, one under Dr. Hayden and the
other under Captains Barlow and Heap, of the Engineer Corps of the
Army, moved for the most part together, camping near each other, and
accompanied by the same military escort. Particular attention will
here be given only to such features of these expeditions as pertain to
new discoveries.
At the very outset of their journey, they branched off from the
Washburn route at the mouth of the Gardiner River, and by ascending
this stream, discovered the wonderful formations now known as the
Mammoth Hot Springs. From this point, the parties traveled eastward to
Tower Creek; thence over Mt. Washburn, and past the Cañon and Falls,
to Sulphur Mountain, Mud Geyser, and the Lake; thence by a new route
across the mountains to the Lower Geyser Basin; thence to the Upper
Basin; thence east, across the mountains again, past Shoshone Lake to
Yellowstone Lake; thence around the head of this body of water to its
outlet; thence across the country, by separate routes, to the mouth of
Soda Butte Creek; and thence down the East Fork to Baronett's Bridge
(which had been built only a few months before), and out of the Park
by way of Mammoth Hot Springs.
The original work done by these parties, besides the discovery of the
springs on the Gardiner, was the opening of a route between the
Yellowstone River and the Lower Geyser Basin; the exploration of the
Lower Basin; the mapping of the shore line of Yellowstone Lake, by Dr.
Hayden; the mapping of the head waters of the Snake River, by Captain
Barlow; and some hasty explorations in the valley of the East Fork of
the Yellowstone, now called Lamar River.
The chief value of these explorations, however, was not in the line of
original discovery, but in the large collection of accurate data
concerning the entire region. The photographs were of immense value.
Description might exaggerate, but the camera told the truth; and in
this case the truth was more remarkable than exaggeration.
Unfortunately for Captain Barlow's collection, the great Chicago fire
almost entirely destroyed it. The same cause delayed the appearance of
his report until six weeks after the Park Bill was passed. An
interesting and complete summary, however, appeared as a supplement in
the _Chicago Journal_ for January 13, 1872. The report and collection
of photographs and specimens by Dr. Hayden were therefore the
principal results of this season's work, and they played a decisive
part in the events of the winter of 1871-2.
With the close of the expeditions of 1871, the discovery of the
Yellowstone wonderland was made complete. It remained to see what
Congress would do with so unique and valuable a possession.
CHAPTER X.
THE NATIONAL PARK IDEA--ITS ORIGIN AND REALIZATION.
The first steamboat to ascend the Missouri River as far as to the
mouth of the Yellowstone arrived at that point on the 26th of June,
1832. By a happy coincidence it bore the name _Yellowstone_. We are
indebted for the conception of the National Park idea to a passenger
upon this boat who was destined to become one of the most interesting
characters America has produced. Every one bears in memory those
pictures of Indian life which thrilled their youthful imagination with
visions of camping-grounds, council fires, exciting buffalo hunts, and
the wild and picturesque costumes of the red men. Very few, however,
realize how largely all that is best in these pictures has flowed from
a single source. The name of George Catlin is by no means familiar
except to the specialist. His work reaches the public eye through so
many different channels, and so often without any acknowledgment of
its origin, that the origin itself is very generally lost to view.
To no other individual does the Indian race owe so much for the
perpetuity in history and art of its life and customs. From an early
age he displayed an enthusiasm for every thing pertaining to the
aboriginal races which can be adequately described only by the word
worship. He abandoned the profession for which he had been educated,
and enlisted his whole energy in the service of brush and pencil,
apparently for the single purpose of indulging this passion of his
life. He once wrote:
"Unaided and unadvised, I resolved to use my art and so much of the
labors of my future life as might be required in rescuing from
oblivion the looks and customs of the vanishing races of native man in
America, to which I plainly saw they were hastening before the
approach and certain progress of civilization."[AE]
[AE] Manners, Customs, etc., of the North American Indians. See
Appendix E.
This high purpose Catlin followed throughout the remainder of his life
with unwavering fidelity. He visited almost every Indian tribe in
North America, gathering sketches and making descriptive notes. He
also visited South America, and afterward spent many years in Europe
exhibiting his work. The result of his labors was a gallery of more
than six hundred pictures, now happily forever safe under the
protection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, wherein he
delineated the portraits of famous chiefs and the scenes and customs
of Indian life. This work he supplemented with the scarcely less
valuable work of his pen, leaving behind him probably the best popular
description of the native races that has ever been written. His work
is a perennial fountain to which students of Indian themes will ever
resort. Valuable as it was considered in his lifetime, each passing
year makes it more valuable still.
Catlin's enthusiasm for every thing pertaining to Indian life, and the
grief with which he beheld the certain fading away of it all before
the rapid progress of civilization, suggested to him the idea which
was to find partial fulfillment at the time to which our narrative
has now been carried. In order to preserve, at least on a small scale,
the native fauna of America, and a remnant of the Indian races, he
proposed that the government should set apart, in some suitable
locality of the West, a large tract of land, to be preserved forever
as a "_Nation's Park_, containing man and beast, in all the wildness
and freshness of their nature's beauty." With his natural enthusiasm
and vigor, he unfolded his idea, concluding:
"I would ask no other monument to my memory, nor any other enrollment
of my name among the famous dead, than the reputation of having been
the founder of such an institution."
In the report of the late Prof. Joseph Henry to the Board of Regents
of the Smithsonian Institution for 1871, it is stated that Catlin made
a proposition to the government in 1832 "to reserve the country around
these [the Yellowstone] geysers as a public park." While it is more
than probable, considering the date, and the wide acquaintance of Mr.
Catlin with the traders and Indians of the West, that he had heard of
the geyser regions, still there is not sufficient evidence attainable
to justify our acceptance of the above statement. But in every thing
else except the particular locality, and the plan of providing a
reservation for the Indians, Catlin's idea was the same as that
finally adopted by Congress.
Although the project of creating a vast National Park in the West
originated with George Catlin, it is certain that Congress could never
have been brought to act favorably upon it, except under the influence
of some extraordinary motive. That motive was supplied when the
innumerable unique and marvelous wonders of the Yellowstone were made
known. Their preservation at once became a matter of high public duty,
which could be accomplished only by reserving from settlement the
region around them.
Since the Park was created and has to such a marked degree received
the approval of the people, numerous claimants have arisen for the
honor of having first suggested the idea. In truth, no special credit
for originality should attach to the matter. It was a natural, an
unavoidable proposition. To those who first saw these wonders, and
were not so absorbed with gold-seeking as to be incapable of
appreciating their importance, it was clear that, within a few years,
they must become objects of universal interest. It was equally clear
that the land around them would soon be taken up by private parties,
and that the beautiful formations would be carried off for mercenary
purposes; in short, that the history of Niagara and of the Yosemite
would repeat itself in the Yellowstone. To avoid such a calamity only
one course was open, and that was for the government to retain control
of the entire region. That the necessity of such a course should have
been set forth independently by several different parties, as we find
it to have been, is therefore not in the least surprising.
But in as much as the development of the project must have started
from some one source, it is of interest historically to determine what
this source was. We find it to have been the Washburn Expedition of
1870.[AF] The subject was discussed by the party at the first camp
after leaving the geyser regions near the junction of the Firehole and
Gibbon Rivers. The date was September 19, 1870. The members of the
party were sitting around the camp-fire after supper, conversing about
what they had seen, and picturing to themselves the important pleasure
resort which so wonderful a region must soon become. The natural
impulse to turn the fruits of discovery to the personal profit of the
discoverer made its appearance, and it was suggested that it would be
a "profitable speculation" to take up land around the various objects
of interest. The conversation had not proceeded far on these lines
when one of the party, Cornelius Hedges, interposed and said that
private ownership of that region, or any part of it, ought never to be
countenanced; but that it ought to be set apart by the government and
forever held to the unrestricted use of the people. This higher view
of the subject found immediate acceptance with the other members of
the party. It was agreed that the project should be at once set afoot
and pushed vigorously to a finish.
[AF] Mr. Folsom deserves mention in this connection. In the manuscript
of his article in the _Western Monthly_ was a reference to the Park
idea; but the publishers cut out a large part of his paper, giving
only the descriptions of the natural wonders, and this reference was
cut out with the rest. Mr. Folsom also suggested the idea to General
Washburn, of which fact Mr. N. P. Langford is still a living witness.
From Mr. Folsom's suggestion, however, as from Mr. Catlin's, no direct
result can be traced.
As soon as the party reached Helena, a series of articles appeared in
the daily papers of that city describing the late expedition, and in
one of these, written by Mr. Hedges and published in the _Helena
Herald_ November 9, 1870, occurs what is believed to be the first
public reference to the Park project.
The next mention of the subject was in Mr. Langford's lecture,
delivered, as already related, in Washington, January 19, 1871; in New
York, January 21, 1871; and at a later date in Minneapolis. At each of
these places he closed his lecture with a reference to the importance
of setting apart this region as a National Park. The _New York
Tribune_ of January 23, 1871, thus quotes Mr. Langford:
"This is probably the most remarkable region of natural attractions in
the world; and, while we already have our Niagara and Yosemite, this
new field of wonders should be at once withdrawn from occupancy, and
set apart as a public National Park for the enjoyment of the American
people for all time."
Such is the origin of the idea which has found realization in our
present Yellowstone Park. The history of the Act of Dedication, by
which the Park was created, may be briefly told. The general plan for
a vigorous prosecution of the project was arranged in Helena, Montana,
mainly by Nathaniel P. Langford, Cornelius Hedges, and William H.
Clagett, who had just been elected delegate to Congress from Montana,
and who had already himself independently urged the importance of
converting this region into a public park. Mr. Langford went to
Washington when Congress convened, and he and Mr. Clagett drew the
Park Bill, except as to description of boundaries, which was furnished
by Dr. Hayden. The bill was introduced in the House by Mr. Clagett,
December 18, 1871. Senator Pomeroy, of Kansas, had expressed a desire
to perform a like service in the Senate, and accordingly Mr. Clagett,
as soon as he had presented the measure to the House, took a copy to
the Senate chamber and gave it to Senator Pomeroy, who immediately
introduced it. In each House it was referred to the Committee on
Public Lands. In the Senate no formal report was prepared. In the
House the Hon. Mark H. Dunnell, of Minnesota, chairman of the
sub-committee having the bill in charge, addressed a letter under date
of January 27, 1872, to the Secretary of the Interior, asking his
opinion upon the proposed measure. The Secretary replied, under date
of January 29th, fully indorsing the project, and submitting a brief
report by Dr. Hayden, which forcibly presented all the main features
of the case.
The bill, being thus before Congress, was put through mainly by the
efforts of three men, Dr. F. V. Hayden, N. P. Langford, and Delegate
William H. Clagett. Dr. Hayden occupied a commanding position in this
work, as representative of the government in the explorations of 1871.
He was thoroughly familiar with the subject, and was equipped with an
exhaustive collection of photographs and specimens gathered the
previous summer. These were placed on exhibition, and were probably
seen by all members of Congress. They did a work which no other agency
could do, and doubtless convinced every one who saw them that the
region where such wonders existed should be carefully preserved to the
people forever. Dr. Hayden gave to the cause the energy of a genuine
enthusiasm, and his work that winter will always hold a prominent
place in the history of the Park.
