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diff --git a/old/50381-0.txt b/old/50381-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index e390896..0000000 --- a/old/50381-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2904 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Colter's Hell and Jackson's Hole, by Merrill J. Mattes - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Colter's Hell and Jackson's Hole - The Fur Trappers' Exploration of the Yellowstone and Grand - Teton Park Region - -Author: Merrill J. Mattes - -Release Date: November 4, 2015 [EBook #50381] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK COLTER'S HELL AND JACKSON'S HOLE *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, Dave Morgan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - COLTER’S HELL - AND - JACKSON’S HOLE - - - By Merrill J. Mattes - - - Published by - YELLOWSTONE LIBRARY AND MUSEUM ASSOCIATION - and the - GRAND TETON NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION - in cooperation with - NATIONAL PARK SERVICE - U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR - -[Illustration: Yellowstone Library and Museum Association; National Park - Service] - - © 1962 Yellowstone Library and Museum Association - Reprint 1970 - - -The Yellowstone Library and Museum Association and the Grand Teton -Natural History Association are non-profit distributing organizations -whose purpose is the stimulation of interest in the educational and -inspirational aspects of Yellowstone and Grand Teton history and natural -history. The Associations cooperate with and are recognized by the -United States Department of the Interior and its Bureau, the National -Park Service, as essential operating organizations. - -As one means of accomplishing their aims the Associations publish -reasonably priced booklets which are available for purchase by mail -throughout the year or at the museum information desks in the parks -during the summer. - -Photographs used were provided through the courtesy of the National Park -Service, except where otherwise credited. - - - - - COLTER’S HELL AND JACKSON’S HOLE: - The Fur Trappers’ Exploration of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton Park - Region - - - By - Merrill J. Mattes - - - - - TABLE OF CONTENTS - - - Page - I. Strange Land of “Volcanoes” and “Shining Mountains” 1 - II. The Mystery of “La Roche Jaune” or Yellow Rock River 9 - III. John Colter, The Phantom Explorer—1807-1808 13 - IV. “Colter’s Hell”: A Case of Mistaken Identity 19 - V. “Les Trois Tetons”: The Golden Age of Discovery, 1810-1824 25 - VI. “Jackson’s Hole”: Era of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, - 1825-1832 35 - VII. “The Fire Hole”: Era of the American Fur Company, 1833-1840 53 - VIII. Epilogue: 1841-1870 77 - Selected Bibliography 86 - Vicinity Map at rear - - [Illustration: BEAVER TRAP] - - - - - I. Strange Land of “Volcanoes” and “Shining Mountains” - - -The Yellowstone-Grand Teton region was not officially discovered and its -scenic marvels were not publicly proclaimed until the 1870’s, beginning -with the Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition. For thirty years before, -from 1841 to 1869, this region was a Paradise Lost, rarely visited by -white men. But for thirty years before that, or from 1807 to 1840, this -region had hundreds of appreciative visitors. These were the Rocky -Mountain fur trappers. While searching for the golden-brown fur of the -beaver, destined for the St. Louis market, these adventurers thoroughly -explored this fabulous region. Although news of their discoveries -received scant public notice back in the settlements, or was discounted -as tall tales, to them belongs the honor of being the first actual -explorers of these twin parks. - -Neighboring Yellowstone and Grand Teton, established as National Parks -in 1872 and 1929, respectively, are separately managed today as units of -our National Park System. But geographically, now as well as in the -early nineteenth century, they embrace one unique region, characterized -by topographic and geologic features that are the crescendo of a great -scenic symphony. Here, at the heart of the continent, the source of the -three major river systems of the continent—the Columbia, the Colorado, -and the Missouri-Mississippi—may be found the greatest geyser basins, -the largest mountain lake, the most colorful of kaleidoscopic canyons, -one of the richest arrays of wildlife, and one of the most spectacularly -beautiful mountain ranges in the world. The Yellowstone-Grand Teton -region has historical unity, also, particularly during the obscure but -heroic age of the Rocky Mountain fur trade. - -“Colter’s Hell”—bearing the name of the legendary discoverer, and -conjuring up visions of a primitive “Dante’s Inferno”—is the term which -visitors today associate with the early history of Yellowstone National -Park and its universally famous hydrothermal wonders. Actually, the -wandering, bearded, buck-skinned beaver trappers never referred to the -geyser region of the upper Madison as Colter’s Hell. As we will see, the -real Colter’s Hell in Jim Bridger’s day was another place altogether, -having nothing to do with anything within Yellowstone Park itself. In -trapper times the Yellowstone geyser area had no fixed name but was -variously described by them as a region of “great volcanoes,” “boiling -springs” or “spouting fountains.” On the recently discovered Hood and -Ferris maps (see below) it is labeled “the Burnt Hole” (although this -name seems to have been restricted by Russell and others to the Hebgen -Lake Valley). Captain Bonneville tells us that his men knew of this -region as “the Firehole” and this name, as applied to the river draining -the geyser basins, survives today. - -Yellowstone Park, carved out of territorial Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, -is a rough-edged rectangle of 3,500 square miles that straddles the -twisting course of the Continental Divide. It is a geological circus, a -unique creation of ancient volcanoes and glaciers, flanked on the -southeast and east by the Absaroka Range, on the north by the Snowy -Range, on the northwest by the Gallatin and Madison ranges, on the west -by the Centennial Range, and on the south by the Teton Mountains. - -From the Park flow the headwaters of two continental rivers and their -major tributaries. From here the Snake River arcs southward toward -Jackson’s Hole and the cathedral-like Tetons, destined to join the -Columbia River and the Pacific Ocean. Here the Firehole and Gibbon -rivers, draining the principal geyser basins, unite to become the -Madison River, and here also arises the Gallatin, these being two of the -Three Forks of the Missouri. Here arises a branch of the North Fork of -the Shoshone River, a tributary of the Bighorn. And here, after its -birth near Two Ocean Pass, begins the mighty Yellowstone River which, -after passing through its vast mirror-like lake and its prismatic -canyon, flows out onto the plains to receive the Bighorn and join the -Missouri on its marathon journey to the Mississippi River and the Gulf -of Mexico. - - [Illustration: Indians at Jackson Lake.] - -This region held a fortune in coveted beaver skins, but it was remote, -snowbound, haunted by the vindictive Blackfeet, and plagued by weird -visions, sulphurous fumes, and uncanny noises. Here indeed was fertile -soil for a legend. - -On a clear day Yellowstone Park visitors can see to the south the -mountain spires which identify Grand Teton National Park of Wyoming, an -indefinable shape of 500 square miles. (The actual boundaries of these -neighboring parks are separated by a scant five miles.) The Tetons are -perhaps the most distinctive of the granite giants which comprise the -Rocky Mountains. A series of sharp pyramids of naked rock, the peaks -stand like sharks’ teeth against the sky. The most precipitous sides and -the most needle-like summit belong to the highest of these, the Grand -Teton, which rises over 7,000 feet from its immediate base, nearly -14,000 feet above the level of the distant sea. - -The Teton Mountains are the most conspicuous landmarks of a region which -contains the scrambled sources of the three greatest river systems of -continental United States. As we have seen, Yellowstone Park to the -north gives birth to the eastward-flowing Missouri and the westward -flowing Columbia waters. East of the Tetons, in the Wind River -Mountains, is the head of Green River which rolls southward to merge -into the mighty Colorado River, tumbling through the arid lands to the -Gulf of California. - -Jackson’s Hole is that part of the Upper Snake River Valley which lies -at the eastern base of the Teton Range. One of the largest enclosed -valleys in the Rocky Mountains, its glaciated floor extends about sixty -miles north and south, and varies up to twelve miles in width. It is -bounded on the west by the Tetons, on the east and south by the less -pretentious Mount Leidy Highlands and the Gros Ventre and Hoback -Mountains. The Gros Ventres merge imperceptibly into the Wind River -Mountains farther east, the crest of which forms the Continental Divide. -The southern extremity of the Tetons merges with the eastern end of the -Snake River Range near the canyon where the Snake River escapes from the -valley. - -Historic Jackson’s Hole, also known as “Jackson’s Big Hole”—but now -politely refined to just plain Jackson Hole—was named in 1829 for David -Jackson, one of the partners of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. To the -early trapper a “hole” was a sizeable valley abounding in game, and -usually (with the exception of Yellowstone’s “Firehole”) associated with -some distinctive personality—hence Brown’s Hole, Pierre’s Hole, -Gardner’s Hole, etc. However, Jackson’s Hole was more than just a -pleasant spot for trapping and camping. Research gives substance to the -view that this was the historic crossroads of the Rocky Mountain fur -trade. - -Jackson’s Hole was destined by geography to become a traffic center of -the Western fur trade. Between South Pass at the head of the Little -Sandy and the northern passes above the Three Forks of the Missouri it -offered the most feasible route across the Rocky Mountain barrier. In -addition, it was the focal point of a region that was highly prized and -vigorously contested because of its populous beaver streams. Here -trappers’ trails converged like the spokes of a great wheel and, after -Lewis and Clark, most of the important trapper-explorers crossed -Jackson’s Hole on their journeys. - - [Illustration: Indian “Buffalo Jump”—Yellowstone Valley.] - -In historic times there were seven gateways to and from Jackson’s Hole: -northward up Snake River; northeastward up Pacific Creek to Two Ocean -Pass; eastward up Buffalo Fork to Twogwotee Pass; eastward up the Gros -Ventre to Union Pass; southward up the Hoback to Green River; westward -via Teton Pass or Conant Pass (at the south and north extremities of the -Teton Range) to Pierre’s Hole. - - [Illustration: “Dawn of Discovery”—Exhibit in Fur Trade Museum, Grand - Teton National Park.] - -The Tetons received their name from French-Canadian trappers who -accompanied the earliest British expeditions into this territory. As -they approached the range from the west, they beheld three towering -mountains upon which they bestowed the name of “Trois Tetons” (“Three -Breasts”). This romantic designation was readily adopted by the lonely -trapping fraternity to whom the sharp snowy peaks (now known as the -Grand, Middle and South Tetons) became a beacon to guide them through -the hostile wilderness. To the Indians the Tetons were variously known -as “The Three Brothers,” “The Hoaryheaded Fathers,” and “Tee Win-at,” -meaning “The Pinnacles.” The earliest Americans in the region, being -more practical than romantic, could find no better name for the silvery -spires than “The Pilot Knobs,” while an official Hudson’s Bay Company -map indicates with equal homeliness, “The Three Paps.” The name “Three -Tetons” survived, however, and was officially recognized by -cartographers. The name first appeared publicly in the Bonneville Map of -1837. - -The Upper Snake River (i.e., above the mouth of Henry’s Fork) was called -“Mad River” by the Astorians. Others simply referred to it as the -“Columbia River” or “the headwaters of the Columbia,” but to most of the -fur trappers it was “Lewis River” or “Lewis Fork,” so originally named -in the Clark Map of 1810 for Capt. Meriwether Lewis, as Clark’s Fork of -the Columbia was named after his fellow explorer, Capt. William Clark. -This name was much more appropriate than its present one, which is -derived from the Snake or Shoshone Indians, and first appears on the -Greenhow Map of 1840. - -In spite of past efforts by water power advocates to “improve” it by a -dam, Yellowstone Lake remains just as it was when first discovered by -John Colter, the original “Lake Eustis” of the Clark Map of 1810. -Jackson Lake, however, was enlarged by a dam built in 1916 by the Bureau -of Reclamation. This lake is identifiable with the “Lake Biddle” of the -Clark Map of 1810, the “Teton Lake” of Warren A. Ferris, and the “Lewis -Lake” referred to frequently by another trapper, Joseph L. Meek. There -is today a tributary of the Upper Snake known as Lewis River, heading in -a Lewis Lake within the confines of Yellowstone National Park, neither -of which are to be confused with the historic “Lewis River” and “Lewis -Lake.” - - [Illustration: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.] - - [Illustration: POWDER HORN] - - - - - II. The Mystery of “La Roche Jaune” or Yellow Rock River - - -For some twenty years before the advent of Lewis and Clark, -French-Canadian voyageurs of the North West Company were in league with -the Mandans, and from these Indians learned of the distant “Pierre -Jaune” or “Roche Jaune” River, a translation from the Indian equivalent -of “Yellow Rock River.” Chittenden theorizes that the ultimate origin of -the name descends from the brilliant and infinite varieties of yellow -which dominate the color scheme of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, -and which probably awed the first aboriginal explorer just as it does -today’s auto-borne tourist. - -Although there is room for debate as to whether any of the Canadian -traders beat Lewis and Clark to the mouth of the Yellowstone, it is -certain that one of their number preceded the Americans in the approach -to its headwaters. On September 10, 1805, Francois Antoine Larocque -reached “Riviere aux Roches Jaunes” just below the mouth of Pryor’s -Fork, near present Billings, Montana, in the course of “a voyage of -discovery to the Rocky Mountains.” After wintering at the Mandan -villages in 1804-1805 as a neighbor of the hibernating Lewis and Clark, -and being thwarted in his desire to accompany them upstream, Larocque -had returned to his post on the Assiniboine for supplies, then hurried -back to the Mandans, going from there overland via Knife River, the -Little Missouri, and the Tongue to the Bighorn Mountains, country of the -Crows. - -While wintering with the Mandans, Captain Clark sketched two maps of the -unexplored country westward, based on “the information of traders, -indians and my own observation and ideas.” One of these shows -“Rochejhone River” with six tributaries from the south, five with Indian -names, two translated as “Tongue River” and “Big Horn R.” The Bighorns -and Rocky Mountains beyond are represented only by diagrammatic strokes. -There is a trail from the mouth of Knife River to the Bighorns, roughly -the same subsequently taken by Larocque. This was actually a refinement -of a sketch made for Clark by the Mandan Chief Big White. The second map -shows “River yellow rock” minus tributaries but with the Crows (“gens de -Corbeau”) located just west of an imaginative “montagne de -roche—conjecturall.” These maps, the first to our knowledge to depict -the Yellowstone River, were sent to President Jefferson on April 7, -1805, by Meriwether Lewis, to accompany his eagerly awaited progress -report. - -Upon their return trip in 1806, after wintering at Fort Clatsop at the -mouth of the Columbia, Lewis and Clark divided in order to explore the -country more thoroughly, the latter undertaking to determine the source -of the mysterious Yellowstone. On July 15, with eleven white men, the -Indian woman Sacajawea and her baby, the cavalcade crossed Bozeman Pass, -which marks the divide between the Yellowstone and Gallatin Fork, and -reached the vicinity of present Livingston, Montana. Never suspecting -what wonders lay concealed behind the snowy mountain wall to the south, -Clark hurried on down the river to rejoin Lewis, with glory enough for -one expedition. - -There is only one hint of volcanic phenomena which Clark seems to have -obtained from any source other than the presumed conversation with -Colter, mentioned below. This was an Indian tale, received after Clark’s -return, but before Colter’s return, to the effect that at the head of -Tongue River, a branch of the Yellowstone, “there is frequently heard a -loud noise like Thunder, which makes the earth Tremble, they state that -they seldom go there because their children Cannot sleep—and Conceive it -possessed of spirits, who were averse that men Should be near them.” -Speculates Vinton, “it can hardly be doubted that the Indians referred -to the geyser basin in the Park,” rather than to the Tongue River -neighborhood. - -It is commonly supposed that, prior to Colter, no white man had -knowledge of strange phenomena on the Upper Yellowstone, this -supposition being one of the pillars of the “first-discovery” theory. It -is fairly evident that Clark knew nothing of geysers when he was within -seventy-five miles of them in 1806 but, ironically enough, at this time -some intimation of them had certainly