Chapter 2 THE DISCOVERY OF THE YELLOWSTONE

In the Yellowstone National Park-the first national park in the world-are so many natural wonders, of such unusual character, that not until the tract was discovered the sixth time were the American people convinced of its existence. Sixty-three years elapsed from the time of its first discovery to that of its recognition as an actuality.

The first two discoveries-they were made by trappers a generation apart-were laughed at and soon forgotten. The third, by prospectors, led to a successful private exploring expedition from Montana. This was followed by a larger and semi-official expedition, which also achieved its object. The sixth and last was an official discovery by the United States Government.

The Indians of the Yellowstone region knew of the present Park tract. They had a north-and-south trail across it, also one from east to west. To them it was the "Top of the World," the "Land of Burning Mountains," and the "Yellow Rock." But its wonders appear to have produced little or no impression on the Indians; there is an absolute dearth of myths, legends, and even of superstitions concerning it. To me this is remarkable. From every point of view the natives regarded the Yellowstone with indifference. Lewis and Clark daily questioned Indians concerning the character of the country, but the explorers heard nothing of the Yellowstone wonderland, although they passed and repassed within a few miles of it.

The Indians made scant use of this territory. In an average year the passes into it are blocked with snow for nine months of the twelve. Besides, it is mostly covered with a tangle of forests. In earlier days, living in it or traveling through it was difficult. Though filled with big game during the summer, at no time of year was it equal to the surrounding country as a hunting-ground.

John Colter, who first discovered the Yellowstone region in 1807, was a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition. He was a hunter and trapper, a master of woodcraft, and an outdoor man of the first class; at the time of the discovery he was thirty-five years of age, nearly six feet tall, and an athlete who could hold his own in the games of the trappers' rendezvous. His endurance, courage, and resourcefulness were marvelous. Neither wilderness nor hostile Indian had terrors for him. The five years that he spent in the Yellowstone region were so crowded with wilderness adventure that his name is immortal in the history of the American frontier. He obtained his release from the Lewis and Clark exploring party at a point on the Missouri River, some distance below the mouth of the Yellowstone, in August, 1806. He had served with the expedition more than two years.

With two trappers, Colter that year proceeded up the Missouri and spent the winter somewhere on its headwaters. The following spring he left his companions and started for St. Louis. After a solitary journey of about two thousand miles, he met Manuel Lisa, the celebrated trapper and trader, who, with a large party, was on his way to found a trading-post somewhere on the headwaters of the Missouri. Lisa persuaded Colter to turn back with him.

Strong is the lure of the wilderness. Although Colter had been away from civilization three years, and a triumphant welcome awaited his return, he again postponed the enjoyment of all that old friends and city attractions could offer, to resume the adventurous experiences of a trapper's life among hostile Indians in the wilds.

Lisa built a trading-post, Fort Manuel, at the junction of the Big Horn and Yellowstone Rivers, about two hundred miles southeast of the Yellowstone Park. From here, with a thirty-pound pack and rifle, Colter set off alone on a thousand-mile journey into the wilderness to tell the surrounding Indian tribes of this new trading-post.

He traveled a few hundred miles to the southwest without notable adventure. We now marvel at the results of this journey, for its discoveries put Colter in the front rank of geographical explorers on the American continent. He discovered the Wind River Range, Union Pass, Jackson Hole, Teton Pass, Pierre's Hole, and the Grand Teton. He was the first to see the headwaters of those two great rivers the Green Fork of the Colorado and the Snake Fork of the Columbia. These discoveries might well have been enough for any one man, but his greatest discovery was still before him.

Colter was with a band of Crows near Pierre's Hole when it was attacked by marauding Blackfeet. Of necessity Colter fought with the Crows, who were victorious. The Blackfeet blamed Colter for their defeat, and from this incident may have arisen the long-continued hostility of the Blackfeet tribes against the whites.

Again alone, Colter set forth from Pierre's Hole, St. Anthony, Idaho, and traveled straight across the mountains to Fort Manuel. A wound in the leg, which he had received in the fight with the Blackfeet, was not yet healed. The direct route that he took for his return may have been chosen as the shortest, but most probably was selected in order to avoid the Blackfeet.

The crowning achievement of this remarkable journey was the discovery and traversing of the Yellowstone wonderland. His course took Colter diagonally, from southwest to northeast, across what now is the Yellowstone National Park. He probably passed along the west shore of Yellowstone Lake, and may have followed the Yellowstone River from the lake to the falls. He saw numerous geysers, hot springs, paint-pots, and possibly Sulphur Mountain. He noted that numerous rivers had their sources in the Park and flowed from it in all directions, thus justifying the Indian name for the region, "Top of the World." After crossing Mount Washburn he probably forded the river near Tower Falls and then followed the east fork of the Yellowstone.