Mr. Langford, as already stated, had publicly advocated the measure in
the previous winter. He had rendered service of the utmost importance,
through his publications in _Scribner's Magazine_ in the preceding
May and June. Four hundred copies of these magazines were brought and
placed upon the desks of members of Congress on the days when the
measure was to be brought to vote. During the entire winter, Mr.
Langford devoted much of his time to the promotion of this work.
The Hon. William H. Clagett, as delegate from the Territory most
directly interested in the passage of the bill, took an active
personal part in its advocacy from beginning to end.
Through the efforts of these three gentlemen, and others less
conspicuously identified with the work, this measure received perhaps
the most thorough canvass of any bill that has ever passed Congress.
All the members were personally visited and, with few exceptions, won
to the cause. The result was a practical unanimity of opinion when the
measure came to a vote. This first took place in the Senate, the bill
being passed by that body January 30th. It was warmly supported upon
its passage by several members and opposed by one, Senator Cole, of
California; a fact the more remarkable because that Senator had in his
own state--in the preemption by private parties of the Yosemite
wonderland--the most convincing example possible of the wisdom of such
a measure as that proposed.
The Senate bill came up from the Speaker's table in the House of
Representatives, February 27th. Mr. Dunnell stated that the Committee
on Public Lands had instructed him to ask the House to pass the Senate
bill. Hon. H. L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, warmly advocated the
measure, which was then passed by a decisive vote.[AG] The bill
received the President's signature March 1, 1872.
[AG] No yea and nay vote was taken in the Senate. The vote in the
House was--yeas, 115; nays, 65; not voting, 60.
This subject has been treated somewhat in detail because there has
long been a false impression among the people as to who it was that
first put forward this important project. To no individual is the
public more indebted for the creation of the Park than to Dr. F. V.
Hayden, who was long prominently connected with the geological surveys
of the government. But he did not, as is generally supposed, originate
the idea. His statement in his report for 1878, Vol. II, p. xvii,
that, "so far as is now known, the idea of setting apart a large tract
about the sources of the Yellowstone River, as a National Park,
originated with the writer," is entirely erroneous; and there is the
less excuse for the error in that Dr. Hayden had himself heard the
measure advocated by Mr. Langford in his Washington lecture. In fact,
he is known to have said in later years, only a short time before his
death, while residing in Philadelphia, that when the project was first
talked of among the members of his party, in the summer of 1871, he
personally disapproved it because he doubted the practicability of
adequately guarding so vast a region; but that, upon further
reflection, he became converted to the measure and was thereafter its
most ardent advocate.
But it is not so much actual facts, as what men believe these facts to
be, that controls human action; and it is unquestionably true that the
above quotation correctly expresses the views of the great majority
of members of Congress when the Park measure was before that body. It
is not too much to say that Dr. Hayden's influence, as the official
representative of the government, was a controlling factor in the
passage of that measure.
Perhaps no act of our national Congress has received such general
approbation at home or such profuse commendation from foreigners as
that creating the Yellowstone National Park. The lapse of twenty years
has only served to confirm and extend its importance; and to give
additional force to the sentiment so well expressed by the Earl of
Dunraven when he visited the Park in 1874:
"All honor then to the United States for having bequeathed as a free
gift to man the beauties and curiosities of 'Wonderland.' It was an
act worthy of a great nation, and she will have her reward in the
praise of the present army of tourists, no less than in the thanks of
the generations of them yet to come."[AH]
[AH] Page xi, "The Great Divide." See Appendix E.
It was a notable act, not only on account of the transcendent
importance of the territory it was designed to protect, but because it
was a marked innovation in the traditional policy of governments. From
time immemorial privileged classes have been protected by law in the
withdrawal, for their exclusive enjoyment, of immense tracts for
forests, parks and game preserves. But never before was a region of
such vast extent as the Yellowstone Park set apart for the use of all
the people without distinction of rank or wealth.
The example thus set by the United States has been widely followed.
We have now the Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, and numerous
parks upon the sites of great battle-fields. The State of New York has
a Niagara Park and contemplates setting apart a portion of the
Adirondack region. Minnesota has the Itasca State Park, including the
sources of the Mississippi. Canada also has a public park at Niagara,
and a large reservation in the midst of the finest scenery of the
Rocky Mountains. New Zealand has set a part for public use the region
of her hot springs and geysers. Finally the question is being mooted
of reserving a vast tract of Africa wherein the large game of that
continent may be kept from annihilation.
CHAPTER XI.
WHY SO LONG UNKNOWN?
There is no more singular fact connected with the history of the Upper
Yellowstone country than its long immunity from the presence of white
men. From the date when Lewis and Clark first stood at the Three Forks
of the Missouri, less than one hundred miles distant from this notable
region, sixty-five years elapsed before it was fully known. In the
meantime all the surrounding country had been thoroughly explored.
Cities, villages, farms and highways had been established throughout
the west. A railroad had been built across the continent. But around
the head waters of the Yellowstone, the most attractive region of all,
it was still _terra incognita_. A fact so remarkable requires adequate
explanation.
The most difficult feature of the question is the fact that no
knowledge of this region appears ever to have been derived from the
Indians. Lewis and Clark were told of the Great Falls of the Missouri,
and of other notable geographical features, long before they saw them.
But of the far more wonderful falls of the Yellowstone, of the great
lake in the mountains, or of the marvelous volcanic phenomena in the
same neighborhood, they received no hint. There is not a single
instance on record, so far as we can discover, except in the meager
facts noted in an earlier chapter, where rumors of this strange
country appear to have fallen from the lips of Indians. And yet it
was not a region unknown to them, for they had certainly passed back
and forth across it for a long period in the past. Their deep silence
concerning it is therefore no less remarkable than mysterious.
But how was it that the long period of the fur trade should have
passed without disclosing this country? To this question a more
satisfactory answer may be returned. The Upper Yellowstone country was
indeed, as we have seen, frequently visited in these early years. But
it was never favorite territory. Old trappers say that, although it
abounded in beaver, they were not so plentiful as in lower altitudes,
while on the streams impregnated with mineral matter, the furs were
not so good. The seasons also were unpropitious. The winter snows were
so deep--they came so early and remained so late--that little could be
done there except from the middle of June to the middle of September.
But furs taken during the summer months are of inferior quality, and
there was consequently no inducement to trap. Moreover it was
generally at this time that the gatherings at posts and rendezvous
took place, and after these were over but little time remained. Causes
like these prevented extensive operations in this region, and
doubtless only a comparatively small number of trappers ever saw it.
Then, the interest of the trader was against the dissemination of any
knowledge which might induce immigration and hasten the certain ruin
of his occupation. The stress of competition also caused him to remain
silent concerning the places he had seen, lest a rival should profit
thereby. He took no pains to reveal the country, and the trappers were
too illiterate to do so had they wished. With the one notable
exception which has been mentioned in a previous chapter, no
important press notice of these regions appeared during the entire
sixty-five years.
The fur business itself quickly ran its course, and with it
disappeared all probability of an early discovery of the geyser
regions from this cause. The war with Mexico followed, with the vast
cession of territory which it secured. Then came the highly important
discovery of gold in California. Already the Mormon emigration had
taken place. These great events completely changed the character and
purpose of western exploration. The whole west was forgotten excepting
only California and the Salt Lake Valley, and the routes leading to
them. None of these led close to the geyser regions. On the north were
the British fur trader's route, and the Missouri River route, both of
which led directly west to the Columbia. To the south was the great
thoroughfare along the Platte River and though South Pass, leading to
Utah, California and Oregon. Still further south were the long known
routes near the border of Old Mexico. It was hopelessly improbable
that gold seekers bound to the Pacific Coast along any of these routes
would stray into the mountain fastnesses about the sources of the
Yellowstone.
Finally the whole energy of the government in the field of exploration
was directed away from this region. In the period from 1804-6, the
date of Lewis and Clark's expedition, to 1870, the date of the real
discovery of the Park, there were no fewer than one hundred and ten
explorations in the country west of the Mississippi, nearly all of
which had government authority, and were conducted on a scientific
basis. Of these, eighty-four were in the territory lately acquired
from Mexico, and mostly in the far south and west. Nineteen were east
of the Bighorn Mountains, five north of the Yellowstone, and only two
in the region about the Upper Yellowstone. Of these two expeditions
one was that of Lewis and Clark, and was in no wise intended to
explore the Upper Yellowstone further than might be necessary to find
a good route to the Pacific. This leaves but a single expedition of
the whole number, that of Captain Raynolds, which was directed to this
specific territory. How the purpose of this expedition was defeated by
the heavy snow in the mountains and by the solar eclipse of 1860, has
been elsewhere related.
And so it came about that it was the gold-seeker who finally revealed
the well-kept secret of the Yellowstone. Itself destitute of mineral
wealth, this region could not escape the ubiquitous prospector. It was
not, indeed, by him that it was publicly proclaimed to the world. He
cared little for any country that was destitute of "color" or "pay."
But the hints he dropped put others on the track and opened the door
to real discovery.
This fact of long delay in the discovery of the Upper Yellowstone is
the most important in its history. Had it been known at an earlier
date, its fate would have been deplorably different. The period of the
fur traders was too early for the interest of the people to demand, or
the power of the government to enforce, its protection. If Captain
Raynolds had discovered it, all its most valuable tracts would have
been preempted long before the government would have been able to give
it attention. Fortunately, the discovery was delayed until there was
a considerable population in the country near by, and the government
was prepared actively to consider the matter. Before settlers could
establish a permanent foothold, the Park was created, and all the
vexatious obstacles, which might otherwise have defeated the project,
were avoided.
CHAPTER XII.
LATER EXPLORATIONS.
As soon as the remarkable character of the country about the sources
of the Yellowstone became generally known, there was a rush of
explorers to its borders. Every expedition that could possibly extend
the field of its labors in that direction did so, and there was
scarcely a summer during the next twenty years that the Park was not
the scene of some official exploration or visit.
By far the most important of these were the various expeditions under
the United States Geological Survey. Dr. Hayden was again in the
country with two parties in 1872, and very widely extended the range
of observations of the previous year. In 1878, survey parties again
entered the Park and resumed work there on a much more minute and
extensive scale. The result of that year's explorations appeared in
1883 in the form of an elaborate report by Dr. Hayden and his
co-workers, which entered with much detail into the more important
subjects of scientific interest. It was embellished with a great
number of engravings and colored plates, and with an exhaustive series
of topographical and geological maps. The work was again taken up in
1883, and was continued for several years. All questions of scientific
importance were investigated more thoroughly than ever before, and
many valuable official reports and monographs, together with a superb
map, have been the result.
In 1872, General John Gibbon, U. S. A., with a considerable party,
made a tour of the Park, passing by the usual route from Mammoth Hot
Springs _via_ Mt. Washburn, the Grand Cañon, and the Lake, to the
Firehole Geyser Basins. On his way home he attempted to ascend the
north Fork of the Madison, following an old trail; but he abandoned
the attempt after going a few miles. His name, which was given to the
river, has also attached to many other features along that valley.