reached others, including Clark’s -sponsor, Thomas Jefferson. On October 22, 1805, James Wilkinson, -governor of Louisiana Territory, with headquarters in St. Louis, sent to -the President, in care of Captain Amos Stoddard, - - a Savage delineation on a Buffalo Pelt, of the Missouri & its South - Western branches, including the Rivers plate & Lycorne or Pierre - jaune; This Rude Sketch without Scale or Compass ‘et remplie de - Fantaisies ridicules’ is not destitute of Interests, as it exposes the - location of several important Objects, & may point the way to useful - enquiry—among other things a little incredible, a volcano is - distinctly described on Yellow Stone River. - -Wilkinson apparently obtained this primitive map from unidentified -traders. It could not have been a copy of Clark’s map sent from Fort -Mandan the April previous, for it obviously contained new data. In an -advice to Henry Dearborn, Secretary of War, dated September 18, 1805, -Wilkinson revealed that his interest in Yellowstone curiosities was -sufficiently aroused to dispatch an expedition of his own upriver! - - I have equipt a Perogue out of my Small private means, not with any - view to Self interest, to ascend the missouri and enter the River - Piere jaune, or yellow Stone, called by the natives, Unicorn River, - the same by which Capt. Lewis I find since expects to return and which - my informants tell me is filled with wonders. This Party will not get - back before the Summer 1807—they are natives of this town.... - -Who were Wilkinson’s explorers, and what became of them? Who were the -“informants”? Was their information firsthand or derived from Indians -who, unlike the Mandans, were acquainted with details of the Upper -Yellowstone? These questions may be unanswerable, but they arise to -shadow the giant figure of John Colter. - - [Illustration: Fur Trade Museum, Moose Visitor Center—Grand Teton - National Park Headquarters.] - - [Illustration: HAWKEN RIFLE] - - - - - III. John Colter, the Phantom Explorer—1807-1808 - - -The epic journey of discovery known as “The Lewis and Clark Expedition” -was organized in the autumn of 1803 at Maysville, Kentucky. Here, on -October 15, John Colter enlisted as a private with the stipulated pay of -$5 a month, apparently answering the requirement for “good hunters, -stout, healthy, unmarried men, accustomed to the woods and capable of -bearing bodily fatigue in a pretty considerable degree.” - -Colter shared all the hardships and triumphs of the expedition, as well -as routine adventure in hunting, starving, Indian diplomacy, and getting -chased by grizzly bears. In August 1806 the returning party reached the -Mandan villages. Here Colter was granted permission by the explorers to -take his leave and join two trappers from Illinois, Forrest Hancock and -Joseph Dickson, bound for Yellowstone River. - -The extent of the wanderings of this trio is not known. In the spring of -1807 Colter alone paddled a canoe down the Missouri to the mouth of the -Platte where he found keelboats of the Missouri Fur Company of St. -Louis, led by Manuel Lisa. He was promptly recruited and went with this -expedition up the Missouri and the Yellowstone to the mouth of the -Bighorn River, where Lisa built a log fort known as Fort Raymond or -Manuel’s Fort. - -It was from this point that Colter made his famous journey of discovery -during the autumn and winter of 1807-1808. Colter left no written record -of his own. The only thing resembling written evidence is the following -by Henry Brackenridge, who heard it from Manuel Lisa: - - He [Lisa] continued his voyage to the Yellowstone River, where he - built a trading fort. He shortly after dispatched Coulter, the hunter - before mentioned, to bring some of the Indian nations to trade. This - man, with a pack of thirty pounds weight, his gun and some ammunition, - went upwards of five hundred miles to the Crow nation; gave them - information, and proceeded from them to several other tribes. On his - return, a party of Indians in whose company he happened to be was - attacked, and he was lamed by a severe wound in the leg; - notwithstanding which, he returned to the establishment, entirely - alone and without assistance, several hundred miles. - -Aside from this slim clue, his course can be determined solely on the -basis of “Colter’s Route in 1807” and other data which appear on William -Clark’s “Map of the West,” published in 1814, presumably based on a -conversation of 1810 at St. Louis, whither the trapper-explorer returned -after hair-raising adventures with the Blackfeet in the Three Forks -country. Inevitably, in view of the topographical errors and distortions -of the Clark map, Colter’s precise route is subject to wide differences -of opinion. - -A composite of theories offered by Hiram M. Chittenden, Stallo Vinton, -Charles Lindsay, and Burton Harris, to mention only four qualified -scholars who have undertaken to hypothecate Colter’s route, is that -Colter ascended the Bighorn, followed up the Shoshone River to near -present Cody, went south along the foot of the Absaroka Mountains, up -Wind River to Union Pass, into Jackson’s Hole, thence probably across -Teton Pass into Pierre’s Hole, thence north via Conant Pass to the west -shore of Yellowstone Lake and northeast to the crossing of the -Yellowstone near Tower Falls, thence up the Lamar River and Soda Butte -Creek, back across the Absarokas, thence south to the Shoshone River, -and back to Lisa’s Fort by way of Clark’s Fork and Pryor’s Fork. - -The key to Colter’s route is the identification of Lakes Jackson and -Yellowstone, respectively, as Clark’s Lake Biddle (named for the patron -of his publication) and Lake Eustis (named for the Secretary of War), no -longer questioned by historians. The “Hot Spring Brimstone” at the -sulphur beds crossing of the Yellowstone River near Tower Falls and the -“Boiling Spring” near the forks of the Stinkingwater or Shoshone (see -Chapter IV) are other checkpoints which now seem quite firm. In -addition, there are two interesting claims of physical evidence. While -these are both necessarily debatable and subject to challenge as hoaxes, -they deserve consideration. According to Philip A. Rollins, quoted by -Vinton: - - In September of 1889, Tazewell Woody (Theodore Roosevelt’s hunting - guide), John H. Dewing (also a hunting guide) and I, found on the left - side of Coulter Creek, some fifty feet from the water and about three - quarters of a mile above the creek’s mouth, a large pine tree on which - was a deeply indented blaze, which after being cleared of sap and - loose bark was found to consist of a cross thus ‘X’ (some five inches - in height), and, under it, the initials ‘J C’ (each some four inches - in height). - - The blaze appeared to these trained hunting guides, so they stated to - me, to be approximately eighty years old. - - They refused to fell the tree and so obtain the exact age of the blaze - because they said they guessed the blaze had been made by Colter - himself. - - The find was reported to the Government authorities, and the tree was - cut down by them in 1889 or 1890, in order that the blazed section - might be installed in a museum, but as I was told in the autumn of - 1890 by the then superintendent of the Yellowstone Park, the blazed - section had been lost in transit. - -The second reputed Colter relic, which has survived, is the so-called -“Colter Stone” which is now exhibited by the National Park Service in -its new Fur Trade Museum at the Moose Visitor Center, Grand Teton -National Park. This is a piece of rhyolite hand-carved roughly in the -shape of a human head, with the inscribed lettering “John Colter 1808.” -This specimen was dug up in 1931 by William Beard and son while clearing -timber on their farm about five miles east of Tetonia, Idaho, just -within the Wyoming state line. In 1933 Aubrey Lyon, a neighbor, obtained -the “stone head” in trade for a pair of riding boots, and presented it -to park officials. - -[Illustration: Colter’s Hell today (with Superintendent Lon Garrison and - wife). - Photo by Author] - -Although the natural tendency to view such finds with skepticism may be -respected here, several factors lend plausibility. Members of the Beard -family had no knowledge of John Colter. In 1931 the Colter story had not -been well researched, and the version then was largely confined to the -year 1807; yet if Colter made winter camp in the Teton Basin, and left a -record to help while away the time, this would logically occur early in -1808. The stone itself yields no conclusive evidence on the basis of -wear or patination; but some geologists agree that 125 years of -weathering and soil acidity could have elapsed between the initial -carving and time of discovery. At least the Colter Stone is a great -historical conversation piece! - -According to Thomas James, an associate of Colter’s, the fight with the -Blackfeet, mentioned by Brackenridge as occurring on Colter’s -Yellowstone journey, did not actually occur until the summer of 1808, -near the Three Forks of the Missouri. On this occasion Colter was -wounded in the furious battle between the Blackfeet and Flatheads. - -Still later in 1808 Colter and John Potts (another Lewis and Clark -veteran) were captured by Blackfeet on Jefferson River. Potts was killed -and dismembered. Colter was stripped naked and told to run for his life. -The Indians, who were to have great sport with Colter in this way, were -enraged when he managed to escape his tormentors and kill one of them. -He finally made his way back to Manuel’s Fort, greatly emaciated. - -After this fabulous feat of endurance, Colter remained in the wilderness -until 1810, when he guided Colonel Menard to Three Forks, where a new -fort was built, which was subject to constant Blackfeet harassment. -Vowing never to return to the mountains, Colter returned downriver to -St. Louis, arriving in May 1810 after six years of perils which well -entitle him to claim as “The American Ulysses.” - -Colter settled at the village of Charette, a few miles above the mouth -of the Missouri River, and married a girl named Sally. According to -Washington Irving, in 1811 Wilson Price Hunt of the Astorian expedition -attempted to persuade Colter to join him but this Colter declined to do -after “balancing the charms of his bride against those of the Rocky -Mountains.” In 1813 he died, ingloriously, of “jaundice.” Thus passed -the phantom discoverer of the Teton-Yellowstone region, to whom James -pays this tribute: - - [Colter was] five feet ten inches in height and wore an open, - ingenious, and pleasing countenance of the Daniel Boone stamp. Nature - had formed him, like Boone, for hardy indurance of fatigue, privation - and perils.... His veracity was never questioned among us and his - character was that of a true American backwoodsman. - - [Illustration: Upper Geyser Basin from the cone of Old Faithful. - W. H. Jackson photo. 1871] - - [Illustration: WHISKEY KEGS] - - - - - IV. “Colter’s Hell”: A Case of Mistaken Identity - - -One of the most venerable old axioms of fur trade history is that of -Colter’s Hell, which may be formulated thus: “After John Colter -discovered what is now Yellowstone National Park, he told others of the -scenic wonders there. No one believed him, and his listeners derisively -dubbed the imaginary place Colter’s Hell.” No item of Yellowstone -history is more widely believed, more universally beloved, and more -transparently incorrect. - -There was a Colter’s Hell in the fur trappers lexicon, which referred -specifically to an ancient thermal area bordering the Shoshone River -just west of present Cody, Wyoming. The term was never applied -historically to the thermal zone within Yellowstone Park itself. It was -Hiram M. Chittenden, the esteemed engineer and historian who first -suggested this usage in 1895 with the original edition of his book, -Yellowstone National Park. - -The earliest published reference to “Colter’s Hell” is in Washington -Irving’s version of Capt. Benjamin L. E. Bonneville’s journal narrating -events from 1832 to 1835. However, note here that this “volcanic tract” -with its “gloomy terrors, its hidden fires, smoking pits, noxious -streams and the all-pervading ‘smell of brimstone’” was located, -according to Irving, not on the headwaters of the Yellowstone but on the -Shoshone or “the Stinking River” or “the Stinkingwater,” originally -named on the Clark Map. It was Chittenden in 1895 and not Irving in 1837 -who started the legend by asserting vaguely that “the region of ... -[Colter’s] adventures was long derisively known as ‘Colter’s Hell,’” -implying that by “region” he meant Yellowstone Park, the subject of his -book. He does not accuse Bonneville or Irving of error, perforce -conceding that “this name early came to be restricted to the locality -where Colter discovered the tar spring on the Stinkingwater,” but he -hopefully guesses that “Colter’s description, so well summed up by -Irving ... undoubtedly referred in large part to what he saw in the -Yellowstone and Snake River Valleys.” This is where the misconception -got started. - -It is significant that no historian prior to Chittenden entertained this -misconception. For example, in 1890 Hubert H. Bancroft wrote: “Far east -of ... [the volcanic basins on the Upper Madison], on the Stinkingwater -Fork ... is Colter’s Hell, where similar phenomenon is exhibited on a -lesser scale.” It is further significant that in his monumental American -Fur Trade of the Far West, the first edition of which appeared in 1902, -seven years after the first edition of Yellowstone, Chittenden wrote -that Colter was “the first to pass through the singular region which has -since become known throughout the world as the Yellowstone Wonderland. -He also saw the immense tar spring at the forks of Stinkingwater River, -a spot which came to bear the name of Colter’s Hell.” This is his only -reference here to the term, which is a clear if tacit admission that he -was in error in the first instance to create the impression that it ever -applied contemporaneously to Yellowstone Park. But the impression once -created would not down. Like Aladdin’s wonderful lamp, the jinni was out -of the bottle, and the poetic version of “Colter’s Hell” has become a -stock item in Western literature. - -Defenders of the Colter’s Hell mythology are eager to challenge -Washington Irving as an authority. True, Irving’s Captain Bonneville by -his own admission never personally saw the Yellowstone Park area. Also, -it is true that geysers are not to be seen today along the Shoshone -River. Hence it might be reasoned that the only noteworthy thermal -activity in 1807 was likewise confined to the Yellowstone (more -particularly, to the upper Madison), and that Bonneville was merely -reporting a twisted rumor. But a cold examination of the facts shows -that Irving and Bonneville were correct. - - [Illustration: Colter Monument. - Photo by Author] - -First, there is no good reason to question Bonneville’s geographical -knowledge. While he never saw it himself, Bonneville had quite a crew -circulating through the future park as early as 1833 and, in fact, there -is reason to believe that the great geyser basin of Firehole River, -climaxed by Old Faithful, was discovered that year by one of his own -lieutenants (see Chapter VII). - -Secondly, although there are no phenomena readily apparent to passing -motorists at the bona fide and unmarked Colter’s Hell site just west of -Cody, the evidence of thermal activity, not entirely extinct now, is -abundantly evident to anyone who cares to pause enroute to or from -Yellowstone’s East Gate. On the Canyon rim downstream from the rocky -defile enclosing the Buffalo Bill Dam, there are extinct geyser cones up -to thirty feet in height and an extensive crust of fragile sinter. In -the canyon floor itself there are bubbling fountains in the river bed, -and the same pervasive smell of rotten eggs, (or more scientifically, -sulphur dioxide) which assails one’s nostrils on the Upper Firehole. -(Other related hot springs once existed at the forks of the Shoshone, -now drowned beneath the reservoir). - - [Illustration: Colter Stone Find Site (Wyoming). - Photo by Author] - -How very strange that this spot, quite evidently the “Boiling Spring” of -Colter’s famous route on the William Clark Map of 1810, has been largely -ignored since 1895. Campfire writers and lecturers have been so -enchanted by the Yellowstone “Wonderland,” they never gave thought to -this historical-geological feature 50 miles outside of the Park -boundary. - -Thirdly, Bonneville wasn’t the only one who knew about the phenomena on -the Stinkingwater. The true identity of Colter’s Hell was well -understood by other mountain men. In 1829 Joe Meek knew all about steam -vents “on the Yellowstone Plains,” but he also was familiar with a -volcanic tract on “Stinking Fork,” previously “seen by one of Lewis and -Clarke’s men, named Colter, while on a solitary hunt, and by him also -denominated ‘hell.’” In 1852 the famed missionary-explorer, Father De -Smet, cited “Captain Bridger” as the source of his information that, -“Near the source of the River Puante, which empties into the Big Horn -... is a place called Colter’s Hell—from a beaver-hunter of that name. -This locality is often agitated with subterranean fires....” - -Stallo Vinton, early Colter biographer and editor of the 1935 edition of -Chittenden’s American Fur Trade, paid no attention to Chittenden’s -footnoted correction of 1902. Rather, he did more than anyone, perhaps, -to exterminate the true Colter’s Hell and pin the name on the National -Park. He accuses Irving of a substantial error in locating “Hell” on the -Stinking River. Similarly, he ignores Joe Meek’s careful distinction -between the Yellowstone and Shoshone volcanic tracts. - -In 1863 Walter Washington DeLacy accompanied a party of Montana -gold-seekers through the Yellowstone Park area. Although his companions -were too absorbed in the search for the precious metal to pay any -attention to the scenic wonders, DeLacy, a surveyor by trade, did pay -attention and subsequently published a crude but illuminating map of the -Park region. Here the principal geyser basin on Firehole River is called -“Hot Springs Valley.” And far to the east, near the forks of the -Shoshone is a “Hot Spring, Colter’s Hill.” [sic] In 1867 the official -map of the Interior Department, by Keeler, apparently reproducing -DeLacy’s data, also indicates a “Hot Spring, Coulter’s Hill.” [sic] So -the Federal Government, at this early date, gave this official -recognition to the clear distinction between the two thermal areas. - -Vinton refers to the DeLacy and Keeler maps but he dismisses this -further evidence as a mistake. Perhaps his stubborn version of Colter’s -Hell would have collapsed if he had seen the recently discovered -Bridger-De Smet Map of 1851, in the Office of Indian Affairs. Here -Bridger also clearly distinguishes between “Sulphur Spring or Colter’s -Hell Volcano” on Stinking Fork and an entirely different “Great Volcanic -Region in state of eruption” drained by Firehole River. (See Chapter -VIII.) Can we invoke any higher authority than Jim Bridger? - - [Illustration: Jim Bridger.] - - [Illustration: GREEN RIVER KNIFE] - - - - - V. “Les Trois Tetons”: The Golden Age of Discovery, 1810-1824 - - -In the spring of 1810, after Colter had departed, the Missouri Fur -Company fort at Three Forks was so besieged by the Blackfeet that Andrew -Henry was forced to flee with his trappers southwestward. They crossed -the Continental Divide to the north fork of Snake River, since known as -Henry’s Fork. A few log shelters built here near present St. Anthony, -Idaho, called “Henry’s Fort,” became the first American establishment on -the Pacific slope. During the rigorous winter of 1810-1811 it may be -reasoned that these men explored the country within a wide radius of the -Teton Mountains. Any belief that they touched Yellowstone Park must be -conjectural, but that they were acquainted with Jackson’s Hole is quite -evident from the testimony of the Astorians. In the spring of 1811 the -starving company disbanded. Henry and others returned down the Missouri -via Three Forks, while John Hoback, John Robinson and Jacob Reznor went -eastward via Teton Pass, Jackson’s Hole, Twogwotee Pass, and overland to -the Arikara villages on the Missouri, where they shaped a dugout and -proceeded downstream. - -In 1808 John Jacob Astor secured a charter from the state of New York -creating the American Fur Company. The most ambitious of his schemes was -the establishment of a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia River, -to exploit the wealth of the Northwestern wilderness. To promote this -enterprise, Astor organized the subsidiary Pacific Fur Company and sent -out two expeditions, one of which went by sea around Cape Horn, while -the other was to proceed overland along the route of Lewis and Clark. -The overland Astorians achieved fame as the first transcontinental -expedition after Lewis and Clark, but fate decreed that they should -blaze their own trail—through Jackson’s Hole. - -Early in 1811 the overland party, under the command of Wilson Price Hunt -of New Jersey, left St. Louis and sailed by keelboat up the Missouri -River. On May 26, near the mouth of the Niobrara River, they met Hoback, -Robinson, and Reznor. This trio was persuaded to join the outfit as -guides and hunters, and it appears that it was their reports of hostile -Indians on the Upper Missouri that prompted Hunt to abandon his boats on -July 18 at the Arikara villages and proceed on dry land. From this point -on the expedition consisted of 82 horses, 62 men, and the squaw and two -children belonging to the interpreter Pierre Dorion. - - [Illustration: Fort Astoria.] - -The hopeful caravan retraced the route that Hoback and his companions -had followed across the trackless plains and the Bighorn Mountains, then -started up Wind River. Here, on September 14, according to Irving’s -Astoria, the guides - - assured Mr. Hunt that, by following up Wind River, and crossing a - single mountain ridge, he would come upon the head waters of the - Columbia. The scarcity of game, however, which already had been felt - to a pinching degree, and which threatened them with famine among the - sterile heights which lay before them, admonished them to change their - course. It was determined, therefore, to make for a stream [Green - River] which, they were informed, passed the neighboring mountains to - the south and west, on the grassy banks of which it was probable they - would meet with buffalo. Accordingly about three o’clock on the - following day, meeting with a beaten Indian road which led in the - proper direction, they struck into it, turning their backs upon Wind - River. - - In the course of the day they came to a height that commanded an - almost boundless prospect. Here one of the guides paused, and, after - considering the vast landscape attentively, pointed to three mountain - peaks glistening with snow [the Tetons], which rose, he said, above a - fork of Columbia River. They were hailed by the travellers with that - joy with which a beacon on a sea-shore is hailed by mariners after a - long and dangerous voyage.... - -After a buffalo hunt on the “Spanish” or Green River, the Astorians -crossed the dividing ridge to the head of the Hoback River (presumably -then named in honor of their guide), which they followed into Jackson’s -Hole. - -The Hunt cavalcade paused at the confluence of the Hoback and the Snake -rivers, and debated. “Should they abandon their horses, cast themselves -loose in fragile barks upon this wild, doubtful, and unknown river; or -should they continue their more toilsome and tedious, but perhaps more -certain wayfaring by land?” After some tentative exploring of the Snake -River Canyon, and upon the advice of the three hunters, they wisely -decided in favor of the latter course. They forded the Snake, and on -October 5 as they crossed “the mountain [Teton Pass] ... by an easy and -well-beaten trail, snow whitened the summit....” On the 8th they arrived -at Andrew Henry’s abandoned post. Here Hoback, Robinson, Reznor, and two -others left the party on a separate exploring trip; and here it was that -Hunt yielded to the demands of his followers, which he previously had -resisted, and abandoned his horses in favor of passage by canoe flotilla -down the Snake, a tragic mistake which brought great suffering to the -Astorians before they reached their goal. - -While the main body passed on, four men remained in Jackson’s Hole to -“catch beaver.” This was the first known actual trapping of that area. -Even more important, it was the first actual step in the great -commercial project of Astoria. Irving recognized the significance of -this move: - - [The expedition] had now arrived at the head waters of the Columbia, - which were among the main points embraced by the enterprise of Mr. - Astor. These upper streams were reputed to abound in beaver, and had - as yet been unmolested by the white trapper. The numerous signs of - beaver met with during the recent search for timber gave evidence that - the neighborhood was a good ‘trapping ground.’ Here then it was proper - to begin to cast loose those leashes of hardy trappers, that are - detached from trading parties, in the very heart of the wilderness. - The men detached in the present instance were Alexander Carson, Louis - St. Michel, Pierre Detaye, and Pierre Delaunay. - - [Illustration: Snake River crossing. - Photo by Author] - -These men were instructed to “trap upon the upper part of Mad (Snake) -River, and upon the neighboring streams.” Whether they entered -Yellowstone Park at this time is entirely conjectural. In the spring of -1812 they were attacked by Crow Indians near the Three Forks, and Detaye -was killed. - -On June 29, 1812, seven men led by Robert Stuart left Astoria carrying -dispatches overland to Astor. The party arrived at St. Louis on April -30, 1813. They were the first organized transcontinental expedition -eastbound after the return of Lewis and Clark, and the first to discover -South Pass and the great Platte or Central route which was destined to -become the main highway of the covered-wagon migrations. This journey -again took them through Jackson’s Hole. - -Stuart had gone out to Astoria by sea, but his fellow travelers had all -been members of the Hunt expedition. These were John Day, Benjamin -Jones, Francois Leclerc, Andre Valle, Ramsay Crooks, and Robert -McClellan. Soon after setting out up the Columbia River John Day became -violently deranged because of his sufferings from the previous winter -and had to be sent back to Astoria. To the six remaining travelers, -however, was eventually added Joseph Miller, who had been with Hoback, -Robinson, and Reznor after they left Hunt in October 1811. The Stuart -party reached Bear River intending to go due east; but there Crow -Indians got on their trail. To elude them Stuart went north to the Snake -and thus struck Hunt’s route of the preceding year. At Snake or “Mad -River” near the present Idaho-Wyoming boundary, Crows stampeded their -horses. They built a raft and descended the Snake for over a hundred -miles, then crossed over the Snake River Range to Pierre’s Hole at the -foot of the “Pilot Knobs,” where they reached familiar territory. - -Here, in order to avoid a chance encounter with a Blackfoot war party, -Stuart kept to the foothills, but the cantankerous McClellan, -complaining of sore feet, refused to detour and went his own way. He was -not to be seen again for thirteen days. Crooks, who had been ailing for -some time, fell desperately ill, and despite recourse to castor oil and -“an Indian sweat,” tied up the expedition in Pierre’s Hole for four -days. On October 5 they set out again and on the 7th crossed “the summit -of Pilot Knob Mountain [Teton Pass]” and reached the east bank of “Mad -River.” Their stock of venison was by this time depleted. On the 9th -they started up the precipitous Hoback Canyon and on the 12th reached -Green River drainage, where they found McClellan. Warding off starvation -by slaughtering an “old rundown buffalo bull,” the travelers journeyed -from here to South Pass and down the Platte, wintering in the vicinity -of Scotts Bluff. - -For a few years after Stuart’s party disappeared up Hoback Canyon, the -Tetons and Jackson’s Hole were left in solitude. Due to the hostility of -the Blackfeet, the loss of Astoria in the War of 1812, and the -indifference of the Federal Government, American interest in the Western -Fur trade suffered a relapse. British interests now took the initiative. -In 1816 the Northwest Company, licensed by the Crown to trade in Oregon, -put Donald McKenzie in charge of the Snake River division. From Fort Nez -Perce at the mouth of the Walla Walla, he set forth in September of 1818 -at the head of an expedition “composed of fifty-five men, of all -denominations, 195 horses and 300 beaver traps, besides a considerable -stock of merchandise.” He reported his course to Alexander Ross: - - From this place [the “Skamnaugh” or Boise] we advanced, suffering - occasionally from alarms for twenty-five days, and then found - ourselves in a rich field of beaver, in the country lying between the - great south branch and the Spanish waters [Bear River?].... I left my - people at the end of four months. Then taking a circuitous route along - the foot of the Rocky Mountains, a country extremely dreary during a - winter voyage, I reached the head water of the great south branch - regretting every step I made that we had been so long deprived of the - riches of such a country.... - -In a description of the Snake River country, presumably furnished him by -McKenzie, Ross continues: - - [Illustration: “The British Threat”—Exhibit in Fur Trade Museum, Grand - Teton National Park.] - - For twelve years after the returning Astorians disappeared up the - Hoback, no Americans entered Jackson Hole. The British North West - Company, and then the Hudson’s Bay Company, with which it merged, - trapped unchallenged west of the Rockies. - - The Rocky Mountains skirting this country on the East, dwindle from - stupendous heights into sloping ridges, which divide the country into - a thousand luxurious vales, watered by streams which abound in fish. - The most remarkable heights in any part of the great backbone of - America are three elevated insular mountains, or peaks, which are seen - at the distance of one hundred and fifty miles: the hunters very aptly - designate them the Pilot Knobs they are now generally known as the - Three Paps or ‘Tetons’; and the source of the Great Snake River is in - their neighborhood.... - - Boiling fountains, having different degrees of temperatures, were very - numerous; one or two were so very hot as to boil meat. In other parts, - among the rocks, hot and cold springs might alternately be seen within - a hundred yards of each other, differing in their temperature. - -McKenzie’s exact route can only be conjectural, but the context suggests -passage through Jackson’s Hole into a corner, at least, of Yellowstone -Park. It was apparently on this occasion that the “Trois Tetons” and -“Pierre’s Hole” were given their names by Iroquois or French-Canadians -who accompanied McKenzie. - -Chittenden reports the discovery in 1880 by Colonel P. W. Norris of a -tree near the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone with the inscription “JOR -Aug 19 1819.” Although of course the initials prove nothing as to -identity, Chittenden accepts this as proof of white men in the Park at -that time. - -Stimulated by McKenzie’s success in acquiring peltries, the Northwest -Company followed up with other Snake River expeditions. The threat of -British domination of Oregon was aggravated when, in 1821, the Northwest -Company was absorbed by the powerful Hudson’s Bay Company. - -Shortly after the consolidation of the British companies, the prospects -for a revival of American interest in the mountain fur trade were -awakened in the frontier town of St. Louis by the formation of a -partnership that would evolve into the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. In -1822 General William H. Ashley and the veteran Major Andrew Henry -enlisted the aid of “one hundred young men to ascend the Missouri River -to its source” on a trapping expedition. Among those who joined the -enterprise, then or subsequently, were men destined to make history in -the West—James Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, Jedediah Smith, William -Sublette and David E. Jackson. They were green boys, hardly fit material -for an epic invasion of the uncharted Rocky Mountains; yet they were -destined to become continental explorers. - -Henry took his young men in keelboats up the Missouri to the mouth of -the Yellowstone, where they spent the winter. In the spring of 1823 he -set out for the Blackfoot country to the west. Again, as in 1810, these -Indians proved to be most inhospitable, scalping four of his recruits -and driving him back to his fort. Meanwhile General Ashley organized -another expedition and proceeded upriver without incident until he -arrived at the villages of the Arikara. There his plans were upset by a -treacherous attack in which thirteen of his men were killed and many -others were wounded. Colonel Leavenworth hastened to the rescue, but his -campaign against the Indians was something of a fiasco. Soon afterward -Ashley returned to St. Louis, Henry returned to his post on the -Yellowstone, and a third contingent started overland under the command -of Jedediah Smith. In February 1824 this last group made the first -crossing of South Pass from east to west, their discovery of rich beaver -fields in Green River Basin opening a new era in fur trade history. In -June they split into four parties. Fitzpatrick, heading east for Fort -Atkinson to report the situation to Ashley, rediscovered the Platte -route of the returning Astorians; Sublette, Bridger, and others went -southwest to explore the Bear River country and lay claim to the -discovery of Great Salt Lake; and Smith, with six unidentified -companions, went north. The details of their course are given in -Washington Hood’s Original draft of a report of a practicable route for -wheeled vehicles across the mountains, written at Independence, August -12, 1839. - - After striking the Colorado, or Green river, make up the stream toward - its headwaters, as far as Horse creek, one of its tributaries, follow - out this last mentioned stream to its source by a westerly course, - across the main ridge in order to attain Jackson’s Little Hole, at the - headwaters of Jackson’s fork [Hoback River]. Follow down Jackson’s - fork to its mouth and decline to the northward along Lewis’s fork - [Snake River], passing through Jackson’s Big Hole to about twelve - miles beyond the Yellowstone pass [sic], crossing on the route a - nameless beaver stream. Here the route passes due west over another - prong of the ridge [Conant Pass], a fraction worse than the former, - followed until it has attained the headwaters of Pierre’s Hole, - crossing the Big Teton, the battleground of the Blacksmith’s fork; - ford Pierre’s fork eastward of the butte at its mouth and Lewis fork - also, thence pass to the mouth of Lewis fork. - -Subsequently the Smith party encountered a Hudson’s Bay Company brigade -under Alexander Ross, giving first notice that Americans would actively -contest British claims to Oregon. This expedition to the Jackson’s Hole -country was also significant as the first in an amazing series which has -established Jedediah Smith as perhaps the foremost explorer of Western -America. - -We have noted the visit of McKenzie’s brigade of