In the Yellowstone National Park--the first national park in the
world--are so many natural wonders, of such unusual character, that
not until the tract was discovered the sixth time were the American
people convinced of its existence. Sixty-three years elapsed from the
time of its first discovery to that of its recognition as an
actuality.
The first two discoveries--they were made by trappers a generation
apart--were laughed at and soon forgotten. The third, by prospectors,
led to a successful private exploring expedition from Montana. This
was followed by a larger and semi-official expedition, which also
achieved its object. The sixth and last was an official discovery by
the United States Government.
The Indians of the Yellowstone region knew of the present Park tract.
They had a north-and-south trail across it, also one from east to
west. To them it was the "Top of the World," the "Land of Burning
Mountains," and the "Yellow Rock." But its wonders appear to have
produced little or no impression on the Indians; there is an absolute
dearth of myths, legends, and even of superstitions concerning it. To
me this is remarkable. From every point of view the natives regarded
the Yellowstone with indifference. Lewis and Clark daily questioned
Indians concerning the character of the country, but the explorers
heard nothing of the Yellowstone wonderland, although they passed and
repassed within a few miles of it.
The Indians made scant use of this territory. In an average year the
passes into it are blocked with snow for nine months of the twelve.
Besides, it is mostly covered with a tangle of forests. In earlier
days, living in it or traveling through it was difficult. Though
filled with big game during the summer, at no time of year was it
equal to the surrounding country as a hunting-ground.
John Colter, who first discovered the Yellowstone region in 1807, was
a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was a hunter and
trapper, a master of woodcraft, and an outdoor man of the first class;
at the time of the discovery he was thirty-five years of age, nearly
six feet tall, and an athlete who could hold his own in the games of
the trappers' rendezvous. His endurance, courage, and resourcefulness
were marvelous. Neither wilderness nor hostile Indian had terrors for
him. The five years that he spent in the Yellowstone region were so
crowded with wilderness adventure that his name is immortal in the
history of the American frontier. He obtained his release from the
Lewis and Clark exploring party at a point on the Missouri River, some
distance below the mouth of the Yellowstone, in August, 1806. He had
served with the expedition more than two years.
With two trappers, Colter that year proceeded up the Missouri and
spent the winter somewhere on its headwaters. The following spring he
left his companions and started for St. Louis. After a solitary
journey of about two thousand miles, he met Manuel Lisa, the
celebrated trapper and trader, who, with a large party, was on his way
to found a trading-post somewhere on the headwaters of the Missouri.
Lisa persuaded Colter to turn back with him.
Strong is the lure of the wilderness. Although Colter had been away
from civilization three years, and a triumphant welcome awaited his
return, he again postponed the enjoyment of all that old friends and
city attractions could offer, to resume the adventurous experiences of
a trapper's life among hostile Indians in the wilds.
Lisa built a trading-post, Fort Manuel, at the junction of the Big
Horn and Yellowstone Rivers, about two hundred miles southeast of the
Yellowstone Park. From here, with a thirty-pound pack and rifle,
Colter set off alone on a thousand-mile journey into the wilderness to
tell the surrounding Indian tribes of this new trading-post.
He traveled a few hundred miles to the southwest without notable
adventure. We now marvel at the results of this journey, for its
discoveries put Colter in the front rank of geographical explorers on
the American continent. He discovered the Wind River Range, Union
Pass, Jackson Hole, Teton Pass, Pierre's Hole, and the Grand Teton. He
was the first to see the headwaters of those two great rivers the
Green Fork of the Colorado and the Snake Fork of the Columbia. These
discoveries might well have been enough for any one man, but his
greatest discovery was still before him.
Colter was with a band of Crows near Pierre's Hole when it was
attacked by marauding Blackfeet. Of necessity Colter fought with the
Crows, who were victorious. The Blackfeet blamed Colter for their
defeat, and from this incident may have arisen the long-continued
hostility of the Blackfeet tribes against the whites.
Again alone, Colter set forth from Pierre's Hole, St. Anthony, Idaho,
and traveled straight across the mountains to Fort Manuel. A wound in
the leg, which he had received in the fight with the Blackfeet, was
not yet healed. The direct route that he took for his return may have
been chosen as the shortest, but most probably was selected in order
to avoid the Blackfeet.
The crowning achievement of this remarkable journey was the discovery
and traversing of the Yellowstone wonderland. His course took Colter
diagonally, from southwest to northeast, across what now is the
Yellowstone National Park. He probably passed along the west shore of
Yellowstone Lake, and may have followed the Yellowstone River from the
lake to the falls. He saw numerous geysers, hot springs, paint-pots,
and possibly Sulphur Mountain. He noted that numerous rivers had their
sources in the Park and flowed from it in all directions, thus
justifying the Indian name for the region, "Top of the World." After
crossing Mount Washburn he probably forded the river near Tower Falls
and then followed the east fork of the Yellowstone.