In 1873, Captain William A. Jones, of the Corps of Engineers, passed
through the Park as part of a more extended reconnaissance. He was the
first to carry a party through the "impassable barrier" of the
Absaroka Range. Jones Creek, just east of the northern portion of the
Yellowstone Lake, shows where the party entered the Park. From the
Lake the expedition passed down the east bank of the river to the
valley of Junction Butte; thence west to Mammoth Hot Springs; thence
back over the usual trail _via_ Tower Creek, Mt. Washburn, the Grand
Cañon and Mud Geyser, to the Lower Geyser Basin; thence _via_ the
Upper Basin to the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake; thence to the
Upper Yellowstone River; thence through Two-Ocean Pass and Two-Gwo-Tee
Pass to the valley of Wind River. The chief results of this
expedition, in the line of original discovery, were the passage of the
Absaroka Range, the verification of the traditional "Two-Ocean Water,"
between Atlantic and Pacific Creeks, in Two-Ocean Pass, and the
discovery of the extremely easy pass (Two-Gwo-Tee[AI]) over the
Continental Divide, between the Snake and Wind Rivers. Prof. Theodore
B. Comstock accompanied the expedition as geologist. A valuable report
of the reconnaissance appeared in 1875.[AJ]
[AI] So named by Captain Jones for one of his Indian guides.
[AJ] See Appendix E.
In 1875, Captain William Ludlow, of the Corps of Engineers, made a
reconnaissance from Carroll, Montana, on the Missouri River, to the
Yellowstone Park and return. In the Park he followed the previously
traveled routes and developed little in the line of original
discovery. He succeeded, however, in obtaining a very accurate
measurement of the height of the Yellowstone Falls, and his report[AK]
forms one of the ablest brief descriptions of the Park extant. Among
his civil assistants was George Bird Grinnell, now widely known as the
editor of _Forest and Stream_, and as one of the most steadfast and
watchful guardians the Park has ever had.
[AK] See Appendix E.
During the same season a distinguished party, consisting of the
Secretary of War, Gen. W. W. Belknap, and several prominent officers
and civilians, with Lieutenant G. C. Doane, of National Park fame, as
guide, made a complete tour of the Park. An exceedingly interesting
narrative[AL] of the trip was written by Gen. W. E. Strong, who was a
member of the party.
[AL] See Appendix E.
In 1877, Gen. W. T. Sherman and staff made a tour of the Park. His
letters on the subject to the Secretary of War, and the official
report prepared by Gen. O. M. Poe of his staff, form a valuable
contribution to the literature of the Park.[AM]
[AM] See Appendix E.
In the same year Gen. O. O. Howard crossed the reservation in pursuit
of the Nez Percés Indians.
In 1880, the Hon. Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior, accompanied
by Gen. Crook with a large number of officers and soldiers, and an
immense pack train, entered the Park from the valley of Henry Fork and
made an extended tour.
In 1881, Captain W. S. Stanton, of the Corps of Engineers, made a
reconnaissance through the Park, entering by the way of Soda Butte
Creek, and passing out by the Madison Valley. The most important
result of his work in the Park was a more accurate table of distances
over some of the routes than had previously been in use.
In July and August of this year, the Hon. John W. Hoyt, Governor of
Wyoming, with a military escort under command of Major Julius W.
Mason, U. S. A., made an extended reconnaissance to discover a
practicable wagon route to the Yellowstone Park from the south-east.
He entered the Park by way of the Upper Yellowstone, passed through it
by way of Yellowstone and Shoshone Lakes, the Firehole Geyser Basins,
the Grand Cañon, the lower end of Yellowstone Lake, and left it along
the route by which Captain Jones had entered in 1873.
In the years 1881 and 1882, General Sheridan, with parties of
considerable size, twice crossed the Park and visited its most
important points. His expeditions were of great value to the Park from
the forcible warning which he gave to the public concerning the
demoralized condition of its civil administration.
[Illustration:
_Terry Engr. Co._ _Haynes, Photo., St. Paul._
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Presidential Party of 1883.
1. John Schuyler Crosby, Governor of Montana Territory; 2. Michael V.
Sheridan, Lieutenant-Colonel and Military Secretary; 3. Philip H.
Sheridan, Lieutenant-General, U. S. Army; 4. Anson Stager,
Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers; 5. W. P. Clark, Captain Second
Cavalry, U. S. Army; 6. Chester A. Arthur, President of the United
States; 7. Dan. G. Rollins, Surrogate of New York; 8. James F.
Gregory, Lieutenant-Colonel and Aide-de-camp; 9. Robert T. Lincoln,
Secretary of War; 10. George G. Vest, United States Senator from
Missouri.]
The most elaborate expedition that ever passed through this region
took place in August, 1883.[AN] It included among its members the
President of the United States, the Secretary of War, the
Lieutenant-General of the Army, a United States Senator, and several
other distinguished officers and civilians. The interesting part of
the journey lay between Fort Washakie, Wyo., and the Northern Pacific
Railroad at Cinnabar, Mont. The party traveled entirely on horseback,
accompanied by one of the most complete pack trains ever organized in
this or any other country, and escorted by a full troop of cavalry.
Couriers were stationed every twenty miles with fresh relays, and by
this means communication was daily had with the outside world. The
whole distance traveled was 350 miles, through some of the wildest,
most rugged, and least settled portions of the west. No accident or
drawback occurred to mar the pleasure of the expedition. The great
pastime _en route_ was trout fishing, in which the President and
Senator Vest were acknowledged leaders. The phenomenal "catches" of
these distinguished sportsmen might pass into history as typical "fish
stories," were they not vouched for by the sober record of official
dispatches, and the unerring evidence of photographer Haynes' camera.
The elaborate equipment of this expedition, the eminent character of
its _personnel_, and the evident responsibility resting upon those who
conducted it, attracted a great deal of attention at the time, and
gave it a prominent place in the annals of Western Wyoming.[AO]
[AN] The year 1883 seems to have been the banner year for
distinguished visitors to the Park. The list of arrivals for that year
includes the President of the United States and a member of his
cabinet; the Chief-Justice and an Associate Justice of the United
States Supreme Court; the General, Lieutenant-General, and a large
number of other distinguished officers of the army; six United States
Senators; one Territorial Governor; a prominent railroad president;
the Ministers from Great Britain and Germany; the President of the
Admiralty Division of the High Court of Justice, England; three
members of Parliament; and a considerable number of other eminent
personages, both from this country and abroad.
[AO] See Appendix E--"A Journey through the Y. N. P., etc."
To these various expeditions must be added the extensive, though
desultory, explorations of P. W. Norris during the five years that he
was Superintendent of the Park.
It has thus come about that the Yellowstone National Park, though
remote, inaccessible, and of great extent, is about the most
thoroughly explored section of the United States. Within the territory
bounded by the 44th and 45th parallels of latitude, and the 110th and
111th meridians of longitude, there are nearly four hundred
geographical names. The names of hot springs and geysers would
probably double the number. To appreciate this fact, it must be
remembered that there are no settlements in the Park, and that
counties, townships, cities, and villages, which on ordinary maps form
so large a proportion of the names, are here entirely absent. That
region has indeed been a paradise for the explorer, the topographer,
and the geologist; and its splendid opportunities have not gone
unimproved.
Although not strictly in the line of original exploration, the few
winter journeys that have been made through the Park may nevertheless
most appropriately be considered in this place, reserving for a later
chapter a description of the difficult and hazardous nature of these
undertakings. The first of these expeditions was in 1887, under the
auspices of the _New York World_, and was led by Frederick Schwatka,
the Arctic explorer. It was organized on a grand scale, "with Arctic
'sleeping bags,' the Norwegian 'ski,' the Canadian 'web' snow shoe,
and toboggans to carry supplies, photographic equipment, and
astronomical instruments." But the elaborate outfit proved fatal to
the enterprise, which quickly resulted in a magnificent failure. The
conditions were different from those in Arctic travel, and the recent
fall of light snow negatived any attempt to move toboggans through it
successfully. The party consumed three days in getting to Norris, a
distance of twenty miles. Here Lieutenant Schwatka became ill and the
expedition was abandoned.
But Mr. F. J. Haynes, the well known Park photographer, who had
accompanied the party, resolved to continue the tour in order to
secure a collection of winter views. Three other members of the party
joined him. They abandoned the toboggan and strapped the baggage on
their backs. They went by way of the usual route to the Upper Geyser
Basin, where they were snow-bound for five days in a fearful blizzard.
Thence they went to the Grand Cañon, and from that point over Mount
Washburn to Yancey's. On this part of the trip the party nearly lost
their lives, wandering for three days in a blinding storm without food
or shelter. The circuit covered about two hundred miles, and the
temperature ranged from ten to fifty-two degrees below zero during the
entire trip of twenty-nine days.
In March, 1894, two very important winter expeditions were made in the
Park. Mr. F. J. Haynes went through for the purpose of extending his
line of winter views, and also of photographing the Park game.
Accompanying him was Felix Burgess, government scout.
Following this party by a few days, and joining it at the Grand Cañon,
came another party with a staff correspondent of _Forest and Stream_.
This gentleman, Mr. E. Hough, of Chicago, Ill., made the entire round
of the Park, studying its game and other similar matters.[AP] His
narrative, published in _Forest and Stream_, forms one of the most
entertaining and valuable contributions yet made to the literature of
the Park. These two expeditions played an important part in securing
the enactment of the National Park Protective Act, in May, 1894.
[AP] See Appendix E, "Yellowstone Park Game Exploration."
CHAPTER XIII.
AN INDIAN CAMPAIGN THROUGH THE YELLOWSTONE PARK.
In a letter dated at Fort Ellis, Montana Territory, August 19, 1877,
addressed to the Hon. George W. McCreary, Secretary of War, the
writer, General W. T. Sherman, then on a tour of inspection of the
"country north of the Union Pacific Railroad," tells of his recent
visit to the Yellowstone National Park. This was about the period when
our Indian wars in the Far West were at their height. Only a year had
elapsed since the Custer massacre. It was the crisis of the Indian
military question. There was at that time scarcely a spot in the whole
Missouri and Yellowstone Valleys that was safe from Indian
depredations. Naturally, therefore, General Sherman had his mind upon
this subject when his small party, comparatively unprotected, were
traveling through the wilds of the National Park. But he saw nothing
there to excite his fears, and in the letter above referred to, says:
"We saw no signs of Indians and felt at no moment more sense of danger
than we do here." It will presently be seen how delusive was this
fancied security, and by how narrow a margin it escaped resulting
disastrously to the General's party.
The tour from Fort Ellis to the Park and return had taken from August
4th to August 18th. On the latter date, the party met an ingoing
company of tourists from Helena composed of the following persons: A.
J. Weikert, Richard Dietrich, Frederick Pfister, Joseph Roberts,
Charles Kenck, Jack Stewart, August Foller, Leslie Wilke, L. Duncan,
and Benjamin Stone (colored cook). The party followed the usual route
to the Grand Cañon and Falls of the Yellowstone, where they were in
camp August 24th.
