CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Gift of Samuel B. Bird '21 DATE DUE ,_tobwwi "*ujf^-J"|| ■ WW j ~ — HMmM MHii' T g kj J "ww*- jl Mtta AnB3 c ' 111 1, ™"«q GAYLORD PRINTED INUSA Cornell University Library F 722.C54 1915 3 1924 024 573 135 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024573135 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE Illustrated By HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN Brigadier-General United States Army. (Ret.) Author of " American Fur Trade of the Far West," "History of Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River" etc. New and Enlarged Edition, Entirely Revised Printed from new plates CINCINNATI STEWART & KIDD COMPANY 1915 COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN Copyright, 1903, by HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN Copyright, 1915, by HIRAM MARTIN CHITTENDEN All Rights Reserved Copyright in England Eighth impression March, 1915 U PKEFACE IN" submitting to the public this second general revision of " The Yellowstone," reference to the author's official connection, now permanently severed, with the region to which it relates may not be out of place. It has proven a rule almost without exception that those who have been assigned to duty in the Park, whether in public or private capacity, have become enamored of the service there and have accepted its termination with feelings of affectionate regret. Such was emphatically the author's experience. A two years' detail (1891-92) as assistant to the officer in charge of road construction, developed an interest in that region which has never since diminished. The first edition of "The Yellowstone" (1895) was an outgrowth of that early acquaintance. Later, in 1899, after the close of the Spanish-American war, the author was again sent to the Park, this time in exclusive charge of the road work. By a fortunate combination of circumstances Congress was induced to give upward of a million dollars for the work during the next seven years and thus to make possible the development of a really comprehensive system of highways. This work, which embraced the construction, more or less complete, of about four hundred miles of mountain roads, was of absorbing interest, and it is a matter of no especial credit that the author should have given to it, from beginning to end, the utmost of his time and abilities. It was in the fullest sense a labor of love and to an un- usual degree one of direct personal supervision. Disap- pointment there was, as in all similar work, in the never- ceasing, but rarely successful, effort to bridge completely the chasm between an ideal result and that which available resources permit. Sacrifice, too, there was, apart from the iv PREFACE deep draught upon physical energy, in the relinquishment of opportunities of greater professional importance else- where, but the determination to see the work through pre- vailed over all other considerations. Then there was at the time the irresistible " call of the wild " — grandeur of scenery, cerulean skies, the entrancing lure of the forest trails, and those myriad other inspiring influences which make one content to accept a mountain life as one's perma- nent lot. The spell was a real one and the memory of it still lingers like the aroma of a feast that is done, but with the poignant reflection that it can be no more. Thus it results that this revision of " The Yellowstone " is full of reminiscence to the author — a fact which is doubt- less sufficiently apparent in the following pages. But it has also been a work of painstaking care, and no labor has been spared to make the book an authority upon the sub- ject of which it treats. In the historical section greater care has been taken in the literary form; the repertoire of Bridger stories has been enlarged, and additional facts are presented concerning that interesting pioneer, John Colter. The descriptive section has been extensively altered to conform to the progress of events, particularly in their relation to the administrative work of the Park. As to the subject-matter itself, the author may properly repeat here from the preface of the previous edition that in every important respect the Yellowstone Park has so far fulfilled the expectation of its founders and has justified the wisdom of its creation. Our national parks are grow- ing into an institution and the Yellowstone was the pioneer and remains the most important of them all. If official ambition for innovation and mercenary ambition for private gain are held under adequate restraint, there is no reason why it may not continue to the latest generation a genuine example of original nature — a benefit and an enjoyment, as the Act of Dedication puts it, to the people whose wisdom has preserved it to posterity. CONTENTS PART I.— HISTORICAL CHAPTER I.— The Name " Yellowstone " 1 CHAPTER II.— The Indian and the Yellowstone 5 CHAPTER III.— The Trader and Trapper 13 CHAPTER IV.— John Colter 20 CHAPTER V.— Early Knowledge of the Yellowstone 33 CHAPTER VI.— Bridger and His Stories 44 CHAPTER VII.— Raynolds' Expedition 49 CHAPTER VIII.— The Gold-seeker 54 CHAPTER IX.— Discovery 60 CHAPTER X.— The National Park Idea— Its Origin and Realization 73 CHAPTER XI.— Why So Long Unknown ' 81 CHAPTER XII.— Later Explorations 85 CHAPTER XIII.— The Park Names 91 CHAPTER XIV— Administrative History of the Park 109 CHAPTER XV.— Hostile Indians in the Park 122 CHAPTER XVI.— Experiences of the Radersburg Tourists. . . 130 CHAPTER XVII.— Experiences of the Helena Tourists 140 CHAPTER XVIII.— Lost in the Wilderness 146 v vi CONTENTS PART II.— DESCRIPTIVE PAGE CHAPTER I.— Boundaries and Topography 155 CHAPTER II.— Geological History of the Park 168 CHAPTER III.— The Rocks of the Park 177 CHAPTER IV.— Geysers 181 CHAPTER V.— Hot Springs and Kindred Features 188 CHAPTER VI.— The Climate of the Park 197 CHAPTER VII.— Fauna of the Yellowstone 202 CHAPTER VIII.— Flora of the Yellowstone 215 CHAPTER IX.— Forests of the Yellowstone 219 CHAPTER X.— The Flowers of the Yellowstone 227 CHAPTER XI.— The Park Road System 237 CHAPTER XII.— Administration of the Park 252 CHAPTER XIII.— A Tour of the Park— Preliminary 260 CHAPTER XIV.— A Tour of the Park— North Boundary to Mammoth Hot Springs 263 CHAPTER XV— A Tour of the Park— Mammoth Hot Springs to Norris Geyser Basin 269 CHAPTER XVI.— A Tour of the Park— Norris Geyser Basin to Lower Geyser Basin 273 CHAPTER XVII.— A Tour of the Park— Lower Geyser Basin to Upper Geyser Basin 278 CHAPTER XVIIL— A Tour of the Park— Upper Geyser Basin to Yellowstone Lake Hotel 284 CHAPTER XIX.— A Tour of the Park— Yellowstone Lake to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone 298 CHAPTER XX.— A Tour of the Park— Grand Canyon to Tower Falls — Mt. Washburn 306 CHAPTER XXL— A Tour of the Park— Tower Falls to the Mammoth Hot Springs 317 CONTENTS vii APPENDIX PAGE Mountain Ranges, Peaks, Buttes, Ridges, Hills 327 Mountain Passes 328 Lakes 328 Streams 329 Waterfalls 331 List of .Prominent Geysers 331 Biographical Notes 335 Index 343 ILLUSTRATIONS FAQS Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone . . Frontispiece Tower Falls 20 Minerva Terrace 42 Lower Falls of the Yellowstone — Original Sketch by Private Moore, a Soldier in the Escort of the Expedition of 1870. (First Picture of the Falls ever Made) 67 National Park Mountain. (In camp in near fore- ground, September 19, 1870, the proposition to create the Yellowstone National Park was first suggested) , 80 Koad in Gardiner Canyon near Northern Entrance . 100 Old Faithful Inn 117' Old Faithful Geyser 185 Eoad near Western Entrance 238 Eapids Above Upper Fall of the Yellowstone — Eein- forced Concrete Bridge — Mt. Washburn in Back- ground, Distant Seven Miles .... 246 Golden Gate Viaduct. (Built in 1900) . . .267 Beehive Geyser 281 Lower Falls of the Yellowstone 301 Turnabout on Mt. Washburn Eoad . . . .309 Lower End of Grand Canyon — near Tower Falls . 315 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK PART I.— HISTORICAL CHAPTER I THE NAME "YELLOWSTONE" LEWIS and Clark passed the first winter of their famous 4 trans-continental expedition among the Mandan In- dians, on the Missouri River, fifty-six miles above the present capital of North Dakota. When about to resume their westward journey in the spring of 1805, they sent back to President Jefferson a report of progress and a map of the country they were traversing based upon informa- tion derived from the Indians. In this report and upon this map appear, probably 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, himself a celebrated explorer and geographer, prominently iden- tified with the British fur trade in the Northwest, was among the Mandan Indians on the Missouri Eiver from December 29, 1797, to January 10, 1798. While there he secured data, principally 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 determina- 2 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK tions, 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 Anglicized form, and it is certainly the first attempt to determine accurately the geographical location of the source of the stream.* 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 the American explorers, 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 Eoehe Jaune, or, as we have called it, the Yellow Stone." The French name was, in fact, in general use among the traders and trappers of the Northwest Fur Company, when Lewis and Clark met them • among the Mandans. Even by the members of the expedi- tion it seems to have been more generally used than the new English form; and the spellings, "Bejone," "Bejhone," " Eochejone," " Eochejohn," and " Eochejhone," 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 Americanization, to give English names to all of the more prominent geographical features. In this particular in- stance the process of change was slow. The French form * 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. THE NAME "YELLOWSTONE ' 3 had obtained such wide currency that it was reluctantly set aside for its less familiar translation. As late as 1817, it still appeared in newly English printed books,* while among the traders and trappers of the mountains it sur- vived to a much later period. 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 In- dian tribes along the Yellowstone and upper Missouri Eivers had names for the tributary stream signifying " yellow rock," f and the French had doubtless adopted them long before any of their number saw the stream itself. It thus appears 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. Seventy-five miles below the ultimate source of the river lies the Grand Canyon of. the Yellowstone, distinguished among the notable canyons of the globe by the marvelous coloring of its walls. The prevailing tint is yellow, and every gradation, 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, un- paralleled in variety and abundance, but the ever-present background of it 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 Canyon abound in references to it. Lieutenant Doane (1870) notes the " brilliant yellow color " of the rocks. Captain Barlow and Dr. Hayden (1871) refer, in almost the same words, * Bradbury's " Travels in the Interior of America." t The name " Elk River " was also used among the Crow In- dians. 4 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK to "the yellow, nearly vertical walls." Raymond (1871) epeaks of the " bright yellow of the sulphury clay." Cap- tain Jones (1873) says that " about and in the Grand Canyon 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 modem beholder should have made an impression on the mind of the Indian need hardly be premised; and from the remote period of his first acquaintance with this region, the name of the river has undoubtedly descended. Going back, then, to this obscure fountain-head, at least one original designation is found to have been Mi tsi a da zi,* Rock Yellow River. And this, in the French tongue, became Roche Jaime and Pierre Jaune; and in English, Yellow Bock and Yellow Stone. Established usage now writes it Yellowstone. * Minnetaree, one of the Siouan family of languages. CHAPTEK II THE INDIAN AND THE YELLOWSTONE IT is a singular fact in the history of the Yellowstone Rational Park that very little knowledge of that coun- try seems to have been derived from native sources. The explanation ordinarily advanced is that the Indians had a superstitious fear of the geyser regions, and there- fore avoided them. How far investigation supports this theory is an interesting inquiry. Three great families of Indians, the Siouan, the Algon- quian, 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, of the Siouan family; the Black- feet, of the Algonquian family; and the Bannocks, the Eastern Shoshones, and the Sheepeaters, of the Shosho- nean family. The home of the Crows was in the Valley of the Yellow- stone and Big Horn Eivers, 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 Boot Mountains, and from the British Possessions to the Spanish Provinces. They were generally friendly to the whites, but enemies of the neighboring Blackfeet and Shoshones. Physically, they 5 6 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK were a stalwart, handsome race, fine horsemen and daring hunters. They were everywhere encountered by the trap- per and prospector, who generally feared them more on account of their thievish habits than for reasons of per- sonal safety. The Blackfeet dwelt in the country drained by the headwaters of the Missouri. The distinguishing historic trait of these Indians was a settled hostility to their neighbors, whether white or Indian. They were a tribe of perpetual fighters, justly characterized as the Ishmael- ites of their race. From the day in 1806, when Captain Lewis slew one of their number, down to their final sub- jection 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 Crow,s, 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 inferior to most of the surrounding tribes. Their country was largely a barren waste and their precarious means of subsistence made them the prey of their powerful and merciless neighbors. The names " Fish-eaters," " Boot-diggers," and * The term Blackfeet in the earlier years of the past century embraced, in popular language, four tribes — the Blackfeet proper, the Bloods, the Piegan, and the Grosventres of the Prairies. The Grosventres did not properly belong to the Blackfeet at all, but were related to the Arapahoes, who dwelt near the headwaters of the. Arkansas. In some of their early migrations the two tribes had become separated, the Grosventres settling down in the coun- try of the Blackfeet, with whom, in the course of long association, they became closely identified. They were the most relentlessly hostile to the whites of any of the four tribes. It was a Gros- ventre Indian that Captain Lewis killed in 1806. THE INDIAN AND THE YELLOWSTONE 7 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 southwest near the Teton Mountains, and the other that to the southeast in the Valley of Wind Eiver. 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 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 dwelt in the region of 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 Indians were veritable hermits of the mountains, utterly unfit for warlike contention, and seem to have sought immunity from their dangerous neighbors by dwelling among the inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains. Their rigorous existence left its mark on their physical nature. They were feeble in mind, diminutive in stature, and are 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. Such were the Indian tribes who formerly dwelt within or near the country now embraced in the Yellowstone Park. That the Sheepeaters actually occupied this country, and that wandering bands from other tribes occasionally visited it, there is abundant proof. Indian trails, though 8 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK indistinct, were found by the early explorers, generally on lines since occupied by the tourist routes. One of these followed the Yellowstone Valley across the Park from north to south. It divided at Yellowstone Lake, the prin- cipal branch following the east shore, crossing Two-Ocean- Pass, and intersecting a great trail which connected the Snake and Wind Eiver Valleys. The other branch passed along the west shore of the lake and over the divide to the valley of the Snake Eiver and Jackson Lake. This trail was intersected by an important one in the vicinity of Conant Creek leading up from the Upper Snake Valley to that of Henry Fork. Other intersecting trails connected the Yellowstone Kiver trail with the Madison and Firehole Basins on the west and with the Bighorn Valley on the east. The most important trail, however, was that known as the Great Bannock Trail. It extended from Henry Lake across the Gallatin Eange to Mammoth Hot Springs, where it was joined by another coming up the valley of the Gardiner. Thence it led across the plateau to the ford above Tower Palls ; and thence up the Lamar Valley, forking at Soda Butte, and reaching the Bighorn Valley by way of Clark's Pork and the Shoshone Eiver. This trail was an ancient and much-traveled one. It had become a deep furrow in the grassy slopes, and in recent years was still visible in places, though unused for a quarter of a century. Additional evidence of Indian acquaintance with the Upper Yellowstone may be seen in the discovery of im- plements peculiar to Indian use. Arrows and spear heads have been found in considerable numbers. Obsidian Cliff was a quarry for these weapons, and numbers have been picked up in the open country near the outlet of Yellow- stone Lake. It is said that 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 THE INDIAN AND THE YELLOWSTONE 9 a symmetrical mound in the valley of the Snake Biver, below the mouth of Heart Eiver, is of artificial origin. Eeference will be made later to the discovery of a rude granite structure near the top of the Grand Teton, which is unquestionably of very ancient date. Eustic Geyser, in the Heart Lake 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." * More recent and perish- able proofs were found by the early explorers in the rude wick-e-ups, brush inclosures, and similar contrivances of the lonely Sheepeaters. While there is no doubt that Indians occasionally visited the Park country, as the foregoing evidence proves, it is equally certain that their acquaintance with it was ex- tremely limited. Very little information about the geyser regions was derived from them. With one or two excep- tions, the old trails were indistinct, requiring an experi- enced eye to distinguish them from game trails. Their undeveloped condition indicated infrequent use. Old trappers who knew this region in early times say that the great majority of Indians never saw it. Able Indian guides in the surrounding country became lost when they entered the Park country, and the Nez Perees were forced to impress a white man as guide when they crossed it in 1877. A 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 they "were quite appalled" at the sight of them, believing them to be " supernatural " and the " pro- duction of the Evil Spirit." * Page 298, Twelfth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden. It is more than probable that this was the work of trappers. 10 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Lieutenant Doane, who commanded the military escort to the Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, says in his report: * "Appearances indicated that the basin [of the Yellow- stone 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 In- dians, 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." In 1880, Colonel 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, TJ. S. A. He had also been in the Park region on former occasions. Colonel Norris records the following facts from this Indian's conversation : f "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 [Sho- shones], the Bannocks, and the Crows, occasionally visited the Yellowstone Lake and Eiver 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." It seems that even the resident Sheepeaters knew little of the geyser basins. General Sheridan, who entered the * Page 26, " Yellowstone Expedition of 1870." t Page 38, Annual Report of Superfntendent of the Park for 1881. THE INDIAN AND THE YELLOWSTONE 11 Park from the South in 1882, makes this record in his report of the expedition : * "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 southeast of the Yellowstone Lake, they knew nothing about the Firehole Geyser Basin, and they exhibited more astonishment and wonder than any of us." Evidence like the foregoing 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 "super- stitious 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. Unfor- tunately history records none that are worthy of considera- tion. 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.f The real explanation appears to rest on grounds essen- tially 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 cov- ered with dense forests, which in most places are so filled with fallen timber and tangled underbrush as to be prac- tically 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 Eivers, it was no thoroughfare. The great routes, except the Bannock * Page 11, Report on Explorations of Parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, 1882. t See, however, page 41. 12 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK trail already described, lay on the outside. All the condi- tions, 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 paleface brethren. CHAPTER III THE TRADER AND TRAPPER THE tourist who visits the Park by the northern en- trance leaves the main line of the railway at Living- ston, Mont., and takes a branch road which leads almost directly south fifty miles up the valley of the Yellowstone Eiver. It is at this point that the river, after flowing north a hundred and fifty miles, turns abruptly to the east to join the Missouri more than four hundred miles below. As the traveler stands on the station platform and surveys the little valley hemmed in by the mountains, he sees to the south a prominent gap through which the river approaches and through which his train will soon bear him. Looking to his right, as he stands facing this gap, he sees the main track of the railroad coming in from the west from over a pass ten miles distant which separates the waters of the Yellowstone from those of the Missouri. This pass — Bozeman by name and now pierced by a rail- way tunnel — was a great thoroughfare for the Indian just as it has proven to be for the white man who followed him. It is interesting historic ground and the scene of many a thrilling episode in the pioneer history of Montana. If our traveler, has taken the trouble to post himself upon the history of the country he is visiting, he will picture to himself, as he looks westerly up the line of the railway, an event which took place there more than a cen- tury before, or to be exact, about noon of the 15th of July, 1806. At that hour there might have been seen approach- ing the river a company of eleven white men, a squaw and child, and a cavalcade of fifty horses. It was, so far as we know, the coming of the white man for the first time to this important spot. The company was a 13 14 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK detachment from the homeward bound expedition of Lewis and Clark and was under the command of Captain Clark himself. No better proof need be sought of the general ignorance of the Park country which prevailed among the surround- ing tribes than the fact that no rumor of that marvelous region seems to have reached the ears of these explorers. Their comments show that they suspected nothing of the truth, and as they looked south through the mountain gap upon peaks still white with the previous winter snows, there was no suggestion that a side trip in that direction would be rewarded by any unusual discovery. It was a fortunate escape for that region, in view of its future destiny, as we shall explain more fully further on; but one cannot help regretting that this early expedition, which made such a success of all it undertook, should have • missed altogether the most remarkable natural phenomena that lay along its entire route. For fifty years after Lewis and Clark returned from their expedition, the headwaters of the Yellowstone re- mained unexplored except by the trader and trapper. It was the traffic in peltries that first induced extensive ex- ploration of the West. Concerning the precious metals, the people seem to have had little faith in their abundant existence there, and no organized search for them was made in the earlier years of the century. But that country 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 settle- ment the lonely trapper, and after him the trader, pene- trated 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 THE TRADER AND TRAPPER 15 resume 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 com- panies 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 rapidly 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 Northwest 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 pene- trated the Northwest and 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 compro- 16 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK mise was 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 1816 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 company ever attained the splendid organization, nor the influence over the In- dians, 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 opera- tions within the territory of the United States was nearly coincident with the present western boundary of the Yel- lowstone 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 1808, 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 experi- ences 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 Missis- sippi now included in the States of Wisconsin and Min- nesota. Astor formed a new company, partly with Amer- ican and partly with Canadian capital, bought out the Mackinaw Company and changed its name to Southwest Fur Company. But scarcely had its promising career begun when it was cut short by the War of 1812. THE TRADER AND TRAPPER 17 The failure of these two attempts caused Mr. Astor to turn to the old American Fur Company. The Exclusion Act of 1816 enabled him to buy at his own price the North- west Pur Company's posts on the upper rivers, and the American Company rapidly extended its trade over all the country, from Lake Superior to the Eocky 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 by 1830 was complete master of the trade throughout the Missouri Valley. In 1834, Astor sold his interests to Pratte, Chouteau and Company, of St. Louis, and retired from the business. At this time the general western limits of the territory operated in by this formida- ble company were the mountains which bound the Yellow- stone Park on the north and east. Its line of operations was down the Missouri River to St. Louis, and its trading posts were located at frequent intervals between. The third of the rival companies was the Rocky Moun- tain Fur Company, which was founded in St. Louis in 1822 by General W. H. Ashley, and received its full organ- ization in 1826 under the direction of Jedediah S. Smith, David Jackson, and William L. Sublette. Among the leading spirits, who at one time or another guided its affairs, was the famous mountaineer, James Bridger, whose name is conspicuous in the history of the Yellowstone. This company had its general center of operations on the headwaters 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 opera- tions. By the necessities of its exclusively mountain trade it developed a new feature of the fur business. The voyagew, with his canoe and oar, gave way to the moun- taineer, 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 18 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK the plains. These rendezvous were agreed upon each year at localities best suited to the convenience of the trade. Hither in the spring came from the east convoys of sup- plies 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 Hud- son's Bay and American Fur Companies. It bordered the Park country on the south and southeast. Thus the territory of the great West was practically parceled out among these three companies. It must not be supposed that there was any agreement, tacit or open, that each company should keep within certain limits. There were 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 cither. 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. 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 Eio del Norte, and from the THE TRADER AND TRAPPER 19 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 unex- plored would seem extremely doubtful. That region lay, a sort of neutral ground, between the territories of the rival companies. Its streams abounded in 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, and had the fur business been more enduring, the geyser regions would have become known at least a generation sooner than they were. But that business was carried on with such relentless vigor that it naturally soon taxed the resources of nature beyond their 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 imme- diately 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 dis- appeared. 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. CHAPTEE IV JOHN COLTER THE first white man to set foot within the territory of the Yellowstone Park was the individual whose name stands at the head of this chapter. He was a typical frontiersman, though of more than average ability. Of undaunted courage and incredible endurance, his whole career, so far as we know it, was filled with perilous adven- ture, and his exploits might pass for fairy tales were they not substantiated by the most reliable evidence. He comes to our notice as a private soldier in the expedition of Lewis and Clark. During his service under these officers he won their respect and praise, and his work after he left them has won for him the respect and praise of his posterity. When Lewis and Clark reached Port Mandan on their return journey in 1806, Colter appealed to them to be relieved from further service in order that he might remain in the country and trap for beaver. The incident is thus recorded in the journal under date of August 15 and 16, 1806: " 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 20 Haynes Photo St. Paul Tower Falls JOHN COLTER 21 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." To Dur 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 con- tinues : " 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 frontier, 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 remained on the upper rivers until the spring of 1807, but just where, or with what adventure, is not known. After his first winter in the trapping business he decided to return to St. Louis. He set out in a log canoe entirely alone and 'made his way in safety as far as to the mouth of the Platte Eiver. Here he met an expedition under the celebrated trader, Manuel Lisa, bound for the headwaters of the Missouri to verify the glowing reports brought back by Lewis and Clark concerning the wealth of beaver fur to be found in that region. To Lisa the accession of such a recruit as John Colter, fresh from the very country to which he was going, was a matter of high importance. What inducements were offered we do not know, but enough to decide the self-exiled hunter to give up his return to civilization and to set his face for the third time toward the wilderness. Manuel Lisa would have saved the historian a great deal of trouble if he had kept and published a journal of his strenuous activities during the quarter of a century that 22 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK he was engaged in the fur trade on the Missouri. Had he done this we should in the present instance be less in doubt as to Colter's whereabouts and doings during the four years following the return of Lewis and Clark. As it is, we have to make up the record from several detached sources; but fortunately these are sufficiently in accord to give reasonable certainty to the main facts as stated below. Lisa had expected to find the Blackfeet hostile on account of the fact that one of their number had been killed by Captain Lewis. It was probably this conviction that led him to build his first establishment on the Yellowstone Eiver in the country of the Crows, the traditional enemies of the Blackfeet. But soon after his arrival in the Crow country a detachment of his trappers met a band of the Blackfeet who, much to the surprise of the whites, were friendly and said that they cherished no ill will on account of the incident with Captain Lewis, for it was evident that he had acted under great provocation. While this may have been, and probably was, subterfuge, Lisa accepted it in good faith and with much satisfaction, for it was highly important to his operations to have access to the Blackfoot country around the sources of the Missouri; and he con- tinued his efforts to establish himself there during the next three years. One of his first measures after selecting a site for his establishment at the mouth of the Big Horn Biver, was to dispatch Colter to the surrounding tribes for the purpose of bringing them in to the fort to trade. We are par- ticularly concerned with this expedition, for, as will later appear, it was the beginning of the white man's knowledge of the Yellowstone. But it is also noteworthy, quite apart from its historic value, for the extreme peril and hardihood of the adventure, and its immediate bearing upon the rela- tion of the fur traders to the Indian tribes. Colter was sent first to the Crow tribe, who were then far away in the mountains, as we learn from the following passage from Brackenridge : " This man, with a pack of JOHN COLTER 23 thirty pounds weight, his gun, and some ammunition, went upward of five hundred miles to the Crow nation; gave them information, and proceeded thence to several other tribes." From the map of his route, to be referred to later, it is evident that he ascended the Big Horn Eiver and the Wind River (the name of the upper course of the Big Horn) ; crossed the Wind River range and very likely saw the headwaters of the Colorado of the West; con- tinued on to what is now Jackson Hole at the eastern base of the Tetons; and apparently across Teton Pass to what was later known as Pierre's Hole on the west side of the range. Here the party of Crow Indians with whom he was at the time, fell in with a band of Blackfeet and the inevitable fight which always characterized a meeting of these two tribes followed. Colter, by the necessity of the case, fought with the Crows, distinguishing himself by his valor and receiving a wound in the leg. The Blackfeet were worsted and no doubt attributed their discomfiture to the paleface ally of their enemies. Colter was thus, to all appearances, another involuntary cause of the deadly enmity ever afterward cherished by this tribe toward the whites. Colter seems to have parted company with the Crows soon after this affair and we may conjecture that this took place in Jackson Hole, through which the party passed on its return to the Crow country on Wind River. Colter, who doubtless wanted to get back to Lisa's fort by the shortest route, took the trail north, either by the advice of the Crows or through his own good judgment as to the saving of distance by that course. Brackenridge records that, notwithstanding the wound in his leg, "he returned to the establishment entirely alone and without assistance several hundred miles." The interesting fact to us is that this part of his journey took him directly across what is now the Yellowstone Park. He undoubtedly saw the west arm of Yellowstone Lake and the hot springs district there, and also the Grand Canyon and Falls of the Yellowstone. He crossed Mt. Washburn to the ford over the Yellow- 24 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK stone at Tower Falls and passed out of the Park by way of the East Pork of the Yellowstone and the great Indian trail already described in these pages. When Colter returned to St. Louis in the spring of 1810, he described his journey to Lewis and Clark, who incorporated it in the map of their expedition and legended it " Colter's Eoute in 1807." Prom this map and from references by Biddle, Brackenridge, and others, we may positively credit Colter with being the first to explore the valley of the Big Horn and Wind Eivers, the first to dis- cover the sources of the Snake Biver and possibly also those of the Colorado of the West; the first to see the Teton Mountains, Jackson Hole, and Pierre's Hole, and most important of all, the first to pass through that singular region which has since become known throughout the world as the Yellowstone Wonderland. He noted, with true explorer's skill, as he well might from his past three years' training, the remarkable conformation of the country in the high mountain region where divergent streams flow from a common neighborhood to widely separated river systems. He commented as. follows upon the mountain passes between the valleys of the Wind and Snake Eivers. "At the head of the Gallatin Fork and of the Grosse Corne of the Yellowstone [the Big Horn Eiver], from dis- coveries since the voyage of Lewis and Clark, it is found less difficult to cross than the Allegheny Mountains. Colter, a celebrated hunter and woodsman, informed me that a loaded wagon would find no obstruction in passing." Colter very likely referred to Bozeman Pass between the Gallatin and the Yellowstone and to Union or Two-gwo- tee Pass at the head of Wind (Big Horn) Eiver. All in all, this remarkable achievement — remarkable in the courage and hardihood of this lone adventurer and remarkable in its unexpected results in geographical dis- covery — deserves to be classed among the most celebrated performances in the history of American exploration. Colter had now accomplished enough to entitle him to JOHN COLTER 25 lasting distinction, but honors of a more perilous character still awaited him. Just when the adventure which we are about to relate took place it is difficult to determine. It could scarcely have been in 1807. It may have been in the following year or more likely as late as 1809. It was an incident of " one of Colter's many excursions from the post [Lisa's] to the Forks of the Missouri for beaver" (James). The adventure itself concerned only two white men — Colter and a companion named Potts, probably the same who had been a fellow-soldier in the Lewis and Clark expedition. Colter was in the prime of life, about thirty-five in years, nearly six feet tall, with an "open pleasing countenance of the Daniel Boone type." He was highly esteemed by his companions, among whom "his veracity was never questioned " — as it might well have been, considering the extraordinary character of the experiences which he related. Three reputable authorities * have re- corded these experiences as given to them by Colter him- self. They agree more closely than such accounts gen- erally do and undoubtedly represent with reasonable ac- curacy one of the most remarkable adventures in the whole range of American frontier history. The narrative which follows is made up from these three authorities, principally from James and Bradbury. The scene of the adventure was on Jefferson Pork of the Missouri at a point not far above the junction with the Madison where the two streams were separated by about five miles of bottom land. Colter and Potts were moving up stream one morning, each in his own canoe in which were several beaver traps to be disposed of at suit- able places. The high shores or the brushwood bordering the stream shut off their view beyond the immediate banks. Suddenly they heard a noise like the tramping of many buffalo. Colter was for instant flight, fearing it might be •"Travels in North America,' 7 John Bradbury; "View of Louisiana," Henry M. Brackenridge; "Three Years Among the Indians and Mexicans," Thomas James. 