British-Canadians to -the Upper Snake and a region of boiling fountains, in 1818-1819, as -reported by Ross. Now, in 1824, Ross himself conducted the second -British invasion of Yellowstone Park, while crossing from Okanagon to -the headwaters of the Missouri. In the foolscap folios which make up his -official report, the entry for April 24 reads: “We crossed beyond the -Boiling Fountains. The snow is knee-deep half the people are snow-blind -from sun glare.” So British traders have supplied the first clear record -of Yellowstone thermal wonders to follow the hazy notations along -Colter’s route on The Clark Map of 1810. - - [Illustration: TRADE BEADS AND HAWK BELLS] - - - - - VI. “Jackson’s Hole”: Era of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, 1825-1832 - - -Late in 1824 General Ashley, journeying west to reap the winter’s -harvest of furs, approached the mountains by way of the little-known -South Platte route and the Colorado Rockies and explored the lower Green -River. In the summer of 1825 on Henry’s Fork of the Green (near the -Wyoming-Utah line) he inaugurated the annual rendezvous of the mountain -trappers, which provided a more flexible system of fur trading than the -“fixed fort system” which had hitherto prevailed in the Western fur -trade. The beaver catch brought in this first year was of such magnitude -that Ashley was assured of a substantial profit. With Smith and a strong -guard he took his prize by pack train to the Bighorn, by bullboats to -the mouth of the Yellowstone, and by keelboats down the Missouri River -to St. Louis. - -Jedediah Smith left Flathead House in 1825 with Peter Skene Ogden of the -Hudson’s Bay Company, but left him in time to rejoin his comrades at the -rendezvous. When the reunited Americans exchanged tales of their -adventures, it is possible that Smith offered a glowing account of the -Jackson’s Hole region. Whatever the inspiration, Bridger and Fitzpatrick -are reported to have headed there to resume trapping operations, after -seeing Smith and Ashley safely down the Bighorn. This may have been the -first large-scale trapping venture in which Jackson’s Hole was a primary -objective. - -The rendezvous of 1826 took place near Great Salt Lake. The turnover of -furs was immense and, having made his fortune, General Ashley sold his -interests to three of his most able employees, Jedediah Smith, David E. -Jackson, and William Sublette. Smith left the rendezvous to lead a band -southwest across the desert to the Spanish settlements of California, -being the first to make this perilous passage. Jackson and Sublette -headed for the Snake River country to trade with the Flatheads, taking a -large force of trappers. - -Daniel T. Potts of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, one of Sublette’s -men on this expedition, is now identified as the long-mysterious author -of the letter which first appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette and Daily -Advertiser, September 27, 1827, reprinted in Niles’ Register of October -6, which contains the earliest known description of any portion of -present Yellowstone National Park by an American. The original document -came to light in 1947 when Mrs. Kate Nixon and Miss Anne G. Rittenhouse -of Washington, D. C., collateral descendants of Potts, made themselves -known to officials of the National Park Service. It has been fittingly -acquired for posterity by the Yellowstone Library and Museum Association -at Mammoth Hot Springs. The cover is addressed to “Mr. Robert T. Potts, -High Street, Philadelphia” and stamped “St. Louis, Missouri.” Dated July -8, 1827, at the “Sweet Lake” or Bear Lake (Utah) rendezvous, it -describes how the Potts party, no members of which are identified, went -north after the Salt Lake rendezvous of 1826: - - A few dass sinci our trader arived by whom I received two letters one - from Dr. Lukens the other from yourself under date of January 1827 - which gives me great congratulation to hear that you are both happy - wilst I am unhappy also to hear from my friends shortly after writing - to you last year I took my departuri for the Black-foot Country much - against my will as I could not maki a party for any other rout. We - took a northerly direction about fifty miles where we cross Snake - River or the South fork of columbia at the forks of Henrys & Lewis’s - forks at this place we was dayly harrased by the Black-feet from - thence up Henrys or North fork which bears North of East thirty miles - and crossed a large ruged Mountain which sepparates the two forks from - thence East up the other fork to its source which heads on the top of - the great chain of Rocky Mountains which sepparates the water of the - Atlantic from that of the Pacific. At or near this place heads the - Luchkadee or Calliforn Stinking fork Yellow-stone South fork of - Massuri and Henrys fork all those head at an angular point that of the - Yellow-stone has a large fresh water lake near its head on the verry - top of the Mountain which is about one hundrid by fourty miles in - diameter and as clear as crystal on the south borders of this lake is - a number of hot and boiling springs some of water and others of most - beautiful fine clay and resembles that of a mush pot and throws its - particles to the immense height of from twenty to thirty feet in - height The clay is white and of a pink and water appear fathomless as - it appears to be entirely hollow under neath. There is also a number - of places where the pure suphor is sent forth in abundance one of our - men Visited one of those wilst taking his recreation there at an - instan the earth began a tremendious trembling and he with dificulty - made his escape when an explosion took place resembling that of - thunder. During our stay in that quarter I head it every day. - -From here, probably the West Thumb thermal area, “by a circutous rout to -the Nourth west” and after some more bloody encounters with the -Blackfeet, the trappers moved toward the Bear Lake rendezvous. In 1828 -Potts left the hostile mountains and embarked from New Orleans on a -cattle ship, which sank with all hands in the Gulf of Mexico. - - [Illustration: Daniel T. Potts at the Bear Lake rendezvous of 1827.] - -At the 1827 rendezvous at Bear Lake Jedediah Smith appeared like a ghost -out of the Great Salt desert, reporting that the Spanish Governor of -California had expelled him from that province. He arranged with his -partners, Jackson and Sublette, to meet two years hence “at the head of -Snake River.” Then, after a rest of only ten days, he summoned -volunteers and again set his face toward the Pacific Ocean. In the -winter of 1827-28, while Sublette attended to the business of getting -supplies from St. Louis, Jackson sent fur brigades north from Bear Lake -to the Snake River and its tributaries, where they came in frequent -contact with the Hudson’s Bay Company trappers under Ogden. In 1828 the -rendezvous was again Great Salt Lake, and again the trappers dispersed -to hunting grounds on the Bear, the Snake, and the Green. - - [Illustration: Keelboat up the Missouri.] - -In March 1829 William Sublette left St. Louis for the mountains with a -heavily laden pack train and 60 men, including a novice of 19 named -Joseph L. Meek, whose life story, as told to Mrs. F. F. Victor, is a -prime source of information. After the general rendezvous, which that -year was held in July on the Popo Agie River northeast of South Pass, -Captain Sublette sent a brigade under his brother, Milton Sublette, to -the Bighorn Basin, then set out with the main party, including Meek, -Bridger, and Fitzpatrick, for the upper Snake River Valley at the foot -of the Tetons, the point of reunion with his partners which had been -agreed upon two years previously. The episode which followed, one of the -treasured traditions of the Western fur trade, is described in Mrs. -Victor’s River of the West: - - Sublette led his company up the valley of the Wind River, across the - mountains, and on to the very headwaters of the Lewis or Snake River. - Here he fell in with Jackson, in the valley of Lewis Lake, called - Jackson’s Hole, and remained on the borders of this lake for some - time, waiting for Smith, whose non-appearance began to create a good - deal of uneasiness. At length runners were dispatched in all - directions looking for the lost Booshway. - - The detachment to which Meek was assigned had the pleasure and honor - of discovering the hiding place of the missing partner, which was in - Pierre’s Hole, a mountain valley about thirty miles long and of half - that width, which subsequently was much frequented by the camps of the - various fur companies. - - [Illustration: Arikara attack on Ashley Party, 1823.] - -This is the core of the tradition. From this it has generally been -inferred that it was on this occasion that the lake and the valley were -named in honor of David E. Jackson, and that this was Captain Sublette’s -idea. David E. Jackson, sometimes referred to as “Davey,” is the mystery -man of the Smith-Jackson-Sublette trio. How old he was, what he looked -like, where he came from prior to 1823 is not known. He was one of the -“enterprising young men” who responded to Ashley’s call in that year. -That his “rating” with trappers was high and that he was one of the -acknowledged leaders of the Rocky Mountain fur trade is clear from the -fact of the partnership formed in 1826. He was not illiterate, for his -signature appears on documents, but like most of his associates he kept -no diary, so that our knowledge of his exact wanderings is indistinct. -It is part of the tradition that he spent the winter of 1828-29 in the -vicinity of Jackson’s Hole, and his known interest in the region prompts -us to believe that he had spent several previous years there as well. He -might well have been one of the six men who accompanied Smith on his -“discovery” of Jackson Hole in 1824. He left the mountains in 1830, went -to Santa Fe and then on to California on a trading venture in 1831, and -apparently returned to St. Louis in 1832, where he disappears, so to -speak, under a cloud. One rumor has it that he “ran off with property -belonging to the firm of Jackson, Waldo and Young,” another that “he -dissipated his large and hard-earned fortune in a few years.” - -After the reunion in Pierre’s Hole, according to Meek, the entire -company moved up Henry’s Fork of the Snake, and across the Divide to the -valleys of the Madison and Gallatin. Crossing the Gallatin Range in -early winter, the trappers reached the vicinity of Cinnabar Mountain, -three miles below Yellowstone Park’s present North Entrance. Here two -men were killed and the party was scattered by the Blackfeet. Meek -alleges that he wandered into the future Park, where he ascended a high -peak. Crossing Yellowstone River, he ran into an incredible region -smoking “like Pittsburgh on a winter morning” with the vapor from -boiling springs, haunted by the sound of whistling steam vents, dotted -with cone-shaped mounds surmounted by craters from which issued “blue -flames and molten brimstone,” and devoid of living creatures. From here, -apparently the seldom visited Mirror Plateau, Meek crossed the Absaroka -Range to the winter camp on Powder River. - -About the first of April 1830, according to Meek, “Jackson, or ‘Davey,’ -as he was called by his men, with about half the company, left for the -Snake country.” At the Wind River rendezvous in July, “Jackson arrived -from the Snake country with plenty of beaver....” - -At Wind River, on August 4, 1830, Smith, Jackson, and Sublette, having -earned a deserved fortune from their labors, decided to retire from the -mountain trade, and sold their interest to a group of their employees -who had already distinguished themselves in the service—James Bridger, -Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Henry Fraeb, and Baptiste Gervais. -The main trapper band, numbering over two hundred and including Meek, -followed Bridger and Fitzpatrick northward to the Three Forks of the -Missouri, thence south to Ogden’s Hole, a small valley in the Bear River -Mountains. In the fall of 1830, John Work, heading the annual Snake -River expedition of the Hudson’s Bay Company, got wind of the American -invasion of his domain. Among other rumors was one that Fontenelle and -his men “have been hunting on the Upper Snake. They were set upon by the -Blackfeet on the Yellowstone River and 18 men killed.” - -In the spring of 1831, after wintering again at Powder River, Meek -reports on the spring hunt: “Having once more visited the Yellowstone, -they turned to the south again, crossing the mountains into Pierre’s -Hole, on to Snake river; thence to Salt river; thence to Bear river; and -thence to Green river to rendezvous.” Confirmation of this comes from -Joseph Meek’s brother Stephen, who says that this year he trapped on the -Yellowstone, Wind, and Musselshell Rivers, “going through Jackson’s Hole -to the rendezvous on Popyoisa River.” - -From the Powder River encampment Fitzpatrick headed for St. Louis to -round up a supply caravan. Running into his old companions Smith, -Jackson, and Sublette en route to Santa Fe, he was persuaded to join -them, being promised an outfit when they arrived. Thus he shared the -delays and perils of that expedition in which Jedediah Smith was slain -by a Comanche spear, and when he left Santa Fe, he was far behind -schedule. Picking up young Kit Carson and other volunteers at Taos, he -followed the east slope of the Rockies into eastern Wyoming country, -sometime during September reaching the North Platte River at Laramie’s -Fork. Here he met Fraeb, who had been sent to look for him while the -others waited impatiently with parched tongues at Green River. -Fitzpatrick returned to St. Louis for supplies, while Fraeb led the -recruits westward, traveling via Green River and Jackson’s Hole to -“winter quarters on the head of Salmon River.” Thus there was no real -summer rendezvous in 1831. - -At this time the shadow of the American Fur Company, the great monopoly -of the Upper Missouri region, fell across the Rocky Mountains. In -February 1830 the newly organized “Western Department” of this company, -determined to capture the lucrative mountain trade, sent out an -expedition from St. Louis under Andrew Drips, Lucien Fontenelle and one -Robidoux. Our chief source of information about this company during the -early 1830’s is the journal of Warren A. Ferris. From an encampment near -the Big Hole country of Montana, Ferris writes: “On the 8th [of October, -1831] two of our men accompanied by three or four Indians departed for -the Trois Tetons, to meet Mr. Dripps who was expected this fall from the -Council Bluffs, with an equipment of men, horses, and merchandise.” - -From spring camping grounds on the Bear and Snake River tributaries, the -brigades of the rival companies converged on Pierre’s Hole, where the -Rocky Mountain Fur Company partners had scheduled their rendezvous for -1832. Although they welcomed peaceful Indians and “free” trappers, they -expressly did not invite their competitors of the American Fur Company -who, nevertheless decided to attend. Rumors of the impending conclave of -the “mountain men” also reached the scattered bands of independent -trappers, among whom was George Nidever. In the spring Nidever’s band -trapped up the Green River until May, intending to continue on to “the -head waters of the Columbia,” but turned back when they learned that -“the place we intended going was already being trapped by other -companies.” (This strongly suggests that somebody, probably Rocky -Mountain men, were trapping in Jackson’s Hole prior to the rendezvous.) -Returning to the Platte River, they met “O’Felon” and Moses “Black” -Harris, two other independent traders, with whom they proceeded by way -of Teton Pass to the rendezvous, where they arrived on July 4. - -The experienced William Sublette, one-time partner, had contracted with -the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to supply trade goods, and to take out -the beaver hides. With Robert Campbell he set out for St. Louis in May -1832 with over 100 men. At Independence he picked up a band of eighteen -green New Englanders under Nathaniel J. Wyeth, an ambitious young man -who had hopes of succeeding, where John Jacob Astor had failed, in -establishing a fur-trading empire in Oregon. At Laramie’s Fork he -recruited some twenty trappers under Alfred K. Stephens, and other -trappers were picked up farther on. Not the least remarkable feature of -this expedition was that at least five of its members kept notes—William -Sublette, the methodical Nathaniel Wyeth, his brother John B. Wyeth, -another of his followers named John Ball, and Zenas Leonard, one of the -“free” trappers with Stephens. - -Sublette’s account is contained in a letter to General Ashley, dated -Lexington, Missouri, September 21, 1832. He indicates that he arrived at -the head of the “Colorado of the West” (Green River) on July 2, being -attacked that night by Blackfoot Indians; arrived “on the waters of the -Columbia” July 4 “and at the rendezvous of the Rocky Mountain Hunters, -on the Columbia river, west of the Three Teton Mountains,” on July 8. -Nathaniel Wyeth’s diary agrees substantially with Sublette on -chronology, but is much more illuminating. He clearly depicts the -dangerous descent of the Hoback, the fording of “Lewis River” on July 6, -and the climb up Teton Pass, “a gap of the mountains due south of the -Trois Tetons.” The disillusioned brother, John Wyeth, gives us a -dramatic picture: - - On the 4th [6th?] of July, 1832, we arrived at Lewis’s fork [Snake - River], one of the largest rivers in these rocky mountains. It took us - all day to cross it. It is half a mile wide, deep and rapid. The way - we managed was this: one man unloaded his horse, and swam across with - him, leading two loaded ones, and unloading the