As they were entering the territory of the Park, another party was on
the point of leaving it after a tour of about two weeks. This party
was composed of the following persons, most of whom were from
Radersburg, Montana: George F. Cowan and wife, Frank and Ida
Carpenter, brother and sister of Mrs. Cowan, Charles Mann, William
Dingee, Albert Oldham, A. J. Arnold, and a Mr. Meyers. They had formed
a permanent camp in the Lower Geyser Basin, where the Fountain Hotel
now stands, and from that point had made daily short excursions to the
various localities of interest. They all visited the geyser basins and
some of the party crossed to the Lake and Cañon of the Yellowstone.
They must have been seen by Sherman's party, for they were directly in
his route. The party had completed their tour of the Park, August 23d,
and had arranged to set out for home early on the following morning.
In order to understand the unfortunate turn which the affairs of these
two tourist parties were about to take, it will be necessary to
explain, in briefest outline, the cause and previous incidents of one
of the most remarkable Indian campaigns in our history.
From the time of Lewis and Clark, the Nez Percé Indians had dwelt in
what are now the States of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Their
territory extended from the Salmon River on the south to the Pelouse
River on the north, and from the Bitter Root Mountains westward into
the present States of Idaho and Washington. In 1855, they ceded to the
United States a part of their territory, and the principal chiefs
located in the several portions of the remainder. In 1860, gold was
discovered on the reservation and the usual gold rush followed. The
danger of a conflict with the Indians became so great that a temporary
arrangement, pending action by the government, was made between them
and their Indian agent, opening a portion of the reservation "to the
whites in common with the Indians for mining purposes."
But the settlers did not stop with these concessions. In defiance of
law, they built the town of Lewiston on the reservation, and gave
other proofs of their project for permanent occupancy. It soon became
necessary for the government to take some decisive step, and this was
accomplished in 1863 by a new treaty in which the Indians relinquished
three of their most important valleys, the Wallowa, the Alpowai, and
the Salmon River.
The treaty, however, was far from receiving the general assent of all
the chiefs. A formidable faction, headed by Chiefs Joseph, Looking
Glass, Big Thunder, White Bird, and others, refused to be bound by it,
and were henceforth referred to in official reports as the "Non-treaty
Nez Percés." For a time the authorities made no effort to enforce the
new treaty, and the Indians were "tacitly permitted to roam" over
their ancient hunting-grounds.
This condition of affairs continued for thirteen years with various
efforts in the meantime to arrive at some more satisfactory
settlement. Finally, in 1876, a civil and military commission was
appointed to visit the Nez Percé Indians, to examine into their
grievances, and to determine what measures were necessary for a
permanent settlement of the question. The report[AQ] of this
Commission is interesting, both for the facts it relates in regard to
the tribal life and characteristics of the Nez Percé Indians, and for
the heroic treatment of the long-standing troubles which it
recommends.
[AQ] See Report of Secretary of the Interior, 1877, part 1, p. 607.
See also Appendix E, "Nez Percé Indians," etc.
These Indians were altogether a peculiar people. The early
missionaries had converted them to the Christian faith, and, whether
from that cause, or from natural proclivity, they were among the most
religious of our Indian tribes. There is a general concensus of
authorities that, despite certain grave defects of character, they
were, mentally and morally, far above the average Indian. In later
times, approaching the period covered by this sketch, they fell under
the influence of a class of mystics called "dreamers," who taught a
doctrine of land ownership which was the immediate cause of all their
subsequent troubles. This doctrine was, in substance, that "the
'Creative Power,' when he made the earth, made no marks, no lines of
division or separation, upon it, and that it should be allowed to
remain as it is;" that it "should not be disturbed by man, and that
any cultivation of the soil, or other improvements, any voluntary
submission to the control of government," were incompatible with the
true purpose for which it was made. At bottom it was the broad
principle that no man or aggregation of men can take from other men
the right to enjoy what nature has made free for all. Why the
Commission should characterize this doctrine as "pernicious," unless a
thing is pernicious whenever it is impracticable, is not easy to
understand. From the point of view of the nomadic life of the redmen,
it is hard to conceive a theory of land tenure, or the want of it,
more nearly approaching a perfect ideal.
Unfortunately for such a doctrine, at the point at which American
history had now arrived, it was no longer possible of realization; and
any attempt to put it in force could not result otherwise than in
failure. So it was with Joseph and his followers. The government for a
long time overlooked their infractions of the Treaty of 1863, but
finally was compelled to interfere. The Commission recommended that
the existing treaty be enforced, by military aid if necessary. The
recommendation was approved, and to General O. O. Howard fell the task
of putting the Indians on their proper reservation.
For a time it seemed that they would be induced to submit without the
employment of active force; but just as success was apparently
assured, the Indians murdered some twenty white men, women, and
children, in revenge for one of their number killed the previous year.
Peaceful negotiations came at once to an end, and the military
authorities assumed control of the situation. This was June 13, 1877.
Between that date and July 12th, three battles were fought, in which
both sides suffered severely, and the Indians displayed extraordinary
fighting ability. They then left their country--as it proved, not to
return--and set out across the mountains to their oft-visited "buffalo
country," in the Judith Basin, far to the eastward of the Upper
Missouri.
But their route lay too close to the military post of Fort Missoula
and to the towns in the more thickly settled portions of Montana. They
bore off to the southward, through a country with whose people they
were well acquainted, and with whom they had often traded in previous
excursions to the buffalo country. Here they found friends and
obtained the supplies they needed.
In the meantime, General Gibbon, with a small force, which he had
gathered from Forts Benton, Shaw, and Missoula, and from volunteers
among Montana citizens, was in close pursuit. He overtook the Indians
on the Big Hole River, in South-western Montana, where a desperate
battle ensued, in which his own force was severely handled.
The Indians then passed south into Idaho, with Howard in pursuit,
swung around to the east, and re-crossed into Montana by way of Henry
Lake. Near Camas Creek, they had an engagement with the pursuing
troops.
Howard arrived at Henry Lake at 8 A. M., August 23d, just as the
Indians had left. The long marches compelled him to halt at this point
for three or four days, to rest his men and replenish his supplies.
This gave the Indians a considerable start, of which, however, they
took only a leisurely advantage. Their route lay across the
Yellowstone Park, which they entered by Targhee Pass, and on the night
of August 23d they encamped on the Firehole River, in the Yellowstone
National Park, a short distance from where we left the Radersburg
tourists, and less than twenty miles from the camp of the Helena
party. The interest of the campaign for the next week centers chiefly
upon the fortunes of these unlucky excursionists.
Before sunrise on the morning of August 24th, Arnold and Dingee, who
had got up to prepare the camp fire, saw Indians approaching. The rest
of the party were promptly aroused. The Indians at first professed to
be friendly and little alarm was felt; but the party nevertheless had
no appetite for breakfast, and immediately broke camp and started down
the river toward home. But they were soon surrounded by the increasing
number of Indians, who began to give indications that trouble was at
hand. They were told that it would be unsafe to proceed down stream
further, that the only course was to turn back with the Indians. This
they were soon forced to do. After traveling some two miles up Nez
Percé Creek, it became impossible to take the wagons further. The
horses were unhitched and the ladies mounted upon them, and in this
manner the march was resumed. At this point Mr. Frank Carpenter was
induced to hasten to the front in search of Chief Looking Glass to see
if he could not secure the party's release; but his suspicions
becoming soon aroused, he refused to go further, and returned. In
fact, it turned out later that Looking Glass was not in front at the
time and that the pretense that he was, was a mere subterfuge to aid
in scattering the party. The captives were now taken up the East Fork
of the Firehole (Nez Percé Creek) to the foot of Mary Mountain, where
a consultation with the chiefs was had. Mr. Cowan was spokesman for
the whites, and Poker Joe, who knew English well, for the Indians. The
party were here set at liberty, their horses, guns and ammunition
were taken, they were given other horses instead, and, just as the
Indians were about to resume their march, they were told to depart by
the back trail. After proceeding some three-fourths of a mile, they
were overtaken by some seventy-five young and war-painted bucks, and
were compelled to countermarch. It was about this time that two of the
party were given a hint by a friendly Indian and made their escape in
the brush. The rest continued their way back to the point where they
had been liberated and some distance beyond in the direction of Mary
Lake. Just as they reached the first sharp ascent of the mountain
about 2 P. M., in the midst of dense timber, the attack began. At the
first fire Cowan was struck in the thigh and fell from his horse. His
wife instantly rushed to his side, threw her arms around his neck, and
strenuously resisted the Indians in their further attempts to kill
him. But they partially pulled her away and an Indian shot Cowan again
in the head. He was then left for dead.
In the meantime, Carpenter had had a narrow escape. A young Indian had
drawn his revolver upon him, when Carpenter, remembering his religion,
quickly made a sign of the cross. He was then hid by the Indians in a
clump of underbrush until the trouble was over, and was assured that
the ladies should not be harmed.[AR]
[AR] The Indians denied that Carpenter was saved because of making a
sign of the cross although they remembered his making it. The chiefs
had strictly enjoined their followers that the whites were not to be
injured. When the few lawless bucks began the attack, some of the
other Indians interfered. Poker Joe was sent back by the chiefs for
the same purpose when they surmised what was going on. He succeeded in
preventing further trouble, and Carpenter's escape was due to this
cause.
The other members of the party scattered promptly when the firing
began. All of them escaped to the brush, but one of them was wounded
in the attempt, and fell behind a log where he lay concealed until the
Indians had gone.
This left Carpenter and his two sisters captive. They were taken along
with the Indians, each being lashed to a pony behind an Indian. The
captives became separated and did not see each other until ten o'clock
that night at the Indian camp near Mary Lake. The next day, August
25th, the march was resumed, and the party were taken across the
Yellowstone at the ford near Mud Geyser. Here Carpenter's fate was put
to a vote of the chiefs and by a majority of one he was given his
life. In the afternoon, the ladies were given each a pony, and, with
Carpenter, were escorted by Poker Joe back across the river. They were
then taken a mile down stream and told to depart--instructions which
they obeyed with no want of alacrity.
Strange to say none of the party had been killed. Cowan, who had been
twice shot, and stoned also by the Indians, when they saw lingering
evidences of life, nevertheless survived. About five o'clock in the
afternoon he recovered consciousness, and drew himself up by the bow
of a tree, when lo! close behind him was another Indian with his rifle
ready to fire. He tried to get away, but the Indian fired and the ball
passed through his left hip. He now gave up hope as he fell again to
the ground. The Indian, however, did not come up. After waiting until
every one had apparently gone, Cowan crawled along till about
mid-night, seeking a place of greater safety, and then waited for
day. At daybreak he commenced crawling back toward the old camp, a
distance of eight or ten miles. He passed the abandoned wagons on the
way, where he found a dog belonging to the party. It took him four
days to reach the old camp, but once there he found matches, coffee,
and some other articles which helped him to keep alive. The day after
his arrival, he was picked up by Howard's scouts.