26 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Indians, but Potts insisted that it was buffalo and so they kept on. A moment later their doubts were settled by the appearance of several hundred Indians upon the bank. The chiefs motioned to Colter and Potts to come ashore, and as it was useless to attempt to escape, they pushed their canoes toward the bank, quietly dumping their traps into the shallow water. Evidently they did not fully realize their great danger and believed they could get away and could sometime recover their traps. They had been through too many dangers to feel that their end had yet come. As the prow of Potts' canoe touched the bottom an Indian seized his gun. Colter leaped out, wrenched it away, and handed it back to Potts, who, strangely enough, pushed back into the stream. Colter protested and told him that any effort to escape simply meant suicide. In fact, the words were scarcely out of his mouth when an arrow struck Potts in the thigh and tumbled him into the bottom of the canoe. "Are you hurt?" asked Colter. " Yes, too much to escape. Save yourself, if you can. I'll get one of them at least before I go." Rising to a sitting position he leveled his gun at an Indian, killing him in- stantly. Scarcely had the sound of his shot died away when his own body was riddled with bullets from the shore and he fell dead in the bottom of the canoe. The Indians darted into the water, dragged the canoe ashore, and tore the poor trapper's body into shreds, flinging the flesh into Colter's face. Potts was perhaps wise to bring upon himself swift death instead of lingering torture by the savages, but he should have considered what he was bringing upon his companion, who now, helpless and alone, awaited his fate. In the meantime the Indians had stripped Colter stark naked, and he stood there expecting every minute to feel the shot or blow which would be the beginning of a terrible end. But, Indian-like, simple killing was not enough for them; they must satisfy their savage cruelty by making JOHN COLTER 27 death as prolonged and terrible as possible. They held a council as to what method to adopt, and here they made a capital mistake. They decided that Colter should run for his life, never suspecting what a lively sprinter they had in their helpless captive. Colter was in fact noted among his white companions as being remarkably swift of foot. A chief led him out a hundred yards in front of the crowd, pointed across the plain in the direction of the Madison Eiver, and made a gesture for him to go. Colter did not understand at first, but after more gestures, it dawned upon him that he was to run for his life. It looked like a forlorn hope, but it was a hope and he instantly acted upon it. Away across the flat prairie, five miles wide between the Jefferson and Madison Eivers, sped Colter toward the latter stream — sped as never man sped before — as only the hope of life could make him. He said afterward that he was astonished at his own ability to run. Surely, a stranger sight the wild prairies never saw — this lone, naked man pursued by a pack of howling savages. But he was too much for them. The distance between him and them increased. By the time he had gotten halfway across the plain, however, he began to feel the effects of his terrible exertion. His breath was almost gone, his strength was failing, and splashes of blood blew out from his mouth and nostrils. He paused and looked around, and to his dismay he saw that one solitary Indian was close upon him. Compelled to pause for breath, he called to the Indian in Crow language (which the Blackfeet understood to some extent) and begged for his life. The Indian, intent only on his prize, replied by seizing in both hands the spear he was carrying and making a desperate lunge at Colter. Colter seized the spear shaft near the head, and the Indian, himself nearly exhausted, tripped and fell at the same instant. The iron spearhead broke off in Colter's hands and he instantly fell upon the prostrate Indian, who now in turn begged Colter in the Crow Ian- 28 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK guage to spare his life. Colter was no more" accommodat- ing than his foe had been. Stabbing the Indian to death, he took the spearhead and resumed his flight, feeling, as he said, " as if he had not run a mile." The crowd behind were now furious at having lost another of their number, and on they came like a " legion of devils," as Colter put it, howling and gesticulating with rage. But Colter was again too much for them. The friendly fringe of willows on the bank of the Madison was growing nearer every moment. Reaching it at last, Colter darted through and his quick eye discovered near at hand an asylum of refuge in the form of a huge beaver house on the bank. As is well known, these houses are closed on the outside, the only entrance being under water. It was a risky venture, but Colter resolved to try it. He didn't have to wait to undress, as most swimmers do. Diving into the water, he made for the house and found an entrance large enough for his body. He climbed into the upper story and was soon sitting high and dry in a kind of shelter such as probably no man ever sought refuge in before. If he found any beaver there he didn't bother to kill them. He escaped not a moment too soon. The tread of the Indians quickly told him that they had reached the river. For some time he could hear them all around, even clam- bering over the beaver house. It was a terrible moment. Would they suspect where he was? Would they smash the house in? Would they set it on fire? Fortunately they did none of these things. It evidently never occurred to the Indians that Colter had turned beaver, and so after a while they scattered for further search. Colter stuck snugly to his hiding place, and very wisely so, for in about two hours he heard the Indians again. Again they with- drew and Colter heard nothing more of them. He remained under cover until dark when, beaver-like, he ventured forth, and if any Indians had been about they might have thought that he was a beaver gliding noiselessly through JOHN COLTER 29 the water. Swimming ashore, he paused to get his bearings, saw the low mountain pass far to the eastward where his only hope lay, and started off in that direction. He did not take the easy way through the pass for fear the Indians might be there, but scaled the almost perpendicular moun- tain wall on one side. There was snow on the mountains and this was another peril. Without food, without shelter, without weapons except the captured spear head, with his feet torn and bleeding from his long race over ground covered with sharp stones and the prickly pear, and now away up in the snow of the mountains, it certainly seemed as if no human being could survive such dangers. But physical endurance is a wonderful thing, and Colter found strength to keep on. Day and night for eleven days,* with only a snatch of rest and a bite of food now and then, he held his way over the mountain, down into the valley of the Yellowstone and down that stream to Lisa's fort. The men at the fort did not recognize him at first and doubt- less would not have believed his story if his terrible plight had not been proof of its truth. An experience like this would seem to have been enough to satisfy even Colter's daring spirit, but so little did it deter him that we find him the following winter attempt- ing to go back to the scene of his adventure and for no weightier reason than to recover his beaver traps. He cal- culated that the Indians would by this time have gone into winter quarters and that he could make the journey in safety. Not so, however. He had crossed the divide be- tween the Yellowstone and the Gallatin Eivers and had gone into camp, apparently on the banks of the latter stream, had built his fire, and was in the act of cooking some meat, when a rustle of the bushes and the sudden whizzing of bullets around him effectually disabused his mind of the notion that there was safety in the country * Bradbury has it seven days, which would have meant about thirty miles a day, no very unusual rate of travel on foot under favorable circumstances. 30 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK of the Blackfeet at any time of the year. Instantly plung- ing into the darkness, he eluded his assailants, and instead' of trying further to recover his traps, he started on another perilous and lonely journey over his former route to Lisa's Fort. While lying in hiding during the day after this attack, Colter vowed that, if the Almighty would allow him to escape once more, he would never return to that region. But how quickly are dangers, once past, forgotten! A winter at Port Lisa found him ready next spring to join the large party of Missouri Fur Company hunters which was on its way under Pierre Menard and Andrew Henry, two of the partners, to build a trading post at the Three Forks; and in due time our redoubtable adventurer was again on the scene of his former miraculous escape. It was only a short time after the arrival of the party at the Three Forks and the selection of a site for the fort, that the Blackfeet made such a furious and successful attack as to break up the plan of operations for the summer. Some of the ablest hunters were killed, and Colter himself had a narrow escape. Again he promised his Maker that if given another chance, he would quit the country forever ; and this time he was good as his word. An opportunity presented itself a few days later, when it became necessary to send dispatches to St. Louis. Pierre Menard wrote a four-page letter in French to his brother-in-law, Pierre Chouteau, narrating the unfortunate turn in the affairs of the company. This letter, which is now in the possession of the author of this book, was forwarded "through the kindness of Mr. William Bryant" — undoubtedly the same as the " young Bryant of Philadelphia " whom James men- tions as Colter's companion when the latter left for St. Louis. Thus Colter became escort on a three-thousand- mile journey of one of the most interesting original docu- ments ever penned in that country.* * Th© discovery quite recently, by Judge Walter M. Douglas, of St. Louis, of the almost " unique " journal of General Thomas JOHN COLTER 31 After his return to St. Louis Colter evidently talked a ' great deal about his adventures, and in spite of the fact that such men as General Clark and the authors we have mentioned esteemed his accounts worthy of record, he succeeded in making himself rated by the general public as an unmitigated prevaricator. His stories were generally discredited; their author became a subject of jest and ridicule, and the region of his reputed discoveries was long derisively known as " Colter's Hell." * Colter married upon his return from the mountains and retired to a farm on the banks of the Missouri, a short distance above the mouth of the little tributary, La Charette. Here Bradbury spent the forenoon of March 18, 1811, with him while en route up the river with the Astorian Expedition. Naturally Colter gave him some sage counsel about the Blackfeet. As he saw the well- appointed expedition setting out for the mountains the old fever came upon him again and he was upon the point of joining the party. But what the perils of the wilderness or the pleasures of civilization could not restrain him from doing, the attractions of a newly married wife seem to have accomplished. Colter remained behind; and here the curtain of oblivion falls upon the discoverer of the Yel- lowstone. We only know that in running away from his savage foes he soon fell victim of that dread enemy from whom no one escapes. James records that "a few years after " his own return he heard of Colter's death. In the Louisiana Gazette, St. Louis, December 11, 1813, there ap- peared a notice by the administrator of the estate of " John James makes possible the correction of the author's erroneous in- ference (p. 26, "The Yellowstone," 2nd edition, and p. 722, " American Fur Trade ") that Colter left the upper country before the disaster above referred to. * This name early came to be restricted to the locality where Colter discovered the tar spring on the Shoshone, probably be- cause 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 Eiver Valleys. 32 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Coulter, deceased," calling for a settlement of all claims for or against the estate. The final settlement left a balance in favor of the estate of $239.411 . The deceased was probably the same as the subject of this sketch.* * So remarkable was Colter's adventure with the Blackfeet, and so strong is the temptation to class it as a mere Munchausen tale, that the author has taken some pains to determine the physical possibility of its occurrence. He finds: ( 1 ) That the topography of the country between the Jefferson and Madison Rivers near their confluence does admit of a race course at least six miles in length in a straight line from one stream to the other over perfectly flat and almost level ground. The tract is now crossed by the Northern Pacific and Milwaukee railways. The line of flight must have been nearly east some distance south of, but in full view from, the site of the modern railway station of Three Forks. (2) That the situation on the Madison was such as to have favored Colter's escape admirably. The river here flows in two main channels and (at high water) in several subsidiary ones, all lined with trees and brushwood, making a belt of timber a mile or more wide, everywhere interspersed with thickets of dense under- growth. Once inside this screen it would be possible to take an irregular course which, with the aid of the numerous channels and bayous to be crossed, would quickly throw a pursuer off the track. (3) That beaver houses in such a situation must have been very numerous in those days. " Billy " Hof er ( see biographical sketch, p. 340), who was once employed by the Smithsonian In- stitution to secure for it a considerable number of live beavers, made an exhaustive study of the domiciliary habits of this inter- esting animal. He informs the author that the houses of beavers built on the banks of streams which, like this, are too wide to dam across are commonly of sufficient capacity to admit a man with ease, and that an experienced beaver hunter would know how to get into them. As between the heaver house theory (James) and the drift-wood theory (Bradbury) the first would be more prob- ably correct. (4) Athletic contests and many other proofs show that a con- tinuous flight of six miles is well within the range of physical endurance, particularly of a strong man in the prime of life thoroughly seasoned by hard training as Colter was at the time. Moreover, due allowance must be made for the probability that Colter did not underestimate the distance. It should also be kept in mind that physical exhaustion worked on pursuers quite as effectively as on pursued. CHAPTEE V EARLY KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE ON the west bank of the Yellowstone Eiver, a quarter of a mile above the Upper Falls, in a ravine now crossed by a high bridge, there was discovered in 1880, by Colonel P. W. Norris, then Superintendent of the Park, an inscription on a tree giving the initials of a name and the date when inscribed. Colonel Norris partially 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: JOE 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. In the absence of any such record, the most that can be said is that the inscription is proof that the Park country was visited by white men, after Colter's time, fully fifty years before its final discovery. Colonel Norris' researches disclosed other similar evi- dence, although in no other instance with so plain a clew as to date. Near Beaver Lake and Obsidian Cliff, he found, in 1878, a cache of marten traps of an old pattern used 33 34 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK by the Hudson's Bay Company trappers fifty years before. He also examined the ruins of a blockhouse discovered by Frederick Bottler at the base of Mt. Washburn, near the Grand Canyon. Its decayed condition indicated great age. In other places the stumps of trees, old logs used to cross streams, and numerous 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. A book called " The Eiver of the West," * 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 country about the year 1829. It is the biography of one Joseph Meek, a trapper and pioneer of considerable note. The adven- ture to which reference is made was the result of a de- cision by the Bocky Mountain Pur Company to retire from competition with the Hudson's Bay Company in the Snake Eiver Valley. In leaving the country Captain William L. Sublette, the chief partner, led his party up Henry Fork, across the Continental Divide to the valleys of the Madison and Gallatin and thence 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 the rest. He had lost his horse and most of his equipment, and in this condition he wandered for several days, without food or shelter, until 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 * By Mrs. Frances Fuller Victor, an eminent authority upon the history of the Northwest coast. KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE 35 had made, he ascended a low mountain in the neighbor- hood 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 sur- prise 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 him- self reminded of the city of Pittsburg, as he had beheld it on a winter morning, a couple of years before. This, how- ever, 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." * Making some allowance for 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, indicate that it was one of the. numerous districts east of the Yellowstone, which were then more active than now. This book affords much other evidence of early knowl- edge of the country immediately bordering the present Park. The Great Bend of the Yellowstone where Living- ston now stands, was a rendezvous of the hunters, and the Gardiner and Firehole Rivers were well known to them. In the Louisiana Gazette, of St. Louis, February 28, 1811, is an article upon Louisiana from the pen of a then popular writer, Henry M. Brackenridge. In it occurs a reference to this region which no doubt originated with * Page 75, " River of the West." 36 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK John Colter : " I think it probable that, on a close exam- ination of the country, evident traces of extinguished vol- canoes will be discovered. Mr. Lisa informs me that about sixty miles from his fort [at the mouth of the Big Horn] there is a volcano that actually emits flames. In this tract immense quantities of sulphur can be procured. It is not only found in caves, but can be scraped off the prairie in the manner of salt." This is only one of a number of references from early writings that indicate the presence of volcanic activity on a moribund scale in the Eocky Mountains as late as the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. Among the employees of the American Fur Company in the decade from 1830 to 1840 was one Warren Angus Ferris, clerk, to whom belongs the honor of having written the first actual description of the Firehole Geyser Basins. Ferris was attached to the mountain expeditions of the American Fur Company, and in the course of his five years' service (1831-35) saw pretty nearly all the country around the Yellowstone Park. He had heard rumors of the strange phenomena which are now so well known, and in the spring of 1834, while returning south from the Flathead country, where he had spent the winter, he made a visit to the geyser basins for the purpose of verifying these reports. He started from a point near where Beaver Canyon Station, on the Utah Northern Eailroad, now stands, and traveled almost west. He was among the geysers on the 20th of May, 1834. In spite of some dis- crepancies in his account, it is reasonably certain that the point visited was the Upper Basin. Following is his nar- rative of the visit : * _ * Ferris followed the practice of keeping a journal, and after his return from the mountains published it in the Western Liter- ary Messenger, of Buffalo, N. Y. The article quoted below was republished in the Wasp, of Nauvoo, 111., a Mormon paper, August 13, 1842, and later became well known. Where it came from, or who its author was, no one in recent years knew until in the fall of 1900 the series of articles in the Literary Messenger was dis- KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE 37 " I had heard in the summer of 1833, while at rendez- vous, that remarkable boiling springs had been discovered on the sources of the Madison by a party of trappers on 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. Eefreshed 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 covered by Mr. O. D. Wheeler, of St. Paul. Ferris was born at Glens Falls, N. Y., December 20, 1810; and died at iteinhardt, Tex., February 8, 1873. 38 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 con- stantly 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 extended 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 per- sist 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 caldron was altogether too great for my comfort; and the agitation of the water, the dis- agreeable 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 * An American Fur Company clerk. KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE 39 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 foun- tains that did not throw their waters up so high, but oc- curred at shorter intervals. In some instances the volumes were projected obliquely upward, and fell into the neigh- boring 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 free from exaggeration and reasonably true to the facts. No one who has seen the Upper Geyser Basin will question its general correctness. The writer 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 Biver only in magni- tude, 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 boil- ing water, 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 40 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK steam or vapor of disagreeable odor, and a character en- tirely to prevent vegetation. They are situated in the valley at the head of that river near the lake, which con- stitutes its source. " A short distance from these springs, near the margin of the lake, there is one quite different from any yet de- scribed. 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 effu- sion. 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 headwaters of the Madison, are invariably hot." 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. A brief but interesting reference to this region is found in a letter by Father De Smet, dated at the University of St. Louis, January 20, 1852, describing a journey made by KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE 41 him in 1851 from Fort Union, at the month of the Yellow- stone, to Fort Laramie, on the Platte : " Near the source of the Eiver Puante [Stinking Water, now called Shoshone], which empties into the Big Horn, and the sulphurous waters of which have probably the same medicinal qualities as the celebrated Blue Lick Springs of Kentucky, is a place called Colter's Hell — from a beaver-hunter of that name. This locality is often agitated with subterranean fires. The sulphurous gases which escape in great volumes from the burning soil infect the atmosphere for several miles, and render the earth so barren that even the wild wormwood cannot grow on it. The beaver-hunters have assured me that the underground noises and explosions are often frightful. " However, I think that the most extraordinary spot in this respect, and perhaps the most marvelous of all the northern half of this continent, is in the very heart of the Eocky Mountains, between the 43d and 45th degrees of latitude, and the 109th and 111th degrees of longitude; that is, between the sources of the Madison and the Yel- lowstone. It reaches more than a hundred miles. Bituminous, sulphurous, and boiling springs are very num- erous in it. The hot springs contain a large quantity of calcareous matter, and form hills more or less elevated, which resemble in their nature, perhaps, if not in their extent, the famous springs of Pemboukkalesi, in Asia Minor, so well described by Chandler. The earth is thrown up very high, and the influence of the elements causes it to take the most varied and the most fantastic shapes. Gas, vapor and smoke are continually escaping by a thousand openings from the base to the summit of the volcanic pile ; the noise at times resembles the steam let off by a boat. Strong, subterranean explosions occur like those in ' Colter's Hell.' .The hunters and the Indians speak of it with a superstitious fear, and consider it the abode of evil spirits, that is to say, a kind of hell. Indians seldom approach it without offering some sacrifice, or, at least, without pre- 42 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK senting the calumet of peace to the turbulent spirits, that they may be propitious. They declare that the subterranean noises proceed from the forging of warlike weapons; each eruption of the earth is, in their eyes, the result of a combat between the infernal spirits, and becomes the monument of a new victory or calamity. Near Gardiner Eiver, a tributary of the Yellowstone, and in the vicinity, of the region I have just been describing, there is a mountain of sulphur. I have this report from Captain Bridger, who is familiar with every one of these mounds, having passed thirty years of his life near them." This description is the first that defines correctly the geographical location of the geyser regions.* The most specific of these early references to the natural phenomena of the Upper Yellowstone is the following, from Gunnison's "History of the Mormons" (1852), and comes directly from James Bridger : "He [Bridger] gives a picture, most romantic and enticing, of the headwaters of the Yellowstone. 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. Waterfalls are sparkling, leap- ing 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 canyon 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 ' Vermil- lion ' for the savages in abundance." In this summary we readily discover the Yellowstone * Note description of Park Country in Part II, Chapter I, of this work. KNOWLEDGE OF THE YELLOWSTONE 43 Lake, the Grand Canyon, the Palls, the geyser basins, the Mammoth Hot Springs, and Cinnabar Mountain. Prior to 1860, Bridger had related these accounts to Captain War- ren, Captain Kaynolds, Dr. 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. There are numerous other interesting, though less defi- nite, 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 took hold of the public consciousness and did not in the least degree hasten the final discovery. CHAPTEE VI BRIDGER AND HIS STORIES JAMES BEIDGEB, celebrated hunter, trader, and guide, whose name and career are part of the pioneer history of the West, was thoroughly familiar with the region now comprised in the Yellowstone Park. His personal knowl- edge of it dates back as far as 1830. He often visited it, not like Ferris in a single locality, but in all its parts, and was well acquainted with its wonderful features. In his efforts to disseminate the knowledge he had acquired, he was as persistent as Colter had been before him, and with little better success. He tried to get his descriptions be- fore the public, but no periodical or newspaper would lend itself to his service. The editor of a leading western paper stated in 1879 that Bridger had told him of the Yellow- stone wonders fully thirty years before. He prepared an article from his description and then suppressed it, "be- cause a man who claimed to know Bridger told him he would be laughed out of town if he printed any of 'old Jim Bridger's lies.' " In later years this editor publicly apologized to Bridger for having doubted his statements. Certain personal characteristics of Bridger aggravated this lack of confidence in what he said. He was the great- est romancer of the West in his time, and his reckless exaggerations won for him a reputation which he could not shake off when he wanted to. Accordingly, the truths that he told about the Yellowstone were classed with his fairy tales of the same region, and both were set down as the harmless vaporings of a mind to which truth had long been a stranger. Some of the creations ascribed to him have survived to 44 BRIDGER AND HIS STORIES 45 this day. We say " ascribed," for in reality they are no one person's production, but are the development of many years and many minds. They all have a basis in fact — the " soul of truth," which a great philosopher has said " exists in things erroneous." In some cases the basis is pretty hard to discover, and it is easier to believe the embellished tale than its descent from the fact when once found. It is stated by an adept in this accomplishment that constant repetition and enlargement of his imaginary experiences eventually leads him to believe them true, and this may have been the case with Bridger himself. In any event, it is a fortunate thing that these stories grow and develop with time, gravitating always from the real to the ideal; and he is to be pitied who feels an unseemly anxiety for the basic facts or would rob them of a single increment which the rolling years have given them. The few that are recorded here may be credited to Bridger without exciting the envy of rival experts in the same line. The first relates to the celebrated Obsidian Cliff, a mass of black volcanic glass with which all tourists in the Park become familiar. Its discovery by Bridger 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. Bushing madly toward the elk, he 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, 46 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK but was a perfect telescopic iens, 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 velocity that it was boiling' hot when it reached the bottom.* The scientific strain in Bridger's make-up, some proof of which was disclosed in the last paragraph and its foot- note, led him to devise what is probably the simplest method ever discovered for determining the altitude of a place above the level of the sea. Bridger's method was this : At the point whose elevation is desired, bore down until salt water is reached and then measure the distance. As was to be expected from an intensely practical career like that of Bridger, his faculty of turning everything to some useful account was highly developed. The following instance is a case in point: Opposite a certain camping ground where he frequently stopped there arose the bald, flat face of a mountain, but so distant that the echo from any sound which originated in camp did not return for the space of about six hours. Bridger converted this cir- cumstance into an ideal alarm clock. Upon retiring for the night he would call out lustily, " Time to get up! " and true to his calculation, the alarm would roll back at the * 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 mat- ter 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 rub- bing 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 confirma- tion 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. BRIDGER AND HIS STORIES 47 precise hour next morning when it was necessary for the camp to bestir itself.* The origin of the name, Alum Creek, a tributary of the Yellowstone, was due to an accidental discovery by Bridger. One day he forded the creek and rode out several miles and back. He noticed that the return journey was only a small fraction of the distance going, and that his horse's feet had shrunk to mere points which sank into the solid ground, so that the animal could scarcely hobble along. Seeking the cause he found it to be in the astrin- gent quality of the water, which was saturated with alum to such an extent that it had power to pucker distance itself .f To those who have visited the west shore of the Yellow- stone 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 groundwork of the follow- ing 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 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 * If Bridger were living, he would doubtless convey to Mr. Emerson Hough the author's apology for having appropriated this ingenious creation. f " The headwaters of this stream are so strong with alum that one swallow is sufficient to draw one's face into such shape that it is almost impossible to get it straightened out again for one hour or so."