The Yellowstone National Park : historical and descriptive : illustrated with maps, views and portraits

Front matter

A. Dean and Jean M. Larsen Yellowstone Park Collection

I

BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Preface

The present edition of The Yellowstone embraces a thorough revision of the entire work. Part I. (historical) contains much new matter on the early history of the Park ; additional information concerning its geographical names, and a new account of the Nez Perce campaign of 1877. Part II (descriptive) is greatly enlarged in the chapters on topography, geology, thermal springs, fauna and flora, roadways and administration; while the "Tour of the Park" has been entirely recast to conform to the completed road system which has opened up new sections of the Park. The illustrations are nearly all original. Especial pains has been taken to make them representative of the Park scenery as a whole, and not simply an album of conventional geyser and waterfall views.

It is extremely gratifying to note, as time goes on, that, in every important respect, the Yellowstone Park has so far fulfilled the expectations of its founders and justified the wisdom of its creation. As a land of wonders it still remains without an equal on the globe; as a source of great rivers, whose waters will be the life-blood of a mighty future empire, its vast importance is beginning to be realized; as a refuge for the native fauna of the coun-

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IV PREFACE.

try, elsewhere fast passing away, it is all that can be reasonably expected. Its growing favor with the general public is evidenced by the increasing number of visitors; and with the local public, by the reduced frequency of poaching and by the abandonment of efforts to introduce railroads or cut off portions of its territory. There is no longer any reason to doubt that the Park will maintain its integrity as one of the very few government reservations where the original conditions of nature are being preserved with fidelity.

Table of Contents,

Tower Falls 323

TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii

Appendix

Page.

Map Index — Mountain Ranges, Peaks, Buttes, Ridges,

Hills 339

Mountain Passes 340

Lakes 340

Streams 341

Waterfalls 343

List of Prominent Geysers 343

Index 347

List of Illustrations.

Page.

Great Falls of the Yellowstone and Old Faithful Geyser —

Frontispiece

Historical Chart 9

The Teton Mountains and Jackson Lake 30

Osprey Falls, Middle Gardiner River 50

Raynolds' Explorations — Map 56

Snow in the Park Forests 70

Forest Fire 90

Baronett Bridge (First Bridge over the Yellowstone) .... 99

Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces 110

Yellowstone River near Old Bannock Ford 130

Morning Mist in the Valley of the Yellowstone 150

The Devil's Inkstand 170

Soda Butte 176

The Travertine Rocks 190

Fountain and Cone Geysers (The Great Fountain and Old

Faithful) 207

Bruin Among the Flowers — Posing for a Picture 220

Fallen Timber 233

Ornamental Forest Growths 246

The Needle, near Tower Falls 259

Golden Gate Viaduct 266

Pulpit Terrace and Orange Geyser 279

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X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Crater of Great Fountain Geyser 290

Upper Geyser Basin 294

Giant Geyser Cone 298

Thunderstorm on Yellowstone Lake 305

Outlet of Yellowstone Lake 312

Upper Fall of the Yellowstone 316

Lower Fall, through Rain Mist 319

Granite Boulder near Inspiration Point 321

Tower Falls 330

The Hoodoos 336

Scene on East Road 342

Yellowstone National Park (Map) Folder

THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

Part I. -Historical.

chapter I. 'YELLOWSTONE.'

Lewis and Clark passed the first winter of their famous trans-continental expedition among the Mandan Indians, on the Missouri River, fifty-six miles above the present capital of North Dakota. When about to resume their journey in the spring of 1805, they sent back to President Jefferson a report of progress and a map of the western country based upon information derived from the Indians. In this report and upon this map appear, probably for the first time in any official document, the words "Yellow Stone" as the name of the principal tributary of the Missouri.

It seems, however, that Lewis and Clark were not the first actually to use the name. David Thompson, the celebrated explorer and geographer, prominently identified with the British fur trade in the Northwest, was among the Mandan Indians on the Missouri River from December 29, 1797, to January 10, 1798. While there he secured data, principally from the natives, from which he estimated the latitude and longitude of the source of the Yellowstone River. In his original manuscript journal and field note-books, containing the record of his determinations, the words "Yellow Stone" appear precisely as used by Lewis and Clark in 1805. This is, perhaps, the first use of the name in its Anglicised form, and it is certainly the first attempt to determine accurately the geographical location of the source of the stream.*

Neither Thompson nor Lewis and Clark were originators of the name. They gave us only the English translation of a name already long in use. "This river," say Lewis and Clark, in their journal for the day of their arrival at the mouth of the now noted stream, "had been known to the French as the Roche Jaune, or, as we have called it, the Yellow Stone." The French name was, in fact, already firmly established among the traders and trappers of the Northwest Fur Company, when Lewis and Clark met them among the Mandans. Even by the members of the expedition it seems to have been more generally used than the new English form; and the spellings, "Rejone," "Rejhone," "Rochejone," "Rochejohn," and "Rochejhone," are among their various attempts to render orthographically the French pronunciation.