Arnold, who had escaped to the brush before Cowan was shot, and had
wandered for four days until finally picked up by Howard's command
near Henry Lake, came along with the troops on the 29th, and remained
with Cowan until their arrival in Bozeman. They were taken by Howard
to near Baronett's Bridge, and then sent down the river.
Already Carpenter and his sisters had made their way down the river,
passing close to the camp of the other party of tourists near the
Falls--whom they might have saved had they chanced to see them--and
were met by a party of soldiers under Lieutenant Schofield twelve
miles from Mammoth Hot Springs. They were escorted to the springs,
whence they went to Bottler's ranch, some distance below the Park, and
a short time afterward returned to Radersburg. It was about two weeks
before Mrs. Cowan learned that her husband was still alive. After all
these miraculous escapes, it is interesting to know that Mr. Cowan and
his wife survived to make another tour of the Park a few years later
under better conditions.
It will not be necessary to follow in detail the fortunes of the rest
of the party. They all escaped, though with much suffering, in their
wanderings through the wilderness.
When the captive members of the party were being marched down the
Yellowstone slope east of Mary Lake, they heard considerable firing in
the timber to their right. This is thought to have been an attack upon
two prospectors who were known to have been in the neighborhood at the
time, and who have never since been heard of.
The party of Helena tourists in camp near the Falls of the Yellowstone
on the night of August 24th, were less fortunate than the Radersburg
party. On the morning of the 25th, they started up the river toward
the Mud Geyser. They had gone about a mile beyond Sulphur Mountain
when they discovered moving bodies of men, part of whom were fording
the river. Careful scrutiny showed them to be Indians, and the party
rightly divined that they must be the hostile Nez Percés. They hastily
retraced their steps and went into camp in the timber near the forks
of Otter Creek, about a mile and a half above the Upper Falls of the
Yellowstone. Here they remained undisturbed all day and the following
night. On the morning of the 26th, Weikert and Wilkie set out to scout
the country. They went as far as Sulphur Mountain, and finding every
thing clear, started back to camp to report. When entering the timber
just north of Alum Creek, they suddenly met a band of Indians who
promptly opened fire on them. A flight and pursuit of considerable
duration ended in the escape of both men; but not until Weikert had
been wounded. This party of Indians had just attacked and dispersed
the group in camp. They had stolen upon the camp as dinner was being
prepared, and a volley of musketry was the first warning the tourists
had of their presence. There was instant flight and most of the party
managed to get away. But Kenck was soon overtaken and killed; and
Stewart after being severely wounded, prevailed on the Indians to
spare his life.
Weikert and Wilkie, who had hastened back to camp after their own
encounter, found every thing in confusion, and all the party gone.
They soon fell in with several of them, and together they set out for
Mammoth Hot Springs.
And now began another series of wanderings through the trackless
wilderness of the Park. Two of the party made their way by way of the
Madison River, where they were given food by soldiers, to Virginia
City and thence to Helena. The rest of the survivors after much
hardship reached Mammoth Hot Springs, and soon after left the Park
with the exception of Weikert, Dietrich, the colored cook, Stone, and
a man named Stoner.
On August 31st, Weikert and one McCartney, owner of the first hotel
ever built in the Park, went to the Falls of the Yellowstone in order
if possible to learn the fate of the missing members of the party.
Shortly after their departure from the Springs a band of Indians
prowled across the country from the Yellowstone to the Gardiner and
went down the latter stream as far as Henderson's Ranch near the
present town of Cinnabar. After a brief skirmish and a general pillage
here, they went back to Mammoth Hot Springs. Stoner and the colored
cook fled precipitately, but Dietrich, believing the Indians to be
friendly scouts, remained behind and was shot dead in the door of the
hotel. Stone made a lucky escape by climbing a tree, and his
subsequent ludicrous recital of his experience became a standing jest
among the inhabitants of the Yellowstone.
Weikert and McCartney went back to the old camp on Otter Creek, where
they buried Kenck's remains and gathered up whatever of value the
Indians had left. On their way back, when on the head waters of Black
Tail Deer Creek, they met the band of Indians who had just slain
Dietrich at Mammoth Hot Springs. A lively skirmish ensued, in which
Weikert lost his horse. The two men succeeded in finding refuge in
some neighboring brushwood.
Just as the Indians went into camp on the night of August 23d, their
first day in the Park, they captured one Shively who was on his way to
Montana from the Black Hills. As Shively professed to know the
country, which the Nez Percés had never seen before, they impressed
him into their service as guide. He was with them thirteen days and
claims to have served them faithfully, as well as to have received
fair treatment from them. At any rate he won their confidence by his
behavior, and was watched so carelessly that he escaped one dark night
just as the Indians were crossing the north-east boundary of the Park.
As soon as the command at Henry Lake had become recuperated, the
pursuit was vigorously resumed. Howard followed in the track of the
Indians as far as to the ford of the Yellowstone; but instead of
crossing at this point, he descended the river by the left bank to
the site of Baronett's celebrated first bridge over the Yellowstone.
From the Lower Geyser Basin to this bridge a road had to be opened for
the wagons. It was a prodigious undertaking, but was performed with
astonishing rapidity under the direction of Capt. W. F. Spurgin,
Twenty-first Infantry. The bridge was found partially destroyed by the
Indians and had to be repaired, after which the line of march was
continued up the Lamar and Soda Butte Valleys, and across the divide
to the valley of Clark's Fork.
The authorities had been widely warned of the probable route of the
Indians and were lying in wait to intercept them. Gen. Sturgis
expected to do this as they emerged from the Absaroka Mountains; but
unfortunately he stationed himself in the wrong pass and left the one
which the Indians took unguarded. By this loss of time he fell in
behind both the Indians and Howard, who was now in close pursuit. The
Indians crossed the Yellowstone September 12th. Here Sturgis overtook
them with a company of cavalry and a slight conflict ensued. The
Indians then struck north, apparently for the British line. On
September 23d they crossed the Missouri at Cow Island and resumed
their march north. But they were intercepted by Gen. Miles in the Bear
Paw Mountains and a severe fight followed, at the northern base of the
range on Snake Creek, less than thirty miles from the boundary. The
Indians were utterly defeated and Looking Glass was killed. Most of
the survivors surrendered unconditionally and the rest escaped across
the line. This was on October 5, 1877.
Since the first outbreak, June 13th, three months and twenty-two days
had elapsed. The flight and pursuit had extended over 1,500 miles.
There had been no fewer than fifteen engagements. The whites had lost
6 officers and 121 soldiers and citizens killed, and 13 officers and
127 soldiers and citizens wounded. A large part of the Indian losses
could never be ascertained, but their known losses were 151 killed, 88
wounded and 489 captured.
This celebrated campaign is well intended to elicit the fullest
sympathy for the unfortunate Nez Percés. A vast deal of sentiment has
been wasted upon the cause of the red man. Opinions have ranged from
the extreme views of Catlin, who could see no wrong in the Indian, to
those of the rabid frontiersman whose creed was "no good Indian but a
dead one." But, if there ever was a case where sympathy might well
incline to the side of the Indian, it is the one under consideration.
The Nez Percés had always been friendly to the whites, and it was
their boast that they had never slain a white man. They were
intelligent, brave, and humane. In this campaign they bought supplies
which they might have confiscated; they saved property which they
might have destroyed; they spared hundreds of lives which other
Indians would have sacrificed. If some of the more lawless element
committed various outrages, they might justly reply that the whites
had fired into their tents where their women and children were
sleeping. In short, their conduct in this campaign places them in all
respects vastly nearer the standard of civilized people than any other
of the native tribes of the continent.
In estimating the causes that led to the war, history can not fail to
establish that the Indians were in the right. It was a last desperate
stand against the inevitable destiny which was robbing the Indian of
his empire; a final protest against the intolerable encroachments of
the pale face. In defense of this principle, the Nez Percés staked
their all on a single throw. They lost, and were irretrievably ruined.
They were transported to a distant territory, and the land of their
fathers they saw no more.[AS]
[AS] After the surrender, Joseph and a few of his followers were sent
to Fort Leavenworth, where they remained until July, 1878, when they
were taken to the Indian Territory. After languishing here for seven
years, they were established on the Colville Reservation in
Washington.
The campaign of 1877 was the only one in which tourists of the
National Park were ever subjected to serious danger from the Indians.
It has left its mark indelibly upon the Park. "Nez Percé Creek" will
always remind the traveler of the terrible danger in which another
party of tourists was once placed upon the borders of that stream.
"Howard's Trail" will not soon be effaced from the forests and
mountains where Captain Spurgin, with brilliant expedition, built the
first passable highway through that tangled wilderness.
* * * * *
In 1878, there was a slight alarm in the Park caused by an ephemeral
raid of the Bannock Indians; but, beyond the loss of a few horses, no
damage was done.
CHAPTER XIV.
ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK.
The Act of Dedication of the Yellowstone National Park indicates in
clear terms the purposes for which it was created. These are:
(1.) The preservation of its natural curiosities, its forests, and its
game.
(2.) The reservation of its territory from private occupancy so that
it may remain in unrestricted freedom "for the benefit and enjoyment
of the people."
(3.) The granting of such leases and other privileges as may be
necessary for the comfort and convenience of visitors.
One grave omission in the original act, and the long-continued failure
of Congress to remedy it by subsequent legislation, in a large degree
nullified these important purposes. Strange as it may seem, for
twenty-two years, or until the spring of 1894, there was no law
defining offenses in the Park or providing a penalty for their
commission. Wanton vandalism, destruction of game, or burning of
forests, could be visited with no heavier punishment than ejection
from the Park and confiscation of "outfit." In the reports of every
Superintendent, for more than a score of years, this condition of
affairs was brought to the attention of Congress. Meanwhile there were
experienced all the evils of a license which at times was wholly
unchecked and which has never until very recently been under proper
control.
This long-standing misfortune was aggravated by another scarcely less
serious--the failure of Congress for several years to appropriate
funds for the protection and improvement of the Park. For this
failure, however, no one can justly be held faultily responsible. The
promoters of the Park project had based extravagant expectations upon
the results to be derived from leases. They believed that the revenue
from this source would amply cover the expense of opening the
necessary highways and providing a proper police force. They did not
make due allowance, for the fact that there was at that time no
railroad within 500 miles; that the new reservation was an almost
impassable wilderness, and that the construction of roads and bridges
must necessarily precede any profitable tourist business. Neither do
they seem to have realized that these leases could not, in the nature
of things, yield a revenue commensurate with the work of opening up so
wild and extensive a country. The argument of self-support was a
mistaken one. It did an important work, however, for it is doubtful if
Congress would have created this reservation had it not believed that
no additional public burden was to be incurred thereby.
The subsequent results of this erroneous impression were in every way
unfortunate. It was several years (1872 to 1878) before any money was
appropriated for the Park, which, in the meanwhile, was left wholly
without means for its improvement and protection. The Secretary of the
Interior might indeed publish rules and regulations for its
government, but they could avail but little so long as there was no
authority to carry them into execution. In fact, the only valuable
result of the creation of the Park during these years was the
exclusion of settlers from its territory.