— -Journal of C. J. Weikert, August 26, 1877. " Driver, is it true that this water shrinks up things that get in it?" asked a credulous guide-book tourist as the coach was crossing Alum Creek. "True? Well I guess yes! It used to be over seven miles from here to the Canyon hotel, but since they began sprinkling the road with water from this creek the distance has shortened up to three miles, as you will see if you watch the mile-posts." — Truthful Lies. 48 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK habitable zone, and having hooked his ^victim, cooked him on the way out! In like manner the visitor to the region of petrifications on Specimen Eidge in the northeast 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. Accord- ing to his account there exists in the Park country a moun- tain which was once cursed by a great medicine man of the Crow nation. Everything upon the mountain at the time of this dire event became instantly petrified and has re- mained 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. Dashing torrents and the spray mist from them stand forth in arrested motion as if carved from rock by a sculptor's chisel. Even flowers are bloom- ing 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 ! * * The author feels bound to defend even Bridger's reputation from any such extravaganza as the following, which is clearly the work of some later interpolator. According to this anonymous authority Bridger, one evening after a long day's ride, was ap- proaching a familiar camping place in this region of petrifications but from a direction not before taken. Quite unexpectedly he came upon a narrow, deep, precipitous chasm which completely blocked his way. Exhausted as both he and his horse were with their long march, he was completely disheartened at this ob- stacle, to pass which might cause him several hours of strenu- ous exertion and carry him far into the night. Biding up to the brink to reconnoiter he found that he could not stop his horse which kept moving right along as if by its own momentum, out over the edge of the precipice, straight on at a steady gait and on a level line, as if supported by an invisible bridge. Almost before he realized it he was safe on the other side and in his desired camp. His utter amazement at this miracle soon abated when he remembered the strange character of the country he was in, and he concluded that this chasm was simply a place where the attraction of gravitation was petrified. CHAPTER VII RAYNOLDS* EXPEDITION ON the 13th of April, 1859, Captain W. F. Eaynolds, 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 Eiver, and the mountains in which they, and the Gallatin and Madison Forks of the Missouri, have their source." This was the first government expedition * 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 ad- mirable resume, in the form of a report and a map, of the geographical knowledge of that country down to the date of actual discovery. Captain Eaynolds 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 expe- dition left its winter quarters at Deer Creek, Wyo., and marched to the junction of the Wind Eiver and the Popo Agie where these streams unite under the name of Big Horn Eiver. Here the party divided. One division under Captain Eaynolds was to ascend the Wind Eiver to its source and then cross to the headwaters of the Yellowstone. This stream they were to follow down to the Great Bend, and then cross over to the Three Porks of the Missouri. * Accompanying this expedition as geologist was Dr. F. V. Hayden, whose name is so intimately connected with the history of the Park. James Bridger was guide to the party. 49 50 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK The other party, under Lieutenant Maynadier, was to skirt the east and north flanks of the Absaroka Eange and to join the first party at the Three Porks, if possible, not later than July 1st. Captain Eaynolds 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 Eaynolds should be present in that locality in time to observe the eclipse. This condition, rather than impas- sable mountains or unmelted snows, was the chief obstacle to a thorough exploration of the Upper Yellowstone. The two parties separated May 24th. Captain Eaynolds, according to his programme, kept up the Wind Eiver 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 headwaters of the Yellowstone. When nearly oppo- site 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 rjsk of missing the eclipse forbade efforts else- where. 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 there- fore very reluctantly decided to abandon the plan to which I had so steadily clung." Lieutenant Maynadier wisely made no attempt to cross the Absaroka Eange, 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 Yellow- stone north of the Park, and then hastened to join his com- RAYNOLDS' EXPEDITION 51 manding 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 Eaynolds 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 other in its history. It will be interesting now to survey this region as known at the time of the Eaynolds Expedition. Nothing of importance occurred to increase public knowledge of it until 1870, and Captain Eaynolds' Eeport is therefore the latest authentic utterance concerning it prior to the date of actual discovery. In this report Captain Eaynolds says : " Beyond these [the mountains southeast 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 Eobert Meldrum. The narratives of both these men are very remarkable, and Bridger, in one of his recitals, de- scribes an immense boiling spring, that is a perfect counter- part 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 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." 52 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK The Captain concludes this particular part of his report as follows: " I cannot 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 magnifi- cence, gives up its water and soil to more favorable coun- tries." Of the Yellowstone Eiver he was told that it had its source "in a lake in the impenetrable fastnesses of the Bocky 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." But it is the map prepared by Captain Eaynolds 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. Extend- ing in a southeasterly and northwesterly 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 in much detail, 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 RAYNOLDS' EXPEDITION 53 the Yellowstone Park. There one may catch glimpses, through the uncertain haze of tradition, of the geysers, hot springs, Lake, Falls, Grand Canyon, 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. Eaynolds' report was the first official recognition in any form of the probable existence of extensive volcanic phe- nomena 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 Eaynolds to civiliza- tion 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 ceased entirely until 1865, and was not vigorously resumed for some years thereafter. Captain Eaynolds' 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 THE GOLD-SEEKEK AMONG the most fascinating pages of American history x\. 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 southwest 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 Boise Rivers were discovered. In 1862 the tide of discovery swept across the mountains into Montana. The deposits 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 54 THE GOLD-SEEKER 55 news of the great discoveries marshaled a host of immi- grants ready to enter the territory in the following spring. These were largely re-enforced by adventurers from both the Northern and Southern States, who 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, al- ready being pushed with vigor, was stimulated to an extraor- dinary degree by this magnificent discovery. Prospecting parties scoured the country in all directions, often with loss of life from 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 Eiver, and then ascended that stream to the region about Jackson Lake. Near the mouth of Buffalo Pork 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 56 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 Eiver 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 Eiver to its junction with Lewis Eiver, 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 Herring and Beula Lakes, and noted their divergent drainage. Thence they passed north over Pitch- stone 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 Eiver. 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. Prom 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 Eiver. The next .morning, September 9, 1863, he came upon the consider- able 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 amaze- ment that the party thought little enough of this wonder- THE GOLD-SEEKER 57 ful locality to pass directly through it without halt or per- ceptible delay. Before the camping hour of the afternoon had arrived, they were many miles away at the junction of the Gibbon and Pirehole Eivers. The other section of the party, which had gone down the Snake from its junction with Lewis Eiver, 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 dis- coverer 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 gen- eral 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 expe- ditions all failed to do. He also noted the various hot springs localities through which the party passed. In a letter published in Eaymond's " Mineral Eesources of the States and Territories West of the Eocky 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 Eiver. 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, 58 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PAEK for the time had not yet come when it was desirable that the real character of this country should be made known. Prom 1863 to 1869 there were many other prospecting parties in the region of the Upper Yellowstone. In 1863 one of these, numbering thirty or forty men, ascended the Yellowstone and the East Fork to the mouth of Soda Butte Creek, and thence across 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 Yellow- stone, 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 Yellow- stone Valley, and thence around the east base of the Ab- saroka Eange into the valley of the Shoshone Eiver. 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 Shoshone 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 Eiver, then crossed to the Green and Snake Eivers, and recrossed the Continental Divide at Two-Ocean Pass. They descended the Yellowstone, passed the Lake and Grand Canyon, 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 Vir- ginia City, Montana, and ascended the Madison Eiver to THE GOLD-SEEKER 59 the geyser basins. Thence they crossed to the Yellowstone at Mud Geyser, ascended the river to the lake, passed com- pletely around the latter, discovering Heart Lake on their way, and then descended the Yellowstone by the Palls and Canyon, 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 re- printed 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, par- ticularly, repeated confirmation of the old trappers' tales was gradually arousing a deep interest, and the time was close at hand when explorations for the specific purpose of verifying these rumors were to begin. CHAPTEE IX DISCOVERT 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 enter- prise. 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 Expedi- tion of 1870 " — the great starting point in the post-tradi- tional history of the Park. The third expedition was strictly official, under the military and scientific depart- ments of the government. It was a direct result of the explorations of 1870, and was intended to satisfy the pub- lie demand for accurate and official information concern- ing 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 natural wonders to be found in the world. 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 seri- ously agitated among the people of Montana as early as 60 DISCOVERY 61 1867. An expedition was planned for that year, but came to nothing. A like result attended a similar effort the fol- lowing year. In 1869, the proposition came near material- izing, but fell through at the last moment, owing to the failure to obtain a military escort. There were three mem- bers 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 them- selves with an elaborate equipment, and were determined, with escort or without it, to undertake the trip. The names of these men were David E. Eolsom, C. W. Cook, and William Peterson, the last named being a native of Denmark. Armed with " repeating rifles, Colt's six-shoot- ers, 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 provi- sions "for a six weeks' trip," they set out from Diamond City on the Missouri Eiver, forty miles from Helena, Sep- tember 6, 1869. The route lay up the Missouri to the Three Forks ; thence via Bozeman and Port Ellis to the Yellowstone Eiver; 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 Canyon. On September 21st, they arrived at the Falls of the Yellowstone, where they remained an entire day. Some distance above the rapids they recrossed to the west shore and then ascended the river past Sulphur Mountain and Mud Volcano to Yellow- stone Lake. They then went to the extreme west shore of the lake and spent some time examining the surpass- ingly 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 northwest over a toilsome country until they reached the Lower Geyser Basin near Nez Perce Creek. Here they 62 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK saw the Fountain Geyser in action and the many other phenomena in that locality. They ascended the Eirehole Kiver 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, 1870.* It is among the best popular descriptions extant of that portion of the Park country along the route followed. The article, and personal inter- views with the author and his companions, had a strong influence in leading to the important expedition next to be described. THE EXPEDITION OF 1870 The Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, more commonly known as the Washburn-Doane Expedition, was the culmi- nation of the project of discovery to which frequent refer- ence 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 organ- izing a grand expedition.. General Sheridan, who passed through Helena just prior to his departure for the scene * It is only through the lifelong loyalty of Mr. N. P. Langford to everything pertaining to the welfare of the Yellowstone 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 known there is but one remaining copy of this issue, and that is the one preserved by Mr. Langford. In 1894, Mr. Langford caused the article to be reprinted in pamphlet form, with an interesting preface by himself. DISCOVERY 63 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 deci- sion to join it. Finally, there 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 Mon- tana, chief of the expedition, and author of a series of valuable " notes " describing it. Hon. Nathaniel P. Langford, who published a series of articles in Scribner's Magazine, which gave general pub- licity to the news of discovery. He became first Superin- tendent of the Park. 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 pain- ful 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. . 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 widespread interest which was being taken at the time in the region of the Upper Yellowstone. The party proceeded from Helena to Fort Ellis, one hun- dred 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 lo- cated. 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 64 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 cap- tivated with the wonders of nature." Lieutenant Doane, than whom no member of the expe- dition 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 alto- gether quite an imposing cavalcade. August 22, 1870, the expedition left Port Ellis, crossed to the Yellowstone, and ascended that stream through the First and Second Canyons, past the " Devil's Slide " and Cinnabar Mountain, to the present north boundary line of the Park at the mouth of the Gardiner Eiver. At this point they were within five miles of the celebrated Mam- moth 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 mod- ern route up the Gardiner, and missed this wonder alto- gether. 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 Canyon and across the high plateau between the Gardiner and Tower Creek, camping at nightfall upon the latter DISCOVERY 65 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 Canyon of the Yellowstone. The party left Tower Creek on the 29th pf August, and proceeded south 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 lan- guage: " Through the mountain gap formed by the canyon, and on the interior slopes some twenty 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 hun- dred 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 someone 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 en- thusiasm." The party then ascended the lofty mountain to their right, now known as Mount Washburn, and from its sum- mit looked around upon the vast panorama which is now included in the Yellowstone Park. Had old James Bridger I t. 66 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 Canyon 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 open- ing 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 moun- tain, and finally reached the verge of a cliff beyond which yawned the stupendous Canyon 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 pres- ent names. The remainder of this day, August 30th, and the next, were spent in exploring the canyon and measuring the height of the falls. Messrs. Hauser and Stickney de- scended the sides of the canyon 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 Canyon, although their descriptions of it are, perhaps, least satisfactory of any they have left us. From the Canyon the party ascended the now placid river amid ever-changing wonders. They passed Sulphur Moun- tain 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 ecsta- sies, and not without cause; for, seen under favoring con- Lower Falls of the Yellowstone — Original Sketch bt Private Moore, a Soldier in the Escort of the Expedition of 1870 (First Picture of the Falls ever Made) DISCOVERY 67 ditions, 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 Eange just east of the lake, being the first white men known to have accom- plished 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 accouterments, 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 results than the discovery of the hot springs basins at Heart 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 re- solved 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 Septem- ber 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 Eiver. At 9 a.m., September 18th, the march was resumed. * See Chapter XVIII and also Scribmr's Monthly, vol. Ill, p. 1. 68 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 Faith- ful " 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 everything 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 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 of 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.* They then passed down the river through the Middle and Lower Basins, but stopped to ex- : See list of geysers in Appendix. DISCOVERY 69 amine 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 Eivers 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. The news of this expedition created intense and wide- spread interest throughout the country. Messrs. Wash- burn, 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 extraor- dinary interest aroused by these articles, so unlike the sixty years' indifference which had marked the history of this region. These preliminary and hasty accounts 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 country now embraced in the Yellowstone Park. It passed through the customary military channels and was finally sent to Congress, February 24, 1871. Professor S. F. Baird, of the Smithsonian Institution, presented the information gathered by Lieutenant Doane to the Philo- sophical 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. Lang- ford in the meantime, did effective work from the lecture stand. In Helena, Minneapolis, New York, and Washing- ton, he told the story of what he had seen. In Washington, 70 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK the Hon. James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House, presided at the lecture, and in the audience was Dr. P. V. Hayden, who was destined to play a prominent part in the history of the 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 OP 1871. The direct result of the expedition of 1870 was to cause the United States Geological Survey to change its pro- gramme for the season of 1871, so as to give attention to the new wonderland ; and also to cause the military authori- ties 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 DISCOVERY 71 River, and by ascending this stream, discovered the -Won- derful 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 Canyon and Palls, to Sulphur Mountain, Mud Geyser, and the Lake; thence by a new route across the mountains 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 Bridge (which had been built only a few months be- fore), 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 Biver 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 headwaters of the Snake Biver, by Captain Barlow; and some hasty explorations in the valley of the East Fork of the Yellowstone, now called Lamar Eiver. 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 photo- graphs were of immense value. Description might exag- gerate, but the camera told the truth; and in this case the truth was more remarkable than exaggeration. Un- fortunately 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, 72 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK and they played a decisive part in the events of the winter of 1871-2. With the close of the expedition 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 PAKE IDEA — ITS ORIGIN AND REALIZATION AFTER the Park was created and received to such a XX. marked degree the approval of the people, numerous claimants arose 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 in 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 interests, and that the beau- tiful formations would be carried off for mercenary pur- poses; in short, that the early history of Niagara would repeat itself in the Yellowstone. To avoid such a mis- fortune only one course was open, and that was for the government to retain control of the entire region. That the necessity for 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.* * Mr. Folaom deserves mention in this connection. In the manuscript of his article in the Western Monthly was a, refer- ence to the Park idea; but the publishers cut out a large part of his paper, giving only the descriptions of the natural won- ders, 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 was a witness. From Mr. Folsom's sug- gestion, however, no direct result can be traced. In the first edition of this work the author represented George Catlin, the well-known painter of Indian scenes and portraits, as having originated the Park idea. This was hardly correct. Cat- lin's idea of a National Park was solely as a home for the In- 73 74 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK But inasmuch 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. 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 per- sonal profit of the discoverers 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 unre- stricted 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. 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 them, written by Mr. Hedges and published in the Helena Herald November 9, 1870, occurs dians — a "Nation's Park, containing man and beast in all the wildness and freshness of their nature's beauty." He was an enthusiast upon that subject, as the following reference to it will show : " 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 institu- tion." His scheme had no reference to the geyser regions, of which he probably never heard, and his name cannot be consid- ered in connection with those who originated the idea of the Yellowstone Park. THE NATIONAL PARK IDEA 75 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, Jan- uary 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 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 realiza- tion 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, Mont., 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 76 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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. P. 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 exploration 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 mem- bers 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 care- fully preserved to the people forever. Mr. Langford, as already stated, had publicly advocated the measure in the previous winter. He had rendered service of the utmost importance, through his publication in Scribner's Magazine in the preceding May and June. Four hundred copies of these magazines were bought 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 per- THE NATIONAL PARK IDEA 77 sonally visited and, with few exceptions, won to the cause. The result was 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 mem- bers and opposed by one, Senator Cole, of California; a fact the more remarkable because that Senator -had in his own State — in the pre-emption by private parties of the Yosemite wonderland — the most convincing example possi- ble of the wisdom of such a measure as that proposed. The Senate bill came up from the Speaker's table in the House of Eepresentatives, 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.* The bill received the President's signature March 1, 1872. j * No yea and nay vote was taken in the Senate. The vote in the House was — yeas, 115; nays, 65; not voting, 60. f THE ACT OF DEDICATION. An Act to set apart a certain tract of land lying near the head- waters of the Yellowstone River as a public park. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the tract of land in the Territories of Montana and Wyoming lying near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River and described as follows, to-wit: Commencing at the junction of Gardiner's River with the Yellowstone River and running east to the meridian, passing ten miles to the eastward of the most eastern point of Yellowstone Lake; thence south along the said meridian to the parallel of latitude, passing ten miles south of the most southern point of Yellowstone Lake ; thence west along said parallel to the meridian, passing fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake; thence north along said meridian to the latitude of the junction of the Yellowstone and Gardiner's Rivers; thence east to the place of beginning, is hereby reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale under the laws of the United States, and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people; and all per- sons who shall locate, or settle upon, or occupy the same or any 78 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Perhaps no act of our national Congress has received such general approbation at home or such profuse com- mendation from foreigners as that creating the Yellow- stone National Park. The lapse of time only serves to eon- firm 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." * part thereof, except as hereinafter provided, shall be considered trespassers and removed therefrom. Sec. 2. That said public park shall be under the exclusive control of the Secretary of the Interior, whose duty it shall be, as soon as practicable, to make and publish such rules and regulations as he may deem necessary or proper for the care and management of the same. Such regulations shall provide for the preservation from injury or spoliation of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities or wonders within said park, and their retention in their natural condition. The Secretary may, in his discretion, grant leases for build- ing purposes, for terms not exceeding ten years, of small par- cels of ground, at such places in said park as shall require the erection of buildings for the accommodation of visitors; all of the proceeds of said leases, and all other revenue that may be derived from any source connected with said park, to be ex- pended under his direction in the management of the same and the construction of roads and bridle-paths, and shall provide against the wanton destruction of the fish and game found within said park and against their capture or destruction for the pur- pose of merchandise or profit. He shall also cause all persons trespassing upon the same after the passage of this act to be removed therefrom, and generally shall be authorized to take all such measures as shall be necessary or proper to fully carry out the objects and purposes of this act. Approved March 1, 1872. Signed by: Jambs G. Blaine, Speaker of the House. Schuyler Colfax, Vice-President of the United States and President of the Senate. Ulysses S. Gbant, President of the United States. * Page xi., " The Great Divide." THE NATIONAL PARK IDEA 79 It was a notable act, not only on account of the tran- scendent importance of the territory it was designed to pro- tect, but because it was a marked innovation in the tradi- tional policy of governments. Erom time immemorial privileged classes have been protected by law in the with- drawal, for the 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 both at home and abroad, but particularly in the western portion of North America, where the ob- stacle of private occupancy has been largely absent. In addition to the Yellowstone, we now have the Yosemite, Sequoia, and General Grant Parks in California; Mt. Eainier Park in Washington ; Crater Lake Park in Oregon ; Glacier Park in Montana, and four parks of less importance in other States. By an Act of Congress approved June 8, 1906, the President of the United States is authorized, "in his discretion, to declare by public proclamation his- toric landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest that are sit- uated upon the lands owned or controlled by the Govern- ment of the United States to be national monuments." Under this authority there have been created seventeen monuments which are administered by the Interior De- partment, ten by the Department of Agriculture, and one (Big Hole Battlefield) by the War Department. They include such natural wonders as the Devil's Tower in Wyoming, the Muir, Woods in California, the Natural Bridges in Utah, the* petrified forest in Arizona, and Mount Olympus in Washington. The Grand Canyon monument in Arizona is a reservation of 800,000 square miles and should be, and doubtless soon will be, created into a National Park. Before the National Monument Act became a law several parks were created under the 80 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK administration of the War Department to commemorate historic events, particularly our great battles. The States have to some extent taken up the same cause, and we now have, among others, the Niagara and Itasca Parks. Canada has gone a long way in this laudable work and New Zealand has made a public park of its geyser regions. To some extent, in this and other countries, the maintenance of reservations for the purpose of preserving the native fauna has been commenced, and this policy will probably be definitely adopted in those regions where the more important of the wild animals would otherwise be in danger of extinction. CHAPTEE 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. Prom the date (1806) when Captain Clark passed the site of Livingston, Mont, less than sixty miles distant from this notable region, sixty-four 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 headwaters of the Yellowstone, the most attractive- region of all, it was still terra incognita. A fact so remark- able requires explanation. In the first place, as already noted, very little knowledge of this region appears to have been derived from the In- dians. 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 neigh- borhood, they received no hint. There is not a single in- stance 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 mysterious than remarkable. But how was it that the long period of the fur trade 81 82 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 trap- pers ever saw it. Then, the interest of the trader was against the dis- semination of any knowledge which might induce immi- gration and hasten the certain ruin of his occupation. The stress of competition also caused him to remain silent con- cerning 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 few notable exceptions which have been mentioned in a previous chapter, no important press notice of these regions appeared during the entire sixty-four 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 ; and almost simultaneously the settlement of the Oregon Question. Then came the highly important discovery of gold in California. Already the Mormon emigration had taken place. These great events completely changed the WHY SO LONG UNKNOWN 83 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 Eiver route, both of which led directly west to the Columbia. To the south was the great thoroughfare along the Platte Eiver and through 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 im- probable that gold-seekers bound to the Pacific Coast along any of these routes would stray into the mountain fast- nesses 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 Ex- pedition, 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 scien- tific 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 Big Horn 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 neces- sary to find a good route to the Pacific. This leaves but a single expedition of the whole number, that of Captain Eaynolds, 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 Dot escape the ubiquitous prospector. It was not, indeed, by 84 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK him that it was publicly proclaimed to the world. He eared 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 trade was too early for the interest of the people to demand, or the power of the government to enforce, its protection. If Captain Eaynolds 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 cre- ated, and all the vexatious obstacles, which might otherwise have defeated the project, were avoided. CHAPTEE XII LATER EXPLORATIONS AS soon as the remarkable character of the country about ii the sources of the Yellowstone became generally known, there was a rush of explorers to its borders. Every expedition that could 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 en- tered the Park and resumed work there on a 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 investi- gated more thoroughly than ever before, and many valuable official reports and monographs, together with a splendid atlas, have been the result. In 1872, General John Gibbon, TJ. S. A., with a consid- erable party, made a tour of the Park, passing by the usual route from Mammoth Hot Springs via Mt. Washburn, the Grand Canyon, and the Lake, to the Firehole Geyser Basins. 85 86 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK On his way home he attempted to ascend the North Pork 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 Eange. 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 Canyon 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 Eiver; thence through Two-Ocean Pass and Two-Gwo-Tee Pass to the valley of Wind Eiver. The chief results of this expedition, in the line of original discovery, were the passage of the Absaroka Eange, 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 *) over the Continental Divide, between the Snake and Wind Eivers. Professor Theodore B. Comstock accompanied the expedition as geologist. A report of the reconnaissance appeared in 1875. In 1875, Captain William Ludlow, of the Corps of Engineers, made a reconnaissance from Carroll, Mont., on the Missouri Eiver, 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 accurate measurements of the height of the Yellowstone Falls, and his report * So named by Captain Jones for one of his Indian guides. LATER EXPLORATIONS 87 forms one of the best brief descriptions of the Park extant. Among his civilian assistants was George Bird Grinnell, later widely known as the editor of Forest and Stream, and as one of the most steadfast and watchful guardians the Park has ever had. During the same season a distinguished party, consist- ing of the Secretary of War, General W. W. Belknap, and several prominent officers and civilians, with Lieutenant G. C. Doane as guide, made a tour of the Park. An inter- . esting narrative of the trip was written by General W. E. Strong, who was a member of the party. In 1877, General 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 General 0. M. Poe of his staff, form a valuable contribution to the literature of the Park. In the same year General 0. 0. Howard crossed the reservation in pursuit of the Nez Perce Indians. In 1880, the Hon. Carl Sehurz, Secretary of the In- terior, accompanied by General 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 En- gineers, 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 southeast. 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 Canyon, the lower 88 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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. 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 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 longi- tude, 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 geolo- gist; and its splendid opportunities have not gone unim- proved. The most elaborate pleasure expedition that ever passed through this region took place in August, 1883.