[Illustration: CENTRAL ROCKY MOUNTAINS]
..... COLTER'S PROBABLE ROUTE, 1807-08
- - - DOANE'S EXPEDITION
The weakened party again laid over on the following day. They hunted
carefully but to no avail, since the horses were too weak to carry the
riders far afield from the camp, and the game was well up in the hills
to the east. Warren, that "most indefatigable fisherman," caught 16
magnificent trout, all of which were eaten for supper. Warren's horse
was shot for food, since it was the weakest and poorest of the lot.
He had not a particle of fat on his carcass, and we had no salt or
other seasoning. Drew the powder from a package of cartridges and used
it. We had been using the same old coffee and tea grounds for two
weeks and the decoctions derived therefrom had no power in them, no
momentum. For tobacco we had smoked larb, red willow, and rosebush
bark. All these gave a mockery and a delusion to our ceaseless
cravings. We chewed pine gum continually, which helped a little. We
boned a quarter of the old horse, and boiled the meat nearly all
night, cracking the bones as well, and endeavoring to extract a show
of grease therefrom out of which to upholster a delicious and winsome
gravy. The meat cooked to a watery, spongy, texture, but the gravy
sauce was a dead failure. Horse meat may be very fine eating when
smothered with French sauces, but the worn out U. S. Cavalry plug was
never intended for food. The flesh tastes exactly as the perspiration
of the animal smells. It is in addition tough and coarse grained. We
ate it ravenously, stopping to rest occasionally our weary jaws. It
went down and stayed, but did not taste good. Weather turned colder
toward morning. River running ice in cakes which screamed and crashed
continually through the night.
For the next several days the party continued without serious mishap,
other than damage to the boat on two occasions when she crashed into
submerged boulders. Warren continued to take trout successfully, the
fish and horsemeat making up the sketchy bill of fare. On December 7,
moving through the open country of the southern part of Jackson Hole,
Sergeant Server and Davis, while hunting, found the cabin of a trapper,
John Pierce. The old man was greatly surprised to see anyone with
animals in the upper Snake River Basin at that time of the year, gave
the men a substantial meal and some salt,
... which improved our regal fare by somewhat smothering the sour
perspiration taste of the old horse. He also sent word to me about the
settlement below "Mad River Canyon." River too shallow for fishing,
but we had salt on our horse for supper.
December 8th. The old trapper came to our camp before we started,
bringing on his shoulder a quarter of fat elk, also a little flour. He
was a gigantic, rawboned, and grisled old volunteer soldier. We gave
him in return some clothing of which he was in need and a belt full of
cartridges, as he had a big rifle with the same sized chamber as mine.
While talking with him, Starr and Davis were busy and soon we had a
meal. The elk meat all went, the balance of the flour was reserved for
gravies.
The old trapper gave me explicit and correct information about the
settlements below. He was trapping for fine furs only, mink, martin,
fisher, and otter. Said it would not pay to go after beaver unless one
had pack animals and these could not winter in the valley.
He told me that he had not believed the Sergeant's story about the
boat at first, and throughout his visit was evidently completely
puzzled as to what motives could have induced us to attempt such a
trip in such a way and at such a season. I sent him home on horseback
with Sergeant Server, who told me after returning that he had been
given another "Holy meal." Meantime we worked on down the river with
renewed strength among rocks and tortuous channels. Worked until after
dark and camped at the head of "Mad River Canyon." 15 miles.
The voyage down the Grand Canyon of the Snake, "Mad River Canyon," was a
series of nightmares. Steadily deepening and narrowing, the canyon walls
closing in with oppressive gloom, the river became almost completely
unnavigable. It was necessary to handline the boat down boiling rapids,
drag her over the ice of frozen pools, portage the equipment, in this
manner advancing 6 to 7 miles a day. Doane writes that it was
...very cold in the shaded chasm. Otter, fat and sleek, played around
us on the ice and snarled at us from holes in the wall, all day long,
safe from molestation in their fishy unpalatableness. We had no time
to shoot for sport, nor transportation for pelts, and no desire for
any game not edible. All day and as late at night as we could see to
labor, we toiled to make six miles.