Shortly after the Park was created, the Hon. N. P. Langford was
appointed its first Superintendent. The selection was in every sense
an admirable one. Mr. Langford had been a member of the famous
Washburn Expedition, and an earnest worker in securing the Act of
Dedication. He was intimately acquainted with all phases of western
life, and was an enthusiast upon the subject of his new charge. But,
from the first, his hands were completely tied. No money was ever
allowed him for his services, nor for any other form of expenditure in
the interests of the Park. He was, therefore, powerless to accomplish
effective work. His office, which he held for about five years, was a
source of great annoyance to him; for he was frequently, and most
unjustly, charged in the public press with the responsibility for a
condition of things for which he was in no sense to blame.
In 1877, there appeared, as Mr. Langford's successor, one of the most
unique and picturesque, as well as one of the most important,
characters in the history of the Park. This was Philetus W. Norris, of
Michigan. He was appointed immediately upon the advent of President
Hayes' administration, and held office very nearly five years, or
almost exactly the same length of time as his predecessor.
Norris filled with varying capacity the rôles of explorer,
path-finder, poet, and historian in the Park. He was a man of
extraordinary energy, and, if not in the fullest sense a practical
man, he had at least the invaluable quality of being able to produce
results. He entered upon his new field of duty with a genuine
enthusiasm, and he was fortunate in receiving from Congress
substantial means with which to carry out his plans.
The work of Norris' administration may be conveniently considered
under three heads: his discoveries, his road building, and his
reports.
He was pre-eminently an explorer. He not only traveled repeatedly over
all the known trails, but he penetrated the unknown sections of the
Park in every direction. Though not the discoverer, he first made
generally known the geyser basin that bears his name. He explored and
reported upon the Hoodoo region, and first called prominent attention
to the noble cañon of the Middle Gardiner. But the most important
feature of his explorations was the study he made of the history and
antiquities of the Park. We owe more to him than to any one else for
evidence of the former presence of white men in that region. His
discoveries also in the matter of prehistoric races and of early
Indian history possess scientific value.
In the rôle of road builder, Norris was a pioneer in the Park. Before
his time, wagons could get up the Gardiner to Mammoth Hot Springs, and
up the Madison to the Lower Geyser Basin. He opened the way direct
from Mammoth Hot Springs to the Upper Geyser Basin, from the Lower
Basin to the Yellowstone River, Lake, and Falls, and from Mammoth Hot
Springs to Tower Creek. He thus shortened the old pack-train route by
one-third, and foreshadowed the general road system which Lieutenant
Kingman later formulated into a permanent project of improvement. As a
road engineer, he was not a distinguished success. His work was
ill-conceived and poorly executed, but at the same time it gave access
to many places wholly inaccessible before. All the difference between
poor roads and none at all may justly be placed to his credit.
The third and most important feature of Norris' work was his official
reports and other writings. As he was always doing something, although
seldom in the best way, so he was always saying something, with the
same constitutional defect. Nevertheless, he has left in his five
annual reports a great deal of useful information, which he
supplemented by a long series of articles in the _Norris Suburban_, a
paper at that time largely read throughout the West. It is not too
much to say that he was a prime mover in the strong awakening of
public sentiment in regard to the Park which began to show itself
toward the close of his administration.
Norris' work in the Yellowstone Park can not be passed over without
praise. It left its mark, as its author did his name, in every
quarter. But one thing must be charged to his account--an almost total
failure to _protect_ the Park. He did, indeed, by his public
utterances, denounce the vandalism and game destruction that were then
rampant; but he did little in a practical way to prevent them--no
more, in fact, than his predecessor, although he was given the means.
Norris was succeeded in February, 1882, by Patrick H. Conger, of Iowa.
Of this Superintendent, it need only be said that his administration
was throughout characterized by a weakness and inefficiency which
brought the Park to the lowest ebb of its fortunes, and drew forth
the severe condemnation of visitors and public officials alike. This
administration is an important one, however, for it marks the period
of change in public sentiment already referred to, and the
commencement of reform in the government of the reservation.
As if the unfortunate condition of affairs due to the lack of suitable
laws for the reservation were not enough, there arose in the early
part of Superintendent Conger's administration a new and even more
formidable danger, under the euphemistic title of the Yellowstone Park
Improvement Company. Previous to this time, there had been no regular
leases in the Park. Several informal permits for occupancy had been
granted, and a small number of inferior buildings had been erected. In
1880, there were nine of these buildings, nearly all of them being
plain log-cabins, with earth roofs, of the common frontier pattern.
Only two, the headquarters building at Mammoth Hot Springs and
Marshall's Hotel in the Lower Geyser Basin, rose in dignity above the
primitive type. No one as yet thought of remaining in the Park during
the winter season.
But it finally dawned upon certain sagacious individuals that here was
a rare opportunity to exploit the government for their private
emolument under the generous guise of improving the Park, and catering
to the comfort of the tourist. A company was accordingly formed, and a
valuable ally secured in the person of the Assistant Secretary of the
Interior, who granted a lease of 4,400 acres in tracts of about a
square mile at each of the great points of interest. It was urged in
defense of this sweeping grant, that it was hoped in that way to
secure the protection which had yet failed to be found by any other
method. It was thought that, if responsible parties could be given
exclusive control of these natural curiosities, they would, at least
from motives of self-interest, preserve them. But such a monopolistic
privilege was clearly opposed to the spirit of the Act of Dedication.
Why set apart this region for the free and unrestricted enjoyment of
the people, if the Secretary of the Interior could give to private
parties absolute control of all its most important localities? Was
this a proper interpretation of "small parcels of ground," as
specified in the act? The danger involved in this action was indeed a
grave one, and it at once aroused a storm of protest throughout the
country.
It was about this time also that there began to appear those various
railroad and segregation projects which from that time to the present
have been a formidable menace to the continued existence of the Park.
A more extensive consideration of this particular subject is reserved
for a later chapter.
It thus became apparent as early as 1882, that immediate and radical
measures must be adopted if the Park was to be preserved in its
original condition. General Sheridan who passed through that region in
1881, 1882, and 1883, gave forcible warning of the impending danger,
and urgently appealed to the public sentiment of the country in favor
of some action which should avert it. The Governor of Montana made an
earnest appeal to Congress. Other influential voices united in the
same cause, and already it was broadly hinted that the only salvation
of the Park lay in turning it over to the military. The whole matter
was brought prominently before the next Congress, and in March, 1883,
a clause in the Sundry Civil Bill containing the annual appropriation
for the Park, forbade the granting of leases of more than ten acres to
any single party, authorized the Secretary of the Interior to call
upon the Secretary of War for troops to patrol the Park, and provided
for the employment of ten assistant superintendents who were to
constitute a police force. Thus was the bold scheme of the Improvement
Company frustrated, and the foundation laid for the present
administrative system. The Secretary of the Interior, however, seems
not to have wished to avail himself of military assistance, and it was
several years before this provision of the law was put into operation.
It was in this same year that the killing of birds and animals in the
Park, and the taking of fish by any other method than by hook and
line, were absolutely prohibited. Previously, hunting had been allowed
so far as was necessary to supply the wants of camping parties--a
concession that practically operated as an unrestricted license.
The failure of Congress to enact needed legislation at length became
so nearly chronic that relief was sought in another direction. Nearly
all the territory of the Park, and all its great attractions, were
within the limits of Wyoming. Might it not therefore be within the
province of territorial legislation to furnish the necessary legal
protection? The subject was agitated, and in the winter of 1884, an
act was passed, designed "to protect and preserve the timber, game,
fish, and natural curiosities of the Park," and for other purposes.
The act was very stringent in its provisions, and clearly indicated
the deep-seated nature of the disease which it has designed to cure.
But it totally failed of its purpose. The attempt at territorial
control of what was really a national institution was in itself a
grave blunder. Then, the officials chosen to execute the law seem to
have been poorly qualified for the purpose, and to have displayed
lamentable want of tact and moderation. Some of their arrests were
so tyrannical and inexcusable, as to create universal protest.
The spectacle of the assistant superintendents--federal
officials--sharing, as informers, the fines levied by a territorial
court, was not designed to create respect for the new authority. At
length the unpopularity of the law became so extreme, that it was
repealed March 10, 1886.
Although so unwise a measure could not stand, the first effect of its
repeal was to advertise the fact that the Park was practically without
legal protection. Matters became even worse than before. The common
verdict, as gathered from official reports and other sources, is that
the body of police, styled assistant superintendents, were notoriously
inefficient if not positively corrupt. They were, for the most part,
creatures of political favoritism, and were totally unused to the
service required of them. Commissioned as guardians of the rarest
natural wonders on the globe, they not infrequently made merchandise
of the treasures which they were appointed to preserve. Under their
surveillance, vandalism was practically unchecked, and the slaughter
of game was carried on for private profit almost in sight of the
superintendent's quarters. Already some of the rarer species of
animals had suffered a depletion in numbers from which they have
never recovered; and the prediction of Prof. Comstock, in 1874, seemed
on the point of realization, that "the zoological record of to-day"
was about to "pass into the domain of the paleontologist."
The difficulties that beset the administration of the Park seem to
have been too great for Superintendent Conger to grapple with
successfully, and he resigned, July 28, 1884. It may at least be said
in his favor, that, weak as his management had been, no charge of
corruption or dishonesty was ever brought against him.
In his place was appointed, August 4, 1884, Robert E. Carpenter, of
Iowa. Mr. Carpenter's views of the requirements of his office were
clear and positive; and he promptly set about to carry them into
execution. In his opinion, the Park was created to be an instrument of
profit to those who were shrewd enough to grasp the opportunity. Its
protection and improvement were matters of secondary consideration.
Instead of remaining at his post during the winter season, he went to
Washington, and there, in concert with a member of the Improvement
Company, very nearly succeeded in carrying a measure through Congress
by which important tracts upon the Reservation were to be thrown open
to private occupancy. So confident of success were these conspirators
that they even located claims upon the tracts in question, and their
names appeared on claim notices posted to designate the localities.
Fortunately the measure failed of passage, but the scandal of
Superintendent Carpenter's conduct led to his prompt removal from
office.
On the day of his removal, May 29, 1885, Colonel David W. Wear, of
Missouri, was appointed to the vacancy. Colonel Wear appears to have
been admirably fitted for the place. He at once set out to reform the
administration of the Park, and his intelligent and vigorous measures
gave the highest encouragement to those who had been familiar with the
previous condition of affairs. But, as has often happened before, and
will often happen again, he was made to suffer for the sins of his
predecessors. The bad repute into which the government of the Park had
fallen was not easily removed, and Congress finally declined to
appropriate money for a protection which did not protect. The
Secretary of the Interior was thus compelled to call upon the
Secretary of War for assistance. The régime of civilian
superintendents passed away, and that of the military superintendents
began. The change was bitterly opposed by the Secretary of the
Interior and by all who held or hoped to hold places under the old
order; but the sequel quickly proved the wisdom of this action of
Congress. The old order necessarily felt the evil of our patronage
system of office-holding; but no single act ever went so far to
eliminate this fruitful source of misfortune as the assignment of the
administrative control of the Park to the officers and soldiers of the
army.