* It in- cluded 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 dis- * The year 1883 seems to have been the banner year for dis- tinguished visitors to the Park. The list of arrivals for that year includes the President of the United States and a mem- ber 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 LATER EXPLORATIONS 89 tinguished officers and civilians. The interesting part of the journey lay between Fort Washakie, Wyo., and the Northern Pacific Eailroad 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 re- lays, 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 draw- back 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 sports- men might pass into history as typical " fish stories," were they not vouched for by the sober record of official dis- patches, and the unerring evidence of photographer Haynes' camera. The elaborate equipment of this expedi- tion, the eminent character of its personnel, and the evi- dent 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. Twenty years after the visit of President Arthur occurred the second visit to the Park of a President of the United States during his term of office. Theodore Roosevelt ar- rived in the Park on the 8th of April, accompanied by John Burroughs, and remained on the reservation for six- teen days. He visited the country around Yancey's, spend- ing a week in camp there and traveling on horseback. This portion of his trip gave him an excellent opportunity the army; six United States Senators; one Territorial Gov- ernor; 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 mem- bers of Parliament; and a considerable number of other emi- nent personages, both from this country and abroad. 90 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK to study the question of game preservation, in which he was deeply interested. He next visited the Firehole Geyser basins and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, traveling all the way by sleigh. The venerable naturalist, his travel- ing companion, accompanied him on all his journeys, although he had not previously been on horseback in over forty years. On the day of leaving the Park, April 24th, the President assisted in laying the cornerstone of the new entrance gate at Gardiner. After the ceremonies, which were conducted under Masonic auspices, he delivered an address on the subject of the Park to an assemblage of about three thousand people who had gathered from all the surrounding country. CHAPTEE XIII THE PAKE NAMES IN common experience, the importance of geographical names lies in their use as a means of identification. To describe an object there must be a name ; and for this purpose one name is as good as another. But if the reason be sought why a particular name happened to be selected, it will generally be found to arise, not from this practical necessity, but from some primary fact or tradition, or from some distinguished character, in the annals of the com- munity where it occurs. In its mountains and valleys, its lakes and streams, and in its civil divisions, the cradle his- tory of a country may always be found recorded. In newly-discovered countries, the naming of geograph- ical features is the dearest prerogative of the explorer, as it is also the one most liable to abuse from personal vanity or egotism. The desire to attach his name, or those of his personal friends, to the prominent landmarks of the globe, where the eye of posterity may never escape them, is a weakness from which no discoverer has shown himself free. In a region like the Yellowstone Park, destined for all time to be a resort for the lovers of science and pleasure, this temptation was quite irresistible — so much so, that, when the expeditions of 1870 and 1871 left the field, they left little worth naming behind them. And yet the honor thus gained has not, we venture to say, been all that its votaries desired. Small is the number of tourists who stop to inquire for whom Mary Lake, DeLacy Creek, or Steven- son Island was named. Fewer still are aware that Mt. Everts was not christened in honor of the distinguished 91 92 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK American statesman of similar name, but in commemora- tion of one of the most thrilling individual experiences in American history. So with all these personal names. The lively satisfaction with which they were given finds no counterpart in the languid indifference with which the modern visitor mechanically repeats them. Inasmuch as it fell to the lot of the United States Geological Survey * to originate a great many of the names in our western geography, it is interesting to know from official sources the principles which governed in this impor- tant work. Writing upon this point, Dr. Hayden says : f " In attaching names to the many mountain peaks, new streams, and other geographical localities, the discovery of which falls to the pleasant lot of the explorer in the un- trodden wilds of the West, I have followed the rigid law of priority, and given the one by which they have been gen- erally known among the people of the country, whether whites or Indians; but if, as is often the case, no suitable descriptive name can be secured from the surroundings, a personal one may then be attached, and the names of eminent men who have identified themselves with the great cause, either in the fields of science or legislation, naturally rise first in the mind." In the more recent and thorough survey of the Park by the United States Geological Survey, it became necessary to provide names for those subordinate features which, in a less restricted field, the early explorers had thought un- worthy of notice. Professor Arnold Hague, upon whom * The organization now known as the United States Geolog- ical Survey dates from 1879, when it superseded the various independent surveys which had previously been made under King, Wheeler, Powell, and Hayden. The Hayden Surveys, which are alone here considered of those prior to 1879, were known as the United States Geological (Geological and Geographical, in one instance) Survey of the Territories. Although the shorter name, United States Geological Survey, is in all cases used throughout this work, it refers, since 1879, to the present organi- zation, and before that time to the Hayden Surveys. t Page 8, Fifth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden. THE PARK NAMES 93 this work has principally fallen, thus states the ru ] e which he has followed : * " In consultation with Mr. Henry Gannett, geologist in charge of geography, it was agreed that the necessary new names to designate the unnamed mountains, valleys, and streams should be mainly selected from the beasts, birds, fishes, trees, flowers, and minerals found within the Park or the adjacent country." The christening of the hot springs and geysers of the Park have been singularly fortunate. The names are in all cases characteristic. They are not studied efforts, but are simply the spontaneous utterances from first impressions by those who had never seen, and had heard but little of, similar phenomena. It is doubtful if the most careful study could improve them, and tourists will agree with General Poe, who referred as follows to this subject when he visited the Park in 1877 : f " The region of these geysers has been rightly named Fire Hole, and one almost wonders that in this country, where the tendency is to name natural objects after men who have a temporary prominence, this interesting place and its assemblage of wonders should have so completely escaped, and in general and in particular received names so very appropriate." In the race for the geographical honors of the Park, the prize fell neither to the United States Geological Survey nor even to Colonel Norris, though each was a close com- petitor. It was won by that mythical potentate of whose sulphurous empire this region is thought by some to be simply an outlying province. Starting with " Colter's Hell," the list grew until it contained "Hell Eoaring Creek," "Hell Broth Springs," "Hell's Half Acre," "Satan's Arbor," and the Devil's "Den," "Workshop," "Kitchen," "Stairway," "Slide," "Caldron," "Punch *Page 152, Part I, Annual Report United States Geological Survey for year ending June 30, 1887. f Page 79, " Inspection made in the Summer of 1877," etc. 94 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Bowl," "Frying Pan/' "Well," "Elbow," "Thumb," " Inkstand," etc., etc. It is some satisfaction to know that this rude and fiery nomenclature is gradually falling into disuse. In a measure from sympathy with the purpose of the early name-givers, and to help those who take an interest in such matters to know when, by whom, and why the geographical names of the Park were given, some of the more important will be explained here. The great pro- portion of them fall naturally under two heads — Personal and Characteristic. The personal names may in turn be classified into names given for the pioneers in the Park; for its explorers ; for those who have served it in the fields of science or literature; and for those whose only claim is that of friendship for the name-giver. To these more general classes may be added a few names given for Indian tribes, and a dozen or so that may be termed eccentric or fanciful. Baronett Peak is named for C. J. Baronett, "Yellow- stone Jack," a famous scout and guide, builder of the first bridge across the Yellowstone Eiver. Colter Peak, it needs hardly be said, is for John Colter, the original pioneer. The mountain is located southeast of the Yellowstone Lake. Yount Peak commemorates an old trapper and guide of that region. The mountain is the source of the Yellow- stone Biver. Conant Creek, in the southwest corner of the Park, is for one All Conant, who was in that country as early as 1865, and came near losing his life in this stream. Gardiner River, next to Yellowstone, is the most familiar and important name in the Park. The identity of the individual for whom it was given was long in doubt, and has been definitely settled only within quite recent years. His name was Johnson Gardner, and he was one of the so-called free trappers. There are extant articles of agree- ment between him and Kenneth McKenzie, the bourgeois THE PARK NAMES 95 in charge of the American Fur Company post at Fort Union, relating to equipment and furs for the year 1832. There are also a statement of Gardner's account at Fort Union in the summer of 1832 and a bill of lading of furs shipped on the bull boat Antoine from the " Crossing of the Yellowstone," July 18th of the same year. This was undoubtedly the individual for whom Gardiner Eiver was named. The discrepancy in the spelling has no significance. The first certain reference to both stream and name, placing the identity of each beyond dispute, occurs in the letter from Father De Smet, quoted elsewhere. The name is thus seen to be the oldest in the Park except the name Yellowstone. Bridger Lake requires no explanation. The name of this famous pioneer survives in many a feature of our western geography, but in none with greater honor than in this little lake among the mountains that he knew so well ; and near the source of that majestic stream With which so much of his eventful life was identified. Heart Lake was named prior to 1870 for an old hunter by the name of Hart Hunney, who in early times plied his trade in this vicinity. He was possibly one of Bonneville's men, for he seems to have known the General well and to have been familiar with his operations. He was killed by a war party of Crows in 1852. The spelling, Heart, dates from the expeditions of 1871. The notion that the name arose from the shape of the lake seems to have originated with Captain Barlow. It has generally been accepted, although there is really no simi- larity between the form of the lake and that of a heart. Lewis Lake is the only heart-shaped lake in that locality. Henry Lake is the name of a noted lake outside the limits of the Park on the west and the source of the north (Henry) fork of Snake Eiver. It is named for a cele- brated fur trader, Andrew Henry, who built a trading post in 1810 on Henry Fork, near its junction with the Snake. 96 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Jackson Lake was so called for David Jackson, a noted mountaineer and fur trader, and one of the first three partners of the Eocky Mountain Eur Company. This lake was discovered by John Colter and was named by Clark Lake Biddle, in honor of Nicholas Biddle, who first gave to the world an authentic edition of the journal of the cele- brated Lewis and Clark Expedition. This original name never gained any currency. Leigh Lake is for Bichard Leigh ("Beaver Dick"), a noted hunter, trapper, and guide in the country around the Teton Mountains. The nickname "Beaver Dick" arose not from the fact that Leigh was an expert beaver trapper, but on account of the striking resemblance of two ab- normally large front teeth in his upper jaw to the teeth of a beaver. The Indians called him " The Beaver." Such are the principal names given for the pioneers of this region — those who entered it before the era of ex- ploration. The explorer list is much more voluminous. Among the first under this head are those relating to the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804-6. There are three of these names, Gallatin, Madison, and Lewis. The first designates one of the Three Forks of the Missouri, which takes its rise in the northeast corner of the Park in the Gallatin Mountains. The second is also one of the Three Forks, and rises (through its largest tributary, the Firehole Eiver) in Madison Lake, ten miles south of Lone Star Geyser. Lewis Lake and Eiver are, of course, named in honor of the famous explorer, Captain Meriwether Lewis. Raynolds Pass, the name of a feature which lies outside the Park near Henry Lake, dates from the Eaynolds Ex- ploring Expedition of 1859-60. DeLacy Creek commemorates the prospecting expedition across the Park in 1863 under the leadership of Walter W. DeLacy, a well-known civil engineer of Montana. Folsom Peak is a well-earned honor that has fallen upon THE PARK NAMES 97 David E. Folsom, the explorer of 1869, and the first indi- vidual who ever made anything like a complete report of a tour of the Park. 'Of the ten members of the Washburn Expedition of 1870, including Lieutenant Doane, five bequeathed their names to prominent mountains of the Park. The leader of the party was particularly fortunate, for his name, Wash- burn, is on the most noted summit in the Park, a mountain which will forever be one of the chief delights of visitors to this region. Langford and Doane are names that have found enviable resting places on two noble summits of the Absaroka Eange, east of the Yellowstone Lake. Hedges Teak does honor to the member of the party who first proposed the idea of converting this region into a National Park, and whose subsequent writings did much to carry that idea into effect. Truman G. Everts, the benighted wanderer, was re- warded for his suffering and peril by having his name given to a famous feature of the Park, the bold and lofty rampart that faces Mammoth Hot Springs from across the Gardiner Eiver. The location of the name was an awkward mischance. The mountain which should bear the name is Mt. Sheridan. It was named for Everts by the Wash- burn Party the night before he was lost, in recognition of his having been the first white man (except Mr. Hedges, who was with him) known to have visited its summit. In the writings of the Washburn Party, after their return, it is so used; one very interesting article, by Mr. Hedges, with this name as a title, being published in the Helena Herald before it was known that Mr. Everts had been found. But the name was finally given to the high land between the Gardiner and the Yellowstone, a feature which is not a mountain at all, and which is ten miles from where Everts was found. The actual locality of the finding was erroneously supposed to be near " Eeseue Creek." Following the Washburn Expedition came those of 1871. 98 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Captain Barlow was the only member of his party who succeeded in leaving his name in the Park. For several years it designated the upper course of Snake Eiver, but was later transferred to a neighboring mountain, Barlow Peak, in order that the name of the main stream might apply to its source. If Captain Barlow left no other names of his party, he did leave three distinguished names of Army Officers who had officially aided in his exploration or had otherwise labored in the interest of that region. He remembered the chief of his Corps in Mt. Humphreys, and the commander of the Military Department in which the Park country was then situated in Mt. Hancock; and that distinguished soldier and faithful friend of the Park, who often visited it and always worked for its interest, in Mt. Sheridan. The United States Geological Survey is represented in the Park nomenclature beyond any other organization, and not always with the best judgment. Some important names, like those of Dr. Arnold Hague and Mr. Henry Gannett, are absent, while others of no especial claim or merit are present. The distinguished name of Dr. Hayden is perpetuated in the valley of the Yellowstone Eiver, between Mud Geyser and the Palls. The name of James Stevenson, Hayden's right-hand man, designates one of the trio of Peaks — Langf ord, Doane, and Stevenson — in the Absaroka Eange. There is also a Stevenson Island in the Yellowstone Lake. Mt. Chittenden is for George B. Chittenden; Bechler River, for Gustavus A. Bechler; Coulter Creek, for John M. Coulter, the botanist; Hering Lake, for Eudolph Hering, the eminent civil engineer ; Mt. Holmes, for W. H. Holmes, geologist; Carrington Island, for Campbell Car- rington, zoologist; Peale Island, for Dr. A. C. Peale, author of the elaborate report upon hot springs and geysers in the Hayden report of 1878. Jones Pass and Jones Creek are for Captain W. A. THE PARK NAMES 99 Jones, who led an expedition into the Park from the east in 1873. Mt. Hoyt is for Hon. John W. Hoyt, who, as Governor of Wyoming Territory, made a reconnaissance into the Park in 1881. Mason Cre.dk is in honor of Major J. W. Mason, who commanded Governor Hoyt's escort. Both of the foregoing names were given by Colonel Worris. Gibbon River was named by Colonel Norris for General John Gibbon, who explored this stream in 1872. A few names have been given in recognition of scientific, literary, or other service to the Park. Bunsen Peak is for the eminent chemist and physicist, Eobert Wilhelm Bunsen; inventor of the Bunsen electric cell and of the Bunsen gas burner; co-discoverer with KirchofE of the principle of Spectrum Analysis; and the first thorough investigator of the phenomena of geyser action. Dunraven Peak was named by Henry Gannett for the Earl of Dunraven, " whose travels and writings have done so much toward making this region known to our cousins across the water." Dunraven visited the Park in 1874. In 1876, he pub- lished his " Great Divide," describing his travels in the West. Colonel Norris named this peak after himself, and coupled it with Mt. Washburn in a characteristic poem. But the United States Geological Survey decided other- wise, and transferred the Colonel's name to the northeast corner of the Park. Mt. Moran, one of the Tetons, was named for Thomas Moran, whose paintings of the scenery of this region have done so much to make it known to the world. Mt. Norris, Norris Pass, and Norris Geyser Basin * are, * This basin was first explored, described, and opened up to tourists by Colonel Norris. It was, however, discovered in 1872 by E. S. Topping and Dwight Woodruff, who were led in 100 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK of course, named for P. W. Norris, second Superintendent of the Park. Elsewhere we have given a sketch of the enthusiastic and loyal friend of the Park for whom these features were named. It was not the Colonel's fault that his name was restricted to so few places along the route of the tourist. Many of the personal names in the Park were given from motives of friendship or a desire to honor distin- guished officials. In several instances the persons so hon- ored never saw the Park. Abiaihar Peak is for Charles Abiathar White, paleon- tologist, United States Geological Survey. Atkins Peak is for John D. C. Atkins, at one time United States Indian Commissioner. Mt. Schurz was named for the Secretary of the Interior under President Hayes. Lamar Uiver is for the person who held the same port- folio under President Cleveland. Keller Cascade was named by Colonel Norris for the twelve-year-old son of Governor Hoyt. Virginia Cascade is for the daughter of the late Charles Gibson, at one time President of the Yellowstone Park Association. Lake Eleanor, at the very summit of Sylvan Pass, is a little pond named for the daughter of General Chittenden. Isa Lake and Craig Pass, where the road first crosses the Continental Divide, are for the first tourists who visited these features. < Mary Lake (and with it Mary Mountain) was named in that direction by noticing from the summit of Bunsen Peak a vast column of steam ascending to the southward. The day after this discovery, a tourist party, including a Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Stone, of Bozeman, Mont., visited it from Mammoth Hot Springs, and then continued their course, by way of the general line of the present route, to the Firehole Geyser Basin. Mrs. Stone was the first white woman to visit the Park. THE PARK NAMES 101 1873, and a definite record of the christening has been left us by the Eev. E. J. Stanley : "We passed along the bank of a lovely little lakelet, sleeping in seclusion in the shade of towering evergreens, by which it is sheltered from the roaring tempests. It is near the Divide, and on its pebbly shore some members of our party unfurled the Stars and Stripes, and christened it Mary's Lake, in honor of Miss Clark, a young lady be- longing to our party." Frank Island, in the Yellowstone Lake, is for the brother of Henry W. Elliott, a member of the Hayden Expedition of 1871. Mary Bay is for Mary Force, a sweetheart of another member of the same expedition. i The Annie, first boat * on the Yellowstone Lake, was christened for Miss Anna L. Dawes, daughter of Hon. H. L. Dawes, at that time a Senator of the United States. The native tribes of the continent are remembered to a small extent in the nomenclature of the Park, as much, perhaps, as they ought to be considering their small con- nection with it. Aosaroka Range is given for the Crow Indians, whose immemorial home, Absaroka, was in the valley of the Big Horn Eiver at the eastern base of these mountains. The range was first known by the name Yellowstone, and in 1873 was rechristened by Captain Jones, Sierra Shoshone. The present name was given by the U. S. Geological Survey about the year 1885. Bannock Peak, in the Gallatin Eange, is from the name of a tribe of Indians who inhabited the country to the southwest of the Park, and were finally settled on a reserva- tion in southern Idaho. What is known as the Great Ban- * The frame and cover for this boat were brought from Salt Lake City and assembled at the lake. In the well-known picture of this historic craft, the persons in the boat are James Steven- son and Henry W. Elliott. 102 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK nock Trail, passed along the valley of Indian Creek, some distance south of this mountain. The spelling here given is that which custom seems finally to have settled upon; but Bannack would more nearly express the original pro- nunciation. The various spellings, some sixteen in number, come from the original Panai'hti, or Bannai'hti, meaning southern people. Joseph Peak is for the famous chief of the Nez Perce In- dians, who made a forced tour of the Park in the year 1877. Sheepeater Cliffs were so named by Colonel Norris in commemoration of the only tribe of Indians that are known to have permanently dwelt in the Park. These cliffs are the magnificent walls of the Middle Gardiner Canyon below Osprey Falls. It was upon one of the "ancient and but recently de- serted, secluded, unknown haunts" of these Indians, that Colonel Norris, " in rapt astonishment," stumbled one day, and was so impressed by what he saw, that he gave the neighboring cliff its present name. Indian Creek, a tributary of the Gardiner, is a. stream along which ran the old Bannock Trail. Indian Pond describes a beautiful little sheet of water close to the north shore of the Yellowstone Lake. Its banks were a favorite camping ground for the Indians. Nez Perce Creek requires no explanation to those who have read the story of the flight of Chief Joseph and his braves up the valley of this stream in 1877. Shoshone, the name of a family of Indians that occupied the whole country south and southwest of the Park as far as to the Sierra Nevada, designates two natural features of the Park, Shoshone Lake and Shoshone Eiver. The Lake, which is one of the sources of Snake Eiver, was first named DeLacy Lake, after its discoverer. The Washburn Party (1870) appear to have named it after their leader. In 1871, Dr. Hayden, failing to identify its location, and believing it to be tributary to the Madison River, re- named it Madison Lake. It is this name which appears on THE PARK NAMES 103 the first map of the Park and in the Act of Dedication, where the west boundary of the Park is described as being " fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake." In 1872, when the correct drainage of the lake was discovered, the name " Madison Lake " was transferred to its present location (see "Madison Lake"), and its place supplied by " Shoshone Lake." The Act of Dedica- tion is therefore misleading, and it is necessary to know that " Madison Lake " of the Act, is " Shoshone Lake " now, in order to understand the true location of the west boundary of the Park.* Shoshone River received its first name, Stinkingwater, from John Colter, who so named it from a tar spring of very strong odor near the junction of the two forks of the stream. The river itself is one of the purest and most beautiful in the mountains, and the original name was so inappropriate that it has been changed to its present name by an Act of the Legislature of Wyoming. There are a few names which do not fall under any of the above classes and some which are eccentric and fanciful in character. Cdlfee and Miller Creeks were named by Colonel Morris, and this is his record of the fact : " Some seven miles above Cache Creek was passed the mouth of another stream in a deep, narrow, timbered valley, which we named Calfee Creek, after the famous photog- rapher of the Park. Five miles further on, we reached the creek which Miller recognized as the one he descended in retreating from the Indians in 1870, and which, on this account, we called Miller's Creek." Cache Creek was so named from the following circum- stance: A prospecting party under one Austin were in camp on this stream when they were surprised by Indians, and all their stock stolen except one or two mules. Being '' Page 250, Sixth Annual Eeport of Dr. Hayden. 104 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK unable to carry all their baggage from this point, they cached what they could not place on the mules, or could not themselves carry. Crevice, Hellroaring, and Slough Creeks, all names of tributaries of the Yellowstone Eiver from the mountains along the north border of the Park, are survivals of the early prospecting days in this region. Topping, in his " Chronicles of the Yellowstone," thus records the circum- stances of their origin : " They [a prospecting party] found gold in a crevice at the mouth of the first stream above Bear, and named it, in consequence, Crevice Gulch. Hubbel went ahead the next day for a hunt, and upon his return he was asked what kind of a stream the next creek was. 'It's a hell roarer,' was his reply, and Hell Eoaring is its name to this day. The second day after this, he was again ahead, and, the same question being asked him, he said : ' 'Twas but a slough.' When the party came to it, they found a rushing torrent, and, in crossing, a pack horse and his load were swept away, but the name of Slough Creek remains." Boone Creek was named prior to 1870, for Eobert With- row, an eccentric pioneer of Irish descent, who used to call himself " Daniel Boone the Second." Solution Creek is the outlet of Eiddle Lake. Surprise Creek was so named because its course, as made known by official explorations, was surprisingly different from what it had before been supposed to be. Delusion Lake was long believed to be a part of the Yellowstone Lake — its index " finger " in the fanciful re- semblance of the lake to the human hand. This delusion was cleared away by official explorations. Riddle Lake is thus accounted for by Professor Bradley, of the United States Geological Survey : " ' Lake Eiddle ' is a fugitive name, which has been lo- cated at several places, but nowhere permanently. It is supposed to have been used originally to designate the THE PARK NAMES 105 mythical lake, among the mountains, whence, according to the hunters, water flowed to both oceans. I have agreed to Mr. Hering's proposal to attach the name to this lake, which is directly upon the divide at a point where the waters of the two oceans start so nearly together, and thus to solve the unsolved ' riddle ' of the ' two-ocean-water.' " This was a year before Captain Jones verified the exist- ence of Two-Ocean-Pass. This completes the list of personal names in the Park, and it now remains to note a few of the more important that we have classed as characteristic — names expressive of the form, color, composition, or other peculiarity of the object named. i Cinnabar Mountain, a prominent feature near the northern entrance to the Park, was " so named from the color of its rocks, which have been mistaken for Cinnabar, although the red color is due to iron." — Hayden. The Devil's Slide (also named before 1870) is on this mountain. The Dome, named, of course, from its form, is a con- spicuous peak of the Gallatin Eange. Electric Peak, the highest mountain in the Park, re- ceived its name from the following circumstance, described by Mr. Henry Gannett, who ascended the mountain with surveying instruments, July 26, 1872 : "A thunder-shower was approaching as we neared the summit of the mountain. I was above the others of the party, and, when about fifty feet below the summit, the electric current began to pass through my body. At first I felt nothing, but heard a crackling noise, similar to a rapid discharge of sparks from a friction machine. Im- mediately after, I began to feel a tingling or pricking sensa- tion in my head and the end of my fingers, which, as well as the noise, increased rapidly, until, when I reached the top, the noise, which had not changed its character, was deafening, and my hair stood completely on end, while the tingling, pricking sensation was absolutely painful. Tak- 106 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK ing off my hat partially relieved me. I started down again, and met the others twenty-five or thirty feet below the summit. They were affected similarly, but in a less degree. One of them attempted to go to the top, but had proceeded but a few feet when he received quite a severe shock, which felled him as if he had stumbled. We then returned down the mountain about three hundred feet, and to this point we still heard and felt the electricity." Elephant Bach was so named " on account of the almost vertical sides of this mountain, and the rounded form of the summit." — Hayden. This name, as now applied, refers to a different feature from that originally designated by it. Many years before the Park was discovered, it was used to denote the long ridge of which Mt. Washburn is the commanding summit, and which was distinctly visible from beyond the present limits of the Park, both north and south. Factory Hill. — The term " factory " has at various times been applied to several different localities in the Park, because of their striking resemblance on frosty mornings to an active factory town. The resemblance was noted as far back as 1829. The name has now become fixed on a northern foothill of Mt. Sheridan. Index Peak and Pilot Knob are two imposing summits near the northeast corner of the Park, and received their names before 1870. " One of them derives its name from its shape, — like a closed hand with the index-finger extending upward, while the other is visible from so great a distance on every side that it forms an excellent land- mark for the wandering miner, and thus its appropriate name of Pilot Knob." — Hayden. Roaring Mountain " takes its name from the shrill, pene- trating sound of the stream constantly escaping from one or more vents near the summit." — Hague. Sepulcher Mountain is so called from the striking fea- ture on its northern slope which resembles a tomb or sepul- cher with a prominent f ootstone and headstone. THE PARK NAMES 107 The Teton Mountains were named by the French trap- pers as early as 1811 from the fancied resemblance of these peaks, when seen from a distance, to the nipple of the human breast. The name is now nearly a century old and has passed into all the literature describing that coun- try, particularly that of its fur trade era, the most romantic and fascinating in western history. Indeed, it has become the classic designation of the most interesting historic summit of the Eocky Mountains. That it should always retain this designation in memory of the nameless pioneers who have been guided by it across the wilderness, and many of whom have perished beneath its shadow, would seem to be a self-evident proposition. Individual merit, no matter how great, can never justify the usurpation of its place by any personal name whatever. An attempt to do this was made in 1872 by the United States Geological Survey who rechristened it Mt. Hayden. The new name has never gained any local standing, and although it has crept into many maps, its continued use ought to be dis- couraged. It is greatly to the credit of Dr. Hayden that he personally disapproved the change, so far at least, as very rarely, if ever, to refer to the mountain by its new name. Firehole River is a name the origin of which has here- tofore apparently been misunderstood. It dates from back as far as 1830, when the valley was called by the trappers " Burnt Hole," from a great forest fire which had recently swept over it, the traces of which are distinctly visible at the present day. The record on this point is definite and conclusive. Atlantic and Pacific Creeks flow out of Two-Ocean Pass, where a mountain stream divides, sending its waters through these streams to the two oceans. Outlet Creek was the outlet of Yellowstone Lake when it was a tributary of the Columbia Eiver. Pelican Creek very properly designates a stream the mouth of which, on the north shore of the Yellowstone 108 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Lake, is a great resort for this particular species of bird. Pelican Eoost is an island near by. Soda Butte Creek is so named from an extinct geyser, or hot spring mound, near the mouth of that stream. Tangled Creek, in the Lower Geyser Basin, is a most appropriate name. The stream is a perfect network of separate channels which cross and recross and interlace with each other in the most confusing fashion. Violet Creelc, in Hayden Valley, is bordered with dense growths of the wild violet. Tower Falls was named by the Washburn party, and this is their record of the fact and the reason therefor : " By a vote of a majority of the party this fall was called Tower Fall."— Washburn. "At the crest of the fall the stream has cut its way through amygdaloid masses, leaving tall spires of rock from 50 to 100 feet in height, and worn in every conceiva- ble shape. . . . Several of them stand like sentinels on the very brink of the fall." — Doane. Sylvan Lake is not surpassed by any name in the Park in point of fitness. No finer example of sylvan scenery can be found anywhere than that embracing this exquisite sheet of water. National Park Mountain falls under none of the fore- going descriptions. It is commemorative of the origin of the Yellowstone Park project and was given to a prominent hill which stands at the junction of the Firehole and Gibbon Bivers, directly opposite a camp site of the Wash- burn Expedition, where, on September 19, 1870, Cornelius Hedges suggested to his associates that the region they had just traversed ought to be set apart as a national park. There are many other names in the Park, all of them given for the fauna and flora that flourish there. They are not characteristic in the sense that a particular name has any especial application to the object which it designates. The features so named are all of minor importance and it is not essential to enumerate them here. CHAPTEE XIV ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK THE Act of Dedication of the Yellowstone National Park defines in simple terms the purposes for which it was created. These are: (1) The preservation of its natural curiosities, its for- ests, and its game. (2) The reservation of its territory from private occu- pancy, so that it may remain in unrestricted freedom " for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." It also authorizes such leases and other privileges as may be necessary for the comfort and convenience of visitors. The Act contained no code of laws for the Park, defin- ing offenses and providing for their punishment, nor any legal machinery for enforcing such regulations as the Secre- tary of the Interior might establish. This condition prevailed for upward of twenty-two years, and during its continuance there were experienced the evils of a license which at times was wholly unchecked, and which it was never possible to bring under thorough control. This long-standing misfortune was aggravated by an- other 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, Con- gress cannot be justly criticised. 