two, brought them - back, for two more, and as Sublet’s company and our own made over a - hundred and fifty, we were all day in passing the river. In returning, - my mule, by treading on a round stone, stumbled and threw me off, and - the current was so strong, that a bush which I caught hold of only - saved me from drowning. - -“Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick became “White Hair” Fitzpatrick as a result of -events which befell him in 1832. Zenas Leonard states that in June 1832 -while he was encamped at Laramie’s Fork: - - Mr. Fitzpatrick and a company of 115 men came to our camp. He was on - his way [from St. Louis] to join his company on the west side of the - mountains, on the Columbia River, and to supply them with merchandise, - ammunition, horses, etc.... - - Having made this arrangement with Mr. F., our camp [on the Laramie] - was all confusion at an early hour this morning, preparing to depart - for the Columbia river. Mr. F. took one of the fleetest and most hardy - horses in his train, and set out in advance of the main body, in order - to discover the disposition of the various Indian tribes through whose - dominions we were to travel, and to meet us at a designated point on - the head of the Columbia river. - -While en route to Pierre’s Hole, probably in the valley of Green River, -Fitzpatrick was ambushed by or stumbled upon the hostile Gros Ventres, -probably the same who later raided Sublette’s camp. By sacrificing his -horse and secreting himself in a hole in the rocks, he managed to elude -these savages, but nearly starved while wandering through the -wilderness. Fitzpatrick’s whereabouts during his ordeal are not -recorded, and in most accounts he merely turns up (on July 8, according -to Ferris) in Pierre’s Hole in a pitiful state. Meek relates that “he -made his appearance in camp in company with two Iroquois half-breeds, -belonging to the camp, who had been out on a hunt,” which is also the -way that Irving got it from Bonneville. George Nidever claims to have -been one of these hunters, and, if his story is straight, Fitzpatrick -was found in Jackson’s Hole: “A week or so after the arrival of the -company a trapper by the name of Poe and I went out for a short hunt, -and met Fitzpatrick crossing the Lewis Fork.... We piloted him back to -camp.” - -By the 17th of July the whiskey kegs were all empty, and the wild -celebration which invariably climaxed every rendezvous of the fur -traders perforce came to an end in Pierre’s Hole. On this day the -combined companies of Nathaniel Wyeth and Milton Sublette set out for -the lower Snake River. On the morning of the 18th they described a -column of Gros Ventre tribesmen descending a hillside, “fantastically -painted and arrayed, with scarlet blankets fluttering in the wind.” The -ensuing conflict was a victory for the trappers. Some of the Indians -escaped from their improvised fort into Jackson’s Hole, leaving perhaps -twenty-six of their number dead, while their trail of blood suggested -other heavy casualties. This battle upset the general time-table and -delayed the various departures from the rendezvous. On the 24th of July, -Wyeth and Milton Sublette resumed their journey which had before been so -rudely interrupted, Wyeth eventually continuing on to visit the British -establishments on the Pacific Coast. Captain Sublette was compelled to -linger because of his injuries, and, on the 25th, seven who planned to -accompany him to St. Louis became impatient and started out by -themselves. These were Joseph More of Boston, one of Wyeth’s deserters, -a Mr. Foy of Mississippi, Alfred K. Stephens, “two grandsons of the -celebrated Daniel Boone,” and two others unidentified. In Jackson’s -Hole, apparently near the mouth of the Hoback, they were ambushed by a -band of Gros Ventres. More and Foy were killed instantly, while Stephens -died from his wounds after he and the four survivors retreated with -tiding of disaster to Sublette’s camp. - -On July 30 Bridger and Fitzpatrick led the Rocky Mountain Fur Company -brigades northward from Pierre’s Hole toward the headwaters of the -Missouri, while William Sublette found himself sufficiently recovered to -assist Campbell in organizing the homeward-bound caravan, composed of -sixty men and a beaver-laden packtrain. According to Irving, “they chose -a different route through the mountains, out of the way, as they hoped, -of the lurking bands of Blackfeet. They succeeded in making the frontier -in safety.” It seems evident that the Sublette caravan turned north -after crossing the Snake and then ascended the Gros Ventre River and -crossed over to Wind River by way of Union Pass. While the Sublette -caravan was leaving the valley, they were shadowed by a “large body of -the Blackfoot tribe,” doubtless the murderers of More and Foy, who -showed a healthy respect for the heavily armed trappers. Thus it would -seem that, while he did not entirely elude the Blackfeet, Sublette -managed to bluff his way past them and avoid what might well have become -the “Battle of Jackson’s Hole.” - -At the Pierre’s Hole rendezvous, Drips and Vanderburgh, the American Fur -Company partisans, were frustrated in their competitive effort by the -fact that their supply train under Fontenelle had failed to arrive. It -was now too late to bid for the furs taken out by Sublette, but they -might follow Bridger and Fitzpatrick with profit if they only had trade -goods. Accordingly, they resolved to hasten to Green River to see if -they could find the belated caravan. The clerk, Warren A. Ferris, gives -a detailed account of the passage through “Jackson’s Big Hole,” in early -August: - - In the evening we halted on a spring, four miles east of Lewis River, - after marching twenty-two miles. On the 5th we passed six or eight - miles southeast, and halted on the margin of the stream [Hoback], - flowing from that direction. During our march, some of the hunters saw - the bones of two men, supposed to be those killed from a party of - seven, in the latter part of July.... - -After losing one horse in precipitous Hoback Canyon, the party reached -Jackson’s Little Hole, where they killed several buffalo, and -successfully by-passed a large village of Indians. They crossed over to -Green River, and on the 8th fell in with Fontenelle, “who had passed -from St. Louis to the mouth of the Yellowstone in a steamboat, and -thence with pack horses to this place.” Ferris accompanied Vanderburgh -and Drips on the return trip in pursuit of Bridger. He writes: - - On the 14th we passed through the Narrows, between Jackson’s Holes; - and avoided some of the difficulties we met on our previous passage, - by crossing the river, several times. In the evening we halted for the - night near the remains of two men, who were killed in July last. These - we collected, and deposited in a small stream, that discharged itself - into a fork of the Lewis river; that flows from Jackson’s Little Hole. - - [Illustration: Rendezvous scene.] - -Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, a Frenchman of distinguished -antecedents, applied in 1831 for a leave of absence from the U.S. Army -for the joint purpose of exploration and trade. With funds provided by -hopeful New York capitalists he organized an impressive company, -including 110 men and twenty ox-drawn wagons, and on May 1, 1832, he set -out from Fort Osage. Bonneville’s wagon train was the second to ascend -the traditional overland route along the Platte and the Sweetwater, and -the first to cross South Pass. In the Green River Valley on July 26 the -Captain was overtaken by Fontenelle’s company. On the west side of the -Green, five miles above Horse Creek, he started the erection of Fort -Bonneville, while his rival encamped farther upstream, for his jaded -horses and mules would budge no further. After Fontenelle’s departure, -above noted, the Captain decided upon the advice of “free trappers,” to -head for Salmon River for the winter. Leaving his cumbersome wagons at -the fort, he cached most of his baggage and then packed the rest on -mules and horses. The expedition set forth on August 22, reaching Teton -Pass on September 3. Instead of taking the standard route via the -Hoback, where hostile Indians waited in ambush, Captain Bonneville -elected to take a long circuitous route to the headwaters of Green -River, entering Jackson’s Hole via the Gros Ventre River. - - [Illustration: “Weapons of the Pierre’s Hole Fight”—Exhibit in Fur - Trade Museum, Grand Teton National Park.] - -Following the rendezvous in Pierre’s Hole, the Rocky Mountain men -conducted their fall hunt in the dangerous Blackfoot country around the -Three Forks of the Missouri. In attempting to follow them, Vanderburgh -of the American Fur Company was slain by the Blackfeet. During the -winter of 1832-33 the various rival bands holed up along tributaries of -the Snake and Salmon rivers; and at the first melting of the snow they -resumed their feverish scramble for the prime hunting grounds. - -Most of the other trapping bands remained west of the Continental Divide -to make their spring hunt, and approached the Green River rendezvous -through Jackson’s Hole. The first to stir in this direction was the -American Fur Company partisan Drips, who led the bulk of his forces, -probably about sixty men, up Snake River, hunting and trapping as they -went. At the junction of Salt River, they were compelled to leave the -Snake to make the toilsome detour over the Snake River Range and Teton -Pass, which they reached on May 31. Ferris vividly describes their -journey through the “immense banks of snow on the mountain,” the fording -of “Lewis River,” and the ascent of “Gros Vent’s Fork” to the head of -Green River. He notes, “We found a large herd of buffalo in the valley, -and killed several; also a large bear, which paid with his life the -temerity of awaiting our approach.” - -Wyeth’s enterprise on the Columbia River was balked by the shipwreck of -the vessel which was to supply him, and, after a fruitless winter at -Fort Vancouver, he set out eastward with Francis Ermatinger of the -Hudson’s Bay Company. Below the forks of the Snake they came up with -Captain Bonneville. The Wyeth journal tells the story of their Jackson’s -Hole passage via Teton Pass and the Hoback. He found “horse flies on the -mountains ... buffalo in the bottom also mosquitoes.” Evidence of the -recent trail of the “men of Dripps and Fontenelle” was observed, also -the place where More and Foy were killed the year before. Of this -passage Irving reports, - - No accident of a disastrous kind occurred, excepting the loss of a - horse, which, in passing along the giddy edge of a precipice, called - the Cornice, a dangerous pass between Jackson’s and Pierre’s Hole, - fell over the brink, and was dashed to pieces. - - On the 13th of July [1833], Captain Bonneville arrived at Green - River.... - - [Illustration: Fort Bonneville site, on Horse Creek near its junction - with Green River. - Photo by Author] - - [Illustration: Section of “Map of the Rocky Mountains” by Washington - Hood, Corps of Topographical Engineers, 1839. Data by William Sublette - and others. Records of the War Department, National Archives.] - - [Illustration: Trapper type—American.] - - [Illustration: BULLET MOLD] - - - - - VII. “The Fire Hole”: Era of the American Fur Company, 1833-1840 - - -By 1832 only fragments of the Yellowstone Park area had apparently been -explored, notably the Lake region. According to Warren A. Ferris, one of -the great geyser basins was visited in the spring hunt of 1833 by a -party of forty men under a Spaniard named Alvaris (or Alvarez). They -reached the area by going up Henry’s Fork, later returning to Green -River for the rendezvous. This is the first concrete evidence of white -men in the Firehole Basin. The discoverer may have been Manuel Alvarez, -United States consul at Santa Fe from 1839 to 1846, who figures -prominently in Josiah Gregg’s journal. - -The rendezvous of 1833 was held at Bonneville’s fort on Horse Creek, -tributary of Green River, near Daniel, Wyoming. The St. Louis supply -caravan of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, led by Robert Campbell, -included young Charles Larpenteur, who wrote in his journal of a side -trip through Jackson’s Hole: - - The day after we reached the rendezvous Mr. Campbell, with ten men, - started to raise a beaver cache at a place called by the French Trou a - Pierre, which means Peter’s Hole. As I was sick Mr. Campbell left me - in camp, and placed Mr. Fitzpatrick in charge during his absence, - telling the latter to take good care of me ... after seven or eight - days Mr. Campbell returned with ten packs of beaver. - -An epidemic of hydrophobia brought on by “mad wolves” seems to have -contributed to the early break-up of the 1833 meeting. Campbell, Wyeth, -and the partners of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company with fifty-five packs -of beaver and a strong guard circled down through South Pass and up to -the junction of the Shoshone and the Bighorn rivers, where they embarked -on bullboats for the mouth of the Yellowstone. Here Wyeth was -entertained at the palatial Fort Union by the famous Kenneth McKenzie, -and observed a powder flask which had belonged to the unfortunate More, -and which had found its way here from Jackson’s Hole by the devious -channels of the fur trade. - -While Bonneville outfitted an expedition under Joseph R. Walker to -explore California (and discover Yosemite Valley), the American Fur -Company brigades headed for the Snake River country. On July 20 Warren -A. Ferris and Robert Newell departed at the head of an outfit destined -for the Flathead trade. The little party consisted of six “engages” with -pack horses, and five armed Indians, amounting in all to thirteen armed -men. Their route was the usual one via Hoback Canyon and Teton Pass. The -ecstatic description of Jackson’s Hole from the summit of the pass, -given by Ferris on this occasion, is one which can be appreciated by the -modern tourist: - - ... Gazing down in the direction of Jackson’s Hole, from our elevated - position, one of the most beautiful scenes imaginable, was presented - to our view. It seemed quite filled with large bright clouds, - resembling immense banks of snow, piled on each other in massy - numbers, of the purest white; wreathing their ample folds in various - forms and devious convolutions, and mingling in one vast embrace their - shadowy substance.—Sublime creations! emblems apt of the first - glittering imaginings of human life!... - - Turning with reluctance to things of a more terrestrial nature we - pursued our way down to Pierre’s Hole, where we fortunately discovered - and killed a solitary bull.... - -The rendezvous of 1834 was scheduled for June on Ham’s Fork of the Green -near present Granger, Wyoming; and here converged all the scattered -trapper bands, with the exception of those in the pay of Bonneville, who -had his own private rendezvous on Bear River. Drips hunted up the Snake -River to Jackson’s Hole, and apparently crossed into the valley of the -Green from there. Behind him came Ferris. On his southward journey from -Montana country, Ferris decided to make a side trip from Henry’s Fork to -investigate strange rumors concerning the upper Madison, a trip which -resulted in the second known published description of the Yellowstone -Park wonders. - - [Illustration: Fort Hall.] - -Ferris, a native of New York who later resided in Texas, made his first -western journey with the American Fur Company in 1830. Hardly a typical -mountain man, he kept a journal of his travels entitled “Life in the -Rocky Mountains,” which appeared serially in 1842 and 1843 in the -Western Literary Messenger, an obscure weekly published in Buffalo, New -York. The piece containing an account of his visit to the geyser region -in 1834 appeared on July 13, 1842, attracted no special attention at the -time except that of the editors of the Nauvoo, Illinois, Wasp, who ran -it without credit in their edition of August 13, 1842. Olin D. Wheeler -discovered it and republished it in 1901. Its historical importance as -the first adequate description of the geysers by an eyewitness (and the -second published description of any portion of Yellowstone Park) was -appreciated by Chittenden, but his identity and the magnificent scope of -his journal was not fully understood until its republication with -extensive editorial notes by Dr. Paul C. Phillips in 1940. It was in May -1834, while his brigade was traveling through Idaho country en route to -the rendezvous on Ham’s Fork of the Green, that Ferris and two Indian -companions made a hurried side trip, going almost due east forty miles. -His object was to verify the rumors concerning “remarkable boiling -spring on the sources of the Madison” which he had heard at the -rendezvous of 1833. He soon realized that “the half was not told me.” A -fragment of his vivid description follows: - - From the surface of a rocky plain or table, burst forth columns of - water, of various dimensions, projected 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 extends some distance from them, - beneath the soil. The largest of these wonderful 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, persist 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. - - [Illustration: Baling beaver hides inside stockade.] - - [Illustration: Section of “Map of the Northwest Fur Country,” 1836, by - Warren A. Ferris. From _Life in the Rocky Mountains_, Old West - Publishing Company, Denver, 1940.] - -After this adventure, he returned to Henry’s Fork and thence to Pierre’s -Hole, crossing Teton Pass on May 24. In the Hoback Canyon he found -evidence that a party under Drips had preceded him. - -Less well known than the vivid description by Ferris but even more -remarkable is his “Map of the Northwest Fur Country,” drawn in 