Colter arrived safely at Fort Manuel after a journey of about three
hundred miles from Pierre's Hole and a round trip of about eight
hundred miles. Aside from its geographical value, this was a
remarkable wilderness achievement.
A little later came the most extraordinary chapter of Colter's
adventurous life. In 1809, with a companion named John Potts, he was
trapping beavers near the Three Forks of the Missouri. They were
rowing up a small stream that flowed into the Jefferson River, the
most western of the forks. At a point on this stream about five miles
from the Jefferson, they heard a great trampling. High banks and
brushwood shut off their view.
Presently about five hundred Blackfeet appeared on the banks and
ordered them to come ashore. Escape was impossible. The two men had
the hardihood to throw the beaver-traps overboard, hoping to recover
them later. As the canoe touched the shore, an Indian snatched Potts's
rifle from him. Thereupon Colter sprang ashore, wrested the rifle from
the Indian, and handed it to Potts who immediately pushed off into the
stream. Colter told him to come back and not to try to escape. An
arrow whizzed by Colter, and Potts fell back in the canoe, crying out,
"I'm done for!" as he shot an Indian dead. In an instant his body was
filled with arrows.
The Blackfeet seized Colter and stripped him naked, then discussed
methods of torturing him to death. They decided to set him up for a
target, but the chief interfered--that was not exciting enough for
him. Seizing Colter by the shoulder, he asked him if he could run
fast. The question was greeted with howls of delight by the Blackfeet.
The chief led Colter out on the prairie about three hundred yards from
the band, pointed in the direction of the Jefferson River, told him to
save himself if he could, and cast him loose. Colter ran, the
Blackfeet whooped and pursued, and the race for life was on.
The ground was thick with prickly pears that pierced Colter's bare
feet. Nevertheless, he kept ahead of his pursuers. When about half the
five miles to the Jefferson had been covered, he ventured to look
back. The Indians were much scattered, and he had gained on the main
body; but one Indian, carrying a spear, was close upon him.
Colter exerted himself to the utmost, and by the time he came within a
mile of the Jefferson he was exhausted and blood from his nostrils had
covered the front of his body. He stopped suddenly, turned, and spread
out his arms. The Blackfoot, almost upon him, but also exhausted,
attempted to stop and throw his spear, but he fell and the spear
broke. Colter sprang upon him, seized the spear-head, pinned him to
the ground, and ran on.
The foremost of the remaining Indians stopped by the fallen runner.
When others came, they all set up a whoop and resumed the chase.
Colter gained the river-bank in advance of all his pursuers, just
where there happened to be a large beaver house, standing partly
against the bank and partly in the water. Knowing that the entrance to
the house was at the bottom, under the water, he dived and succeeded
in forcing his way to the floor just above the water-level.
Man fleeing from man has hidden in strange places, but it may be
doubted whether one ever before sought safety in a beaver house of
brush and mud!
Soon the Blackfeet were searching all over the place, "screeching like
so many devils." They made search for the naked white man all the rest
of the day. Apparently even their savage cunning never suspected the
beaver house. Although they frequently clambered over it, they did not
disturb it.
When night came and Colter could no longer hear the Indians, he swam
downstream, gained the prairie, and headed for Fort Manuel, some two
hundred miles away. Naked, with bleeding feet, he walked over prickly
pears on the prairie and through snow in the mountains, which he
crossed above the timber-line. The sun blistered him. Part of the
time, he traveled by night and lay hid by day. He appears to have
lived chiefly on the Indian-turnip (_Psoralea esculenta_).
Colter arrived at Fort Manuel in terrible shape. At first the men did
not recognize him. He had been eleven days in making the distance
between Three Forks and the fort.
That winter Colter had the courage to go back alone to the scene of
his capture to recover his beaver-traps. Before he reached them he was
ambushed by Blackfeet, but escaped. He returned to the fort, and the
following spring he was with Pierre Menard at Three Forks when the
place was successfully attacked by Blackfeet. Colter was among the few
who escaped.
Pierre Menard wrote a four-page letter to his brother-in-law, Pierre
Chouteau, and Colter started with it for St. Louis. With a companion,
"Mr. William Bryant," he made the three-thousand-mile journey by canoe
in thirty days. Upon his arrival at St. Louis, he reported to his old
commander, William Clark; told him the story of his journeys,
discoveries, and adventures, and gave him much material for his
forthcoming map of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Clark traced on
the map the route of Colter's Yellowstone Park journey and gave it the
legend "Colter's Route of 1807."