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 meet 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 109. 110 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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. Left thus without laws for its government and funds for its improvement or protection, the early administra- tion of the Park was necessarily very inefficient. In look- ing back over those years it is a wonder that it survived at all. The administration of the Park was entrusted by the Secretary of the Interior to a Superintendent, and his first choice naturally fell upon Mr. Langford, well known as a member of the Washburn Expedition and for his work in securing the passage of the Act of Dedication. But, from the first, his hands were completely tied. No salary was allowed him for his services, nor any funds with which to carry out his duties. He was, therefore, powerless to ac- complish 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 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 unique and picturesque characters in the history of the Park, Philetus W. Norris, of Michigan. He was appointed upon the advent of the Hayes administration, and held office for nearly five years. Norris filled with varying capacity the rSles of explorer, path-finder, poet, and historian in the Park. Endowed with extraordinary energy, he entered upon his new chaTge with genuine enthusiasm and unbounded faith in its future value to the people. He ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 111 was fortunate in receiving from Congress substantial means for carrying out his plans, and with his term of service begins the real administrative history of the Park. His work covered an extensive range, and left its mark, as its author did his name, in every quarter. He was an untiring explorer. He traveled all the existing trails and penetrated the unfrequented sections in every direction. He studied the history and antiquities of the Park. He built the first roads, opening a vast extent of highway, and although this has all been replaced by later work, it served its original purpose very well. He wrote and pub- lished a great deal about the Park and helped revive public interest in it at the time of its greatest need. Norris was succeeded in February, 1882, by Patrick A. Conger, of Iowa. The two men were as unlike in personal characteristics and views of official duty as it is possible to conceive. Conger possessed none of the love of his work, none of the faith in the Park, none of the enthusiasm, energy, and restless activity that were so characteristic of his predecessor. His administration was weak and inef- ficient and brought the Park to the lowest ebb of its for- tunes. Its only palliating feature, as viewed from this distance, is the fact that its very weakness aroused public sentiment and paved the way to reform. 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 an 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 build- ings 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 112 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK above the primitive type. No one as yet thought of remain- ing in the Park during the winter season. But it finally dawned upon certain 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 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 each at all the principal points of interest. It was urged in defense of this sweeping grant, that the protec- tion which had failed of realization by every other method could be secured in this way. It was argued that, if re- sponsible parties could be given exclusive control of these natural curiosities, they would, from motives of self-in- terest, if from no other, 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 Secre- tary 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 was a grave one, and it 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 later became a formidable menace to the integrity of the Park. It had become 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, urgently appealed to the public sentiment of the country in favor of some definite action. The Governor of Mon- tana made an earnest appeal to Congress. Other influ- ential voices united in the same cause. The whole matter was brought before the next Congress, and in March, 1883, a clause in the Sundry Civil Bill containing the annual ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 113 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. In this way the bold scheme of the Improvement Company was frustrated, and the founda- tion laid for the present administrative system. The Secre- tary 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 opera- tion. 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 prohibited. Previ- ously, 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 the Territory of Wyoming. Might it not be within the prov- ince 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 pre- serve the timber, game, fish, and natural curiosities of the Park," and for other purposes. The act was stringent in its provisions, but totally failed of its purpose. The attempt at territorial control of a national institution was in itself a mistake. Then, the officials chosen to execute the law were poorly qualified for their work and displayed a lamentable want of tact and moderation. Some of their arrests were unjust and tyrannical in the extreme. They formed an alliance with the assistant superintendents (fed- eral officials known in local parlance as " rabbit catchers "), by which the latter shared, as informers, the fines levied 114 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK by themselves. A law which made abuses like this possible quickly ran its course, and 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 not only inefficient, but 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 superintendents' quarters. The difficulties which beset the administration of Super- intendent Conger were too great for him to grapple with successfully, and he resigned, July 28, 1884. In his place was appointed, August 4, 1884, Eobert 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. He went upon the theory that the Park was created as 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 co- operation with a member of the Improvement Company, very nearly succeeded in carrying a measure through Con- gress 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 ap- peared on notices posted to designate the localities. The measure failed of passage, but the scandal of Superin- ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 115 tendent 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 well qualified for the place. He set out to reform the administration of the Park, and his intelligent and vigorous measures gave en- couragement to those who had been familiar with the previ- ous condition of affairs.* But, as often happens, 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 its continuance. The Secretary of the Interior was thus compelled to call upon the Secretary of War for assistance. The regime of civilian superin- tendents passed away, for the time, and that of the military superintendents began. The change was opposed by the Secretary of the Interior and by all who held or hoped to hold places under the old order; but the sequel proved the wisdom of the policy. August 20, 1886, marks the turning point in the admin- istrative history of the Park. Upon that day Captain Moses Harris, First United States Cavalry, relieved the civilian Superintendent of his duties, and military authority supplanted the so-called assistant superintendents as Park police. Henceforth a 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 adminis- tration. Trespassers upon the Eeservation 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. * This commendation of Colonel Wear has been criticised by several contemporaries in the Park who do not consider that the methods of this Superintendent were any improvement upon those of his immediate predecessors. 116 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Abuses of leasehold rights were 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 dif- ficulty was over. Nothing conduces so much to the infrac- tion of law as a belief in the incompetency or insincerity of those delegated to enforce it, and the removal of this cause was a long step in the right direction. The system thus inaugurated still continues, although Congress has never taken any further steps to make it permanent. The military commander is still styled the Acting Superintendent. The administrative machinery has completely adjusted itself to the present system. A gar- rison of sufficient size to accommodate a squadron of cav- alry has been established at Mammoth Hot Springs, and numerous permanent station houses have been built throughout the Park for the use of small detachments in patrolling the Eeservation. The system, however, is op- posed in certain quarters and may eventually be aban- doned.* The new Hotel Company had a meteoric career, prom- ising great things, but accomplishing no permanent im- provement except the partial construction of a pretentious but ill-conceived structure, which has become widely known as the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel. The company's for- tunes quickly 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. The Northern Pacific Eailway Company then came to the rescue, bought out the Improvement Company and cer- tain lesser concerns, and organized a new company called the Yellowstone Park Association. This company com- pleted the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, and has since * See Chapter XII, Part II, for recent innovation in the admin- istration of the national parks and of the Yellowstone Park in particular. o O ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 117 built hotels at the following points: Norris Geyser Basin, three buildings, two of which have been destroyed by fire; Lower Geyser Basin, the Fountain Hotel; Upper Geyser Basin, two buildings, one of which has been destroyed by fire; and one hotel each at the Yellowstone Lake and the Grand Canyon. At first the carrying of tourists through the Park was an adjunct of the hotel business, but in 1891 the Interior Department granted this privilege to a new company called the Yellowstone Park Transportation Company, and the two companies operated thereafter for many years as inde- pendent concerns. The transportation system of the Park, which has now developed into the best equipped organiza- tion of its kind in the world, was, in its essential features, the creation of Silas S. Huntley, who gave it his undivided attention from 1892 until 1901, the date of his death. By virtue of his wide acquaintance throughout the country, his intimate knowledge of the Park, and his genuine inter- est in its welfare, he practically controlled its administra- tion for many years. In 1901, the Northern Pacific sold the hotel property to the owners of the Transportation Company, and the two businesses were operated during the next two years under the same management. In the fall of 1902 the Railway Company took back its hotel property and bought an interest in the Transportation Company, which virtually controls the tourist business of the Park. Again it sold its. interests to the Hotel and Transportation companies and for the past few years has been nominally free of participation in Park affairs, except that it still affords the most direct railway connection with the Park for all classes of business there. When Mr. Huntley died, his partner, Mr. H. W. Child, succeeded to the management of this business, the control of which he still exercises. In a later chapter more ex- tended reference will be made to his conspicuous success in the administration of an intricate and difficult enterprise. 118 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK In some respects his work has become an important feature of the attractions of the Park. Oldest in service of the several able business men whom the Park has developed is Frank J. Haynes, official Park photographer, and now President of the Yellowstone and Western Stage Company. Mr. Haynes first went to the Park in 1881, and for many years thereafter his chief activity there was the exploitation of his photographs of Park attractions. These photographs have gone all over the world and have probably done more than any other agency to spread a knowledge of that region. In 1898 Mr. Haynes extended his activities into a new field and became the leading spirit in organizing a company to transport tourists from Monida on the Utah Northern (Union Pacific) Eailroad seventy miles west of the Park. From a small beginning this enterprise gradually increased, and when the Union Pacific built up to the boundary of the Park on the west side, thereby cutting off two-thirds of the stage route to the nearest Park hotel, the business sprang to a volume which now rivals that of the Northern entrance. Another notable development of the Park transportation and hotel business is that now conducted by an organiza- tion known from its founder, W. W. Wylie, as the Wylie Permanent Camping Company. Mr. Wylie commenced this business as early as 1883, with ten-day tours in portable camps. Later he made these camps "permanent" in location — practically hotels under canvas — and this system has since been known as the Wylie Permanent Camps. By its novelty and cheaper rates it attracts a large business and fills a genuine need of the traveling public. Naturally enough, the Yellowstone Lake has played a considerable part in the tourist business of the Park. About the year 1890, the privilege was granted of transporting tourists by boat over the Lake between two points on its shores touched by the road system. The beneficiary of ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 119 this privilege, which has been of an exclusive or monopo- listic character, was for many years Mr. E. C. Waters, President and principal owner of the Yellowstone Lake Boat Company. Mr. Waters' conduct of this business was uniformly unsatisfactory both to the public and to the Park administration, but he succeeded in holding his con- cession until 1907, when it was transferred to T. Elwood Hofer, famous the country over as "Billy" Hofer, the Yellowstone guide and conductor of hunting parties. The concession was recently transferred to W. M. Nichols, who still controls it. The year 1894 was an important landmark in the admin- istrative history of the Park. On May 7, of that year, the desired code of laws was enacted, and on August 3, of the same year, an act was passed further regulating the question of leases and privileges. The circumstances attending the passage of the National Park Protective Act are worthy of record, because it was evidently their sensational character that aroused Congress to action. The preservation of the Park buffalo herd has always been a matter of deep public interest. There is a well-nigh universal desire that this noble animal, which has played such a part in the frontier history of our country, shall survive in its native freedom within the territory set apart as a national park and game preserve. Accordingly the people have followed with extreme jealousy the welfare of this herd, and have been impatient at any evidence of neglect on the part of Congress or the Department in protecting it. In the month of March, 1894, a notorious poacher was caught by a government scout in the act of killing buffalo in their winter range in the Pelican Valley. Quite a number of slain buffalo were found — enough to show that, with a little more time, he would have exterminated the herd altogether. The arrest of this man was a bold and thrilling exploit, and was executed with brilliant success. 120 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK There was present in the Park at the time a representative of Forest and Stream, a journal which has always been one of the Park's most enthusiastic guardians, and through this agency the news was promptly and effectively brought to the attention of Congress. The imminent danger of total annihilation of the herd produced the desired effect, and within a month the long-sought legislation had been effected.* The history of the Park road system dates almost from the beginning of the Park. In his first annual report, 1872, Superintendent Langford presented an outline of what was urgently needed and asked Congress for an ap- propriation. But nothing was done until 1877, when, as already narrated, Congress began giving money for the Park. During the five years of the Norris regime some $70,000 was appropriated, the larger portion of which was expended in road building. Norris opened up a great extent of country, but the work was of very primitive char- acter and has all since been replaced. To give this work systematic direction, it was placed under the Corps of Engineers of the Army in 1883, Cap- tain D. C. Kingman being the first officer detailed for the purpose. His term of duty lasted three years and resulted in laying the foundation of the present road system. The work continued with annual appropriations varying from $30,000 to $75,000 until about 1899, when the allowances were increased, culminating in an authorization of $750,000 for the three years 1902-5. With this sum and less amounts immediately before and after, in all aggre- gating upward of a million dollars, the road system, as it exists to-day, was worked out. The work has remained in charge of the Corps of En- gineers except during the four years from 1894 to 1898. * This was during the administration of Captain (now Briga- dier General) George S. Anderson, U. S. Army, one of the most popular of all the Park superintendents. He filled this position from 1891 to 1897. His energetic interest in his work was a great aid in carrying through the measure described above. ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY OF THE PARK 121 It was definitely placed under the Engineer Department by Act of Congress of June 6, 1900.* A formidable danger which for many years threatened the integrity of the Park, was the effort to get railroads across its territory. The policy of the government in regard to this Preservation has been to maintain it as nearly as possible in its natural condition, unchanged by the hand of man. The sentiment of the country has been almost a unit on the question, but it has required constant vigilance to save the Park from this form of destructive innovation. Cooke City, on the northeast boundary, has been the chief offender, because of its persistence, but several of the great transcontinental lines have used their enormous influence to the same end. Happily all these efforts have been frus- trated and are apparently abandoned. In the strenuous work of earlier years, when the fight seemed to be a losing one, three names stand out among those who, in their unofficial capacity, and from unselfish friendship for the Park, defended it in and out of season. They are the late Senator George G. Vest, the late William Hallett Phillips, and George Bird Grinnell. * General John M. Wilson was Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, at the time. He visited the Park in 1900 and investigated the needs of the work. His friendly attitude was of material assist- ance in securing from Congress the necessary funds for its prosecution. CHAPTEE XV HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE PAEK 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 Eailroad," tells of his recent visit to the Yellowstone Park. This was about the period when our Indian wars in the Par 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 depreda- tions. Naturally, therefore, General Sherman had his mind upon this subject when his small party, comparatively unprotected, were traveling through the wilds of the Na- tional 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 they met an ingoing company of tourists from Helena who, after following the usual route to the Canyon and Falls of the Yellowstone, went into camp in that vicinity August 24th. Only the day before, another party — from Eadersburg, Mont. — was on the point of leaving the Park after a tour of about two weeks. They had been in camp in the Lower Geyser Basin and must have been seen by General Sherman and his party, for they were directly in hi3 route. 123 HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE PARK 123 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. Prom the time of Lewis and Clark, the Nez Perce In- dians 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 Palouse Eiver 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 bands located in the several portions of the remainder. In 1860, gold was discovered on the reser- vation 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 por- tion 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 accom- plished in 1863 by a new treaty in which the Indians relin- quished three of their most important valleys, the Wallowa, the Alpowai, and the Salmon Biver. This treaty 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 Perces." For a time the authorities made no effort to en- force the new treaty, and the Indians were "tacitly per- mitted to roam " over their ancient hunting-grounds. This condition of affairs continued for thirteen years, 124 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK with various efforts in the meantime to arrive at some sat- isfactory settlement. Finally, in 1876, a civil and military commission was appointed to visit the Nez Perces to ex- amine into their grievances, and to determine what meas- ures were necessary for a permanent settlement of the question. The report * of this Commission is interesting, both for the facts it relates in regard to the tribal life and characteristics of these Indians, and for the heroic treat- ment of existing troubles which it recommended. The Com- mission advised that, although the government had per- mitted the treaty of 1863 to be ignored by the Indians ever since it was signed, it was still a valid treaty, perhaps the best that could be devised to meet the existing condi- tions, and that it should be enforced — by military aid, if necessary. The recommendation was approved, and to Gen- eral 0. 0. 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 resort to 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 negotia- tions 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 por- tions of Montana. To avoid these they bore off to the southward, through a country with whose people they were well acquainted, and with whom they had often traded in * See Report of Secretary of the Interior, 1877, part 1, p. 607. HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE PARK 125 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 Mis- soula, and from volunteers among Montana citizens, was in close pursuit. He overtook the Indians on the Big Hole Eiver, in Southwestern 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 reerossed 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 Yellow- stone Park, which they entered by Targhee Pass, and on the night of August 23d they encamped on the Firehole Eiver, within the Park boundaries, a short distance from where we left the Eadersburg 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. An account of their adventures will be given in the chapters immediately following. 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 Perces 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 126 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK as the Indians were crossing the northeast boundary of the Park. On the 24th of August the Indians, under Joseph, moved to the Yellowstone River at the site of the ford near Mud Geyser. Here they remained during the 25th. On the following day the bulk of the command crossed the river, ascended its right bank to the lake, and took the Pelican Creek trail for the Lamar River valley in the northeast corner of the Park. A small party of marauders separated from the main body at Mud Geyser, descended the Yellowstone by the Mt. Washburn trail, attacked the Helena tourist party on their way, killing one man, burned and partially destroyed Baronett bridge near the junction of the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers, made a raid upon Mammoth Hot Springs, killing one man there, and went down the valley as far as Henderson's Ranch, some three miles north of the Park boundary. Here they committed numerous depredations, stole a number of horses, and then returned without having suffered any loss whatever. Chief Joseph and his followers left the Park by way of Miller Creek. Their natural route would have been by Soda Butte Creek and Clark's Pork; but they had learned, probably through Shively, that there was a large party of miners in the section where Cooke City now stands, and they feared that they might encounter some opposition there. 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. The bridge was found partially destroyed 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 HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE PARK 127 route of the Indians and were lying in wait to intercept them. General Sturgis expected to do this as they emerged from the Absaroka Mountains; but unfortunately he sta- tioned 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 com- pany of cavalry and a slight conflict ensued. They then struck north, apparently for the British line. On Septem- ber 23d they crossed the Missouri at Cow Island and re- sumed their march north. But they were intercepted by General 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 defeated and Chief 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 Perces. They had always been a friendly tribe and it was their boast that they had never slain a white man. They were intelligent, brave, and humane. In this campaign they bought sup- plies which they might have confiscated ; they saved prop- erty which they might have destroyed; they spared hun- dreds of lives which other Indians would have sacrificed. Their conduct places them 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 128 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK cannot 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 paleface. In defense of this principle, the Nez Perces 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 knew them no more.* One of the interesting features of General Howard's pursuit of Chief Joseph across the Park was the part taken by Captain W. P. Spurgin, Twenty-first Infantry, who was an engineer officer of the command. Before start- ing on his long pursuit, General Howard organized in Idaho a company of fifty-two frontiersmen, all of whom were skilled in some useful kind of work. They were organized as a company of engineers, armed as infantry troops, but mounted on horses furnished by themselves, and were paid at the rate of three dollars a day and their rations. The company had two pontoon-boats, all necessary tools and supplies, and a large pack train. They were not designated as engineers, though doing the work of engineer troops, but. as " skilled laborers."' This long name was quickly condensed by the troops into "skillets." The company started out every morning half an hour after the scouts, and about an hour before the main body. Their duty was to make a road for the army, and it involved constant work, great activity, and called forth every practical ex- pedient for overcoming difficulties with alacrity. When the Park was reached these difficulties became too great to be overcome as fast as Howard wished to move, and on the second day the army passed on over Mary Mountain, leaving Spurgin and the train to follow as fast * 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. HOSTILE INDIANS IN THE PARK 129 as they could. The Captain made the prodigious ascent of the mountain, opening a road through the timber, and reached the ford of the Yellowstone very soon after Howard did. The General asked him how many wagons he had to abandon, and was greatly pleased to learn that all had gotten through. It was on the part of the route from Mud Geyser to Baronett Bridge, over the shoulder of Mt. Washburn, that Captain Spurgin made a proud record for himself as an officer of energy and resource, and left traces of the cam- paign through the Park which time has so far failed to eradicate. There are evidences of the old road nearly all the way. The high wooded hill along the river west of the present road, and about two miles above the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone, was descended by cutting a narrow way through the timber and letting the wagons straight down, holding them with ropes wound around trees. The marks on the trees where the ropes burned through the bark are still distinctly visible. The soldiers called this place " Spurgin's Beaver Slide." In crossing the Washburn Eange the train passed through Dunraven Pass, and instead of keeping along the trail, dropped down into the valley of Carnelian Creek. Thence it kept on to Tower Creek, and crossed the latter stream about a mile above the modern bridge. The traces of this old road will not disappear, except through a forest fire, for centuries to come.* The campaign of 1877 was the only one in which tourists of the National Park were ever subjected to serious danger from the Indians. In 1878, there was a slight alarm caused by an ephemeral raid of the Bannock Indians; but, beyond the loss of a few horses, no damage was done. * Captain Spurgin revisited the scene of his wonderful activi- ties in 1901 when, in company with the author, he passed over the entire line of march and assisted in identifying the sites of important occurrences that they might be permanently marked. CHAPTER XVI EXPERIENCES OP THE RADERSBURG TOURISTS GOING- back to the morning of August 24th, when Chief Joseph and his people arrived at the Lower Geyser Basin, we will record the experiences of the two parties of tourists to whom allusion was made in the previ- ous chapter. The party from Eadersburg, Mont., was com- posed of the following persons : George F. Cowan and wife, Prank and Ida Carpenter, brother and sister of Mrs. Cowan, Charles Mann, William Dingee, Albert Oldham, A. J. Arnold, and a Mr. Meyers. Their main camp had been in a fringe of trees on the bank of a little stream about half a mile west of the Fountain Geyser, and from this point they had made excursions to the Upper Basin, the Lake, and the Canyon. The party was to start home this morning and Arnold and Dingee had arisen before sunrise to make a fire and prepare breakfast. Soon after, Mrs. Cowan aroused her husband and told him there were Indians outside. Mr. Cowan peered through the flap of the tent and saw that it was indeed so. Hastily dressing, he went out- and commenced talking with an Indian called Charley, who spoke English well — a tall, slender Indian, with a long, but not bad-looking face. Charley pretended that the Indians were Platheads, but a little questioning drew out the fact that they were Nez Perces. As it was known that these Indians were on the warpath, Mr. Cowan at once realized the gravity of the situation. Charley pretended that he belonged to Looking Glass' band, who, he said, were friendly; and that the hostiles, under Chief Joseph, were " two sleeps " in rear. Cowan told him where he was from and that his party were just 130 THE RADERSBURG TOURISTS 131 about to start home. Charley replied that it would not be safe to go back for he would' meet Joseph's men, who would kill the entire party. Looking Glass, he said, was en route to the Yellowstone buffalo country, and it would be better to go along with that chief. Cowan told him that he could not go that way, and that he would take his chances with Chief Joseph's men. Just at that moment he saw a number of Indians crowding around the baggage wagon and Arnold on the point of handing them out sup- plies. Cowan promptly elbowed his way through the crowd and ordered Arnold not to give away any of the provisions. This vigorous action incensed the Indians, and probably accounts for their persistent efforts to kill Cowan later in the day. By this time the Indians had collected in large numbers and Cowan became thoroughly alarmed. He ordered the teams hitched up and camp to be broken at once. Every- thing was soon ready. There was a double-seated covered spring wagon, and' a half spring baggage wagon. Such of the party as could not find seats in the wagons rode saddle horses. Cowan ordered the drivers to pull out, and he himself mounted his horse and rode alongside the wagon in which his wife was seated. The two women were crying, for the situation seemed to them hopeless. The start was made and the little stream crossed, when the wagons came to an abrupt stop. Directly in front, com- pletely blocking the way, was a line of mounted warriors, like a platoon of cavalry, with guns against the thigh as if ready for action. To this time Cowan had believed what Charley had told him about the chiefs — that Looking Glass was in advance and Joseph some distance back. Charley had tried to get Cowan to go on ahead, saying that Looking Glass wanted to see him; but Cowan had refused. Carpenter did go on until he discovered the ruse, and did not rejoin the party for an hour or so after. When Cowan saw his way barricaded he demanded of 132 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Charley the cause, and insisted, with considerable vehe- mence, that the Indians must get out of his way. Charley smiled with a satisfied air, but made no reply. Cowan repeated his demand. Just then an Indian approached from the rear, put up his hand, gave some command in the native tongue, and the Indians lowered their guns. Cowan thought that this must be some chief of authority and promptly addressed his demand to him. This Indian, also smiling and pleasant, looked Cowan straight in the eye, but said nothing. Cowan pressed his demand, where- upon Looking Glass (for it was this chief) pointed back- ward with the thumb of his left hand to an Indian a little to his left and rear, and said in a heavy, dignified tone: "Him, Joseph!" Here, then, was a situation. Cowan was "up against" Chief Joseph himself, and Looking Glass and the whole Nez Perce army. Joseph was painted in vermilion, but Looking Glass not. Joseph was the better looking man of the two. Cowan did not hesitate, but carried his peti- tion promptly and unfalteringly to the throne itself. Joseph looked him straight in the eye, but never deigned a word. Charley then came up and said to Cowan : " Look here, now; we're going to take your party right along." Cowan protested, but Charley made no reply except to order the party to move on.* Forced to accompany the army of Chief Joseph, the hap- less party felt that their hopes of escape were slender and that they would all be massacred at the first favorable op- portunity. They were wretchedly armed and could offer no effective resistance. They moved on up the valley of Nez Perce Creek, and when about a mile and a half above the present bridge were stopped by the timber. Charley ordered the wagons abandoned, and the passengers to mount the horses. The provisions were all confiscated and * While talking with Charley before breaking camp, the Fountain Geyser played. Charley pointed toward it and said to Cowan: "What makes that?" THE RADERSBURG TOURISTS 133 the spokes cut out of the wheels of the spring wagon. Charley rushed matters and in a little while the party- were again on their way. Nothing of importance transpired on the march up Nez Perce" Creek, and the noon camp of the Indians was reached in a Beautiful spot in the edge of the timber at the foot of Mary Mountain. Here the party were ordered to dismount. Off a little to one side were the squaws pre- paring something to eat. The chiefs and some other prin- cipal men were seated in a half circle in a lovely little grass-covered opening among the trees and it was evident that a council was to be held to decide the fate of the whites. In fact, the council commenced at once, an Indian by the name of Poker Joe acting as spokesman for the chiefs, who could not speak English. Cowan answered for his party. Poker Joe opened up by asking several questions about where the tourists were from, the purpose of their visit, and where they desired to go. He said that he had known Cowan's wife and sister and their brother, Carpenter, whom he had often seen at the Spokane House fifteen miles southeast of Helena, near the old trail by which his people went to the buffalo country in the Judith Basin. He spoke of the battle of the Big Hole, where they had lost many warriors, and even women and children. He said their men were very angry and thirsty for revenge, but that it was not their desire to injure Montana people, but only Lewiston soldiers. They were in need of guns and horses and all kinds of supplies. The chiefs had decided to take the horses and firearms of the party, and give them broken down horses and let them go home. This was their only salvation ; otherwise all would be killed. To this deliberate ultimatum there was evidently only one reply — acceptance. Eesistance was out of the question. The proposition of the chiefs gave at least a hope, slender though it was, and after consultation with his people, Cowan gave his consent. 