1836. -Lying in the family trunk for over a century, unknown to geographers and -historians, it was made available in 1940 for publication with the -journals. This is, to quote Dr. Phillips, “the most detailed and -accurate of all the early maps of the region,” far superior in accuracy -to the famous maps by Bonneville, Parker, John C. Fremont, and others -which were published contemporaneously. In addition to mountain chains, -valleys, and trails, it locates such fascinating details as “Yellow -stone L.,” “Boiling water,” and “Volcanoes” near the south shore of the -lake and “spouting fountains” within the “Burnt Hole” at the head of -Madison River, indicating the present West Thumb thermal area and the -Upper Geyser Basin on Firehole River, respectively. The context of the -journal, together with the evidence of the map, suggests that Ferris -beheld and described Old Faithful, the geyser which has become the -symbol of Yellowstone National Park. - -In August of 1834 a party of fifty-five men in Bonneville’s employ led -by Joseph H. Walker ascended Pacific Creek from Jackson’s Hole and after -some debate “agreed to move down onto Wind River,” instead of descending -the Yellowstone. Thus Walker, who had previously discovered Yosemite -Valley, and Zenas Leonard, the journalist of the expedition, missed the -big exploring opportunity which Ferris had grasped. - -The quaint nomenclature bestowed on certain locales and landmarks by the -mountain trappers offer more than one clue to their shadowy passage. The -Gardner River Valley at Swan Lake Flats, between Mammoth Hot Springs and -Obsidian Cliff, seems to be the most likely locale of the beaver-rich -“Gardner’s Hole” frequented by the mountain men, probably named for -Johnson Gardner, a freelance trapper who must have frequented those -parts at least as early as 1834, possibly as early as 1830 as Chittenden -suggests. His name appears in the Fort Union account books of 1832, -which include an agreement to purchase his stock of beaver skins then -cached on Yellowstone River. In 1834 he fell in with Prince Maximilian -of Wied on the Lower Missouri, revealing to that distinguished traveler -that “he was on his return from hunting beavers on the Upper -Yelowstone.” - -Three significant events occurred in connection with the rendezvous of -1834. (1) En route from St. Louis, Sublette and Campbell began the -building of Fort Laramie (originally Fort William) on the North Platte. -(2) Nathaniel Wyeth, embarking on a second venture, brought in trade -goods which were not accepted, and so resorted to the establishment of -Fort Hall near the junction of the Snake and Portneuf. The advent of -these two fixed trading posts prophesied an end to the traditional -rendezvous system. Also (3), at the rendezvous the partnership of the -Rocky Mountain Fur Company was dissolved, Fraeb and Gervais selling out -their interests. The remaining partners—Fitzpatrick, Bridger, and Milton -Sublette—formed a new firm, but they made an agreement with Fontenelle -which gave the American Fur Company a virtual monopoly of the Rocky -Mountain fur trade. - -Among those whom Nathaniel Wyeth had left at Fort Hall in 1834 was a -young man named Osborne Russell, whose subsequent career as a trapper -was hardly typical, for among his trapping accessories were copies of -Shakespeare and the Bible! Although later a prominent pioneer of Oregon -and California, his claim to fame rests on his Journal of a Trapper, -which “as a precise and intimate firsthand account of the daily life of -the trapper explorer ... has no equal,” except that of Warren A. Ferris, -who left the mountain scene just as Russell arrived. On the 15th of June -1835 a party of fourteen trappers and ten camp keepers was made up. -Writes Russell: - - Here we again fell on to Lewis’ Fork, which runs in a southerly - direction through a valley about eighty miles long, there turning to - the mountains through a narrow cut in the mountain to the mouth of - Salt River, about thirty miles. This valley was called ‘Jackson Hole.’ - It is generally from five to fifteen miles wide. The southern part - where the river enters the mountains is hilly and uneven, but the - northern portion is wide, smooth and comparatively even, the whole - being covered with wild sage and surrounded by high and rugged - mountains upon whose summit the snow remains during the hottest months - in summer. The alluvial bottoms along the river and streams - intersecting it through the valley produced a luxuriant growth of - vegetation, among which wild flax and a species of onion were - abundant. The great altitude of this place, however, connected with - the cold descending from the mountains at night, I think would be a - serious obstruction to the growth of most kinds of cultivated grains. - This valley, like all other parts of the country, abounded with game. - -After a nearly disastrous attempt to cross “Lewis Fork” by bullboat and -raft, the party discovered a ford, and then ascended Gros Ventre Fork. -The party became lost in the mountains for several weeks, missing out on -the Green River rendezvous. After extricating themselves from the craggy -wilderness of the Absarokas, the party reached the Lamar River or East -Fork of the Yellowstone, where they encountered some woebegone -Sheepeater Indians, and lost a hunter. They apparently forded the -Yellowstone at the lower end of the Grand Canyon near the mouth of -Antelope Creek, at a point just above the spectacular Tower Falls and -the Basaltic Cliffs where the river “rushes down a chasm with a dreadful -roar echoing among the mountains.” From “Gardner’s Hole” the party then -crossed the mountains to Gallatin and Madison forks, where they fell in -with a trapping brigade under Bridger. Just below the Madison Canyon the -combined forces were attacked by eighty Blackfeet and narrowly escaped -massacre. - -The supply caravan under Fitzpatrick arrived at the Green River -rendezvous on August 12, 1835. Accompanying him were two famous -missionaries—Marcus Whitman, who distinguished himself among the -trappers by extracting an Indian arrow from the back of Captain Bridger, -and Reverend Samuel Parker, who alienated them by his overzealous -moralizing. However, Parker made quite a hit with the assembled -Flatheads and was so enthusiastic over their eagerness for Christian -knowledge that it was decided that he would accompany them to their -homes, while Whitman would return to the states to recruit help for a -permanent mission in Oregon. Parker tells of his journey westward: - - August 21st, commenced our journey in company with Capt. Bridger, who - goes with about fifty men, six or eight days’ journey on our route. - Instead of going down on the southwest side of Lewis’ river, we - concluded to take our course northerly for the Trois Tetons, which are - three very high mountains, covered with perpetual snow, separated from - the main chain of the Rocky Mountains, and are seen at a very great - distance; and from thence to Salmon river.... - - On the 22d ... we ... arrived at what is called Jackson’s Hole - [Jackson’s Little Hole].... - - Sabbath, 23d. Had an opportunity for rest and devotional exercises. In - the afternoon we had public worship with those of the company who - understood English. The men conducted with great propriety, and - listened with attention.... - - Arose very early on the 24th, and commenced our way through the narrow - defile, frequently crossing and recrossing a large stream of water - [Hoback] which flows into the Snake river.... - - ... on the 25th, [we] encamped in a large pleasant valley, commonly - called Jackson’s large hole. It is fertile and well watered with a - branch of Lewis’ river coming from the southeast [Hoback], and another - of some magnitude coming from the northeast [Snake River itself], - which is the outlet of Jackson’s lake, a body of water situated just - south of the Trois Tetons.... - - We continued in this encampment three days, to give our animals an - opportunity to recruit, and for Captain Bridger to fit and send out - several of his men into the mountains to hunt and trap.... - - On the 28th, we pursued our journey and passed over a mountain [Teton - Pass] so high, that banks of snow were but a short distance from our - trail. When we had ascended two-thirds of the way, a number of - buffalo, which were pursued by our Indians, came rushing down the side - of the mountain through the midst of our company.... - - In [Pierre’s Hole] ... I parted with Captain Bridger and his party, - who went northeast into the mountains to their hunting ground, which - the Blackfeet claim, and for which they will contend. - -According to the impious Joseph L. Meek, the sermon on Sunday the 23rd -in Jackson’s Little Hole (the site of which has been memorialized by the -State of Wyoming as that of “the first Protestant sermon in the Rocky -Mountains”) was not such a great success as Parker makes out, for, “in -the midst of the discourse, a band of buffalo appeared in the valley, -when the congregation broke up, without staying for a benediction,” and -every man excitedly joined in the hunt. - - [Illustration: Marcus Whitman removing arrow from Jim Bridger.] - -Another who accompanied this expedition was Kit Carson. Parker gave -Carson his initial shove into immortality by relating the story of his -victory at the rendezvous over a “great bully” named Shunar: - - [Illustration: Trappers at Old Faithful.] - - ... I will relate an occurrence which took place near evening, as a - specimen of mountain life. A hunter, who goes technically by the name - of the great bully of the mountains, mounted his horse with a loaded - rifle, and challenged any Frenchman, American, Spaniard, or Dutchman, - to fight him in single combat. Kit Carson, an American, told him if he - wished to die, he would accept the challenge. Shunar defied him. C. - mounted his horse, and with a loaded pistol, rushed into close - contact, and both almost at the same instant fired. C’s ball entered - S’s hand, came out at the wrist, and passed through the arm above the - elbow. Shunar’s ball passed over the head of Carson; and while he went - for another pistol, Shunar begged that his life might be spared. Such - scenes, sometimes from passion, and sometimes for amusement, make the - pastime of their wild and wandering life. - -Another rendezvous was held for the summer of 1836, again on Horse Creek -tributary of Green River. Fitzpatrick and Fontenelle arrived with the -supply caravan on July 3. With them were the missionaries Marcus Whitman -and H. H. Spalding, accompanied by their wives, the first white women -ever to attend a rendezvous of the mountain men and doubtless the first -to come within 100 miles of the future Grand Teton and Yellowstone -Parks. At this meeting Major Joshua Pilcher, as agent for the American -Fur Company, formally and legally took over the interests of Bridger, -Fitzpatrick, and Fontenelle, thus consolidating the monopoly. The -missionaries, accompanied by Hudson’s Bay Company agents, followed the -Bear River route westward. The fur trappers were left in the mountains -with Drips, Fontenelle, and Bridger. Says Osborne Russell: - - Mr. Bridger’s party, as usual, was destined for the Blackfoot country. - It contained most of the American trappers and amounted to sixty men. - I started with a party of fifteen trappers and two camp keepers, - ordered by Mr. Bridger to proceed to the Yellowstone Lake and there - await his arrival with the rest of the party. - -Russell entered Jackson’s Hole by way of the upper Green and Gros Ventre -rivers, followed the Snake River north to Jackson Lake, and on August 7 -started up Buffalo Fork, to reach Two Ocean Pass. On August 13, he -camped at the inlet of Yellowstone Lake, and on the 16th “Mr. Bridger -came up with the remainder of the party.” They followed along the -eastern shore of the lake to its outlet at present Fishing Bridge, and -camped again “in a beautiful plain which extended along the northern -extremity of the lake.” Russell describes the lake as “about 100 miles -in circumference ... lying in an oblong form south to north, or rather -in the shape of a crescent.” His further description of the boiling -springs, hot steam vents, and the hollow limestone crustation “of -dazzling whiteness,” apparently in Hayden Valley, ranks him with Potts -and Ferris as a pioneer journalist of the Park phenomena. - -[Illustration: Section of Father De Smet “map of the Indian country” of - 1851, reflecting data given by Jim Bridger. From the Cartographic - Section, National Archives.] - -In 1837 Thomas Fitzpatrick again led the supply train across the plains, -picking up Fontenelle at Fort Laramie, and arriving at the rendezvous on -July 18. After the business of that year was transacted, Drips returned -east with Fitzpatrick’s caravan, and Fontenelle and Bridger made up a -strong company of 110 men to invade the hostile Blackfoot country. -Osborne Russell and five others started off separately “to hunt the -headwaters of the Yellowstone, Missouri and Bighorn Rivers.” Going due -north up Green River, they were attacked by “sixty or seventy” -Blackfeet, but managed to escape to the rendezvous. Here they wisely -decided to throw in with Fontenelle’s party, as Russell explains, -“intending to keep in their company five or six days and then branch off -to our first intended route.” After descending the Hoback, Russell and -three others left the main party at the ford of “Lewis Fork” in -“Jackson’s Big Hole” and took the same route to Yellowstone Lake used -the preceding year, then went northeast over the mountains to gain the -“Stinking Water.” - -In the spring of 1838 the company moved westward from Powder River, -trapping the Bighorn and other tributaries of the Yellowstone. Russell -and Meek report another fight with the Blackfeet on the Madison, -followed by a gathering of the brigade on the north fork of the -Yellowstone, near the lake. Afterward, Meek reports: - - Bridger’s brigade of trappers met with no other serious interruptions - on their summer’s march. They proceeded to Henry’s Lake, and crossing - the Rocky Mountains, traveled through the Pine Woods, always a - favorite region, to Lewis’ Lake on Lewis’ Fork of the Snake River - [Jackson Lake]; and finally up the Grovant Fork, recrossing the - mountains to Wind River, where the rendezvous was appointed. - - Osborne Russell describes this rendezvous of 1838: - - ... [July] 4th—We encamped at the Oil Spring on Popo-azia, and the - next day we arrived at the camp. There we found Mr. Dripps from St. - Louis, with twenty horse carts loaded with supplies, and again met - Captain Stewart, likewise several missionaries with their families on - their way to the Columbia River. On the 8th Mr. F. Ermatinger arrived - with a small party from the Columbia, accompanied by the Rev. John - Lee, who was on his way to the United States. On the 20th of July the - meeting broke up and the parties again dispersed for the fall hunt. - -The Captain Stewart referred to by Russell was an English veteran of -Waterloo, Sir William Drummond Stewart, ostensibly a wealthy sportsman, -who became a perennial visitor to the annual conclaves of the “mountain -men,” beginning in 1833. He probably entered Jackson’s Hole on more than -one occasion, in company with the trapper bands, but of this there is no -proof, except the following passage to be found in Altowan, a romantic -novel based on his experiences: - - On the banks of a small stream, which ultimately finds its way into - the upper waters of Snake River, a rugged path, made by the bison - descending from a pass above, winds its way through the dwarf willows - and quaking asp that line its side ... on a sudden turn of the road - round a projecting cliff, Altowan stopped to contemplate the scene - below, which, though not new to him, is one of undying wonder and - magnificence. Far over an extensive vale rise ‘the three Tetons,’ high - above surrounding mountains; their peaked heads shine white against - the azure sky, while other ranges succeed each other like waves beyond - and beyond, until they merge into the purple haze of the Western - Horizon. - -By 1838, competition for beaver pelts was beginning to exhaust the -streams, and the law of diminishing returns was making itself felt in -the Rocky Mountain fur trade. Nevertheless, after the rendezvous of that -year, the field commanders of the company assembled their trappers for -another invasion of the Jackson’s Hole country. Again Osborne Russell -illuminates the scene: - - I started, with about thirty trappers, up Wind River, expecting the - camp to follow in a few days. During our stay at the rendezvous it was - rumored among the men that the company intended to bring no more - supplies to the Rocky Mountains, and discontinue all further - operations. This caused a great deal of discontent among the trappers - and numbers left the party. 21st—We traveled up Wind River about - thirty miles and encamped. 22nd—Continued up the river till noon, then - left it to our right, traveled over a high ridge covered with pines, - in a westerly direction about fifteen miles, and fell on to the - Grosvent Fork. Next day we traveled about twenty miles down Grosvent - Fork. 24th—Myself and another crossed the mountain in a northwest - direction, fell on to a stream running into Lewis Fork, about ten - miles below Jackson’s Lake. Here we staid and trapped until the 29th. - Then we started back to the Grosvent Fork, where we found the camp, - consisting of about sixty men, under the direction of Mr. Dripps, with - James Bridger pilot. - - The next day the camp followed down the Grosvent Fork to Jackson’s - Hole. In the meantime myself and comrade returned to our traps, which - we raised, and took over the mountain in a southwest direction and - overtook the camp on Lewis Fork. The whole company was starving. - Fortunately I had killed a deer in crossing the mountain, which made - supper for the whole camp. Aug. 1st—We crossed Lewis Fork and encamped - and staid the next day. 3d.