The Washburn-Doane Expedition of 1870, which proved a large factor in
the creation of the Yellowstone National Park, was marked by one of
the most extraordinary incidents in the annals of the American
frontier.
Truman C. Everts, a former United States Assessor for Montana, was a
member of the party. On September 9, he became separated from it and
for thirty-seven days wandered in the Yellowstone wilderness.
Everts was wholly unfit to take care of himself in the wilderness. He
was a city man, without experience in the wilds, timid, unresourceful,
and very near-sighted. The first day he lost his glasses. The second
day, while he was dismounted, his horse took fright and ran away with
his traveling equipment. He tried for hours to capture the horse, but
failed. Everts was left alone on foot in the rough country south of
Yellowstone Lake, without food, gun, axe, blankets, or matches.
He went back to where he had fastened notes upon trees; but these had
not been seen by his companions. By this time it was mid-afternoon.
Toward evening he realized that he was completely lost.
Without food, fire, or shelter, he passed the night in the depths of a
forest. There was a hard frost. Coyotes howled, and lions cried. His
overwrought imagination conjured up endless terrors and dangers from
the strange and ever-changing sounds of the wilderness.
On the third day out, Everts started off to follow, as he supposed,
the direction taken by his companions, but took the opposite
direction. He passed near numbers of animals. Finally he came to a
small lake around which were many hot springs. In the water were many
wild-fowl. He was starving, but had nothing with which to kill game.
Fearful as he was of Indians, hunger led him to hope that he might
meet them.
The loss of his eyeglasses was calamitous. Out in the lake he saw what
he took for a boat coming to land, and he joyfully hastened to the
shore to meet it. But when his "boat" took wings and transformed
itself into a huge pelican, he was unnerved and almost lost hope.
At this lake he fortunately discovered a species of thistle with large
edible roots, and these formed his principal sustenance for weeks. He
took up the uncertain fight for primitive necessities. At the lake he
became afraid, imagining that a mountain lion was near. He climbed
into a tree and remained there most of the night. When at last he
descended, half frozen, a heavy September snowstorm was coming on.
To avoid freezing to death, he built a rude shelter of boughs over one
of the hot springs. In the boiling water he cooked his thistle-roots.
For several days he remained in this shelter; then, realizing that if
he stayed longer he might perish in another storm, he traveled on.
Day after day, Everts hoped that his companions would find him. During
two weeks they searched diligently, leaving small deposits of food at
places where they thought he might pass. They fired guns, put up
signs, and lighted fires on the heights; but the rough, wooded nature
of the country, and Everts's near-sightedness, made these efforts
unavailing. Reluctantly his friends gave up the search and went on;
but when they reached a settlement they sent back a rescue party.
Necessity stimulates thought. The only thing remaining in Everts's
pockets was a little field-glass. Remembering that a lens would
concentrate the sun's rays, he concluded that with his glass he might
start a fire, and in this he succeeded.
Onward he traveled. If a day came with the sky overcast, he had to
camp at night without a fire. To relieve the discomfort of this, for
several days he carried a brand, but this burned his hands and smoked
his eyes so severely, and so often went out, that at last he abandoned
it and depended entirely upon the lens. One afternoon he stopped with
the intention of building a fire. But the lens was missing. Almost
exhausted, he dragged himself back to his last camp, and there,
fortunately, the lens was found.
During a storm a benumbed bird fell into his hands, and he devoured it
raw. In vain he tried to catch fish. As he stood on the margin of
Yellowstone Lake, a gull's wing drifted ashore. This supplied his only
satisfying meal. It was instantly stripped of its feathers, pounded
between stones, and boiled in a tin can which Everts had found.
Hastily devouring the unsalted soup, he lay down and slept for several
hours.
He had resolution and will-power, and greatly needed them. His stomach
rebelled at thistle-roots. His mind wandered. He lost track of time.
But his determination drove him on, though he was growing weaker each
day. During the thirty-seven days he had traveled in a northerly
course from south of Yellowstone Park to the summit of one of the
bluffs, several miles to the east of Mammoth Hot Springs. Here, barely
alive, he was rescued by two men of the final searching party sent out
by his companions.
Everts not only recovered, but lived for thirty-one years after his
terrible experience, dying at the age of eighty-five. One of the peaks
in the Park, Mount Everts, is named for him.
The adventures of Colter and Everts are inspiring achievements. They
give thrilling views of primitive life, and are striking instances of
men, empty-handed, successfully combating Nature. The stability, the
will-power, the insistent, tenacious hopefulness of these men were
extraordinary. Courageously they met and mastered the swiftly coming
obstacles and afflictions that fate thrust thick and fast upon them.
Their deeds are a part of our helpful heritage in the Yellowstone
wonderland.