Colter arrived safely at Fort Manuel after a journey of about three hundred miles from Pierre's Hole and a round trip of about eight hundred miles. Aside from its geographical value, this was a remarkable wilderness achievement.

A little later came the most extraordinary chapter of Colter's adventurous life. In 1809, with a companion named John Potts, he was trapping beavers near the Three Forks of the Missouri. They were rowing up a small stream that flowed into the Jefferson River, the most western of the forks. At a point on this stream about five miles from the Jefferson, they heard a great trampling. High banks and brushwood shut off their view.

Presently about five hundred Blackfeet appeared on the banks and ordered them to come ashore. Escape was impossible. The two men had the hardihood to throw the beaver-traps overboard, hoping to recover them later. As the canoe touched the shore, an Indian snatched Potts's rifle from him. Thereupon Colter sprang ashore, wrested the rifle from the Indian, and handed it to Potts who immediately pushed off into the stream. Colter told him to come back and not to try to escape. An arrow whizzed by Colter, and Potts fell back in the canoe, crying out, "I'm done for!" as he shot an Indian dead. In an instant his body was filled with arrows.

The Blackfeet seized Colter and stripped him naked, then discussed methods of torturing him to death. They decided to set him up for a target, but the chief interfered-that was not exciting enough for him. Seizing Colter by the shoulder, he asked him if he could run fast. The question was greeted with howls of delight by the Blackfeet.

The chief led Colter out on the prairie about three hundred yards from the band, pointed in the direction of the Jefferson River, told him to save himself if he could, and cast him loose. Colter ran, the Blackfeet whooped and pursued, and the race for life was on.

The ground was thick with prickly pears that pierced Colter's bare feet. Nevertheless, he kept ahead of his pursuers. When about half the five miles to the Jefferson had been covered, he ventured to look back. The Indians were much scattered, and he had gained on the main body; but one Indian, carrying a spear, was close upon him.

Colter exerted himself to the utmost, and by the time he came within a mile of the Jefferson he was exhausted and blood from his nostrils had covered the front of his body. He stopped suddenly, turned, and spread out his arms. The Blackfoot, almost upon him, but also exhausted, attempted to stop and throw his spear, but he fell and the spear broke. Colter sprang upon him, seized the spear-head, pinned him to the ground, and ran on.

The foremost of the remaining Indians stopped by the fallen runner. When others came, they all set up a whoop and resumed the chase.

Colter gained the river-bank in advance of all his pursuers, just where there happened to be a large beaver house, standing partly against the bank and partly in the water. Knowing that the entrance to the house was at the bottom, under the water, he dived and succeeded in forcing his way to the floor just above the water-level.

Man fleeing from man has hidden in strange places, but it may be doubted whether one ever before sought safety in a beaver house of brush and mud!

Soon the Blackfeet were searching all over the place, "screeching like so many devils." They made search for the naked white man all the rest of the day. Apparently even their savage cunning never suspected the beaver house. Although they frequently clambered over it, they did not disturb it.

When night came and Colter could no longer hear the Indians, he swam downstream, gained the prairie, and headed for Fort Manuel, some two hundred miles away. Naked, with bleeding feet, he walked over prickly pears on the prairie and through snow in the mountains, which he crossed above the timber-line. The sun blistered him. Part of the time, he traveled by night and lay hid by day. He appears to have lived chiefly on the Indian-turnip (Psoralea esculenta).

Colter arrived at Fort Manuel in terrible shape. At first the men did not recognize him. He had been eleven days in making the distance between Three Forks and the fort.

That winter Colter had the courage to go back alone to the scene of his capture to recover his beaver-traps. Before he reached them he was ambushed by Blackfeet, but escaped. He returned to the fort, and the following spring he was with Pierre Menard at Three Forks when the place was successfully attacked by Blackfeet. Colter was among the few who escaped.

Pierre Menard wrote a four-page letter to his brother-in-law, Pierre Chouteau, and Colter started with it for St. Louis. With a companion, "Mr. William Bryant," he made the three-thousand-mile journey by canoe in thirty days. Upon his arrival at St. Louis, he reported to his old commander, William Clark; told him the story of his journeys, discoveries, and adventures, and gave him much material for his forthcoming map of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Clark traced on the map the route of Colter's Yellowstone Park journey and gave it the legend "Colter's Route of 1807."