August 20, 1886, marks the turning point in the administrative history
of the Reservation. It was upon that day that Captain Moses Harris,
First U. S. Cavalry, relieved the civilian Superintendent of his
duties, and soldiers supplanted the so-called assistant
Superintendents as a Park police. Henceforth an entirely new order was
to obtain. It was to be seen how much could be accomplished, even in
the absence of laws, toward a vigorous and healthful administration.
Trespassers upon the Reservation were promptly removed. The
regulations were revised and extended, printed upon cloth, and posted
in all parts of the Park; and their violation was visited with summary
punishment to the full extent of the Superintendent's authority.
Abuses of leasehold rights were searchingly inquired into and reported
to the department. As soon as this show of real authority was made
manifest, and it became apparent that here was a man who meant what he
said, a great part of the difficulty was over. Nothing in fact
conduces so much to the infraction of law as a belief in the
incompetency or dishonesty of those delegated to enforce it, and the
removal of this cause was a long step in the right direction.
The Park was particularly fortunate in its first military
Superintendent. Captain Harris possessed in a marked degree the
qualities required for that position. He was vigorous and
uncompromising in suppressing lawlessness, just and impartial in his
rulings, and untiring in his watchfulness for the public interest.
Although his immediate superior, the Secretary of the Interior, had
strenuously opposed the installation of the military in the Park, he
never failed to pay a high tribute to the efficiency with which the
new Superintendent performed his duties. In fact, this high opinion of
Captain Harris' services was soon shared by all who were familiar with
the situation. Even _Forest and Stream_, whose fidelity to the best
interests of the Park has been a distinguishing feature of that
journal for the past fifteen years, was fain to admit, although it
had regarded the change as impolitic, that under Captain Harris'
guardianship "the Park had been cared for as it never had been
before."
Captain Harris remained in charge for nearly three years, and was
succeeded, June 1, 1889, by Captain F. A. Boutelle, First U. S.
Cavalry. That the evil of political interference and private
intriguing was not yet wholly eliminated from the affairs of the Park
became manifest when Captain Boutelle undertook to enforce the
regulations against a prominent employe of the hotel company. For
causes not publicly understood, he was unexpectedly relieved from duty
January 21, 1891, and Captain George S. Anderson, Sixth U. S. Cavalry,
the present Superintendent, was assigned in his place.
Going back now to the Yellowstone Park Improvement Company, the
history of that erratic concern will be briefly traced. It is
important first to state, however, that the conduct of private
business in the Park has, until recent years, been most
unsatisfactory. The Park was long unfortunate in the men who sought to
carry on business within its borders, and even yet it is not wholly
free from the evil of unscrupulous and dishonest schemers. The strife,
backbiting, struggle to ruin each other, which seemed to be the chief
purpose of those who at first sought government favors on the
Reservation, can be understood only by those who have seen them, or
have gone to the trouble to examine official correspondence. More than
once has the government made these troubles the subject of special
investigation, although generally with indifferent results.
The new hotel company had a meteoric career, promising great things,
but effecting no permanent improvement except the partial construction
of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. Its fortunes early collapsed, and
the opening of the tourist season of 1885 found the great building in
the possession of unpaid workmen, who held it under a kind of military
guard until their wages should be paid.
This company, and other lesser concerns, gradually transferred their
rights to a new company, called the Yellowstone Park Association,
which is still in operation. It is largely identified with the
Northern Pacific Railroad, and although it has a practical monopoly of
the tourist business, it has never subjected itself to the charge of
using that monopoly to the disadvantage of the public. From the old
and unsatisfactory condition of things it has built up a hotel system
which, though incomplete, is far ahead of what could be reasonably
expected in a region so remote from the great centers of civilization.
It was in the early part of Conger's administration that the
government took up in earnest the question of road construction. For
some years, the public, thoroughly weary of Norris' roads, had been
urging the necessity of sending an engineer officer to take charge of
that important matter. This agitation bore fruit in 1883 in the
assignment of Lieutenant D. C. Kingman, of the Corps of Engineers, to
the charge of this work. His tour of duty ran through three years, and
resulted in the greatest improvement to the road system. He prepared
the project which has served as a basis of all subsequent work, and he
did much toward carrying it into execution. His reports were
especially valuable, not only in matters connected with his
particular work, but also those pertaining to the general welfare of
the Reservation. He was among the first to lift a warning voice
against the grave danger of railroad encroachment, and no one since
his time has presented this matter in a more convincing light.
The years 1894 and 1895 have brought a radical improvement to the
administrative status of the Park. May 4, 1894, the long desired code
of laws was enacted. On August 3d of the same year, an act was passed
further regulating the question of leases and removing the most
serious defects of previous legislation. In the autumn of the same
year, the road work was taken from the charge of a non-resident
engineer with headquarters in St. Paul, and placed in direct charge of
the Superintendent, thus bringing the entire administrative control
under a single head.
These two years have also witnessed a decided check to the schemes of
those who still persist in believing that the Park was created for
their personal aggrandizement. Strong adverse reports have been
submitted, practically for the first time, by Congressional Committees
against the so-called Segregation project, the admission of railroads
into the Park, and the construction of an electric railway therein.
With the exception of the lack of a sufficient force of scouts
properly to patrol that region, the condition of affairs on the
Reservation is now eminently satisfactory--far more so than at any
previous period.
CHAPTER XV.
THE NATIONAL PARK PROTECTIVE ACT.
One of the most important milestones in the history of the Park has
been so recently set that the public is as yet not fully conscious of
its existence. It has already been stated that for more than twenty
years the Park was wholly without adequate statutory protection; and
that this long-standing defect was finally remedied by the enactment
of a comprehensive measure in the spring of 1894. The circumstances
attending the passage of this Act, and the prompt manner in which a
great misfortune was changed into a lasting benefit, form one of those
singular instances of good fortune which have so largely characterized
the history of this region.
Bills providing suitable protection for the Park were introduced at
the First Session of the Fifty-third Congress, just as they have been
for the past twenty years, and apparently with not much greater chance
of success. The wanton recklessness of those who seek special
privileges in the Park, and are unwilling that any measure for its
welfare shall pass unless coupled with their own private schemes,
threatened this time, as hitherto, to defeat Congressional action. But
an unforeseen event, of such powerful bearing as practically to
override all opposition, occurred in March, 1894, and quickly brought
about the desired consummation.
It is well known that the only herd of bison, now roaming in their
native condition within the present limits of the United States, is in
the Yellowstone National Park. There has always been a lively interest
in the preservation of this herd, and its extinction would be regarded
as a deplorable calamity. With proper protection, it will undoubtedly
flourish, but there is no margin for carelessness or neglect.
During the winter of 1894, Captain George S. Anderson, U. S. A.,
Superintendent of the Park, learned that snow-shoe tracks had been
seen along Astringent Creek in the Pelican Valley east of the
Yellowstone River, in territory ranged over by the buffalo in winter.
The same tracks were seen near Soda Butte station pointing toward
Cooke City. Inquiry proved them to have been made by one Howell, a
well-known poacher and lawless character, who was evidently driving
his trade in the winter buffalo country. It was apparent that he had
left the Park for supplies and would soon return. Captain Anderson
accordingly laid his plans for capture.
There has been given a brief account of the winter expedition through
the Park in the spring of 1894, of which Mr. F. J. Haynes and Scout
Burgess were members. Burgess was instructed to examine the country
east of the Yellowstone and obtain, if possible, a clue to Howell's
whereabouts. Early on the morning of March 12th, he set out from the
Lake hotel with a single companion, Private Troike, of the Sixth
Cavalry, and before it was scarcely daylight struck a dim snow shoe
trail in the valley of Astringent Creek. Soon after, he found the
poacher's teepe and a number of buffalo heads hung up, by means of a
pulley, to the limb of a tree so as to be out of the reach of wolves.
Every thing indicated that the poacher was there for a business of
some duration and magnitude.
Leaving the teepe and following Howell's morning trail for some
distance, Burgess' attention was soon arrested by six rifle reports.
These six shots slew five buffalo. Burgess soon discovered Howell,
engaged in skinning the head of one of the buffalo. His rifle was
leaning against another some fifteen feet from him. A dog (but this
Burgess did not know) was coiled up under the leg of a buffalo.
Burgess thus had the dangerous duty to perform of crossing the
intervening space of some four hundred yards, where there was no cover
and where he might easily be seen by Howell or the dog. Considering
the desperate character of these poachers, and the fact that Burgess
was armed only with a revolver as against Howell's rifle, the peril
involved in this capture may be easily appreciated. But fortune was on
Burgess' side. A heavy storm was on, and the wind was blowing direct
from Howell to Burgess. This prevented the dog from scenting approach,
and Howell from hearing any noise, from the leeward. Burgess did not
stop to reckon the chances of success, but promptly sallied forth upon
his intended victim. On his way he ran upon an open ditch about ten
feet wide. To make a snow shoe jump on level ground is a feat of much
difficulty; but Burgess managed to accomplish it. By good fortune
nothing happened to arouse Howell, and Burgess got within fifteen feet
of him before he was aware that there was any one within as many
miles. With Burgess' cocked revolver over him, he discreetly
surrendered. Private Troike was summoned, the rifle and accoutrements
were seized, and the party set out at once for the Lake hotel. But
such are the difficulties of snow shoe travel in this region, that it
was long after dark before they reached their destination.
The Yellowstone Park Association keeps a solitary watchman at each of
its hotels during winter, and has a telephone line connecting each
with Mammoth Hot Springs. By virtue of this lucky fact, Howell's
capture, though made some sixty miles from the nearest telegraph
station, and in a region where winter travel is impossible except on
snow shoes, was made known to the Superintendent before 9:30 P. M.
that day. By another stroke of good fortune a representative of
_Forest and Stream_ was at that moment present at Mammoth Hot Springs.
He had arrived but two days before and remained a guest of the
Superintendent prior to a tour of the Park, which began two days
later. The news of Howell's capture was at once put on the wire, and
in less that twenty-four hours, _Forest and Stream_ was represented in
Washington with a new and powerful argument for the passage of the
Offenses Bill. The imminent danger of the speedy and entire extinction
of the only remaining herd of buffalo in the country produced the
desired effect in Congress, and on May 7, 1894, the bill became a law.
It was throughout a most fortunate combination of circumstances that
made this consummation possible. A Superintendent thoroughly devoted
to the care of his important charge, and fearless in the execution of
his duty; a scout who had the nerve to make an arrest full of peril to
himself; the existence of a winter telephone line to the heart of that
inaccessible region; the presence at Mammoth Hot Springs of a
representative of that journal which holds first rank among the
protectors of the Park; and uncommon good, luck in minor details,
caused this important event to cast its influence into the national
councils almost before the echo of the poacher's rifle shots had died
away among the mountains. Howell's act was a misfortune--a grievous
misfortune--to the game interests of the Park; but its immediate
result in legislation will prove a benefit of far greater consequence.