[Illustration: The upper end of the Grand Canyon of the Snake,
Doane's "Mad River Canyon." The wicked white water of the Snake
brought disaster to the Expedition on December 12, 1876, near the
lower end of the gorge, when "all of a sudden the boat touched the
icy margin, turned under it, and the next instant was dancing end
over end in the swift, bold current."]
On December 11, Doane concluded to split his party.
No food left but a handful of flour. Shot White's horse, and feasted.
It was now evident that we were not going to run the canyon with the
boat, but must tug away slowly. We were about 42 miles from the first
settlement, if our information was correct, but the canyon, if very
crooked as it had been so far, might double that distance. I desired
to get the boat through if we had to risk everything in order to do
so. This canyon was the terrible obstacle and we were more than half
way through it. Apparently the worst had been gone through with. All
the men agreed to this with enthusiasm. We gathered together all the
money in the possession of the party, and arranged for Sergeant
Server, the most active and youngest of the party, and Warren, who
could be of no assistance to those remaining, as his stomach had begun
to give way, to go on next day with the two horses and one mule
remaining and bring us back rations.
Sergeant Server and Warren loaded up as planned the following day,
leaving the Lieutenant and the other 4 men to continue with the boat.
The river was becoming better, the ice foot more uniform and the
channel free from frozen pools when all of a sudden the boat touched
the icy margin, turned under it, and the next instant was dancing end
over end in the swift, bold current. All of the horse meat, all the
property, arms, instruments and note books were in the roaring stream.
A few hundred yards below there was a narrow place where the ice foot
almost touched the middle of the river. We ran thither and caught
whatever floated. The clothing bags, valise, bedding, bundles, and the
lodge were saved. All else, excepting one hind quarter of the old
horse, went to the bottom and was seen no more. All the rubber boots
were gone excepting mine. The warm clothing all floated and was saved.
We dragged in the boat by the tow line and pulled her out of the water
and far up on a ledge of rock. 6 miles.
After this mishap, the Sergeant and Warren, who had been traveling along
the river bank, keeping in contact with the boat party, were sent at
once on their way, while Doane and his men dried out and rested. The
boatmen fought their way down the river for the next two days, but on
December 14 the boat was hauled high on the bank in an apparently secure
place. The last of the horse meat had been eaten for breakfast, no food
was left.
The following morning the bedding was stored away in rolls with the
valise, high up among the rocks, and Doane's party started,
... unarmed, without food, and in an unknown wilderness to find
settlements (previously described by the trapper, Pierce) seven miles
up on a stream which we had no positive assurance of being able to
recognize when we came to its mouth.
That day the men waded the Salt River (near the present site of Alpine)
having spent 7 days in the gloomy depths of the "Mad River Canyon."
On December 16, they were moving at the break of day in bitterly cold
weather, and about noon reached an ice bound creek which showed signs of
placer washings. They assumed, correctly as it developed, that the
settlements described by Pierce were on this tributary stream. Due to
crusted snow they could make only about 1 mile an hour, but upon
reaching the creek they walked on the ice, and were thus able to make
better progress. Some distance upstream the creek forked, and the men
took the left hand branch. By dark they had determined they were in
error. They sheltered by a huge fire that night.
We slept a little but only to dream of bountifully set tables loaded
with viands, all of which were abounding in fats and oils. What
conservation there was turned entirely to matters pertaining to food.