134 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK The council at once broke up and the Indians made a rush for the confiscated outfit. Cowan's horse fell to Poker Joe, who was thrown to the ground by the angry animal in attempting to mount him from the right side. Poker Joe then made a circuit of the camp, calling out some command in the Indian tongue. The squaws immediately commenced packing up. A few minutes later he repeated the command, and then a third time, after the same interval. The whole camp then moved up the trail. Poker Joe told the captives that they were free and directed them to take the back trail. They started back entirely alone. To this time they had not suffered the slightest indignity from the Indians. After retreating some three-quarters of a mile, a force of about seventy-five Indians came galloping back uttering warwhoops, and evidently bent upon mischief. They or- dered the little party to stop, and Charley (who again ap- pears on the scene) asked, in apparent anger, what had become of two of the men who had discreetly taken to the brush. Cowan replied that he did not know before that they were gone. After a little delay the. party were coun- termarched and taken back up the trail. It was evident that their situation was now desperate. An occasional stop was made to give the Indians time for consultation. The party proceeded back past the council ground and perhaps three-quarters of a mile beyond, when two Indians were sent on in great haste, with the probable purpose of finding out if the chiefs were at a safe distance ahead. A few minutes later, as the party were passing over a little knoll, these two Indians came riding back at full speed. Seeing the party they stopped, and one of the Indians fired at Mr. Cowan, striking him in the right thigh. The firing then became general and most of the whites scattered into the woods. Carpenter and his two sisters were taken pris- oners. Carpenter's life was saved by an involuntary act which has won for him the undeserved credit of showing great presence of mind. An Indian leveled his gun at him, THE EADERSBUEG TOURISTS 135 when Carpenter, believing that his time had come, made a sign of the cross. The religious nature of the Indian * instantly responded to the familiar movement, and he dropped his gun and told Carpenter that he would save him. When Cowan was shot he slid from his horse, but his leg was paralyzed and he fell upon the steep side hill and rolled down against a log. Mrs. Cowan instantly leaped from her horse, ran to her husband's side, enveloped his head in her arms, and tried to baffle the efforts of the Indians to kill him. The Indians endeavored to pull her away, but she resisted strenuously, begging them to kill her instead. Cowan himself held fast to her, preferring that she be killed there with him than be left to the mercy of the savages. Charley then came up, asked where Cowan's wound was, and seeing that it was not fatal, made a desperate effort to get a shot at his head, but Mrs. Cowan was too alert for him. Finally, Charley drew Mrs. Cowan back and another Indian held a pistol almost in Cowan's eyes and fired. Mrs. Cowan was pulled away, and with her brother and sister was taken along with the In- dians. Some stones were thrown upon Cowan's head, and he was then left for dead. Singularly enough, neither the bullet wounds nor the blows from the stones had been fatal to Mr. Cowan and he presently recovered consciousness. The attack had taken place about 2:30 p.m., and when he opened his eyes the sun was just dropping below the western hills. He recalled what had happened, examined himself, made up his mind that there was hope yet, and concluded to save himself if he could. He drew himself up by the branch of a tree, when, lo ! a little way off, he saw a mounted Indian in the act of drawing his rifle to fire at him. Cowan tried to get away, but the Indian dismounted and fired and struck him in the back. He fell to the ground and momentarily ex- * The Nez Perces had been for nearly fifty years devout fol- lowers of the Catholic Church. 136 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK pected the Indian to come up and dispatch him, but for some reason he did not come. After waiting awhile, and seeing no other Indians, Hr. Cowan commenced a pilgrimage on his knees which con- tinued for several days and probably has no parallel in history. He was wholly without food, with three bullet wounds and dangerous bruises on his person, and in a neighborhood that was still thronging with hostile Indians. He crawled along on the back trail in a bright moonlight until about midnight, when he thought he saw something. Stopping and looking closely, he saw an Indian rise up from his sleep, look around, and then lie down again. Cowan retreated as noiselessly as possible, made a wide detour, and resumed his course. He next passed a bunch of broken down Nez Perce horses, which had been aban- doned. He would have caught one, but there was no bridle and it was doubtful if he could have ridden. It was not until noon of the following day that he reached a creek crossing and found plenty of water. At snail pace Cowan kept on day after day. One morn- ing, about nine o'clock, he heard Indians again. Lying low behind a tree he watched and listened, and presently saw a body of about seventy-five Indians passing up the valley. He thought he saw a white man among them, but was not certain. It was, in fact, a company of friendly Bannock scouts on the trail of the Nez Perces, under the command of an army officer. But Cowan did not know and it would not do to run any risk. The day after this event he reached the abandoned wagons. There was nothing to be found there in the shape of food, but he did find a bird dog that belonged to the party. The dog had probably been there ever since the wagons were abandoned. At the first sight of Cowan she rushed at him fiercely, but suddenly recognizing him, her fury changed and she pawed and caressed him in a paroxysm of joy. Cowan next made his painful way to the old camp, THE EADERSBURG TOURISTS 137 where he found about a dozen matches and a little coffee scattered on the ground. With an old fruit can he suc- ceeded, after much difficulty, in making some coffee — the first thing he had had in the way of nourishment since he was shot. Eemaining there over night, he started for the valley of Nez Perce Creek, because he would there be more in the route of any force that might be following the Indians. When nearing a point which he had selected for his permanent bivouac, he discovered two horsemen on the edge of some timber and presently distinguished that they were white men. He signaled and they approached, in- quiring in much astonishment, " Who in h — 1 are you ? " Cowan gave them his name and they replied that they had expected to bury him that day. They had met Oldham and Meyers, who had told them that Cowan was dead. The two men were scouts from Howard's command. They fixed Cowan up as well as they could, built him a large fire, left him food to last till Howard should come, and then went on their way. Cowan dropped asleep, but soon fell into another peril which came near proving fatal. The ground on which he was lying was full of vegetable mold, very dry at that season of the year> and the fire burrowed through it with facility. Cowan was awakened by the heat and found him- self completely surrounded by fire. With great difficulty and severe burns, he extricated himself from this new danger. Howard and his command came along on the afternoon of August 30th, and went into camp half a mile above the present bridge over Fez Perce' Creek. He named this camp " Camp Cowan." He brought news of the safety of Mrs. Cowan and her sister and brother. Cowan was given surgical attendance, and when camp moved was carried in one of the wagons. He accompanied General Howard's command as far as to Mud Geyser, and was then intrusted to the wagon train in charge of Captain Spurgin. While descending the valley of Carnelian Creek Mr. 1S8 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Cowan experienced an unnecessary fright and passed an anxious half hour. There was an alarm of Indians and suddenly he found himself and his ambulance entirely de- serted. Quite ungenerously, but with some show of reason, his first thought was that his escort had sought their indi- vidual safety at the risk of his own. As a matter of fact they had gone to meet the supposed enemy, who turned out to be friendly scouts under Lieutenant Doane, the explorer of 1870. After many delays and great suffering, Cowan reached Bottler's ranch about twenty-five miles north of the Park, a noted stopping place in those days. Here the military left him to await the arrival of friends. Mrs. Cowan in the meanwhile had returned home. She remained there but one day, when she went to her father's house some twenty miles distant and there received news of Mr. Cowan's safety. She at once went to Helena to learn by telegraph where he was, and then by stage to Bozeman, where she procured a suitable conveyance and started for Bottler's ranch. The day after her arrival they set out on the return journey to Bozeman, Mr. Cowan lying on a bed in the bottom of the wagon. The route lay across the Trail Creek divide between the Yellowstone and Gallatin Bivers. When near the top of his divide, and going down a steep hill, the neckyoke broke, the team ran, and the wagon was overturned down the mountain side. Only the generous supply of bedding on which Mr. Cowan was lying saved him from serious injury. By good luck a man on horseback happened along just then. Arnold impressed the horse, made a forced ride to Port Ellis, secured an am- bulance, and the journey was thus completed to Bozeman. Cowan was taken at once to a hotel, where he remained until well enough to return home. The fatality which seemed to pursue Mr. Cowan did not yet desert him, but now began to assume a ludicrous phase. As soon as his presence at the hotel became known, friends and others rushed in to see him and tender their THE RADERSBUEG TOUEISTS 139 congratulations. They gathered around his bed and so many sat down upon it that it gave away and fell in a wreck on the floor. The proprietor jokingly threatened to expel the wounded man, as he could not afford to have such a Jonah on the premises. Among the callers upon Mr. Cowan at this time was an importunate minister who displayed some of the tactless zeal which occasionally characterizes the clerical profession. He asked many questions, which Mr. Cowan, in his ex- hausted condition, became very tired of. Finally he said with impressive gravity: "Mr. Cowan, during all this time that you were crawling along, not knowing that you would ever see your friends again, did you not frequently think of your God ? " Mr. Cowan's patience was gone, and he replied in a way that he has ever since been a little sorry for: "Not by a d — n sight; I had too many other things to think of." The experiences of Mrs. Cowan and her sister, after the events of August 24th, though full of hardship and suffer- ing, were not at any time a matter of peril. They were treated with respect by the Indians. A council was held at the ford of the Yellowstone to determine their fate, and they were given their freedom. Their long ride to Bottler's ranch was very trying, but they accomplished it successfully. She and her husband lived to make several visits to the scene of their adventures, and in 1901, Mr. Cowan accompanied the author on an expedition over the route of Joseph and Howard, as elsewhere related, and rendered material aid in identifying the more important landmarks of the campaign. His recollection of localities was astonishingly vivid and accurate. CHAPTER XVII EXPERIENCES OF THE HELENA TOURISTS THE personnel of the party of tourists from Helena whom we left in camp near the Falls of the Yellow- stone on the 24th of August was A. J. Weikert, Eiehard Dietrich, Frederic Pfister, Joseph Roberts, Charles Kenck, Jack Stewart, August Poller, Leslie Wilkie, L. Duncan, and Benjamin Stone (colored cook). On the morning of the 25th the party 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 Perces. Hastily retracing their steps they went into camp in the timber near the forks of Otter Creek, about a mile and a half from 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 everything 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 at- tacked 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 140 EXPERIENCES OF HELENA TOURISTS 141 killed; and Stewart, after being severely wounded, pre- vailed on the Indians to spare his life. Weikert and Wilkie, who had hastened back to camp after their own encounter, found everything 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 to the Madison Eiver, where they were given food by soldiers, and thence to Virginia City and 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 Mammoth Hot Springs a band of Indians prowled across the country from the Yellowstone to the Gardiner, and went down the latter stream as far as Hen- derson's, two miles beyond the north boundary of the Park. After a brief skirmish and a general pillage here, they went back to the 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. Weikert and McCartney went 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 near the falls of the East Gardiner, they met the bands of Indians who had just slain Dietrich. A lively skirmish ensued, in which Weikert lost his horse. The two men succeeded in finding refuge in some neighboring brushwood. Such is a brief resume of the events which befell the Helena tourists in their unlucky brush with the Nez Perces ; 142 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK but there were several incidents connected therewith worth recording, as there always are with any event where human life is at stake and men are put upon their mettle by the problem of self-preservation. The camp site on Otter Creek was well chosen for de- fense, but its natural advantages were ignored by the party. It was a triangular knoll between the forks of the stream, and some twenty feet above them. It commanded every approach, and with the slightest vigilance and intelligent preparation, could have been made impregnable to the eighteen Indians who attacked it. But while the camp was properly pitched in a little depression back of the crest, the men themselves all stayed back where the view arornd them was entirely cut off. They kept no guard, and were, therefore, in a worse position than if actually out in the open plain below. The Indians approached under cover of the hill, climbed its sides, and burst over its crest directly into camp before any one suspected their presence. When the Helena party retreated from Sulphur Moun- tain, after their first sight of the Indians, Kenck wanted to go right in to Mammoth Hot Springs, instead of going into camp as they did on Otter Creek. He even refused to submit to the decision of the majority and started back alone, but gave it up and rejoined the party. Shortly be- fore the attack occurred, his mind full of foreboding, he said to Stone, the colored cook : " Stone, what would you do if the Indians should jump us ? " Stone replied : " You take care of yourself, and I'll take care of mine." Scarcely were the words out of his mouth when the Indians did " jump " the camp. Stone took care of himself, as he had promised, and as we shall presently see, but poor Kenck was chased to a hill across the creek and there slain. Stewart's escape was due to an impulse of mercy or indulgence very rare in Indian warfare. He was hit with a rifle ball in the first rush to escape. He fell and the Indians came up and he expected to be dispatched at once. He begged lustily for his life and promised to give the EXPERIENCES OF HELENA TOURISTS 143 Indians everything he possessed — a rather superfluous gen- erosity, since they could take it all anyway. His pleading seemed to make an impression. He gave them two hundred and sixty dollars in cash and his gold watch, and they let him go. Just after they left he saw his horse near by. The animal was incorrigibly wild and very hard to catch; but this time responded at once to his master's voice and gave himself up without any apparent objection. Weikert's and McCartney's brush with the Indians on the slope of Mount Everts was a lively affair while it lasted. Both men spurred their horses up the steep side of the mountain toward some underbrush, the Indians firing thick and fast all the time. The men replied, but not very ef- fectively at the speed at which they were going. Sud- denly both were unhorsed. Weikert's mount was shot and instantly killed, and McCartney's saddle slipped back and turned over under the horse, frightening him and causing him to run away. The mule that carried the pack was abandoned when the chase began. The Indians were get- ting very close when the two men reached cover, but then abandoned the chase and themselves took counsel as to their personal safety. Once during their flight McCartney looked at Weikert and saw that he was pale as a sheet. He said to Weikert, "Do I look pale?" "No," replied Weikert, "do I?" McCartney answered, " No." Just how Dietrich happened to get caught as he did is a mystery. He was a music teacher from Helena and unused to roughing it. On his way in from Otter Creek he became utterly exhausted and a horse had to be sent back several miles for him. When Weikert and McCart- ney started back to bury Kenck, McCartney cautioned him to "look out for his hair." Dietrich replied: "Andy [Weikert], you will give me a decent burial, won't you?" Later in the same day Indians were seen approaching the Springs. They went on, however, to Henderson's ranch below and returned the following day. This time they 144 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK apparently surprised Dietrich in trie cabin, which used to stand in the gulch west of Liberty Cap,* and shot him on the door steps. The soldiers found the body soon after and laid it in the cabin on the floor. It was buried by Weikert on the following day. Six weeks later Weikert came in from Helena and took away the remains of both Kenck and Dietrich. Ben Stone, the colored cook, no longer a young man, possessed enough of the quaint humor of his race to lend an air of comicality to a situation which more than once came near having tragic consequences. When the Indians "jumped" the camp on Otter Creek, just after he had made his laconic reply to Kenck, he could not at first believe it was Indians, but thought it was some of his own party trying to create a little excitement. He called out to them to "stop their foolishness," for they might kill some one, and added, "You can't scare us." A moment later saw him on a lively run and the dinner he was cooking was never finished. As he ran, the Indians fired several shots at him. He fell into a creek and they probably thought him killed. Stone was at Mammoth Hot Springs when the Indians Taided the place. He retreated up the gulch back of the McCartney cabin, the Indians in pursuit, and taking ad- vantage of a moment when a turn in the trail concealed them from view, shinned up a tree and made himself scarce in the branches. His heart beat so loud that he was certain the Indians would hear it. One of them did stop directly under the tree, but the terrified cook prayed that he might pass on, and his prayer was answered. Weikert, in his Journal, records that Stone remained in the tree until after dark, "when he slipped down and crawled over a hill, where he stayed all night and the next day, when he again ventured out. Ben said, ' Five times * " McCartney's Hotel," a log structure of one story, the first building erected in the Park. Later, for many years, it was used by Chinamen as a, laundry. It was recently destroyed by fire. EXPERIENCES OF HELENA TOURISTS 145 I started out of dem bushes and five times 1 went back again. Then I prayed fervently to Almighty God to deliver me out of this trouble, and He did take me out.' A bear came to see him while he was in the brush and he was undecided what to do. If he stayed there the bear would be apt to eat him, and if he came out the Indians would be likely to kill him ; but he finally decided in favor of the bear, because he had tried the Indians twice. When the bear saw him it stood up on its hind feet and looked at him for a while and then ran away." The poor darkey then made his way to Henderson's ranch, where Lieutenant Doane was in camp with a com- pany of scouts. The sentinel challenged him (Stone's version) — "'Who comes dar?' 'Ben Stone.' 'Come in, Ben Stone ; ' and you bet I come a-runnin'." Two of the friendly Indian scouts rushed up to Stone and shook hands, exclaiming, " How, how ! " Stone was again panic-stricken and declared that one of the Indians was Chief Joseph himself. He did not recover his composure until Weikert and McCartney returned to camp. That night his heart was so full of gratitude over his miraculous escape that he could not rest, and started to spend the night in praying aloud and thanking God for his goodness. The rest of the camp became weary of his devotions after a while and asked him to desist. He replied that God had saved his life and he was going to thank Him as long and loud as he liked, whether the camp got any sleep or not. Lieutenant Doane finally stationed a guard to compel him to silence. CHAPTEE XVIII LOST IN" THE WILDERNESS IN" previous editions of this book our account of Mr. Everts' experiences after his separation from the Wash- burn party was limited to a citation of the excellent sum- mary given in Lieutenant Doane's report of 1870.* The extraordinary character of this experience and its connec- tion with the history of explorations of the Park seem to justify .more extended treatment. The narrative which follows is made up from the several authorities available, but principally from Mr. Everts' own account — " Thirty- Seven Days of Peril" — as published in Scribner's Monthly, 1871.f No more terrible feeling can come over one than that of being lost in a wild and rough country or in a dense forest when there is any real danger of not finding one's way out. It is nothing, of course, to an experienced woods- man, with his rifle, provisions, and blanket, if he does lose his bearings now and then and get badly mixed up. A little patience and careful search will put him on the right track again. But when one who is unused to the wilder- ness becomes separated from his companions, and perhaps without weapons, food, blankets, or means of making a fire, is forced for the first time in his life to stay out over night in the dense woods or the rough hills, the terror is unlike anything else that can come to one. The Yellowstone Park is an easy place for the " tender- foot" to get lost in, if he wanders a little way from the beaten path. It is nearly all rough and mountainous and * " Yellowstone Expedition of 1870," p. Zl. t Vol. Ill, p. 1. 146 LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 147 covered with pine forests. In many places these forests are so filled with dead and down timber that it is almost impossible to get through with a horse. They are so dense that one easily gets mixed about directions, for the trees all look alike and it is impossible to see outside to moun- tains or other landmarks. If the sun is shining one can guess his direction pretty well by the tree shadows, and a good woodsman can tell from certain marks on the trees. But a green hand at the business is almost certain to be- come confused and to wander around and around without making any progress. With this preliminary the reader will more easily under- stand the terrible predicament in which Mr. Everts found himself when he lost connection with his party; but fully to appreciate his peril it is necessary to bear in mind that he was largely deprived of the most essential resource in such a situation, his eyesight. He was very nearsighted and had to rely strictly upon his glasses, and these appear to have been lost early in his wanderings. Add to this handicap the fact that he was unused to wilderness travel, and it is not surprising that even his great physical power and heroic determination came near proving insufficient for his salvation. It was on September 9, 1870, in the excessively rough and obstructed country south of the Yellowstone Lake that Mr. Everts became separated from his companions and was forced to spend the night alone. He was not much worried at first, however, for he felt sure that he would find the rest of the party next day. But the following morning, while dismounted, his horse became frightened at something and ran off and was never seen again. On the horse was almost everything that Mr. Everts had except a few little things in his pockets. Even his eye glasses had been lost or broken so that he could see only a short dis- tance, and he was compelled to get down from his horse if he wanted to examine a trail carefully. The most valuable thing, left in his pockets, and the one which saved his life, 148 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK i as we shall soon see, was a little field glass which he had brought along to aid him in examining the country. A half day spent in trying to recover his horse was a failure. He then went back to the spot where the horse was lost and where he had fastened written notices on the trees hoping that some of his party might see them; but no one had been there. It now dawned upon him that he was really lost. The thought of spending another night alone in the forest, this time without food or blankets or fire, chilled him to the heart. He hastened hither and thither, and in his feverish anxiety made no real progress. The sun went down with a rapidity he had never known before, and the gloom of night fell with all its terrors in the depths of the somber forest. Mr. Everts was naturally timid and the effect of this new situation was quite ap- palling. He had now gone two days without food. It is said to be the experience of those who have been deprived of food for a long while that the pangs of hunger are severest in the early part of their fast, and Mr. Everts said afterward that he suffered more on this particular night for lack of food than he did at any other time during his five weeks' starvation. Everything combined to render this a night of abject misery. Alone in the dense forest, 150 miles from home, without a blanket or a fire in that high altitude where there were severe frosts every night, fright- ened by the howl of the coyote and the roar of the moun- tain lion, his imagination adding unreal terrors to the real ones, he spent the dragging hours in utter despair. Still in spite of the helplessness of his situation he nerved himself against giving up. He thought of home and his daughter whose mother was no longer living. He thought of his friends and everything that was dear to him. It seemed impossible that he should not return, and he said to himself that there was surely hope as long as he re- tained his reason. He was sorely puzzled that his friends did not find him. How was it possible that they could not get in touch with him if they tried? Could they not LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 149 build fires or discharge their rifles; or search the country for him? Was it possible that they had deserted him to a terrible fate alone in the wilderness ? In truth it is hard to answer these questions. Accord- ing to their own reports the party spent nearly two weeks searching, lighting fires, discharging guns, putting up signs, "caching" food where they thought he might pass, but all to no purpose. The fires and smoke were not seen owing to his nearsightedness. The dense forests or the roughness of the country smothered the sounds of the guns, and for some reason their trails did not cross. After a while the main party concluded that their lost companion had been killed and they reluctantly went on their way without him. On the morning of the third day of his wandering Mr. Everts struck out, as he supposed, in the direction the party must have gone, but in reality almost away from it, and after a tedious ramble, hungry and exhausted, he came to a wonderful little lake in a deep valley surrounded by lofty mountains. On its shore were many hot springs. The scenery was grand, if he could but have enjoyed it. On the lake were ducks and swans, but he had no gun to kill any for food. Animals of various species passed near him but he could not capture any. He was literally starving in the midst of plenty. At first he was fearful that he might fall in with some Indians; now he would have given anything to have had that very thing happen. Once he thought he saw a boat coming across the lake, for his defective eyesight could not distinguish things well at a distance. Hastening to the spot where he thought that the boat was going to land, he seemed to frighten it, for it rose out of the water and flew away. It was a huge pelican. The incident quite un- nerved him. It was as bad as the mirage to the thirst- stricken wanderer in the desert. He now made the first of two discoveries which were the means of saving his life. He found a kind of thistle that had a root like a radish and it proved to be a wholesome 150 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK food. He was overjoyed at this discovery. Surely he need not starve as long as he could find these roots, and he tried thereafter to have a supply always with him. The first night at the lake was a terrible one. A moun- tain lion came upon him, and he had barely time to climb a tree, where he stayed nearly all night, the animal wan- dering around the base and making the night hideous with its howling. Finally it went away, and Mr. Everts, utterly unable to remain in the tree longer, came down, half dead with stiffness and cold. The weather had changed and one of those bleak snowstorms of the mountains that always come in September was upon him. In the midst of the storm a little benumbed bird fell into his hands. Once he would have pitied and saved it; now he killed it instantly and ate it raw, not having any fire to cook it with. He found relief from the terrible cold by going to some hot springs in the vicinity. Here he remained seven days. He built a shelter of boughs near one of the springs and cooked his thistle roots in the boiling water. The steam from the springs soaked his clothing but kept him warm and he lived in a kind of hot bath, doing nothing but dig and cook thistle roots and think — think of his home, of his companions whom he could not find, of his plans after the storm should pass, of a thousand things that flitted through his overwrought brain. And now he made his second great discovery. He had had no fire and he well knew that another storm like the last one would freeze him to death, if it caught him away from the hot springs, and he must leave them if he was ever to get home. As he was thinking of this the storm clouds burst open and the sun lit up the surface of the lake. He thought of how the sun had been made to kindle fires by use of a lens. Then he remembered the lens in his pocket. Acting instantly on the idea, he got a piece of Soft, dry wood, took out his field glasses, and focussed the sun's rays on the wood. Blessed sight — it really began to smoke, the smoke was followed by coal, and the coal by LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 151 flame ! He had found fire at last, and if he could keep it, the danger of freezing to death was over. How necessary- fire is to man ! But the fire, necessary as it was, was sometimes a source of misfortune. Once, while he was asleep, it spread to the timber and started a forest fire which had so far sur- rounded him before he awoke that he escaped with dif- ficulty. Generally he carried a burning brand so as not to be left without fire if clouds should obscure the sun unexpectedly. The brand burned his hands a great deal while the smoke turned his face to the color of an Indian's. At the end of one of his long tramps he hastened to fix his fire, for it was a raw, cold day. Laying down his brand to gather some dry sticks, he returned to find it entirely gone out. His heart failed him. Surely he would die such a night as that was without a fire. The sun was almost down and among broken clouds. How he watched and prayed, hoping it would peep out for one little instant ! And sure enough it did. Instantly the lens was at work, picking up the life-giving rays and concentrating them upon the wood. Would the cloud stay away long enough? Smoke — coal — flame! Saved again! A few times in his earlier wandering he lost his fire and passed the night by keeping incessantly on the move. Later he became too weak for this and it was absolutely necessary not to lose it. But the carrying of the brand and the difficulty of keeping it alive were so great a nuisance that when a day promised to be clear he would let the brand go and rely on the lens. It was on one of these days, after he had gone as far as he could, and had stopped to build his fire soon after noon, that he found his lens missing. If the earth had opened beneath him the shock could. not have been greater. It was on the high plateau and the night would be very cold. He would not be able to survive it. He thought over every inch of his journey and concluded that he must have left his lens at his last night's stopping place. Exhausted though he was, 152 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK there was nothing to do but return, and that in haste before the sun should set. So he dragged his weak and weary limbs over his morning's march, and to his great joy found the lens where it had fallen from his pocket while asleep. His friend, the fire, was restored to him, but a precious day's time had been lost. Thistle roots continued his main food. In vain he tried to catch some fish. Once he did get a few minnows, but his stomach rebelled and he threw them away. One day on the shore of Yellowstone Lake he found a gull's wing torn off from some cause. Instantly stripping off the feathers, he pounded it up, bones and all, between some stones, made a fire, and boiled it in a little tin can which he had picked up at one of the camps. It was the most delicious bowl of soup he ever tasted. After it was swal- lowed he lay down and slept the rest of the day and all the following night. This was his only luxurious meal. Gradually his strength waned and he felt a kind of paralysis coming on and his stomach would sometimes refuse even his scanty food of thistle roots. Yet all around him was plenty — birds in the air, trout in the streams, game in the fields and woods. "Why is it," he cried in despair, " that I must starve in the midst of abundance ! " Early in his wanderings his mind began to feel the effect of his suffering. Strange visions came to him. Once an old friend and counselor of his youth appeared and told him to change the course he was traveling on, and he obeyed. Sometimes he would seem to be walking with the most delightful companions. Then at night he would see wild animals all around his campfire waiting to devour him. He lost all sense of time, and days came and went without his having the least idea of their place in the calendar. More than once he was tempted to give up the fight, but some inner force moved him to keep on and hope told him that he would yet win. On and on he went, his strength growing less and his day's journey shorter and the nights more bleak and cold. LOST IN THE WILDERNESS 153 At last he came out into the open country on a high plateau where the raw wind swept pitilessly upon him. He could see in dim outline the distant hills where he knew he could find help. But in his weak condition it would take days to get there. Thistles did not grow in the open country and his supply would not last long. The weather was bitterly cold and he had nothing but his fire left. Must he perish just as deliverance was in sight? He stumbled on, the precious firebrand in his hand but the fire in his heart almost gone out. This, in his own words, is how he felt: "A solemn conviction that death was near, that each pause I made my limbs would refuse further service, and that I should sink helpless in my path, overwhelmed me with terror. I knew that in two or three days more I could effect my deliverance if I could keep on, and I derived no little satisfaction from the thought that I was now near the broad trail where my remains would be found if I should fail and my friends would know of my fate. Once more the thought flashed across my mind that I should yet be saved." Creeping along in this dreadful plight one day, his mind wandering, the distant hills seeming more distant than ever, the sky overcast and gloomy, he stumbled and fell near a rock on the trail. The end was at hand. He felt that he could never rise again and he saw back of him a mountain lion that was waiting to devour his emaciated body. Not even the hope that his remains would be found was now left him. Hopeless and prostrate in spirit, he gave himself up to his fate. A sound ! A human voice ! It was calling his name ! " Are you Mr. Everts ? " " Yes ; all that is left of him ! " and the poor man sank helpless into the arms of two men who leaped from their horses to grasp him. He was saved literally from the jaws of death. He had been lost just thirty-seven days.