There is nothing incredible about any of Colter's stories. His accounts of the Yellowstone region appear to have been remarkably true to fact. His escape from the Indians, and his various journeys, are experiences within the range of human achievement. His hiding in a beaver house is easily possible. His race and his naked journey across the mountains show the courage and hardihood of the frontiersman of the day. I have been over the place where he ran for his life from the Blackfeet and have followed his trail across the mountains.

Henry M. Brackenridge, the author of "Views of Louisiana, together with Journal," secured Colter's story at first hand, and he does it justice. John Bradbury, author of "Travels into the Interior of North America," did much important work in the Mississippi and Missouri Valleys in the years 1809-11. He also got Colter's story from Colter himself, and gives a careful account of the race for life with the Blackfeet. The account given by General Thomas James, in "Three Years among the Indians and Mexicans," is a third first-hand story of Colter's activities. Washington Irving was too good a literary craftsman to overlook Colter's story. In "Astoria" he retells the escape from the Blackfeet. General Hiram M. Chittenden gives full appreciation to Colter in his "History of the Early Western Fur Trade" and "The Yellowstone National Park," both standard works.

Nevertheless, St. Louis did not believe Colter. He told his travels, discoveries, and adventures, and the people laughed in derision. For two generations St. Louis mockingly referred to the Yellowstone wonderland as "Colter's Hell."

Colter married and went to live near Daniel Boone at La Charette. He declined to join the Astoria expedition, and this is the last heard of him. He may have died shortly afterwards; or it is possible that, because of unjust public opinion, he may have moved into seclusion. At any rate, the later years and the burial-place of the first discoverer of the Yellowstone National Park are unknown.

Colter's story is a wilderness story of supreme character. It is full of the vigor and independence of outdoors. Colter is an heroic and picturesque figure in national history. I wish every boy and girl in the land could read his adventures.

The second discovery of the Yellowstone site was also made by a trapper. James Bridger, of Fort Bridger fame, was there in 1830, but his description of its wonders was laughed at as "just another of old Jim Bridger's good yarns." Between 1830 and 1843 the region was visited by many trappers and traders, and its wonders were common knowledge to the plainsmen of the Missouri Valley. Some accounts got into print. Nevertheless, the Yellowstone was no more real to the American of that generation than was "Colter's Hell" to the generation before.

Trapping began to fall off. The Mexican War and the California gold excitement led public attention away from the Yellowstone country, and by the beginning of the Civil War it was as completely forgotten as if it had never been known.

It was the prospector who gave the Yellowstone tract to the world for the third time. By 1865, reports of its wonders had been spread far and wide by prospectors attracted to the region by the Montana gold excitement. At last Montana became mildly curious over these reports. In 1869, David E. Folsom, C. W. Cook, and William Peterson visited the region. They told enough to bring about the organization of a large semi-official expedition.

This Yellowstone expedition (1870) is known as the "Washburn-Doane Expedition," and from it dates the latter-day history of the Park. Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, Second Cavalry, U.S.A., with a sergeant and four privates was detailed from Fort Ellis to escort the expedition. Among its nine civilians were General Henry D. Washburn, Surveyor-General of Montana; Nathaniel P. Langford, author of "Vigilante Days and Ways" and first superintendent of the Park; Cornelius Hedges, who first proposed setting apart the region as a National Park; and Samuel T. Hauser, president of the First National Bank of Helena, and later Governor of Montana.

So skeptical was this party that when the steam of Old Faithful was first seen through the woods it was believed to be a forest fire.

Mr. Hedges subsequently said, "I think a more confirmed set of skeptics never went out into the wilderness than those who composed our party, and never was a party more completely surprised and captivated with the wonders of nature."

Through the press and lecture-platform, the Washburn-Doane expedition spread the knowledge of its discoveries broadcast over the country. The direct result of its work was that the United States Government sent an official expedition to the Park the next year. This was a joint expedition made up from the Engineering Corps of the Army and from the United States Geological Survey of the Territories. The official United States Government expedition of 1871 officially put it on the map, with official scientific notes and photographs. Thus the sixth discovery of this wondrous region, after two generations of unbelief, convinced the people that it existed!

During these two generations the unexplored wilderness of the Louisiana Purchase had been formed into seven new States of the Union, containing more than five million people. And "Colter's Hell," when its existence had been finally and officially established, was within two hundred and fifty miles of a transcontinental railroad.