—Camp crossed the mountain to Pierre’s Hole - and the day following I started with my former comrade to hunt beaver - on the streams which ran from the Yellowstone.... - - [Illustration: Trapper train in Teton Pass.] - -Russell’s side trip appears to have been made cross country from near -the Cottonwood Creek tributary of the Gros Ventre over the foothills of -Mt. Leidy to Spread Creek, where he set traps, then back along this same -route to Bridger’s camp on the Gros Ventre, then back to Spread Creek, -and later down the Snake River, rejoining the main camp near the mouth -of the Gros Ventre. Russell’s account of the main expedition fits in -very well with the brief entry in Newell’s diary—“up Wind River into -Jackson’s Hole, on to Pier’s Hole.” Another trapper present was young -Jim Baker, famous Wyoming pioneer, who was making his first visit to the -mountains. - -An entry in Russell’s journal indicates that a party of trappers from -Fort Hall reached Yellowstone Lake in 1838. Meek alleges that he went -alone to Gardner’s Hole after the rendezvous and later to Burnt Hole, -the neighborhood of Hebgen Lake. Here he left a joking message on a -buffalo skull. - -Some evidence of wintering in Jackson’s Hole is given by Robert Newell: - - Capt. Drips left in December for Wind River with his camp. Capt. - Walker remained on Green River with a small party, where we are now. - Snow about one foot. January 26, 1839, buffalow scarce. I spent last - Christmas in Jackson’s Hole. We spent the balance of the winter down - on Green River, over on Ham’s Fork, the spring commencing to open the - first of March, 1839. - -Kit Carson writes: - - On the return of Spring we commenced our hunt, trapped the tributaries - of the Missouri to the head of Lewis Fork, and then started for the - rendezvous on Green River, near the mouth of Horse Creek.... - -In March, Meek, after wintering among the Nez Perces on the Salmon -River, and acquiring an Indian wife (apparently his third), set out -trapping again with a comrade named Allen to whom he was much attached. - - They traveled along up and down the Salmon, to Godin’s River, Henry’s - Fork of the Snake, to Pierre’s Fork, and Lewis’ Fork, and the Muddy, - and finally set their traps on a little stream that runs out of the - pass which leads to Pierre’s Hole. - -Correlated with other data, the “pass which leads to Pierre’s Hole” -sounds very much like Teton Pass. Here, according to Victor, a horrible -event occurred. Ambushed by Blackfeet, Meek managed to escape in a -thicket, but the hapless Allen was caught, shot, and then gleefully -dismembered within sight and sound of his companion. Meek is supposed to -have wriggled away during the night and, “after twenty-six days of -solitary and cautious travel,” escaped to the place of rendezvous. - - [Illustration: Free trapper under attack by Indians.] - -Information on the rendezvous of 1839 has survived through the account -of F. A. Wislizenus, a German doctor and political refugee, who -accompanied the St. Louis supply train in the interests of curiosity and -recreation. In addition to offering a vivid picture of proceedings at -the rendezvous, he also comments on the decline of the fur trade in the -Rocky Mountains. Wislizenus, Ermatinger of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the -Munger-Griffin missionary party, and several hundred Indians left the -rendezvous for Fort Hall, going by the Bear River route, which was soon -to become a part of the Oregon Trail. As for the trappers, it appears -that some of them, yielding to fate, disbanded, but Meek and Newell were -among those who went to Fort Hall and later trapped around Brown’s Hole -(a valley made by the Green River along the northern base of the Uinta -Range). Others were still attracted to Jackson’s Hole, the heart of the -prime beaver country. An eminent pioneer of Montana, W. T. Hamilton, got -it from “old-timers” that: - - In the year 1839 a party of forty men started on an expedition up the - Snake River. In the party were Ducharme, Louis Anderson, Jim and John - Baker, Joe Power, L’Humphrie, and others. They passed Jackson’s Lake, - catching many beaver, and crossed the Continental Divide, following - down the Upper Yellowstone—Elk—River to the Yellowstone Lake. - - [Illustration: Skinning beaver in Jackson’s Hole.] - -This party was attacked by the Blackfeet near the outlet of Yellowstone -Lake, suffering a loss of five men. The survivors, while trapping the -Park, witnessed “Sulphur Mountain,” the Mud Volcano, Yellowstone Falls -at the head of the Canyon, and the pyrotechnic displays of “Fire Hole -Basin.” - -Early in 1839, Russell hunted mountain sheep and trapped beaver along -the Snake River below Jackson’s Hole, returning to Fort Hall in June. -Making up a party of four for the purpose of trapping in the Yellowstone -and Wind River Mountains, he spent the Fourth of July at the outlet of -Jackson Lake, near present Moran, then followed the Snake River -northward to Lewis Lake and Shoshone Lake. The Shoshone Geyser Basin is -described by Russell in meticulous detail, including the rhythmic “Hour -Spring” which resembles present Union Geyser. From here they crossed -over to Hayden Valley via the Midway Geyser Basin, there noting a -“boiling lake” of deep indigo blue, about three hundred feet in -diameter, probably the present Grand Prismatic Spring. After an extended -camp at the outlet of Yellowstone Lake they went east to the head of -Clark’s Fork, thence back to the Yellowstone at the ford near Tower -Falls, thence to Gardner’s Hole and back to the lake outlet. En route -they saw disturbing evidence of “a village of 300 or 400 lodges of -Blackfeet” that had only recently been evacuated. In their camp on -Pelican Creek, just east of the present Fishing Bridge campground, they -were suddenly assailed by a horde of “70 or 80” Blackfeet “who rent the -air with their horrid yells” and inflicted severe arrow wounds on -Russell and one other. They fought off the Indians with their rifles, -but suffered great pain and hardship in making their way back to Fort -Hall via West Thumb, Snake River, Berry Creek and Conant Pass at the -north end of the Teton Range. This was Russell’s final sorrowful exit -from Wonderland. - -Two slim and shaky clues to other Yellowstone expeditions in the late -1830’s are available. In his journal of 1839, while sojourning in the -Utah country, apprentice trapper E. Willard Smith reports: “The country -around the headwaters of the Yellowstone, a tributary of the Missouri, -abounds in natural curiosities. There are volcanoes, volcanic -productions and carbonated springs. Mr. Vasquez told me that he went to -the top of one of these volcanoes, the crater of which was filled with -pure water, forming quite a large lake.” In his Life in the Far West -(1849), a fictionalized account of the mountain men, with whom he had -personally consorted in 1846, Lieutenant Ruxton tells how, on one -occasion, Old Bill Williams, “tough as the parfleche soles of his -moccasins,” led seven of his hardy associates into a little-known -region, beckoned thence by “a lofty peak” which fits the description of -the Grand Tetons, entering “the valley lying about the lakes now called -Eustis and Biddle, in which are many thermal and mineral springs, well -known to the trappers by the name of Soda, Beer, and Brimstone Springs, -and regarded by them with no little awe and curiosity, as being the -breathing places of his Satanic majesty.” - -The year 1840 can be said to mark the formal demise of the Rocky -Mountain fur trade, for in that year was held the fifteenth and last of -these great conclaves of the wilderness, the trapper’s rendezvous on -Horse Creek of the Green River. It also marks the end of an epoch in the -history of Jackson’s Hole. The main chronicler of this fateful year was -the Belgian, Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit priest who accompanied the -American Fur Company’s last expedition to the mountains so that he might -survey the prospects for a Catholic mission among the Flathead Indians. -This was the beginning of a series of epic pilgrimages to the Far West -which were to make him one of the dominant figures in American frontier -history. Andrew Drips headed the supply train. Also present were several -Protestant missionaries and “the first avowed Oregon emigrant,” Joel P. -Walker, and his wife and five children. On April 30, the caravan left -Westport, Missouri, and, after two months of traveling over the Great -Plains in the midst of vast buffalo herds, it reached its destination. -Writes Father De Smet: - - On the 30th [June] I came to the rendezvous, where a band of - Flatheads, who had been notified of my coming, were already waiting - for me.... On the 4th of July, I resumed my travels, with my - Flatheads; ten brave Canadians also chose to accompany me.... - - Three days we ascended Green river, and on the 8th we crossed it, - heading for an elevated plain which separates the waters of the - Colorado from those of the Columbia.... On leaving this plain, we - descended several thousand feet by a trail and arrived in Jackson’s - Hole [Jackson’s Little Hole].... Thence we passed into a narrow and - extremely dangerous defile, which was at the same time picturesque and - sublime.... - - On the 10th, after crossing the lofty mountain, we arrived upon the - banks of Henry’s Fork [Snake River], one of the principal tributaries - of Snake [Columbia] river. The mass of snow melted during the July - heat had swollen this torrent to a prodigious height. Its roaring - waters rushed furiously down and whitened with their foam the great - blocks of granite which vainly disputed the passage with them. The - sight intimidated neither our Indians nor our Canadians; accustomed to - perils of this sort, they rushed into the torrent on horseback and - swam it. I dared not venture to do likewise. To get me over, they made - a kind of sack of my skin tent; then they put all my things in and set - me on top of it. The three Flatheads who had jumped in to guide my - frail bark by swimming, told me, laughing, not to be afraid, that I - was on an excellent boat. And in fact this machine floated on the - water like a majestic swan; and in less than ten minutes I found - myself on the other bank, where we encamped for the night. - - The next day we had another high mountain to climb [Teton Pass] - through a thick pine forest, and at the top we found snow, which had - fallen in the night to the depth of two feet. - -Joe Meek relates that, - - about the last of June ... he started for the old rendezvous places of - the American Companies, hoping to find some divisions of them at - least, on the familiar camping ground. But his journey was in vain. - Neither on Green River or Wind River, where for ten years he had been - accustomed to meet the leaders and their men, his old comrades in - danger, did he find a wandering brigade even. The glory of the - American companies was departed, and he found himself solitary among - his long familiar haunts. - -However, this sad story does not fit in with De Smet’s account nor with -the testimony of Meek’s own good friend, Robert Newell, who in June 1840 -also left Fort Hall for the rendezvous: - - Mr. Ermatinger arrived 13th of June. I went to the American - rendezvous, Mr. Drips, Freab and Bridger from St. Louis with goods, - but times were certainly hard, no beaver, and everything dull. Some - missionaries came along with them for the Columbia, Messrs. Clark, - Smith, Littlejohn. I engaged to pilot them over the mountains, with - their wagons and such used in crossing, to Fort Hall. There I bought - their wagons.... - -Unless Meek’s memory was at fault, the discrepancy can only be explained -on the assumption that Meek, approaching Green River by way of Jackson’s -Hole, simply did not look hard enough. Be that as it may, Meek avers -that after his disappointed return to Fort Hall, - - he set out on what proved to be his last trapping expedition, with a - Frenchman, named Mattileau. They visited the old trapping grounds on - Pierre’s Fork, Lewis’ Lake, Jackson’s [Hoback] River, Jackson’s Hole, - Lewis River and Salt River: but beaver were scarce; and it was with a - feeling of relief that, on returning by way of Bear River, Meek heard - from a Frenchman whom he met there, that he was wanted at Fort Hall, - by his friend Newell, who had something to propose to him. - -What Newell had to propose to Meek was something revolutionary. On one -of Newell’s wagons Meek loaded his traps and his Indian family, and -together they performed the historic feat of taking the first wagons -through to the Columbia River. Their departure best symbolizes the death -of the Rocky Mountain fur trade and the birth of the Oregon Trail. After -Meek’s visit in 1840, Jackson’s Hole relapsed into virgin solitude. For -twenty years thereafter there is little positive evidence of white men -in this valley. It was forty-five years before the arrival of the first -permanent settler. For over a hundred years the historic importance of -Jackson’s Hole as the continental crossroads of the Western fur trade -has been all but forgotten. - - [Illustration: Rocky Mountain men setting traps.] - - [Illustration: Section of Map accompanying _Report on the Exploration - of the Yellowstone River_, by Bvt. Brig. Gen. W. F. Raynolds, - Washington, 1868. Errors and omissions reflect failure of the Raynolds - expedition to reach the Yellowstone Park area in 1860.] - - [Illustration: ] - - - - - VIII. Epilogue: 1841-1870 - - -After 1840 Yellowstone Park was likewise virtually left in primeval -solitude. There is tangible evidence of only four visits of white men -during this period, and one attempted visit which failed. In his -recently published biography, William Clark Kennerly has it that in 1843 -a grand hunting expedition headed by Sir William Drummond Stewart, and -including such notables as Sublette and Baptiste Charbonneau, camped one -evening among the geysers, having particularly great sport in vain -efforts to throttle “old Steam Boat.” In 1844, according to Chittenden, -a party of trappers, identity not disclosed, entered Upper Yellowstone -Valley from the south, and “passed around the west shore of Yellowstone -Lake to the outlet, where they had a severe battle with the Blackfoot -Indians, in a broad open tract at that point. The remains of their old -corral were still visible as late as 1870.” (This might be a variant of -the same battle of 1939, told by Hamilton.) - -The remaining three expeditions were guided by James Bridger, who in -1843 had set up Fort Bridger on Black’s Fork of Green River, to cater to -the emigrants who were beginning to follow the Oregon Trail. James -Gemmell claims to have been among those present in 1846 when Bridger led -“a trading expedition to the Crows and Sioux,” north up the Green River -through Jackson’s Hole to West Thumb, making a tour of the “wonderful -spouting springs” and other scenic features before continuing down the -Yellowstone. E. S. Topping states that in 1850 Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, -and twenty-two others on a prospecting trip out of St. Louis “crossed -the mountains to the Yellowstone and down it to the lake and the falls; -then across the Divide to the Madison River. They saw the geysers of the -lower basin and named the river that drains them the Fire Hole.... The -report of this party made quite a stir in St. Louis.” - -The only historically discernible “stir” made by Bridger’s reports -consisted of the usual incredulity and scoffing, exemplified by the -timidity of a Kansas City editor who in 1856 let immortality slip -through his grasp by refusing to publish Bridger’s own version of “the -place where Hell bubbled up.” By this time, however, one notable Bridger -story had actually broken through the literary overcast, and two more -would soon appear to vindicate the famous trapper. In 1852 Lieutenant -Gunnison, who had been a member of the Howard Stansbury exploring party -which Bridger guided to Great Salt Lake in 1849, published a romantic -but essentially accurate description of the principal scenic features. -Here is a “lake, sixty miles long,” a “perpendicular canyon,” the “Great -Springs” on successive terraces, and “geysers spouting seventy feet -high.” In his letter mentioned above, published in 1863, constituting a -report on his participation in the Fort Laramie treaty council of 1851, -Father De Smet located what is substantially the present Park “in the -very heart of the Rocky 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 Yellowstone,” regarding it as “the -most marvellous spot of all the northern half of the continent” because -of its boiling springs, calcareous hills, escaping vapors, steamboat -noises, subterranean explosions and, near Gardner River, “a mountain of -sulphur.” In this case likewise the source of his information was -Bridger, “who is familiar with every one of these mounds, having passed -thirty years of his life near them.” - -Even more illuminating to the historian than the well-known De Smet -letter are five unpublished maps traced by that missionary. These maps -had little contemporary influence and, though noted by his biographers -in 1905, they have been neglected by subsequent historians. They are -documents of signal import, which should inspire renewed respect for the -ubiquitous Bridger and yet increase the stature of the versatile and -indefatigable De Smet, already one of the giants of western history. Of -these five maps four are still at St. Louis University, which was his -headquarters. These are among dozens which were made by him in the -course of his several western journeys, the information obtained by -acute personal