* September 9 to October 16. 154 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK When the exploring party of which Everts was a member got back to the settlements, they instantly organized a relief expedition to go in search of the lost man, and it was two of this party, well-known mountain scouts, Jack Baronett and George A. Pritchett, who came upon Mr. Everts just as he was giving up in despair.* They carried him to the nearest house and sent for a doctor. His whole system was so out of order that it seemed for a time that it could never be made to work again. Finally he began to gain strength and after a while was able to return home. He became entirely well, and being naturally of a robust constitution he lived for thirty-one years after his remark- able experience and died at the age of eighty-five. * It was near the great trail on the high plateau a few miles west of Yancey's. Baronett threw up a mound of stones to mark the spot. PART II.— DESCRIPTIVE CHAPTER I BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY AT the time when the bill creating the Yellowstone Am. 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 explor- ing parties of 1870 and 1871 had seen all the more im- portant points of interest. To include these in the pro- posed reservation, the framers of the bill passed two lines due east and west, one through the junction of the Yellow- stone 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 Yellow- stone 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 northwest corner of Wyoming, with narrow strips, two or three miles wide, overlapping into the Territories of Montana and Idaho. The mean dimensions of the Eeservation were 61.8 miles by 53.6 miles, giving an area of 3,312.5 square miles. Under Acts of Congress approved March 3, 1891, and June 4, 1897, authorizing the creation of forest reserves (now called national forests) and the modification of boundaries of reserves already created, several such crea- tions and changes have been made in the country bordering the Park until now the Park is surrounded by national forests with the exception of small tracts at the northern 155 156 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK and western entrances. Along the northern boundary are the Gallatin, Absaroka, and Beartooth forests, in the order named from west to east, with an aggregate area of 4,000 square miles. On the east is the Shoshone forest extending south to the divide between the Shoshone and Snake Eiver watersheds. Its area is 2,640 square miles. Adjoining this is the Teton forest, which lies along the southern border of the Park as far west as the crest of the Teton Mountains. The area of this reserve is 3,090 square miles. On the west of the Park are the Targhee and Madison forests with a combined area of 2,950 square miles. This makes a total area reserved from settlement of about 16,000 square miles. There have been many attempts to extend the boundaries of the Park proper so as to take in portions of the sur- rounding country now embraced in the national forests, par- ticularly the region known as Jackson Hole. The time is past, however, when this can be accomplished without a radical change in the present policy of governing the Park. Settlement has already gained a foothold in the surround- ing reserves which it would be difficult to uproot. The permanent exclusion of railroads from all parts of such an extensive territory is neither practicable nor desirable. The hunting of wild game throughout this region at certain seasons and under careful restrictions is eminently proper. In the Park itself it is desirable to exclude all these things and it has been found practicable to do so. The policy should be carefully maintained, and the Park is the only place of like extent in the world where this is possible. It will fall by its own weight if extended too far. The Indians, with that exquisite propriety which so often characterized their geographical nomenclature, called this larger region the " summit of the world " ; and it is the summit of the world as they knew it — the top of the North American Continent. From out its forests and mountains great rivers descend in every direction. The Missouri Eiver, through the Madison and Gallatin Forks, and the great tributaries, Yellowstone and Platte, flows BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 157 down from these mountains. Likewise Green River, the principal tributary of the Colorado of the West, rises in the snows of these same hills, and its icy waters flow south until they reach the sea on the very border of the torrid zone. Finally the great southern branch of the Columbia, the Snake River, finds its sources interlaced with those of the streams just mentioned. The vast importance of this region as a source of great river systems will be understood when it is remembered that each of these streams flows for fully a thousand miles through a country where agriculture is possible only by irrigation, and that their waters, if properly utilized, are capable of maintaining a population as great as that west of the longitude of Omaha to-day. Surely, it is not only the " summit of the world," but a veritable fountain head of national life, and there is a natural harmony of relation in the fact that this entire region has been brought under federal control. MOUNTAIN SYSTEMS Confining our inquiries to the Park proper, we shall next note its salient topographical features. The Park lies in the " heart of the Rocky Mountains," and within or around it are some of the most massive ranges on the continent. This is particularly true of the extensive system which borders the Park on the east under the name Absaroka. It extends north of the Park fully forty miles and south as far as Union Pass, where it merges into the noted Wind River range. It separates the valley of the Upper Yellow- stone from its principal tributary, the Big Horn. The range is excessively rugged and broken, and is practically impassable, except along a few trails. Sylvan Pass, which was selected for the eastern approach to the Park, is about eight thousand six hundred feet high, nearly a thousand feet lower than any other within a distance of forty miles. There are thirty named peaks of this range within the 158 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Park with a ruling altitude of about ten thousand four hundred feet; but in the forest reserve, just east of the Park, the altitude is about two thousand feet higher. The scenery of these mountains is everywhere of a sublime and imposing character. The Gallatin Eange, another important mountain system, lies in and beyond the northwest corner of the Park. It separates the watersheds of the Missouri and Yellowstone Eivers, and is the source of several tributaries of each stream. The range is one of great scenic beauty and one that falls prominently under the eye of the tourist. It is also of particular interest to scientists from its varied geo- logic structure. It is not a lofty range, its seventeen named peaks averaging only about nine thousand eight hundred feet high ; but its highest summit, Electric Peak, is the loftiest mountain in the Park. The Washburn Eange, a detached system, originally known as the "Elephant's Back," is situated between the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Gardiner Eiver. 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 Bed Mountain Eange is a small group of mountains between Heart and Lewis Lakes, southwest of Yellow- stone Lake. Its principal summit is Mt. Sheridan. The Big Game Eidge lies along the south boundary of the Park, and is the source of the Snake Eiver.' It has six named peaks, with an average altitude of 9,800 feet. The Teton Eange lies south of the Park, its northern spurs crossing the boundary. It is not an extensive system, but one of great altitude and marvelous scenic beauty. The Grand Teton, its principal summit, is about 13,700 feet high. The whole range rises in sheer relief nearly a mile and a half above the surface of Jackson Lake. The Continental Divide, or the " height of land," which separates the waters that flow into the Atlantic from those BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 159 which flow into the Pacific, crosses the Park in a direction from northwest to southeast. Its sinuous course can be best understood from the map. It does not lie along the crest of any prominent ridge, and in one place is but little higher than the Yellowstone Lake. A notable feature of the Divide is the great loop which it makes around the watershed of DeLaey Creek, a tributary of Shoshone Lake. The main tourist route passes directly through this area, and crosses the Continental Divide twice in a distance of seven miles. Another prominent feature of the Divide is Two-Ocean Pass, which lies just south of the Park.* DRAINAGE SYSTEMS The Absaroka and Gallatin Ranges and the Continental Divide mark the boundaries of the three great river sys- tems of the Park, the Yellowstone, the Missouri, and the Snake. The first two are on the Atlantic slope; the third on the Pacific. The areas drained by them are approxi- mately: 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 snowdrifts of Yount Peak, twenty-five miles southeast of the Park. It enters the Reservation six miles west of the southeast corner; crosses it in a direction somewhat west of north, and leaves it at a point about nineteen miles east of the northwest corner. Near the center of the Park it flows through the celebrated lake of the same name, and further north passes through two remarkable canyons before it leaves the Reservation. Its principal tributaries from the east are Pelican Creek, which flows into the Lake, and Lamar River, commonly called the East Fork. Those from the west are Tower Creek and Gardiner River. Lamar River rises nearly due east of the outlet of Yellowstone Lake and flows northwesterly, joining the ' See page 296. 160 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 Eiver near the extinct hot spring cone from which it derives its name. Gardiner Biver 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 Eiver, 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 cannot be less than 2,000 cubic feet. The Missouri Eiver drainage flows into the Gallatin and Madison forks of that stream. The Gallatin drains only a small area in the extreme northwest corner of the Park. The Madison is formed by the junction of the Gibbon and Firehole Eivers, about twelve miles east of the west bound- ary. The Gibbon takes its rise a few miles west of the Palls of the Yellowstone, and flows in a southwest direc- tion. The Firehole rises in Madison Lake, and flows north to its junction with the Gibbon. Its principal tributaries are the Little Firehole Eiver and Iron Creek on the west, and Nez Perce Creek on the east. Snake Eiver drains the southwest portion of the Park. It rises about fifteen miles south of Yellowstone Lake, just outside the boundary. It then takes a northerly circuit into the Park, receiving the waters of Heart and Lewis Eivers, and leaves the Eeservation just north of Jackson Lake. Its principal tributary is the Lewis Eiver, which drains Shoshone and Lewis Lakes. Several large streams, Bechler and Falls Eivers among them, cross the southwest boundary of the Park and join the main Snake further south. A noted stream, the main trunk of which lies outside the Park, is the Shoshone (formerly called Stinking Water) Eiver, which rises in the national forest east of the Park. Several of its western tributaries, like Jones and BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 161 Middle Creeks, drain a considerable area in the Absaroka Kange, east of the lake ; and along the valley of the second of these streams is located the eastern entrance to the Park. These several rivers, with their tributaries, make about 165 named streams in the Park. The abundance of flow- ing water as indicated by these figures, has an important bearing upon the practical side of the Park, considered as a pleasuring ground. The number of bridges and their liability to damage from floods are a constant and heavy expense to the road system. On the other hand, the pres- ence of so many streams, with the rapids and cataracts in which they abound, forms one of the most attractive fea- tures of the landscape. In the entire Park there are about thirty-six named lakes with a total area of nearly 165 square miles. Of these, 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 Eiver slope. The four principal lakes — Yellowstone, Sho- shone, Lewis, and Heart — are clustered near the Conti- nental 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 waterfalls, where the streams descend from the plateau to the lower surrounding country. VALLEYS Although mountains are the prime factors in determin- ing the topography of a country like the Yellowstone Park, 'they are, in a practical sense, of less importance than the valleys which lie between them and the streams of which they are the source. It is mainly in the valleys that the fauna of a region dwell, and that man carries on his work. In the Park it so happens that most of the char- acteristic attractions are also to be found there. 162 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK The valleys naturally fall into two broad divisions — open valleys and canyons. The largest and most important of the open valleys is that of the Yellowstone and Lamar Eivers, stretching from Mt. Washburn and Crescent Hill nearly to the east boundary of the Park. It is twenty-five miles long and five to ten broad. It is nearly all open country, with fine pasturage extending well up the sides of the mountains, forming an ideal grazing ground, where elk, deer, and antelope roam in immense herds. The western portion of this valley is a beautiful secluded nook at the foot of Crescent Hill and is known locally as " Yancey's." Hayden Valley, the second largest grassy tract, is that portion of the valley of the Upper Yellowstone which lies between Mud Geyser and the Grand Canyon. It is cov- ered with rich grass and is a splendid summer grazing ground. Among the other open valleys of importance are Swan Lake Flat and Willow Park, on the Upper Gardiner; Elk Park and Gibbon Meadows, on the Gibbon; the broad area of Pelican Valley; the Firehole Geyser Basins, more noted for their natural features than as a grazing country; and some open tracts around Shoshone and Lewis Lakes, and along the valleys of Falls and Bechler Eivers. Going outside the Park, the wonderful valley of Jackson Hole naturally arrests attention. The name applies strictly to the lower part of the valley below Jackson Lake. It is an extensive region, generally open and of rolling terrane, though in some places flat and even as a floor; abounding in fine pasturage, and a natural home for game of all kinds. It is traversed by the Snake Eiver; dotted with several fine lakes, of which Jackson Lake is the largest, and sur- rounded by majestic mountain ranges. The Teton Eange on the west is its most important scenic attraction. Canyons are the narrow openings among the hills through which the water from the mountains finds its way to the lower country. There are many of these in the BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 163 Park. On the Yellowstone, above the Great Bend at Liv- ingston, where the river finally leaves the mountains, there are four, the first two being outside the Park. The third begins just within the north boundary and extends nearly to Yancey's. The fourth canyon extends from below Tower Falls to the Falls of the Yellowstone, a distance of twenty- five miles. Its central portion is the world-renowned Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Gardiner River has two fine canyons that come to the notice of the tourist. The first of these is near the north- ern entrance to the Park. The second lies behind Bunsen Peak, and is of great depth, beauty, and grandeur. On Gibbon River there is a small, but picturesque, canyon half a mile long, below Virginia Cascade, and an- other much larger extending for five miles below Gibbon Meadows. On the Firehole River there are two small gorges, inter- esting mainly for the cascades and rapids which are found there. One of them is where the tourist route first touches the river, five miles below the Fountain Hotel, and the other is in the vicinity of Kepler Cascade, above the Upper Geyser Basin. Spring Creek Canyon is a winding, sylvan valley, of very picturesque outline, through which Spring Creek flows in the last three miles of its course. It is traversed by the tourist route. On the eastern approach, Sylvan Pass is -a very striking natural opening through the mountains, while the canyon of Middle Creek presents a remarkable scene of rugged, broken country, filled with dense forests, and traversed by a torrential mountain stream. There are hundreds of canyons besides those mentioned, where streams, like the Lamar River and its tributaries, and the Gallatin, Snake, and Upper Yellowstone, flow out from their sources in the mountain snows. Few visitors- are fortunate enough ever to see them, and their beauties will always remain concealed from the general eye. 164 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 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 Snake Eiver and the head- waters of Bechler and Falls Eivers, with a mean altitude of 8,500 feet; Highland Plateau, between the Yellowstone and Madison Eivers, altitude 8,300 feet; Mirror Plateau, between the Yellowstone and Lamar Eivers, altitude 9,000 feet; the Blacktail Deer Plateau, between the Yellowstone and Gardiner, altitude 7,000 feet; and the Madison Plateau, west of the Lower Geyser Basin, altitude 8,300 feet. SCENEET The mountain scenery of the Park is that of the Eocky Mountains in general, though not so rugged and imposing as may be found in Colorado or in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade Eanges on the Pacific Slope. It is typical of the scenery of the central mountain region, perhaps the most varied and beautiful of any. The author cannot better convey a general idea of it than by reproducing here a description prepared for a different purpose.* The physical aspect of the Eocky Mountains is alto- gether characteristic. The traveler who passes hurriedly through them is liable to contrast unfavorably their gray color, severe outlines, and barren slopes with the verdure- clad hillsides of the Eastern States. Not so he who fre- quents their unaccustomed haunts, comes in close contact with their wild and picturesque details, and observes their •varying moods with the changes of each day and the seasons 'American Fur Trade of the Far West," p. 728 et seq. BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 165 of the year. This more intimate acquaintance discloses a wealth of beauty which the uniform green of the Eastern mountains does not possess, and it is said by reputable painters of natural scenery, that no mountains in the world afford scenes more satisfactory to the artist. The general appearance of the mountains is of a grayish color where vegetation is scarce. This results not only from the exposed areas of rock in situ, but from the dis- integrated rock which covers the mountains in many places with a sterile soil. The reddish color of iron oxide is widely present, while yellow and other colors are of frequent occurrence. As a rule, the northern mountains have extensive grassy slopes whose broad areas, inclined upward as on a mighty easel, and spread out in rolling stretches with gentle de- pressions between them, look like beautiful carpets of green or brown, according to the season, softened by the mellow haze of distance and burnished by the crimson rays of the morning and evening sun. At the higher elevations, from five to ten thousand feet, forests of pine, fir, and similar trees abound extensively and cover the mountains with a mantle of dark green or black. At frequent intervals throughout these forests are open spaces, filled with luxuri- ant grass, forming parks of faultless beauty amid the somber solitudes of the surrounding woods. Everywhere in these wild and sublime situations occur the always pleas- ing groves of the quaking aspen, a grateful relief from the gloomy view of extensive forests or the uniform prospect of grass-covered slopes. Taken together, these varied ar- rangements of nature present an artistic appearance that reminds one of the cultivated sections in the mountain regions of Europe where man has contributed so much to enhance the beauty of nature. The scenery of these mountains, moreover, is subject to continual and interesting change. Scarcely have the bleak storms of winter subsided, while yet deep fields of snow lie upon the upper slopes, the soft blossoms of spring shoot 166 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK eagerly from the scanty soil and oppose the gentle warmth of their blooms to the chill snow which is slowly receding before them. So profuse and beautiful are the flowers in these lofty regions that one would doubt if any other season could rival the springtime in beauty. But in truth the somber season of autumn is the most attractive of all. The early frosts cover the mountain sides with the most varied and gorgeous colors. The quaking aspen, which before was simply a mass of green upon the mountain side, now stands forth with tenfold greater distinctness in its rich autumnal foliage. The low growth of underbrush, which scarcely attracts the eye at other seasons, takes on a livelier hue, transforming whole mountain sides into fields of pleasing color. Even upon those inaccessible and apparently barren slopes, where the eye had not before detected any sign of vegetable life, may now be seen spots of crimson and gold, as if nature had scattered here and there rich bouquets of flowers and bunches of fruit. It is not upon the surface of the earth alone that are to be seen the grandeur and beauty of these regions. Even the wild mountain storms which are frequent at certain seasons have an attraction peculiarly their own, and all the more remarkable by the very contrasts which they produce. If, in passing, they display on a terrible scale the power of the elements, on the other hand, they leave behind them, in the sun-gilded clouds among the mountain tops, the most peaceful and pleasing pictures which nature anywhere affords. Again, in the long rainless season, the atmosphere, like the painter's brush, tints the hills, in ever-varying inten- sity, with the purple and blue of distance. For this is preeminently a land of cloudless skies. The risings and settings of the sun are on a scale of sublime magnificence, while the moon rides among the mountain peaks with a serene splendor unknown in less favored climes. It is in this mountain scenery that the chief attraction of the Park lies — for him who spends considerable time BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY 167 there. He may weary of the geysers and hot springs, but he always finds relief in the varied aspect of Nature — her shifting seasons, her growth and decay, her mutability amid scenes of changeless grandeur — and it would make little difference in his fondness for this region if all its strange and erratic phenomena should cease to exist. CHAPTER II GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OP THE PAEK NATURE seems from the first to have designed this region for a mountain park. Back in the remote twilight of the earth's geological history, beyond which man is unable to trace the smallest relic of the past, and when the surface of the globe was one vast ocean with a few scattering islands, the nuclei of all subsequent land growths, there had already arisen around the Park country those granite protuberances which form the groundwork of its present mountain systems. Just what were the posi- tion and extent of these primeval elevations can never be definitely determined, but geologists agree that they existed on every side of the Park which itself remained buried beneath the waters long ages after their emergence. In the course of an inconceivable extent of time, em- bracing the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, these exposed areas were denuded by the action of the elements and the resulting detritus was spread over the bottom of the sur- rounding seas. Not improbably chemical action, in those times of intense activity of all natural agencies, may have hastened deposition from the impregnated waters and have aided in the upbuilding of the sedimentary rocks. From whatever cause, these deposits were of vast extent, their thickness in some localities, as measured by the geologist, being several thousand feet. Possibly during all this time there was an increasing emergence of old mountain founda- tions, bringing the outlines of the continent more and more prominently into view. In geologic chronology it was near the close of the Cretaceous Period that this long-existing condition under- 168 GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE PARK 169 went a profound change. The shrinkage of the earth in the process of cooling had thrown a strain upon its still weak and plastic crust which it was no longer able to with- stand. The old Archaean rocks and the vast sedimentary accumulations were crumpled and forced upward in stupendous wrinkles, forming lofty mountain ranges above the ancient sea. These movements may have been very slow, as we now reckon time, but they were rapid in a geologic sense. Very interesting would it be if the geologist could penetrate the lavas which now cover these ancient rocks, and make for us a map of the Park region as it then was. We may conjecture that the present surrounding mountain chains had taken form, and were probably more lofty and very different in appearance, owing to the vast changes of later times. It is also probable that the interior of the Park, which we now call its plateau, had arisen above the sea and that consequently the formation of sedimentary rocks had ceased. The interior basin was nevertheless a depressed area, relatively far deeper than at present. Whether there were folds or uplifts where Mts. Washburn and Sheridan now stand is uncertain, but the feeble resist- ance of the crust at these points in later times would indi- cate that there were. Now followed changes of great and far-reaching import- ance. The crushed and plicated earth-crust yielded to pressure from beneath, where the molten interior, com- pressed by the ever-increasing force of contraction, was seeking relief and expansion. Volcanic eruptions of wide extent and prodigious magnitude took place, and continued intermittently through Tertiary and into Quaternary time. There were evidently many and long periods of quiescence. The pent-up forces having expended their energy in one eruption remained inactive for .a season. The ordinary atmospheric and vegetable agencies then asserted them- selves very much as at present, though probably with greater force and intensity. Meanwhile the imprisoned 170 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK fires gathered new force, burst forth again, and destroyed the peaceful work that had gone on during the period of rest. Thus these opposite manifestations succeeded each other through long ages, until the reign of peace was estab- lished and the powers of violence and terror were per- manently dethroned. The lava outpourings during this period of volcanic activity have given our Park the broad outlines of the form in which we see it to-day, except as this has since been modified by the agencies of denudation and erosion. The earlier outpourings consisted mainly of andesitic breccias; the later of rhyolite, while all along there were smaller flows of basaltic lavas. The andesitic eruptions played their principal part in the upbuilding of the moun- tains. Over the greater part of the Absaroka and Gallatin Eanges the older granite and sedimentary rocks were buried beneath the lava, and the modern form of these mountains is that which time has wrought from out the igneous rocks. These volcanic outbursts were evidently not so much of the character of molten lava as in later times. In many places the heat was not sufficient to consume organic sub- stances, the forms of which have remained intact to the present time. The material was apparently not liquid enough to spread itself about like a lake, but instead banked up in the near neighborhood of eruption and thus promoted the building up of the mountains. It seems also to have been of a character that yielded readily to the agencies of erosion. There were several craters from which these lavas issued — two or more in the Absaroka Eange, one in the Gallatin Kange, and two, which interest us more, in the interior of the Park, Mt. Washburn and Mt. Sheridan. No one can stand on the summit of Mt. Washburn and look down upon the forest-covered amphitheater that forms the watershed of Tower Creek, without feeling instinctively that he is standing on the rim of an ancient crater, which was once GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE PARK 171 a seething caldron of molten lava, but is now clothed in a garb of beauty by the gentler agencies of nature. In the process of time the eruptive material from these volcanoes showed a marked change in character. The later flows were mostly of rhyolite. It is this rock that mainly composes the Park plateau. It was of a more liquid char- acter than the early outflows, and spread itself all over the country, filling up its depressions and elevating the general surface of the basin by more than a thousand feet. The rock has a great variety of superficial habit, from the soft friable material which grinds to powder under the wheels of wagons, to the glassy structure so prominent in Obsidian Cliff. Nine-tenths of all the rock which the tourist sees is of this character, though its varied forms might lead him to a different conclusion. Throughout the entire period of volcanic activity in this region there were limited outpourings of basalt, and the latest eruptions were of this character. Though small in extent, compared with the other rocks, it is the most important of all from a scenic point of view; for it always assumes a form that attracts attention. Prominent ex- amples may be seen in the Middle Gardiner Canyon at Osprey Palls, and along the banks of the Yellowstone near Tower Palls. Next in order of the great events in the geologic evolu- tion of the Park is the Glacial Epoch. Its work is every- where visible and certainly overspread the entire region. Unquestionably the Park was covered with one vast ice sheet, which even the warm ground where the hot springs were could not resist. Perhaps the most extensive and im- portant of all the glaciers was the one which debouched from the Third Canyon of the Yellowstone and the Lower Gardiner, into the valley below. It came from two sources — one in the Absaroka Eange at the headwaters of Lamar Eiver, and the other from the Gallatin Eange, whence it moved eastward and curved around to the left over Terrace Mountain, joining the main ice stream in the Gardiner 172 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Valley. The debris borne along by these combined glaciers are strewn everywhere throughout the north of the Park, and are particularly prominent in the valley of the Yellow- stone from the Park boundary north, halfway to Liv- ingston. In the Gibbon Canyon, near the Falls, are great accumulations of drift bowlders intermixed with mud. Hayden Valley and vast areas throughout the north of the Park are strewn with drift. One lone and impressive monument of this once mighty agency still rests in solitary grandeur on the bank of the Grand Canyon, near Inspira- tion Point. It is a huge granite bowlder and must have been brought to its present situation by the ice.