There is nothing incredible about any of Colter's stories. His
accounts of the Yellowstone region appear to have been remarkably true
to fact. His escape from the Indians, and his various journeys, are
experiences within the range of human achievement. His hiding in a
beaver house is easily possible. His race and his naked journey across
the mountains show the courage and hardihood of the frontiersman of
the day. I have been over the place where he ran for his life from the
Blackfeet and have followed his trail across the mountains.
Henry M. Brackenridge, the author of "Views of Louisiana, together
with Journal," secured Colter's story at first hand, and he does it
justice. John Bradbury, author of "Travels into the Interior of North
America," did much important work in the Mississippi and Missouri
Valleys in the years 1809-11. He also got Colter's story from Colter
himself, and gives a careful account of the race for life with the
Blackfeet. The account given by General Thomas James, in "Three Years
among the Indians and Mexicans," is a third first-hand story of
Colter's activities. Washington Irving was too good a literary
craftsman to overlook Colter's story. In "Astoria" he retells the
escape from the Blackfeet. General Hiram M. Chittenden gives full
appreciation to Colter in his "History of the Early Western Fur Trade"
and "The Yellowstone National Park," both standard works.
Nevertheless, St. Louis did not believe Colter. He told his travels,
discoveries, and adventures, and the people laughed in derision. For
two generations St. Louis mockingly referred to the Yellowstone
wonderland as "Colter's Hell."
Colter married and went to live near Daniel Boone at La Charette. He
declined to join the Astoria expedition, and this is the last heard
of him. He may have died shortly afterwards; or it is possible that,
because of unjust public opinion, he may have moved into seclusion. At
any rate, the later years and the burial-place of the first discoverer
of the Yellowstone National Park are unknown.
Colter's story is a wilderness story of supreme character. It is full
of the vigor and independence of outdoors. Colter is an heroic and
picturesque figure in national history. I wish every boy and girl in
the land could read his adventures.
The second discovery of the Yellowstone site was also made by a
trapper. James Bridger, of Fort Bridger fame, was there in 1830, but
his description of its wonders was laughed at as "just another of old
Jim Bridger's good yarns." Between 1830 and 1843 the region was
visited by many trappers and traders, and its wonders were common
knowledge to the plainsmen of the Missouri Valley. Some accounts got
into print. Nevertheless, the Yellowstone was no more real to the
American of that generation than was "Colter's Hell" to the generation
before.
Trapping began to fall off. The Mexican War and the California gold
excitement led public attention away from the Yellowstone country, and
by the beginning of the Civil War it was as completely forgotten as if
it had never been known.
It was the prospector who gave the Yellowstone tract to the world for
the third time. By 1865, reports of its wonders had been spread far
and wide by prospectors attracted to the region by the Montana gold
excitement. At last Montana became mildly curious over these reports.
In 1869, David E. Folsom, C. W. Cook, and William Peterson visited the
region. They told enough to bring about the organization of a large
semi-official expedition.
This Yellowstone expedition (1870) is known as the "Washburn-Doane
Expedition," and from it dates the latter-day history of the Park.
Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, Second Cavalry, U.S.A., with a sergeant
and four privates was detailed from Fort Ellis to escort the
expedition. Among its nine civilians were General Henry D. Washburn,
Surveyor-General of Montana; Nathaniel P. Langford, author of
"Vigilante Days and Ways" and first superintendent of the Park;
Cornelius Hedges, who first proposed setting apart the region as a
National Park; and Samuel T. Hauser, president of the First National
Bank of Helena, and later Governor of Montana.
So skeptical was this party that when the steam of Old Faithful was
first seen through the woods it was believed to be a forest fire.
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."
Through the press and lecture-platform, the Washburn-Doane expedition
spread the knowledge of its discoveries broadcast over the country.
The direct result of its work was that the United States Government
sent an official expedition to the Park the next year. This was a
joint expedition made up from the Engineering Corps of the Army and
from the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. The
official United States Government expedition of 1871 officially put it
on the map, with official scientific notes and photographs. Thus the
sixth discovery of this wondrous region, after two generations of
unbelief, convinced the people that it existed!
During these two generations the unexplored wilderness of the
Louisiana Purchase had been formed into seven new States of the Union,
containing more than five million people. And "Colter's Hell," when
its existence had been finally and officially established, was within
two hundred and fifty miles of a transcontinental railroad.