Howell was brought to Mammoth Hot Springs and was there imprisoned in
the Fort Yellowstone guardhouse, and his case reported to Washington.
As there was no law for his trial and punishment, the Secretary of the
Interior in due time ordered his release. He was accordingly put out
of the Park and forbidden to return without permission. But with his
habitual disregard of authority, he came back during the following
summer and was discovered by the Superintendent in a barber's chair at
Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. He was promptly arrested and tried under
the new law for violating the orders of the Superintendent in
returning. He was convicted and sentenced to one month's imprisonment
and fifty dollars fine. He thus became the Park Haman--first to be
hanged upon the gallows of his own building.
Howell appealed the case to the U. S. District Court sitting at
Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was released upon the technical ground that, as
the prohibition against returning to the Park was merely an order from
the Superintendent, and not explicitly authorized by the regulations
of the Secretary of the Interior, the offense did not come within the
purview of the law. This defect in the regulations has since been
remedied and the conviction of Howell, therefore, notwithstanding his
final release, has all the force of precedent.
PART II.--Descriptive.
CHAPTER I.
BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY.
At the time when the bill creating the Yellowstone Park was before
Congress there had been no detailed survey of that region, and the
boundaries, as specified in the bill, were to some extent random
guesses. The exploring parties of 1870 and 1871 had seen all the more
important points of interest. To include these in the proposed
reservation, the framers of the bill passed two lines due east and
west, one through the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardiner Rivers,
and one through a point ten miles south of the most southerly point of
the Yellowstone Lake; and two lines due north and south, one through a
point ten miles east of the easternmost point of Yellowstone Lake, and
one through a point fifteen miles west of the most westerly point of
Shoshone (then called Madison) Lake. The nearly rectangular area thus
resulting was found to lie mainly in the north-west corner of Wyoming,
with narrow strips, two or three miles wide, overlapping into the
Territories of Montana and Idaho. The mean dimensions of the
Reservation were 61.8 miles by 53.6 miles, giving an area of 3312.5
square miles.
By presidential proclamation, dated September 10, 1891, a large area
to the east and south of the Park was set apart as a Forest Reserve,
under the provisions of an Act of March 3, 1891, and was placed in
charge of the Superintendent of the Park. By this action the area
reserved from settlement around the sources of the Yellowstone was
increased to about 5,000 square miles. It should be remembered,
however, that this additional reserve is not a direct creation by Act
of Congress, and it therefore does not stand upon the same substantial
footing as the original Reservation.
The chief topographical features of the Park are as follows:
DRAINAGE AREAS.
Three great rivers receive the waters of the Yellowstone Park--the
Yellowstone, the Missouri, and the Snake. The first two rivers are on
the Atlantic slope; the third is on the Pacific slope. The areas
drained by them are approximately:
By the Yellowstone. 1,900 square miles.
By the Missouri, 730 square miles.
By the Snake, 682 square miles.
The Yellowstone River has its source in the snow drifts of Yount Peak,
twenty-five miles south-east of the Park. It enters the Reservation
six miles west of the south-east corner; crosses it in a direction
somewhat west of north, and leaves it at a point about nineteen miles
east of the north-west corner. Near the center of the Park it flows
through the celebrated lake of the same name, and further north passes
through two remarkable cañons before it leaves the Reservation. Its
principal tributaries within the Park are the Lamar River (commonly
called the East Fork), from the east, and Gardiner River from the
west. The Lamar River rises nearly due east of the outlet of
Yellowstone Lake and flows north-westerly, joining the main stream
near Junction Butte. Its principal tributary is Soda Butte Creek,
which rises just outside the north-east corner of the Park and joins
the Lamar River near the extinct hot spring cone from which it derives
its name.
Gardiner River is the second largest tributary of the Yellowstone, and
drains the extensive area between the Washburn and Gallatin Mountains.
The low-water discharge of the Yellowstone River, as measured by the
writer, in 1891, a little below the lake outlet, is 1,598 cubic feet
per second; as measured by the United States Geological Survey, in
1886, 1,525 cubic feet. The discharge at the north boundary of the
Park can not be less than 2,000 cubic feet.
The Missouri River drainage flows into the Gallatin and Madison forks
of that stream. The Gallatin drains only a small area in the extreme
north-west corner of the Park. The Madison is formed by the junction
of the Gibbon and Firehole Rivers, about twelve miles east of the west
boundary of the Park. The Gibbon takes its rise a few miles west of
the Falls of the Yellowstone, and flows in a south-west direction. The
Firehole rises in Madison Lake, and flows north to its junction with
the Gibbon. Its principal tributaries are the Little Firehole River
and Iron Creek on the west, and Nez Percé Creek on the east.
The Snake River drains the south-west portion of the Park. It rises
about fifteen miles south of Yellowstone Lake, just outside the Park.
It then takes a northerly circuit into the Park, receiving the waters
of Hart and Lewis Rivers, and leaves the Reservation just north of
Jackson Lake. Its principal tributary is the Lewis River, which drains
Shoshone and Lewis Lakes. Several large streams, Bechler and Falls
Rivers among them, cross the south-west boundary of the Park and join
the main Snake further south.
The line of separation between this water-shed and those of the
Yellowstone and the Missouri, is the Continental Divide, the irregular
course of which can be readily understood by consulting the map.
In the entire Park there are about thirty-six named lakes with a total
area of nearly 165 square miles. Of these lakes, twenty-one, with an
area of 143 square miles, are on the Yellowstone slope; eight, with an
area of perhaps two square miles, are on the Missouri slope; and
seven, with an area of about twenty square miles, are on the Snake
River slope. The four principal lakes--Yellowstone, Shoshone, Lewis,
and Hart--are clustered near the Continental Divide at its lowest
point, the first being on the Atlantic slope, and the others on the
Pacific.
There are upon the various streams of the Park no fewer than
twenty-five interesting water-falls, where the streams descend from
the Park plateau to the lower surrounding country.
MOUNTAIN SYSTEM
As the Yellowstone River is the most important stream in the Park, so
the Absaroka Range, in which it has its source, is the most important
mountain system. It extends north and south along the entire eastern
border. To the south it is prolonged under the name of the Sierra
Shoshone Mountains as far as the Wind River Valley, while north of
Soda Butte Creek it extends to the Great Bend of the Yellowstone under
the name Snowy Range. The various larger summits are remarkably
uniform in elevation. From Index Peak on the north to Yount Peak on
the south, there are more than thirty named mountains with an average
altitude of 10,400 feet. The variation from this mean is slight. The
range, throughout its length, is full of noble views, and, as seen
from across the Yellowstone Lake, is one of the finest exhibitions of
mountain scenery on the continent.
The next most important range is the Gallatin, situated in the
north-west corner of the Park, at the head of the Gallatin River. It
has about seventeen named peaks, with an average altitude of 9,800
feet. The highest peak, Electric, is the loftiest mountain in the
Park.
The Washburn Range, a detached mountain system, originally known as
the "Elephant's Back," is situated between the Grand Cañon of the
Yellowstone and the Gardiner River. It has seven christened summits,
with an average altitude of 9,800 feet. The most conspicuous peak of
the range, as well as the most noted mountain of the Park, is Mt.
Washburn.
The Red Mountain Range is a small, detached group of mountains between
Hart and Lewis Lakes. Its principal summit, Mt. Sheridan, affords
probably the finest view to be had in that entire region.
The Teton Range lies mainly outside the Park, its northern spurs
barely touching the southern boundary. It extends north and south
along the west shore of Jackson Lake, and is a very noted range of
mountains. Its highest summit, the Grand Teton, has no competitor for
altitude nearer than Fremont Peak, seventy-five miles distant.
The Big Game Ridge lies along the south boundary of the Park, and is
the source of the Snake River. It has six named peaks, with an average
altitude of 9,800 feet.
Besides these various groups of mountains, there are a few detached
peaks worthy of note, which can not be conveniently classified with
any of the principal ranges.
PLATEAUS.
A considerable portion of the Park area is composed of what may be
termed plateaus, elevated tracts of land, not so high as the mountain
ranges, but much higher than the valleys. Ordinarily, these are to be
found along the divides between the larger streams. The more important
are the Pitchstone Plateau, between the Snake River and the head
waters of the Bechler and Fall Rivers, with a mean altitude of 8,500
feet; Highland Plateau, between the Yellowstone and the Madison
Rivers, altitude 8,300 feet; Mirror Plateau, between the Yellowstone
and the Lamar Rivers, altitude 9,000 feet; Mt. Everts Plateau, between
the Yellowstone and the Gardiner, altitude 7,000 feet; and the Madison
Plateau, west of the Lower Geyser Basin, altitude 8,300 feet.
VALLEYS.
These form an exceedingly important part of the Park topography. The
largest is Junction Valley, including its branches along the
Yellowstone and the Lamar Rivers. It is an extensive, grassy tract,
stretching well back upon the mountain sides, and forming a fine
pasturage for game. For scientific research, its fossil forests and
other features make it an extremely interesting section.
Hayden Valley is the next in size and importance, and occupies an
important tract along the Yellowstone River, between the Lake and
Falls, mostly on the west side, in the vicinity of Alum Creek.
The Madison Valley, and its extensions up the Firehole and Gibbon
Rivers, are chiefly noteworthy as being the locality of the three
great geyser regions of the Park.
The Swan Lake Flats, Willow Park, the Shoshone and Falls River Basins,
are other important examples of typical mountain valleys.
ALTITUDES.
The lowest point in the Park is at the junction of the Yellowstone and
the Gardiner Rivers, 5,360 feet above sea level; the highest is the
summit of Electric Peak, six miles distant, 11,155 feet. To give a
general idea of the altitudes of different points in the Park,
particularly of those which the tourist visits, the following list is
presented:[AT]
Gardiner, Mont. 5,400 feet.
Mammoth Hot Springs hotel 6,215 "
Glen Creek Bridge above Golden Gate 7,245 "
Indian Creek Bridge 7,275 "
Beaver Lake 7,360 "
Norris Road Junction 7,470 "
Gibbon Meadows 7,315 "
Gibbon and Firehole Rivers, junction of 6,780 "
Lower Geyser Basin (mouth of Nez Percé Creek) 7,125 "
Upper Geyser Basin (near Castle Geyser) 7,300 "
Mouth of Spring Creek 7,600 "
Isa Lake, Continental Divide 8,300 "
Yellowstone Lake 7,741 "
Road at Mud Volcano 7,705 "
Cañon Hotel 7,850 "
Junction Valley near Yancey's 6,150 "
Divide between the Black-tail and Gardiner 6,550 "
[AT] From profile of road system. For additional elevations, see list
of names in Appendix A.
SCENERY.
The mountain scenery of the Park is not so imposing as that of
Colorado and some other parts of the Rocky Mountain region; but it is
more varied and beautiful. The eye is not wearied with the constant
sight of vast and bare mountain cliffs, but finds relief in attractive
lakes, streams, glades, parks, forests, and every combination of
effects that helps to produce a beautiful landscape.