* The glacier has been the main agency in giving the Park topography its present form ; that is, it has done more than anything else to shape the valleys and hills and give the terrane its varied aspect, rounding and smoothing its ele- vations, plowing out its valleys, and scooping out the de- pressions for its lakes. It has a less enviable reputation with those to whom falls the practical task of preparing highways for travelers throughout the Park. No obstacle to road building is quite so formidable as the masses of drift bowlders so frequently encountered. They have cost the government thousands upon thousands of dollars. But they have been of great benefit in other ways, for the fine gravel beds are extensively used in building up a good road surface. One of these masses of gravel and sand is very remarkable and has proven a veritable gold mine to the government in its work around Mammoth Hot Springs. This is Capitol Hill, which is almost entirely built up of sand and gravel, some portions of which are very clean and free from loam, and mixed by nature in almost the identical proportions required for ordinary concrete. An- other similar deposit is found on Swan Lake Flat, from which the material for the Golden Gate viaduct was procured. * See also page 304. GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE PARK 173 The events of the volcanic period of the Park history are preserved in one of the most perfect natural records which the researches of geologists have ever brought to light. The place known as the Fossil Forests of the Yellowstone is a deep exposure of the volcanic rocks caused by the erosion of the valley of Lamar River. It discloses several consecutive horizons of vegetable growth separated from each other by lava flows, which completely buried the subjacent growths and provided a foundation for those above. Beginning with the first or lowest, it is clear that conditions prevailed at the time which were highly favor- able to vegetable growth, and that these continued long enough for giant trees to attain mature size. After a time this season of growth was rudely interrupted by the violent outburst of a volcanic eruption. Vast masses of ejected material overwhelmed and submerged the land. In this particular locality the heat was not intense enough to con- sume the trees, although it killed them and probably reduced most of them to mere stubs. In the course of long ages the percolation of siliceous waters has turned the organic forms into stone by the process of substitution, and has thus preserved a most faithful picture of the vegetable life of that period, and an infallible proof of the agencies that destroyed it. Some of the petrifactions are very perfect. Roots, bark, parts showing incipient decay, worm holes, leaves — all are preserved with absolute fidelity. The rings of annual growth may be counted, and these indicate for the larger trees an age of not less than five hundred years. Some of the stumps are fully ten feet in diameter. Here and there the ponderous roots stand imbedded in the rock face of the cliff, where erosion has not yet undermined them. In one case, a large tree that had fallen before petrifaction lies partly exposed, both ends being still imbedded in the rock. Some hollow trees show interiors beautifully lined with holocrystalline quartz. After the first eruption had ceased a period of quies- 174 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK cenee followed, during which the ordinary atmospheric and aqueous agencies began work, eroding the surface in some places and depositing the products of erosion in others, while vegetation rapidly covered the newly-formed soil. A subsequent volcanic outburst destroyed this second growth and gave a new horizon, on which the same process was repeated. This continued until there were at least nine, and probably twelve, of these consecutive growths. How long it took each growth to reach maturity; how long each flourished afterward before destruction ; and how long the several eruptions suspended vegetable life are mat- ters largely conjectural. But at the very lowest estimate the time represented by these various accumulations cannot be less than ten thousand years. That these early trees were of a different species from those which now flourish there need not excite surprise, for climatic and other conditions are wholly changed. But an equal difference seems also to have prevailed between the successive growths, the trees of which were not only unlike each other, but more than half of them hitherto unknown to science. Seventy species in all have been identified and described. The cessation of active eruptions with the later basalt outpourings did not mean the cessation of volcanic activity in this region. It has continued ever since in the form in which we see it to-day, although at one time far more widespread than at present. There is some evidence also that molten matter has been seen in certain localities in the Park within historic times. There is no doubt that the source of the energy which is seen to-day in the hot springs and geysers is identical with that which caused the erup- tions of former times. Attempts have been made to explain this heat as originating in chemical action, or from the retained heat of the lava flows ; but there are insupera- ble objections to both theories. It is necessary to go back to the great reservoir of internal heat, which here, as in all volcanic regions, must be presumed to lie near the surface. GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE PARK 175 One disquieting inference from this theory is that the security of our Park may not be as perfect as could be desired, and that the old pent-up forces may yet assert themselves with appalling results. The action of this internal heat, as seen in the thermal phenomena of the Park, has been very general over its area, but has nowhere produced any marked change in its topography. The terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs are the only considerable exception. They have wrought an extensive change on the mountain side where they are found, extending from the Gardiner River back three miles and up about 1,500 feet to the top of Terrace Mountain. In the other hot springs districts the changes consist only of comparatively thin incrustations built up of deposition from the hot waters. The period of time through which this thermal action has been going on is very great, and presumably dates from the last of the volcanic eruptions. It certainly antedates by a long period the Glacial Epoch, for drift is found on the summit of Terrace Mountain, which is itself a creation of hot springs deposits. Efforts have been made to measure the rate of deposition from the springs in the geyser basins, and to calculate therefrom the time required to do the work which has actually been done. The method is one of great difficulty and uncertainty, but indicates a minimum period of twenty-five thousand years. It is probably much greater than this. The area of hot springs action in the Park is very extensive, far more so than surface indications would lead one to suppose. All over the Park Plateau are to be found the products of decomposition of volcanic rock through the agency of steam and hot water. The remarkable coloring of the Grand Canyon is that of the various sub- stances formed by this decomposition. There are many other places in the Park where canyons like this might exist if the eroding agencies were there to carve them out. The government work in the building of roads 176 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK throughout the Park has revealed the existence of " forma- tion " in many places where it would not be suspected from superficial appearances. The erosion of the Grand Canyon, one of the most mar- velous pieces of nature's handiwork, is connected with another profound change in the topography of the Park. The surface of the Yellowstone Lake once stood 160 feet higher than at present, and its waters flowed through the narrow gorge of Outlet Creek into Heart Lake, and thence into Snake Eiver, thus placing the entire watershed of the lake on the Pacific Slope. In those times the Con- tinental Divide passed over the summit of Mt. Washburn. Whether from some natural convulsion in this region, or the damming up of the southern outlet by Glacial ice, or from whatever cause, the waters of the lake found an outlet over the natural dam at the eastern base of Wash- burn, and began flowing north. The immense body of water stored in the lake and its overflow during the ages that have since elapsed have excavated this wonderful canyon in the decomposed rhyolite. The old shore line of the lake has been identified in many places. In the vast but unknown period since the great events which we have noted were complete, the only agencies which have modified the topography of the country, except the hot springs action, are those of denudation, erosion, and vegetable growth. The succession of the seasons, the action of wind and rain and snow, the growth of forests and other vegetation, the flow of the streams, have all been instru- mental in giving the Park its present actual appearance. No profound change has been produced by these agencies, but their influence upon the superficial aspect of nature has been very great. CHAPTEE III THE ROCKS OF THE PARK IT is an interesting but never-ending study, that of the rocks of the Yellowstone Park, and impossible of ex- tended treatment here; but that the Teader may have some assistance in his attempt to identify them, if he visits the Park, the following references are given to the more important outcroppings along the main route. Upon entering the Park from the north the tourist alights in a bed of glacial drift and sees strewn all around him granite and other boulders brought down from the Gallatin and North Absaroka Eanges. The rock from which the entrance gate is built is from a basalt outcrop just across the Yellowstone from Gar- diner. Nearly every piece is a section of an hexagonal prism. The valley of the Gardiner along which the road lies is on the line of a fault where the earth's crust parted, that on the right dropping down and that on the left lifting up, and forming the feature now known as Mt. Everts. It is mainly composed of sedimentary rocks — limestones and sandstones. Along the eastern portion is a covering of rhyolite distinctly prominent in the bold escarpment of which a salient angle fronts Bunsen Peak and the valley of the Middle Gardiner. Soon after the road leaves the river and begins the ascent of the hill it strikes the travertine deposits of Mam- moth Hot Springs. The road is cut through this formation in several places. In ascending the hill above Mammoth Hot Springs the road lies in the travertine most of the way for three miles, 177 178 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK and in one place passes through a remarkably confused mass of broken formation locally called the "Hoodoos." The Golden Gate Canyon is through rhyolite rock. The formation of Bunsen Peak is of dacite porphyry surrounded by rhyolite and basalt. A beautiful display of the latter rock may be seen in the walls of the Gardiner Canyon behind the mountain. Swan Lake Plat is covered, as the visitor will readily observe, with glacial drift. Near the seventh mile post, where the road crosses the Gardiner Eiver, about a thousand feet up stream, may be seen a fine outcropping of basalt broken up into angular bowlders. Quantities of this rock have been crushed for use on the roads. The Gallatin Kange, in full view, has many exposures of sedimentary rocks, limestone, and sandstone. Along the front of Mount Holmes, The Dome, and of Trilobite Point are exposures of the Archaean rocks, granite, and gneiss. The tourist route now lies almost wholly in the rhyolite rocks until Hayden Valley is reached. The appearances of this rock are very varied, one of the extreme forms being seen in Obsidian Cliff. In some places the rock is hard and weathers well, but as a general rule it is soft. This is the case in the picturesque exposures at Virginia Cascades and in the Gibbon Canyon above the falls, al- though at the sites of both these cataracts the rock is hard enough to resist the action of the water. All over the high plateau the road work has encoun- tered a rock which is largely glassy rhyolite or obsidian, and although it can be removed only by blasting, it crum- bles to pieces upon exposure. This characteristic accounts for the fact that in passing through the forests where this rock mostly abounds one would not suspect its presence except by digging into the ground. This condition pre- vails all along the road between Norris and the Grand Canyon. THE ROCKS OF THE PARK 179 On the shore of the Yellowstone Lake the road passes over lacustrine deposits for considerable distances which were laid down when the lake stood at its ancient level. Along the Yellowstone River from Mud Geyser to the head of the rapids the road lies all the way in glacial drift, which indeed extends along the river amid outcroppings of rhyolite to below the site of the Grand Canyon Hotel. Elsewhere reference is made to a remarkable granite bowlder laid down by glacial agencies on the brink of the canyon. The Grand Canyon is carved through decomposed rhyolite. On leaving the Grand Canyon Hotel for Mt. Washburn, the road across the undulating plain to the base of the mountain lies in glacial drift which overspreads in a thin coat the underlying rhyolite. Where the road crosses the east fork of Cascade Creek and begins the ascent of the mountain it enters the area of andesite rocks in the form of the early basic breccias. The road continues in this rock to the summit of the mountain and down the northern slope to within three miles of Tower Creek, where it again comes into an area of rhyolite. Glacial drift is everywhere found in the lower valley of Tower Creek. Andesites compose the bed of the Yellowstone all along the lower course of the Grand Canyon. Below Tower Falls this is capped by a conglomerate of " gneissic and andesitic pebbles in friable sandstone," and this by a wonderful wall of columnar basalt. Rising from the bottom of the canyon a mile below Tower Falls is a stately, isolated column of rock that has resisted the wear of time. It is 260 feet high, but does not rise to the level of the basalt. The road from the Yellowstone to the top of Crescent hill divide lies mainly in the early acid and basic breccias, or andesitic lavas. 180 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK All over these portions of the Park, beginning on the northern slopes of Washburn and extending east to Soda Butte, the ground is strewn with "specimens" of various sorts — agate, chalcedony, onyx, jasper, garnets, amethyst, etc. The names Specimen Ridge, Garnet Hill Amethyst Creek, and several others took their rise from this circum- stance. The ride across the high plateau from Crescent Hill to the Gardiner River is everywhere through the glacial drift, but with frequent outcroppings of rock in situ. Basalt and early acid breccias (andesite) are prevailing rocks, with an outcropping of limestone near the crest of the slope descending to Black-tail-deer Creek. The immediate valley of this stream is composed of rhyolite, but the basalt recurs again along the east Gar- diner, and the beautiful Undine Falls is over this rock. The canyon for a considerable distance along the hillside below the falls is carved out of the same material. Prom the high ground where the road emerges from Crescent Hill Canyon a splendid view is had of the country across the Yellowstone River. The mountains there are composed mainly of Archaean rocks, and in these are found the only gold and silver veins in the Park. CHAPTER IV GETSEES THE hot springs of the Yellowstone Park may be roughly divided into two classes, eruptive and non- eruptive. To the first the term geyser is applied, while the term hot springs is restricted to the second. These two classes pass into each other by insensible gradations and the line of demarcation it is not possible to draw. The following description pertains only to those examples about which there is no doubt, and which may be taken as types of their class. A geyser may be defined as a periodically eruptive hot spring. The name, as might be expected, is of Icelandic origin, and comes from the verb geysa, to gush. The gen- eral characteristics of a true geyser, as illustrated by the most perfect example known, Old Faithful, in the Yellow- stone Park, are the following : (1) There is an irregular tube descending from the earth's surface to some interior source of heat. (2) The mouth of this tube may be either a self -built mound or cone (as in the example), or simply an open pool. (3) Into this tube meteoric water finds its way and is subjected to the action of heat. (4) The result is an eruption and expulsion of the water from the tube with more or less violence. (5) The eruption is generally preceded by preliminary upheavals leading gradually to the final outburst. (6) After cessation of the eruption there is a heavy escape of steam. 181 182 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK (7) A quiescent period, generally of indeterminate dura- tion, follows during which the conditions necessary for an eruption are reproduced. Geyser phenomena have attracted a great deal of scien- tific attention, and many theories have been advanced to explain them. Passing over for the present the less impor- tant, attention will first be given to Bunsen's theory, be- cause it is, upon the whole, the most satisfactory yet advanced. This theory was a direct deduction from ob- servations upon the Great Geyser of Iceland, and has been experimentally illustrated by artificial examples. The fundamental principle upon which it is based is the well-known fact that the temperature of the boiling point of water varies with the pressure to which the water is subjected. At the sea level, under the pressure of one atmosphere (fifteen pounds to the square inch), the boiling point is about 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Under a pressure of two atmospheres it is 250 degrees; of three, 275 de- grees; of four, 293 degrees, and so on. At an altitude like that of the Park plateau, where the atmospheric pressure is much less than at sea level, the normal boiling point is about 198 degrees, but the law of variation due to pressure applies exactly as in lower altitudes. If water, subjected to great pressure, be heated to a temperature considerably above that of its normal boiling point, and if then the pressure be suddenly relieved, it will almost instantaneously be converted into steam; a fact which operates to enhance the danger from the explosion of steam boilers. In the case of an ordinary geyser, it is readily seen that in the long irregular tube descending to great depths there are present the necessary conditions for subjecting the water to great pressure. At the surface the pressure is that of the weight of the atmosphere cor- responding to the altitude; at a certain depth below (34.5 feet at the sea level, but less at higher altitudes) it is twice as great; at double this depth three times as great, and so on. GEYSEBS 183 Suppose, now, that there is an interior heat at some point along the geyser tube well below the surface. The boiling point of water in the vicinity of the heat supply will be higher than at the surface in definite relation to its distance down. If the tube be of large diameter and the circulation quite free, the water will never reach this temperature, for it will rise nearer the top, where the boiling point is lower, and will pass off in steam. The spring will thus be simply a boiling or quiescent spring. But if the tube be comparatively small and if the circula- tion be in any way impeded, the temperature at the source of heat will rise until it reaches a boiling point correspond- ing to its depth. Steam will result, and will rise through the water, gradually increasing the temperature in the upper portions of the tube. After a time the water throughout the entire tube becomes heated nearly to the boiling point and can no longer condense the steam rising from below, which then accumulates until its expansive power is great enough to lift the column above and project some of the water from the tube. This lessens the weight of the column and relieves the pressure at every point. In places where the water had been just below the boiling point, it is now above, and more steam is rapidly pro- duced. This throws out more water, still further lightens the column, and causes the generation of more steam, until finally the whole contents of the tube are ejected with terrific violence. From this explanation it is apparent that anything which impedes the circulation of water in the geyser tube will expedite the eruption. The well-known effect of " soaping geysers " may thus be accounted for. As oil thrown upon waves gives a viscosity to the surface, which greatly moderates their violence, so the addition of soap or lye makes the water of the geyser tube less free to cir- culate, and thus hastens the conditions necessary to an eruption. The apparently contrary process of violently agitating 184 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK the water of the geyser, as by stirring it with a stick, some- times produces the same effect; but this results from the sudden forcing upward of masses of superheated water, instead of allowing them to rise and gradually cool. That Bunsen's theory really explains the phenomena of geyser action there can be little doubt. It is true that in no single geyser does one find a perfect example. Typical conditions probably never exist. The point of application of heat; the mode of application, whether from the heated surface of rocks or from superheated steam issuing into the tube; the diameter and form of the tube; the point of inflow of the cold water, are all matters which influence the eruption and determine its char- acter. In the endless variety of conditions in nature one need not wonder at the varying results. He should rather wonder that in a single instance nature has pro- duced a combination of such perfection as is found in Old Faithful, which for thousands of years has performed its duty with the regularity of clockwork. There are various other theories, each with some par- ticular merit, which may be briefly referred to. Sir George Mackenzie, who visited Iceland in 1810-11, thought the geyser tube at some point beneath the surface curved to one side and then upward, communicating with a chamber in the immediate vicinity of the source of heat. The water in this chamber becomes heated above the boiling point, and, expanding, forces the water into the tube until the chamber is finally emptied to the level of its outlet. Any further expulsion of water lessens the weight of the column above. Bunsen's theory comes into play, and with the accumulated pressure of the steam in the chamber, pro- duces a violent eruption. Professor Comstock, who visited the Park in 1873, thought that there were two chambers, the lower being in contact with the source of heat, and the upper acting as a sort of trap in the geyser tube. After a sufficient force Ilaynes Photo St. Paul Old Faithful Geyser GEYSERS 185 of steam has accumulated in the lower chamber, it ejects the contents of the chamber above. S. Baring-Gould, who visited Iceland in 1863, observed that if a tube be bent into two arms of unequal length, the shorter of which is closed, and if the tube be filled with water and the shorter arm then heated, all the char- acteristic phenomena of geyser action result, the water being finally ejected with explosive violence from the longer tube. Now, it is probable that in nature each of these theories may find illustration, but it must still be acknowledged that in all cases Bunsen's theory is the partial explanation, and in many the only adequate one. The most superficial examination of the geysers in the Park will disclose two widely different classes as regards their external appearance and mode of eruption — the foun- tain geysers and the cone geysers. In the fountain geyser there is no cone or mound, but in its place a considerable pool, which in intervals of rest bears a perfect resemblance to the larger quiescent springs. The eruption generally consists of a succession of pro- digious impulses by which large masses of water are thrown up one after another. There is ordinarily no continuous jet. To geysers of this class, Mackenzie's -and Comstock's theories would seem to find closer application than to any others. Noted examples are the Fountain, the Great Foun- tain, the Grand, and the Giantess Geysers. The cone geysers, on the other hand, have no pool about the crater and water is not generally visible in the tube. There is a self -built cone of greater or less prominence, ranging from a broad, gently-sloping mound, like that of Old Faithful, to a huge cone like that of the Castle. The eruptions from these geysers usually take the form of a continuous jet, and are more in accordance with the theory of Bunsen. Prominent examples are the Giant, Castle, Old Faithful, Lone Star, and Union. An interesting and singular fact pertaining to this 186 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK region is that in most cases the springs and geysers have no underground connection with one another. Water in contiguous pools stands at different levels, and powerful geysers play with no apparent effect upon others near by. It is another interesting question to know whence comes the water for these geysers and hot springs. Into the hidden caverns of Old Faithful flow perhaps a quarter of a million gallons per hour. This is a large stream, but it is a mere trifle compared with the entire outflow of hot water throughout the Park. The subterranean pas- sages by which the necessary supply is furnished to all these thousands of springs, certainly constitute the most intricate and extensive system of water-works of which there is any knowledge. Not the least wonderful of the features of the great geysers are the marvelous formations which surround them, more exquisitely beautiful than any production of art. They are much finer than those to be found around the ordinary quiescent springs. The falling or dashing of the hot water seems to be essential to the most perfect results. To say that these rocky formations simulate cauli- flower, sponge, fleeces of wool, flowers, or bead-work, con- veys but a feeble idea of their marvelous beauty. It is indeed a most interesting fact that nature here produces in stone, by the process of deposition, the identical forms elsewhere produced by the very different processes of animal and vegetable life. These formations are all silica and are of flinty hard- ness. Bunsen, and Professor Le Conte following him, assert it to be a rule that the presence of silica in the water is essential to the development of a geyser. In one sense this is true, and in another it is not. Should the heated waters find a ready-made tube, like a fissure in solid rock, this would serve for a geyser tube as well as any other. The Monarch geyser, in Norris Geyser Basin, seems to have originated in this way. But in the general case, geyser tubes are built up, not found ready made. GEYSERS 187 In such cases silica is an indispensable ingredient of the water. A calcareous deposit, like that at Mammoth Hot Springs, would lack strength to resist the violent strain of an eruption. So it is found to be a fact that silica is the chief mineral in the water of all important geysers. CHAPTER V HOT SPRINGS AND KINDRED FEATURES UNDER this general head will be included all the various forms of thermal activity in the Park except the geysers, viz. : the quiescent springs, boiling springs, mud springs or paint pots, the steam vents, and fumaroles. QUIESCENT SPRINGS The quiescent spring stands at the opposite pole from the geyser. The conditions are such that the water no- where reaches the boiling point, and the surface steams quietly away unruffled except by the passing breeze. There is not the smallest suggestion of the turbulence and violent energy of the geyser, but its whole behavior is list- less and peaceful. In keeping with this character is the inimitable beauty of its soft blue waters. It is not simply the cerulean hue of great depths of clear water. In ordi- nary pools, however deep and clear, one does not find all the colors of the spectrum, flitting about, as though seen through a revolving prism. Sometimes there is an iri- descent effect similar to that of a film of oil upon water; but there is no oil here. There are doubtless many con- tributing causes that produce these remarkable effects. There is first a great depth of clear water which always presents a beautiful appearance. Then there are the min- eral deposits on the sides of the crater, producing indefinite reflection, the effects of which are multiplied by the refrac- tive power of the water. The mineral ingredients dis- solved or suspended in the water doubtless add to the effect. The rims about the quiescent springs are often very 188 HOT SPRINGS AND KINDRED FEATURES 189 beautiful, and the observer is astonished to see how they stand up above the general surface of the ground so evenly built that the water has hardly a choice of route in flowing away. Tyndall, however, makes this puzzling phenomenon clear. He says : " Imagine the case of a simple thermal siliceous spring, whose waters trickle down a gentle incline ; the water thus exposed evaporates speedily, and silica is deposited. This deposit gradually elevates the side over which the water passes, until finally the latter has to take another course. The same takes place here ; the ground is elevated as before, and the spring has to move forward. Thus it is compelled to travel round and round, discharging its silica and deep- ening the shaft in which it dwells, until finally, in the course of ages, the simple spring has produced that won- derful apparatus which has so long puzzled and astonished both the traveler and the philosopher." What will astonish the visitor even more is the fact, that this building up is often the result of vegetable growth. The heat of the water would seem incompatible with the existence of life within it ; but it is not so. Low forms of algous growth abound in nearly all the springs where the temperature is below 185 degrees Fahrenheit. The soft, slippery, colored substance that borders many of the springs and the rivulets which flow from them is a form of vege- table life — very elementary, it is true, but still life. As in the case of the geysers, so in that of these quiescent springs, there is an almost infinite variety; but popular interest attaches mainly to those like the Morning Glory, which are gems of such beauty that they stand unrivaled among the works of nature or art. There are several ex- amples of this higher order in the Park. The Morning Glory is the most beautiful in the Upper Geyser Basin. Prismatic Lake and Turquoise Pool in the Midway Basin are the largest in the Park. There is a very beautiful one on the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake a hundred yards from the road junction. 190 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK The celebrated Mammoth Hot Springs on the Gardiner Biver are quite different from those in any other part of the Park, although in beauty of coloring they resemble and possibly excel the finer examples in the geyser basins. The water of these springs holds carbonate of lime in solution, while most of the others contain silica. To this fact must be attributed the peculiar character of the formations at Mammoth Hot Springs. Wherever the de- posits of springs are calcareous, the character of the forma- tions is different from those produced by the deposit of silica. They rise in terraces one above another, and mold for themselves overhanging bowls of transcendent beauty in form and color. The quantity of mineral matter held in these calcareous waters is astonishing, and its rate of deposition is very rapid. Consequently, the growth of the "formation" is rapid, and beautiful bowls and terraces are built up in one or two seasons. The rapidity of deposit is so great that commercial advantage is taken of it, and a licensed resi- dent of the Park follows the business of coating specimens in these springs and selling them to the public. He would soon go out of business if compelled to await the slow process of the silica waters. But if the growth of these deposits is rapid, their permanence is unfortunately much less than that of other formations. The subterranean channels are weak and give way easily to pressure. New outlets break forth and the general history of the springs is that of constant change. How extensive and rapid this has been in the past is evi- denced by the presence of full-grown trees which are still standing, though killed and partly buried by the deposit. There are many other forms of quiescent springs throughout the Park. Some are simply open pools, filled with turbid water, exhibiting no beauty or attractiveness. Others are densely muddy and positively repulsive. In the lower geyser basin there is an extensive pond or lake of hot water, besides several of smaller size, in all of which HOT SPRINGS AND KINDRED FEATURES 191 the water has a dark, almost black, color. It is one of these springs that is called the Firehole, from the appear- ance of a lambent light blue flame beneath the water, caused by the escape of superheated steam from a fissure in the rock. BOILING SPRINGS The boiling spring is intermediate between the quiescent spring and the geyser. The circulation is sufficiently free to prevent a great rise of temperature in the lower depths of the tube, and nothing more than a surface ebullition, . often extremely violent, results. These springs are gener- ally objects of secondary interest. They are simply enormous caldrons, but in some instances they exhibit pe- culiarities which are very interesting. Several of them show a geyseric tendency, in which the eruptive force is expended before it can produce any decisive result. Among the more important of these features is Beryl Spring, in the Gibbon Canyon, on the right bank of the river, close to the road. It discharges a large volume of hot water. There is another and larger spring in the valley of the Gibbon near its mouth and close by the side of the road leading into the Park from the west. There are several of these springs in the Firehole Geyser basins. Excelsior Geyser, from its very infrequent eruptions, may more prop- erly be considered a boiling spring. The quantity of water that it discharges is enormous. Norris Geyser Basin has a few of these springs, though none of particular interest. On the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake, near the road- way, is a large boiling spring, the waters of which have a faint muddy tinge. Perhaps, the most interesting fea- ture of this class in the Park is Sulphur Spring, a pseudo- geyser at the west base of Sulphur Mountain. Its ebulli- tion is extremely spasmodic and violent, but the discharge of water very small. It is heavily charged with sulphur and the rim of the pool and edges of the stream carrying the overflow are bordered with brilliant yellow. 192 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK Between the true quiescent spring and the boiling spring there is every gradation. The various examples can be numbered by the thousands and no two are alike. Every spring has its own individual character. A peculiar phenomenon to which it is difficult to assign a distinctive name, is exemplified in the feature called the "Devil's Frying Pan," three miles north of the Norris Geyser Basin. It is a true reproduction, upon a large scale, of the appearance of the ordinary frying pan. This . phenomenon has a wide distribution, and something resem- bling it may be found in certain pools or lakes, the bottoms of which are apparently full of the bubbling vents. The most striking example is Turbid Lake, which lies a short distance from the east shore of the Yellowstone Lake. It is a considerable body of water, at least half a mile across, and is fed by the purest streams of the mountains. But nearly its entire bottom is overspread with these vents, and the steam and gas from them escape in feeble bubbles at the top. The whole appearance is like that of a tub of water that has been used in washing. The outlet of the lake is a turbid stream, not capable of sustaining fish. MUD SPRINGS A characteristic and interesting class of phenomena are the mud springs that abound in all parts of the Park. They present an almost endless variety of form and aspect, but there are only two that need now detain us — the " paint pots " and the eruptive springs, like the Mud Geyser on the Yellowstone Kiver. The Paint Pots, as they are now always called, are extremely curious phenomena. They are caused by the rising of steam through considerable depths of earthy ma- terial. The water is just sufficient in quantity to keep the HOT SPRINGS AND KINDRED FEATURES 193 material in a plastic condition, and the steam operates upon it precisely as it does upon a kettle of thick mush. Generally there are various mineral ingredients, mostly oxides of iron, which impart different colors to different parts of the group. As the steam puffs up here and there from the thick mass, it forms the mud into a variety of imitative figures, prominent among which is that of the lily. These figures immediately sink back into the general mass, only to be formed anew by other puffs of steam. The material is so fine as to be almost impalpable between the fingers. Lieutenant Doane, however, justly observes that " mortar might well be good after being constantly worked for perhaps ten thousand years." This " mortar " has actu- ally been used with good results in " calsomining " walls. The Paint Pots, in one form or another, are found in a great many situations, but there are only three localities where they are grouped in sufficient number to attract es- pecial interest. These are the Gibbon Paint Pots on the border of the Gibbon Meadows, east of the road, rarely seen by tourists; the Mammoth Paint Pots directly in front of the Fountain Hotel and near the Fountain Geyser, and a group on the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake, near the road junction. Mud Geyser (or Mud Volcano, as it was originally and more properly called) is considered by many the most extraordinary and wonderful feature in the Park. In point of beauty it stands at the antipodes of the quiescent pool. It is uncanny, repulsive, and suggestive of every- thing horrible and uncouth. A similar feature is found in the Devil's Inkstand, on the northern face of Mt. Wash- burn. STEAM VENTS The steam vents exhibit still another striking form of the thermal phenomena of this region. They exist where surface water is apparently lacking and where there is a vast quantity of steam generated far below. The result is 194 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK that there is no accumulation of water in the tube, which might eventuate in an eruption, but it is all blown out in fine mist as fast as it runs in. The most prominent exam- ple is in Norris Geyser Basin where, within a small area, there are several of these vents. For many years the Growler and Hurricane held the record as steam producers, but lately they have yielded a part of their vigor to a new vent which exhibits greater power than either of its prede- cessors. The force of the steam as it comes from these vents is terrific. A large quantity of water is blown out in the form of mist and the rain that falls on the leeward side of the steam column is like the perpetual shower at the base of Niagara. Roaring Mountain has one of these powerful vents near the summit. There is another large one on the east shore of the Yellowstone Lake, called Steamboat Spring, and there are many smaller ones in different localities. FDMAEOLES The fumaroles are small vents from which the steam escapes- quietly and without any marked exhibition of force. They are found all over the Park, but it is only in cold, damp weather when the steam is rapidly condensed, that their actual frequency can be appreciated. Many of the stream sources throughout the Park are warm. Springs that have every appearance of being cold are often found, upon examination, to have temperatures above the normal for spring water. In fact, the whole country is in a heated condition near the surface, and the evidences thereof are so numerous and frequent that they cease to attract attention from those who are familiar with them. Reference has already been made to the fact that mineral ingredients in the hot springs of the plateau are composed mainly of silica, while those at Mammoth Hot Springs are nearly pure travertine. The hot waters in the latter case HOT SPRINGS AND KINDRED FEATURES 195 have decomposed the underlying limestone which is here near the surface, whereas farther out in the Park the min- eral ingredients come almost exclusively from the lavas in which there is only a trace of carbonic acid. This differ- ence in composition produces the great difference in the superficial appearance of the deposits. Nothing could be more unlike than the formations at Mammoth Hot Springs and those around the Great Fountain or Old Faithful Geyser; yet each in its way is a transcendently beautiful specimen of nature's handiwork. The temperature of the thermal springs of the Park varies all the way from cold spring water up to the boiling point, 198 degrees. In the geysers it rises above the boil- ing point, though, from the nature of the case, the measur- ing of such temperature is practically impossible. In a few instances temperatures of 200 degrees have been re- corded. The following table gives an analysis of the principal waters of the Park. It is the work of the Chemical Labo- ratory of the United States Geological Survey, and was performed by Frank Austin Gooch and James Edward Whitfield: 196 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 8 • 8 e s o •8 s o ^ IS •tnnipog fl)10»ONH(flOH0DW(a OJt-^ffiWIO(B(D10HIOO oooooooooooo' ■ranissBjoj; oooooooooooo OOOOOOOOOOOO ■ranjsanS'BU ffl«rtcoomseo)«oo