Probably the name would have been adopted unchanged, as so many other French names in our geography have been, except for the recent cession of Louisiana to the

*Thorapson's estimate:

Latitude, 43° 39' 45" north.

Longitude, 109° 43' 17" west.

Yount Peak, source of the Yellowstone (Hay den) :

Latitude, 43° 57' north.

Longitude, 109° 52' west.

Thompson's error:

In latitude, 17' 15".

In longitude, 8' 43", or about 21 miles.

"YELLOWSTONE." 3

United States. The policy which led the government promptly to explore, and take formal possession of, its extensive acquisition, led it also, as part of the process of rapid Americanization, to give English names to all of the more prominent geographical features. In the case of the name here under consideration this was not an easy matter. The French form had already obtained wide currency, and it was reluctantly set aside for its less familiar translation. As late as 1817, it still appeared in newly English printed books,* while among the traders and trappers of the mountains, it survived to a much later period.

By whom the name Roche Jaune, or its equivalent form, Pierre Jaune, was first used, it would be extremely interesting to know; but it is impossible to determine at this late day. Like their successor, "Yellow Stone/' these names were not originals, but only translations. The Indian tribes along the Yellowstone and upper Missouri rivers had names for the tributary stream signifying "yellow rock/'f and the French had doubtless adopted them long before any of their number saw the stream itself.

It has been supposed that the Valley of the Yellowstone was visited by white men before the time of Lewis and Clark, particularly by the Chevalier de la Verendyre about the year 1743. But later researches have shown that the route of this explorer lay further South, and that he did not enter the Yellowstone Valley at all. He may have learned of the existence of that stream, and may have heard its native name ; but if so there is no record of the fact.

Following do la Verendyre at the distance of nearly half a century came the traders and trappers of the Northwest

♦Bradbury's "Travels in the Interior of America." fThe name "Elk River" was also used among the Crow Indians.

4 THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARKr

Fur Company. As already told, they were among the Mandans as early as 1797, and the name Roche Jaune was in common use among them in 1804. But it is quite certain that, prior to 1805, none of them had reached the Yellowstone .River itself. Lewis and Clark particularly record the fact, while yet some distance below the junction of this river with the Missouri, that they had already passed the utmost limit of previous adventure by white men. Whatever, therefore, was at this time known of the Yellowstone could have come to these traders only from Indian sources.*

It thus appears that the name, which has now become so celebrated, descends to us, through two translations, from those native races whose immemorial dwelling place had been along the stream which it describes. What it was that led them to use the name is easily discoverable. Seventy-five miles below the ultimate source of the river lies the Grand Canon of the Yellowstone, distinguished among the notable canons of the globe by the marvelous coloring of its walls. Conspicuous among its innumerable tints is yellow. Every shade, from the brilliant plumage of the yellow bird to the rich saffron of the orange, greets the eye in bewildering profusion. There is indeed other color, unparalleled in variety and abundance, but the ever-present background of all is the beautiful fifth color of the spectrum.

So prominent is this feature that it never fails to attract

♦Much information has come to light in recent years to throw doubt on the correctness of Lewis and Clark's statement that they were the first white men on the Upper Missouri. While no positive and definite record has yet been found disproving their statement, researches among old documents pertaining to French occupancy of Louisiana indicate that there were much earlier explorations of the Far West country than has generally been supposed.

attention, and all descriptions of the Canon abound in references to it. Lieutenant Doane (1870) notes the "brilliant yellow color" of the rocks. Captain Barlow and Doctor Hay den (1871) refer, in almost the same words, to "the yellow, nearly vertical walls." Raymond (1871) speaks ocf the "bright yellow of the sulphury clay." Captain Jones (1873) says that "about and in the Grand Canon the rocks are nearly all tinged a brilliant yellow." These early impressions might be repeated from the writings of every subsequent visitor who has described the scenery of the Yellowstone.