Davis talked incessantly on such subjects, giving all the minutest
details of preparing roast, gravies, meat pies, suet puddings, pork
preparations, oil dressings, cream custards, and so on, until Starr
finally choked him off with the Otter experience. None of us felt the
pangs of hunger physically. Our stomachs were cold and numb. We
suffered less than for two days before, but there was a mental
appetite, more active than ever. It was an agony to sleep. All the
party evidenced the same mental conditions excepting Davis who was
hungry clear through, sleeping or waking. One feeling we had in
common. It can be found explained in Eugene Sue's description of the
Wandering Jew. We were impatient of rest, and all felt a constant
impulse to "go on, go on," continually. The men did not seem to court
slumber, and Starr had an inexhaustible fund of his most mirth
provoking stories which he never tired of telling. We listened,
laughed, and sang. Afterward we tried to catch a couple of Beaver
which splashed within a few feet of us all night long. Had not a
firearm in the party and here was the fattest of good meat almost
under our hands, enough to have fed us for two days.
With the first gray streaks of dawn they were again on their way,
working over the ridge to the other fork of the creek which they reached
a few hours later.
A couple of miles farther on we stopped to build a fire and warm
ourselves. Davis showed signs of undue restlessness. We had to call
him back from climbing the hillsides several times. While we were
gathering wood for the fire, I found a section of sawed off timber
blocks such as they use for the bottoms of flumes. It had been
recently cut on one side with an axe. This satisfied me without
farther evidence that the mines above were not old placers, now
deserted. The men were not so sanguine, but were cheerful, and we soon
moved on again. In a couple of hours we came to an old flume. Shortly
after, Applegate declared he smelled the smoke of burning pine. In
half an hour more we reached a miner's cabin and were safe. We arrived
at 3 pm. having been 80 hours without food in a temperature from 10
degrees to 40 degrees below zero, and after previously enduring
privations as before detailed. Two old miners occupied the cabin and
they were both at home, having returned from a little town above with
a fresh stock of provisions. They at once produced some dry bread and
made some weak tea, knowing well what to do. We had to force those
things down. None of us felt hungry for anything but grease. About
this time, to our unspeakable delight, Sergeant Server and Warren also
arrived. They had passed the mouth of the creek on the 13th and gone
below to the next stream which they had followed up fourteen miles
without finding anything, and returning to meet us had found our trail
and followed it, knowing that we had nothing to eat, while they had
two horses and a mule with them. Mr. Bailey and his partner now gave
us a bountiful supper of hot rolls, roast beef, and other substantial
fare, and we all ate heartily in spite of our previous resolutions not
to do so. Cold, dry bread had no charms, but hot and fatty food roused
our stomachs to a realization that the season of famine was over. The
change affected us severely. I had an attack of inflammation of the
stomach which lasted several hours. All of the men suffered more or
less, excepting Starr who seemed to be unaffected.
The next day the party moved upstream to the little town, Keenan City,
which consisted of a store, saloon, post office, blacksmith shop,
stable, and "a lot of miners' cabins." Doane found that they had
followed McCoy Creek, and that the settlements were collectively known
as the Caribou mining district. The Lieutenant records that his weight
was down to 126 from a normal 190, and the others were similarly
reduced.
A "jerky stage line" operated between Keenan City and the Eagle Rock
Bridge on the Snake above Fort Hall, and Lieutenant Doane accordingly
prepared the following telegram to be forwarded by the Post Adjutant at
Fort Hall:
Commanding Officer, Fort Ellis, Montana. Arrived here yesterday. All
well. Write today. Send mail to Fort Hall. (Signed) Doane.
It was the Lieutenant's plan at this time to construct small sleds for
the rations and bedding rolls, these to be drawn by the 2 horses and the
mule left to the expedition, and thus proceed downriver to Fort Hall.
All was in readiness by December 23, and the party set out, proceeding
some 20 miles through Christmas Day. While in camp on the evening of
December 26, voices were heard in the river bottom nearby, where a party
of troops had just gone into camp.