observation as well as “from trappers and intelligent -Indians.” The draftsmanship of the first three, while not striking, is -respectable. One shows “Yellow Stone” River and tributaries as high as -“Gardner’s F.” A second, embracing the Upper Missouri, Yellowstone, and -Upper Platte regions, shows a nameless bladder-shaped lake at the head -of the Yellowstone and a conspicuous “Hot Sulphur Spring” north of the -lake. A third, embracing the entire West from the Great Basin to the -Forks of the Platte, shows essentially the same features. The fourth map -in the St. Louis collection is the most intriguing. This depicts that -remarkable twisted region of the Rocky Mountains where the headwaters of -the Yellowstone, the Wind, the Green, the Snake, and the Missouri rivers -unwind before rolling to their respective oceans. The undated map is -crude and smeary, and it has all the ear-marks of being sketched in the -field without benefit of desk or blotter. In view of De Smet’s express -testimony that the most famous trapper of all supplied him with his -geographic data, at least for the “Yellowstone Park” section, it is a -fair guess that this was drawn by De Smet with Bridger at his elbow. -Here, on a rough chart consigned to the oblivion of a library vault, is -where “Yellowstone Park” first comes into clear focus. Allowing for -pardonable distortions, all of the principal scenic features are in -evidence: the geyser basins of the Firehole (“volcanic country”); -Mammoth Hot Springs (“Sulphur Mountain” near “Gardener’s Cr.”); a -shapeless Yellowstone Lake (“60 by 9”) with “Hot Springs” and “Great -Volcanoes” alongside; the Grand Canyon and “Falls 290 feet”; and Hayden -Valley (“Volcanic country [?] Steam Springs”). Two Ocean Pass, Jackson -Lake, and “Colter’s Hell” on Stinking River are other conspicuous -features near by. - -The “Bridger Map” is the obvious source of the Yellowstone data found on -the fifth De Smet map, embracing the western United States, which is -more carefully drawn than the others. This large untitled map, with a -bold floral border, is dated 1851, and contains the following fading -inscription within curved palm fronds: “respectfully presented to Col. -David D. [?] Mitchell [by] P. J. De Smet, Soc. Jes.” As to the -circumstances under which this map was drawn, De Smet explains as -follows in a letter dated July 1, 1857, to officials of the Department -of the Interior: - - When I was at the council ground in 1851, on the Platte River, at the - mouth of the Horse creek, I was requested by Colonel Mitchell - [superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis] to make a map of the - whole Indian country, relating particularly to the Upper Missouri, the - waters of the upper Platte, east of the Rocky mountains and of the - headwaters of the Columbia and its tributaries west of these - mountains. In compliance with this request I drew up the map from - scraps then in my possession. The map, so prepared, was seemingly - approved and made use of by the gentlemen assembled in council, and - subsequently sent on to Washington together with the treaty then made - with the Indians. In my humble opinion, therefore, it can be of very - little service for your purposes, in which accuracy of instrumental - measurements and observation seems to be absolutely necessary.... - -The final gesture of modesty may explain why this revealing map, -prepared and made available to the government twenty years before the -first official Park exploration got under way, was duly glanced at by -the department authorities and then tucked away, a needle in the -haystack of official files, in Washington, D. C., where it still -reposes. It contains all the features of the “Bridger Map,” but with -refinements. Here is a “Great Volcanic Region [?] now in a state of -eruption,” drained by “Fire Hole Riv.” The lake now appear as -“Yellowstone or Sublette’s Lake,” still oddly sausage-shaped. There is a -“Little Falls” at the head of the canyon but the more impressive Lower -Falls are unexplainably omitted. To the southwest, in the position of -present Shoshone Lake, is “De Smet Lake.” To the east at the forks of -“Stinking Fr.” appears the “Sulphur Springs or Colter’s Hell Volcano” -which, due to the unavailability of this map, has led so many historians -astray. This map, with its manuscript forebears, ranks with the Ferris -journal and map and the Potts letter as one of the principal historical -documents pertaining to early Yellowstone. - - [Illustration: Trappers in Pierre’s Hole, west of “Les Trois Tetons”] - -It is not evident that information given by Gunnison and De Smet or any -of their predecessors relative to unusual phenomena on the Upper -Yellowstone greatly impressed representatives of the Federal Government. -Certainly no eagerness to verify these reports is betrayed in the -official instructions dated April 13, 1859, by which Captain Raynolds, -Corps of Topographical Engineers, was directed “to organize an -expedition for the exploration of the region of the country through -which flow the principal tributaries of the Yellowstone river, and of -the mountains in which they, and the Gallatin and Madison forks of the -Missouri, have their source.” However, since one of the objects of this -exploration was to ascertain the principal topographical features and -since, moreover, the indispensable Bridger was secured as a guide, it -would seem that the Yellowstone marvels were just about to be officially -discovered and proclaimed. Not so, however. The expedition left winter -camp on Platte River in May 1860. While a detachment under Lieutenant -Henry E. Maynadier went north along the eastern slope of the Absaroka -Range, the main party ascended Wind River to Union Pass, then turned -north seeking the headwaters of the Yellowstone. Deep snow and a great -“basaltic ridge” blocked their efforts before they reached Two Ocean -Pass, and they had to satisfy themselves with encircling the Park area -via Jackson’s Hole, Teton Pass, Henry’s Fork, and Raynolds’ Pass. By way -of the Madison, they rejoined Maynadier at the Three Forks. Raynolds’ -report and map became the first recognition by the Federal Government of -the possible existence of volcanic activity in the region of the Upper -Yellowstone. For information regarding the “burning plains, immense -lakes, and boiling springs” and other unverifiable phenomena mentioned -he was, of course, indebted to his guide Bridger, with trimmings added -by Meldrum. On his “Map of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers,” within -the “enchanted enclosure” which now constitutes Yellowstone National -Park, the soldier-explorer had the courage to place “Yellowstone Lake,” -“Falls of the Yellowstone,” “Burnt Hole,” “Sulphur Mountain,” and -“Elephant’s Back Mt.,” all now recognizable features. This was an -extraordinary demonstration of faith in Bridger’s veracity. Because of -the Civil War, publication of the report was delayed until 1868, but the -map itself was first issued separately a few years earlier. - -It was the discovery of gold, first in California and later in Colorado, -which started the population moving centrally westward in great numbers -and diverted whatever attention might otherwise have become focussed on -the Upper Yellowstone region. It was the discovery of gold in western -Montana which brought about its rediscovery and early creation as the -world’s first National Park. Although there was desultory prospecting -previous to 1862, it was in that year that the news of several major -gold strikes was broadcast and a full scale stampede to the diggings -began. In the spring of 1863 at least two prospecting parties entered -the Park. Although they were feverishly preoccupied with the search for -gold, the unusual character of the country did not escape them entirely, -and the leader of one party made something akin to the first scientific -eyewitness report. This was Walter W. DeLacy, a professional surveyor. -In August 1863 he fell in with an expedition of forty-two men bound for -Snake River, and was elected captain. Their search being unrewarded, -fifteen of the party deserted at Jackson Lake, the others deciding to -push north. From the junction of the Lewis and the Snake they went over -the Pitchstone Plateau to discover Shoshone Lake and Lewis Lake. From -there they crossed over the Divide to the geyser basins of the Firehole. -Although amazed at the “Steamboat Springs” they had little time for -sight-seeing, and left the Park by way of the Gallatin. DeLacy’s -discoveries were incorporated in his “Map of the Territory of Montana,” -which was published “for the use of the First Legislature of Montana” in -1865. His accurate firsthand knowledge of the western section of the -Park is reflected in the correct relationship of “Jackson’s Lake” and -unnamed Lewis Lake and Shoshone Lake, and in the “Hot Spring Valley” or -geyser basin at the headwaters of the Madison. Identifiable features of -the unvisited eastern section consist only of a misshapen “Yellow Stone -Lake” and the “Falls.” - -We have recognized the Ferris map of 1836 and the De Smet map of 1851, -based on the undated “Bridger Map,” as the earliest authentic maps of -the Yellowstone Park area, but these remained unpublished and -unheralded. The Raynolds and DeLacy maps, though purporting to reveal -the scenic wonders, were scanned mainly by single-minded gold seekers -before they became obsolete. As to other contemporary published maps, -the persistence of this geographical blind spot in the face of testimony -offered by such prime witnesses as Potts, Ferris, and Bridger is -demonstrated by the fact that for over half a century of map making by -such respected cartographers as John Arrowsmith, Albert Gallatin, -Bonneville, Fremont, and Gouverneur K. Warren there was no improvement -in the “Yellowstone Park” section of the Clark map of 1810, with its -“Lake Eustis” and “Hot Spring Brimstone.” There were only occasional -meaningless variations of nomenclature. For instance, on the Robert -Greenhow map of 1840 and on E. F. Beade’s “New Map of the Great West,” -published in 1856, “Hot Sulphur Springs” is substituted. On Charles -Wilkes’ “Map of Oregon Territory” which appeared in 1845 and on the J. -H. Colton map which accompanied Horn’s Overland Guide, published in -1856, this phenomenon becomes “Steamboat Sp.” and Eustis is transformed -into “Sublette’s L.” However, on the famed Colton map of 1867, just five -years before the first boat was launched from its shores, the phantom -lake—Eustis, Sublette, or Yellowstone—has disappeared entirely! - -Contemporary newspaper accounts and later published reminiscences reveal -several prospecting expeditions which traversed the Park area during the -period 1864-1869, but the partial and foggy reports of “a lost world” -given out by these treasure hunters did little to dispel the curtain of -mystery stubbornly surrounding the area. The cumulative effect of such -reports and rumors, however, was destined soon to convince intelligent -listeners that no wild tale could be so persistent, and that there must -be something at the headwaters of the Yellowstone worth looking into. In -September 1869, David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook, and William Peterson -packed south out of Diamond City, Montana, without distracting thoughts -of beaver hides or gold, but with the express purpose of exploring that -neighborhood and reporting their findings without adornment. General -Henry D. Washburn, Hon. Cornelius Hedges, Hon. Nathaniel Langford, Dr. -Ferdinand V. Hayden, and Photographer William H. Jackson were standing -in the wings. The brief era of definitive discovery was dawning. - - [Illustration: First picture ever made of Yellowstone Lake from - watercolor by Henry W. Elliott, 1871. - Picture courtesy of Haynes Studios, Inc.] - - - - - Selected Bibliography for - COLTER’S HELL AND JACKSON’S HOLE - - - Allen, Paul, _History of the Expedition Under the Command of Captains - Lewis and Clark_, 2 vols. (Philadelphia, 1814). - Alter, J. Cecil, _James Bridger_ (Salt Lake City, 1925). - Bancroft, H. H., _History of Nevada, Colorado and Wyoming, 1540-1888_ - (San Francisco, 1890). - Barry, J. Neilson (ed.), “Journal of E. Willard Smith,” _Quarterly of - the Oregon Historical Society_ (September 1913). - Bonneville, Captain B. L. E., undated letter from Fort Smith, - Arkansas, _Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana_ - (Helena), I (1876), 93-97. - Brackenridge, Henry M., _Views of Louisiana_ (Pittsburgh, 1814). - Bradbury, John, _Travels in the Interior of North America, 1809-1811_ - (London, 1819), republished in Reuben G. Thwaites (ed.), - _Early Western Travels_, 32 vols. (Cleveland, 1904-1907), V. - Burpee, Lawrence J. (ed.), _Journal of Larocque from the Assiniboine - to the Yellowstone, 1805_ (Ottawa, 1910). - Carter, Clarence E. (ed.), _Territorial Papers of the United States_ - (Washington, 1934), XIII, _Territory of Louisiana-Missouri, - 1803-1806_ (1948). - Chittenden, Hiram M., _The American Fur Trade of the Far West_, 2 - vols., ed. by Stallo Vinton (New York, 1936). - Chittenden, Hiram M. and Richardson, Albert T., _Life, Letters and - Travels of Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, S. J., 1801-1873_ (New - York, 1905), 4 vols. - Chittenden, Hiram M., _The Yellowstone National Park, Historical and - Descriptive_ (Cincinnati, 1895). - Coues, Elliott (ed.), _Forty Years a Fur Trader ... Charles - Larpenteur_, 2 vols. (New York, 1898). - Coutant, Charles G., _History of Wyoming_ (Laramie, 1899). - Dale, Harrison C., _The Ashley-Smith Explorations_ (Glendale, 1941). - DeLacy, Walter W., _Map of the Territory of Montana_, etc. (St. Louis, - 1865). - DeLacy, Walter W., “A Trip Up the South Snake River in 1863,” - _Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana_, I - (1876). - De Smet, Pierre Jean, _Western Missions and Missionaries_ (New York, - 1863). - DeVoto, Bernard, _Across the Wide Missouri_ (Boston, 1947). - DeVoto, Bernard (ed.), _Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth_ - (New York, 1931). - Ellison, William H., _Life and Adventures of George Nidever_ - (Berkeley, 1937). - Frost, Donald M., _Notes on General Ashley, the Overland Trail and - South Pass_ (Worcester, 1944). - Grant, Blanche C. (ed.), _Kit Carson’s Own Life Story_ (Taos, 1926). - Gunnison, John W., _The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints in the Valley of - the Great Salt Lake_ (Philadelphia, 1852). - Hamilton, William T., _My Sixty Years on the Plains_ (New York, 1905). - Harris, Burton, _John Colter, His Years in the Rockies_ (New York, - 1952). - Irving, Washington, _Astoria, or Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the - Rocky Mountains_, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1836). - Irving, Washington, _The Rocky Mountains.... The Journal of Captain B. - L. E. Bonneville_, 2 vols. (Philadelphia. 1837). - James, Thomas, _Three Years Among the Indians_, ed. by Walter B. - Douglas (St. Louis, 1916), reprinted from original edition of - 1846. - Kennerly, William C., _Persimmon Hill: A Narrative of Old St. Louis_ - (Norman, 1948). - Laut, Agnes, _Conquest of the Great Northwest_ (G. H. Doran Co., - 1908). - Lindsay, Charles, _The Big Horn Basin_ (Lincoln, 1932). - Mattes, Merrill J., “Behind the Legend of Colter’s Hell: The Early - Exploration of Yellowstone National Park,” _Mississippi Valley - Historical Review_ (September 1949). - Mattes, Merrill J., “Jackson Hole, Crossroads of the Western Fur - Trade, 1807-1840,” _Pacific Northwest Quarterly_ (April 1946 - and January 1948). - Parker, Samuel, _Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rocky - Mountains_ (Ithaca, 1944). - Phillips, Paul C. (ed.), _Life in the Rocky Mountains; A Diary ... by - Warren A. Ferris_ (Denver, 1940). - Potts, Daniel T., Letters, _Yellowstone Nature Notes_ (September - 1947). - Raynolds, General William F., “Report on the Explorations of the - Yellowstone River” (Washington, 1868), _Senate Executive - Documents_, No. 77. 40 Cong. 1 [2] Sess. - Rollins, Philip A. (ed.), _The Discovery of the Oregon Trail_ (Hunt - and Stuart Journals) (New York, 1935). - Ross, Alexander, _The Fur Hunters of the Far West_, 2 vols. (London, - 1855). - Russell, Osborne, _Journal of a Trapper_, edited by Aubrey L. Haines - (Portland, 1955). - Sabin, Edwin L., _Kit Carson Days_, 2 vols. (New York, 1935). - Sullivan, M. S., _Travels of Jedediah Smith_ (Santa Ana, 1934). - Thwaites, Reuben G., _Oregon; or, a Short History ... by John B. - Wyeth_ (_Early Western Travels_) (Cleveland, 1905), XXI. - Thwaites, Reuben G. (ed.), _Original Journals of the Lewis and Clark - Expedition 1804-1806_, 8 vols. (New York, 1904-1905), V. - Topping, E. S., _Chronicles of the Yellowstone_ (St. Paul, 1883). - Victor, Frances Fuller, _The River of the West_ (Hartford, 1870). - Vinton, Stallo, _John Colter, Discoverer of Yellowstone Park_ (New - York, 1926). - Wagner, W. F. (ed.), _Leonard’s Narrative; Adventures of Zenas Leonard - 1831-1836_ (Cleveland, 1904). - Webb, J. Watson (ed.), _Altowan_, 2 vols. (New York, 1846). - Wislizenus, F. A., _A Journey to the Rocky Mountains in 1839_ (St. - Louis, 1912). - - [Illustration: Colter’s Route 1807-1808 (CONJECTURAL) - Trapper Trails 1811-1840] - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - ---Retained copyright notice on the original book (this eBook is - public-domain in the country of publication.) - ---Silently corrected a few palpable typos. - ---Moved illustrations to the nearest paragraph break, adjusting page - breaks where necessary. - ---In the text versions, delimited italicized words with _underscores_ - (the HTML version uses bold and italic fonts instead.) - - - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Colter's Hell and Jackson's Hole, by -Merrill J. 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