That a characteristic which so deeply moves the modern beholder should have made a profound impression on the mind of the Indian need hardly be premised. This region was by no means unknown to him; and from the remote, although uncertain, period of his first acquaintance with it, the name of the river has undoubtedly descended.

Going back, then, to this obscure fountain-head, the original designation is found to have been

Mi tsi a da zi* Rock Yellow River.

And this, in the French tongue, became

Roche Jaune and Pierre Jaune; and in English,

Yellow BocTc and Yellow Stone.

Established usage now writes it

Yellowstone.

♦Minnetaree, on© of the Siouan family of languages.

Chapter II. Indian Occupancy Of The Upper Yellowstone

It is a singular fact in the history of the Yellowstone National Park that very little knowledge of that country seems to have been derived from the Indians. The explanation ordinarily advanced is that the Indians had a superstitious fear of the geyser regions, and therefore avoided them. How far this theory is supported by the results of modern research is an interesting inquiry.

Three great families of Indians, the Siouan, the Algonquian, and the Shoshonean, originally occupied the country around the sources of the Yellowstone. Of these three families the following tribes are alone of interest in this connection: The Crows, of the Siouan family; the Blackfeet, of the Algonquian family; and the Bannocks, the Eastern Shoshones, and the Sheepeaters, of the Shoshonean family.

The home of the Crows was in the Valley of the Yellowstone and Big Horn Rivers, below the mountains, where they have dwelt since the white man's earliest knowledge of them. Their territory extended to the mountains which bound the Yellowstone Park on the north and east; bat they never occupied or claimed any of the country beyond. Their well-known tribal characteristics were an insatiable love of horse stealing and a wandering and predatory habit which caused them to roam over all the West from the Black Hills to the Bitter Root Mountains, and from the British Possessions to the Spanish Provinces. They were generally friendly to the whites, but enemies of the

INDIAN OCCUPANCY OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE. 7

neighboring Blackfeet and Shoshones. Physically, they were a stalwart, handsome race, fine horsmen and daring hunters. They were everywhere encountered by the trapper and prospector, who generally feared them more on account of their thievish habits than for reasons of personal safety.

The Blackfeet dwelt in the country drained by the headwaters of the Missouri. Their territory may be roughly denned as the watershed of that stream above and including Milk Eiver. The distinguishing historic trait of these Indians was their settled hostility to their neighbors, whether white or Indian. The}'- were a tribe of perpetual fighters, justly characterized as the Ishmaelites of their race. From the day in 1806, when Captain Lewis slew one of their number, down to their final subjection by the advancing power of the whites, they never buried the hatchet. They were the terror of the trapper and miner, and hundreds of the pioneers perished at their hands. Like the Crows, they were a well-developed race, good horsemen and great rovers, but, in fight, given to subterfuge and strategem rather than to open boldness of action.*

* The term Blackfeet in the earlier years of the past century embraced, in popular language, four tribes — the Blackfeet proper, the Bloods, the Piegan and the Grosventres of the Prairies. The Grosventres did not properly belong to the Blackfeet at all, but were related to the Arapahoes, who dwelt near the headwaters of the Arkansas. In some of their early migrations the two tribes had become separated, the Grosventres settling down in the country of the Blackfeet, with whom, in the course of long association, they became closely identified. They were the most relentlessly hostile to the whites of any of the four tribes. It was a Grosventre Indian that Captain Lewis killed in 1806.

In marked contrast with these warlike and wandering tribes were those of the great Shoshonean family, who occupied the country around the southern, eastern, and western borders of the Park, including also that of the Park itself. The Shoshones as a family were an inferior race. They seem to have been the victims of some great misfortune which had driven them to precarious methods of subsistence and had made them the prey of their powerful and merciless neighbors. The names "Fish-eaters," "Root-diggers," and other opprobrious epithets, indicate the contempt in which they were commonly held. For the most part they had no horses, and obtained a livelihood only by the most abject means. Some of the tribes, however, rose above this degraded condition, owned horses; hunted buffalo, and met their enemies in open conflict. Such were the Bannocks and the Eastern Shoshones — tribes closely connected with the history of the Park, one occupying the country to the southwest near the Teton Mountains, and the other that to the southeast in the Valley of Wind River. The Shoshones were generally friendly to the whites, and for this reason they figure less prominently in the books of early adventure than do the Blackfeet, whose acts of "sanguinary violence" were a staple article for the Indian romancer.