It was Lieutenant Joseph Hall, 14th Infantry, with four men and a good
little pack train. I shall never forget the puzzled expression on the
face of this officer when he first met me. He conversed in
monosyllables for a couple of minutes and then told us that he had
been sent to arrest a party of deserters, half a dozen in number,
which had been advertised for in the Montana papers, as having left
Fort Ellis and were supposed to have gone through the Park and down
Snake River. Thirty dollars each for apprehension and capture. The
stage driver had read the papers it seems and denounced us to the Post
Commander at Fort Hall. We first had a hearty laugh over the joke and
he then placed himself and party at my disposal. We sat by the fire
and talked nearly all night. (He was Post Adjutant at Fort Hall, and
evidently knew something more than he felt at liberty to tell me, but
he denounced Major Jas. S. Brisbin, 2d Cavalry, my Post Commander, in
unmeasured terms, and told me that I was being made a victim of
infamous treachery. This was a revelation but not a surprise.)[4]
Next day Sergeant Server and 4 men were sent with fresh animals to
recover the boat and the bedding cached upriver. They returned the day
following, reporting that it was only "fifteen miles by the trail on the
other side of the river." They brought with them the equipment but not
the boat, which had been crushed to splinters by an ice jam which had
piled up in masses 20 feet high.
This was a bitter disappointment as they found the river open all the
way down, and we so found it afterwards below. Here was another
strange occurrence. In exploring as in hunting there is an element of
chance which cannot be provided against. No foresight will avail, no
calculations will detect, no energy will overcome. Caution might
prevent, but with caution no results will be obtained. Risks must be
taken, and there is such an element in human affairs as fortune, good
or bad. I decided at once to make all possible speed to Fort Hall,
there refit and returning bring lumber to rebuild the boat on the
ground where it had been lost, and continue to Eagle Rock Bridge on
the Snake River, previously going back far enough beyond Jackson's
Lake to take a renewal of the system of triangulation and notes, lost
in the river when the boat capsized. At Eagle Rock Bridge it would be
necessary to rebuild the boat again in a different form and much
larger, to run the heavy rapids of the lower rivers to Astoria, at the
mouth of the great Columbia. The hardships and greater dangers we had
already passed. With food for one day more we could have made the
passage of "Mad River Canyon" despite the loss of all our weapons,
instruments, and tools. We had run all the rapids but two, and these
were easier than many others safely passed above. All the party
enthusiastically endorsed this plan.
Lieutenant Doane was indeed a persevering and meticulously thorough
individual, so much so that he not only planned to return to run the
river from the point where he had been obliged to leave off, but to
retrace his route to a point above Jackson Lake in order to bring his
notes to completion. It is difficult to follow his thinking when he
indicates his intention of running the Columbia to Astoria, since his
orders were to "make exploration of Snake River from Yellowstone Lake
_to_ Columbia River." His statement that the "greater dangers" had
already been passed seems incompatible with the Hell's Canyon of the
Snake below, a section of the river about which Doane must have had some
knowledge. Here indeed were "risks to be taken" with "bad fortune"
certain, quite probably occurring beyond a point of no return.
The party continued on December 29 toward Fort Hall, with Doane's
journal describing in detail the route followed, the nature of the
terrain, and the course of the river. They arrived at Fort Hall on
January 4, having been met about half way between Fort Hall and the
Eagle Rock Bridge by ambulances sent to bring them.
Captain Bainbridge, Commanding Officer at Fort Hall,
... received us with the greatest kindness, and everything possible
was done for the comfort of myself and party, by all at the post.
There followed an exchange of communications between the Lieutenant and
the Commanding Officer at Fort Ellis, Major Brisbin, with no reference
therein to the charge of desertion. In the meantime, Doane records,
We put in time at Fort Hall preparing to get together materials for
another boat, intending to renew the expedition from "Mad River
Canyon." Meantime I had made one of my Centenial Tents for Captain
Bainbridge. While so engaged on the 8th of January, the following
telegram came.
Dated Chicago, Ill. January 6, 1877
Received at Fort Hall, Idaho, January 8, 1877