It was an humble branch of the Shoshonean family which alone is known to have permanently occupied what is now the Yellowstone Park. They were called Tukuarika, or, more commonly, Sheepeaters. They were found in the Park country at the time of its discovery, and had doubtless long been there. These hermits of the mountains, whom the French trappers called "Us dignes de pitie" have engaged the sympathy or contempt of explorers since our earliest knowledge of them. Utterly unf.t for

Historical Chart.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY OF TTIE UPPER YELLOWSTONE. 9

warlike contention, they seem to have sought immunity from their dangerous neighbors by dwelling among the inaccessible fastnesses of the mountains. They were destitute of even savage comforts. Their food, as their name indicates, was principally the flesh of the mountain sheep. Their clothing was composed of skins. They had no horses, and were armed only with bows and arrows. They captured game by driving it into brush enclosures. Their rigorous existence left its mark on their physical nature. They were feeble in mind, diminutive in stature, and are always described as a "timid, harmless race." They may have been longer resident in this region than is commonly supposed, for there was a tradition among them, apparently connected with some remote period of geological disturbance, that most of their race were once destroyed by a terrible convulsion of nature.

Such were the Indian tribes who formerly dwelt within or near the country now embraced in the Yellowstone National Park. That the Sheepeaters actually occupied this country, and that wandering bands from other tribes occasionally visited it, there is abundant and conclusive proof. Indian trails, though generally indistinct, were everywhere found by the early explorers, generally on lines since occupied by the tourist routes. One of these followed the Yellowstone Valley entirely across the Park from north to south. It divided at Yellowstone Lake, the principal branch following the east shore, crossing Two-Ocean- Pass, and intersecting a great trail which connected the Snake and Wind Eiver Valleys. The other branch passed along the west shore of the lake and over the divide to the valley of the Snake Eiver and Jackson Lake. This trail was intersected by an important one in the vicinity of Conant Creek leading up from the Upper Snake Valley to

10 TILL YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

that of Henry Fork. Other intersecting trails connected the Yellowstone River trail with the Madison and Firehole Basins on the west and with the Bighorn Valley on the east.

The most important Indian trail in the Park, however, was that known as the Great Bannock Trail. It extended from Henry Lake across the Gallatin Range to Mammoth Hot Springs, where it was joined by another coming up the valley of the Gardiner. Thence it led across the Blacktail Deer plateau to the ford above Tower Falls; and thence up the Lamar Valley, forking at Soda Butte, and reaching the Bighorn Valley by way of Clark's Fork and the Shoshone River.* This trail was certainly a very ancient and much-traveled one. It had become a deep furrow in the grassy slopes, and it is still distinctly visible in places, though unused for a quarter of a century.

Additional evidence in the same direction may be seen in the widespread distribution of implements peculiar to Indian use. Arrows and spear heads have been found in considerable numbers. Obsidian Cliff was an important quarry, and the open country near the outlet of Yellowstone Lake a favorite camping ground. Certain implements, such as pipes, hammers, and stone vessels, indicating the former presence of a more civilized people, have been found to a limited extent; and some explorers have thought that a symmetrical mound in the valley of the Snake River, below the mouth of Heart River, is of artificial origin. Reference will be made later to the discovery of a rude granite structure near the top of the Grand Teton, which is unquestionably of very ancient date.

Rustic Geyser, in the Heart Lake Geyser Basin, is "bor-

* For history of this name, see chapter on geographical nomenclature of the Park.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE. 11

dered by logs which are coated with a crystalline, semitranslucent deposit of geyserite. These logs were evidently placed around the geyser by either Indians or white men a number of years ago, as the coating is thick and the logs firmly attached to the surrounding deposit."*

More recent and perishable proofs of the presence of Indians in the Park were found by the early explorers in the rude wick-e-ups, brush inclosures, and similar contrivances of the lonely Sheepeaters.

The real question of doubt in regard to Indian occupancy of or visits to the Park is therefore not one of fact, but of degree. The Sheepeaters certainly dwelt there ; but as to other tribes, their acquaintance with it seems to have been very limited. No word of information about the geyser regions ever fell from their lips, except that the surrounding country was known to them as the Burning Mountains. With one or two exceptions, the old trails were very indistinct, requiring an experienced eye to distinguish them from game trails. Their undeveloped condition indicated infrequent use. Old trappers who knew this region in early times say that the great majority of Indians never saw it. Able Indian guides in the surrounding country became lost when they entered the Park, and the Nez Perces were forced to impress a white man as guide when they crossed it in 1877.

A writer, to whom extended reference will be made in a later chapter, visited the Upper Geyser Basin in 1832. accompanied by two Pend d'Oreilles Indians. Neither of these Indians had ever seen or apparently heard of the geysers, and they "were quite appalled" at the sight of

* Page 298, Twelfth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden. It is more than probable that this was the work of trappers.

them, believing them to be "supernatural" and the "production of the Evil Spirit."

Lieutenant Doane, who commanded the military escort to the Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, says in his report :*

"Appearances indicated that the basin [of the Yellowstone Lake] had been almost entirely abandoned by the sons of the forest. A few lodges of Sheepeaters, a branch remnant of the Snake tribe, wretched beasts who run from the sight of a white man, or from any other tribe of Indians, are said to inhabit the fastnesses of the mountains around the lakes, poorly armed and dismounted, obtaining a precarious subsistence and in a defenseless condition. We saw, however, no recent traces of them. The larger tribes never enter the basin, restrained by superstitious ideas in connection with the thermal springs."

In 1880, Col. P. W. Norris, Second Superintendent of the Park, had a long interview on the shore of the Yellowstone Lake with We-Saw, "an old but remarkably intelligent Indian" of the Shoshone tribe, who was then acting as guide to an exploring party under Governor Hoyt, of Wyoming, and who had previously passed through the Park with the expedition of 1873 under Capt. W. A. Jones, U. S. A. He had also been in the Park region on former occasions. Colonel Norris records the following facts from this Indian's conversation : f

"We-Saw states that he had neither knowledge nor tradition of any permanent occupants of the Park save the timid Sheepeaters. ... He said that his people (Shoshones), the Bannocks, and the Crows, occasionally visited the Yellowstone Lake and River portions of the Park, but

* Page 26, "Yellowstone Expedition of 1870." 1 Page 38, Annual Report of Superintendent of the Park for 1881.

INDIAN OCCUPANCY OF THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE. 13

very seldom the geyser regions, which he declared were 'heap, heap, bad/ and never wintered there, as white men sometimes did with horses."

It seems that even the resident Sheepeaters knew little of the geyser basins. General Sheridan, who entered the Park from the South in 1882, makes this record in his report of the expedition:*

"We had with us five Sheep-eating Indians as guides, and, strange to say, although these Indians had lived for years and years about Mounts Sheridan and Hancock, and the high mountains Southeast of the Yellowstone Lake, they knew nothing about the Firehole Geyser Basin, and they exhibited more astonishment and wonder than any of us."

Evidence like the foregoing clearly indicates that this country was terra incognita to the vast body of Indians who dwelt around it, and again this singular fact presents itself for explanation. Was it, as is generally supposed, a "superstitious fear" that kept them away? The incidents just related give some color to such a theory; but if it were really true, we should expect to find well authenticated Indian traditions of so marvelous a country. Unfortunately history records none that are worthy of consideration. Only in the names "Yellowstone" and "Burning Mountains" do we find any original evidence that this land of wonders appealed in the least degree to the native imagination.!

The real explanation of this remarkable ignorance appears to us to rest on grounds essentially practical. There was nothing to induce the Indians to visit the Park country. For three-fourths of the year that country is

* Page 11, Report on Explorations of Parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, 1882.

* See, however, Page 46.

inaccessible on account of snow. It is covered with dense forests, which in most places are so filled with fallen timber and tangled underbrush as to be practically impassable. As a game country in those early days it could not compare with the lower surrounding valleys. As a highway of communication between the valleys of the Missouri, Snake, Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers, it was no thoroughfare. The great routes, except the Bannock trail already described, lay on the outside. All the conditions, therefore, which might attract the Indians to this region were wanting. Even those sentimental influences, such as a love of sublime scenery and a curiosity to see the strange freaks of nature, evidently had less weight with them than with their pale-face brethren.

Chapter III. John Colter

The first white man to set foot within the territory of the Yellowstone National Park was the individual whose name stands at the head of this chapter. He first comes to our notice as a private soldier in the expedition of Lewis and Clark. He accompanied these explorers across the continent and as far back as Fort M'andan, the winter quarters of 1804-5. He was a typical frontiersman, though of more than average ability. A man of undaunted courage and incredible endurance, his whole career, so far as we know it, was filled with perilous adventure, and his exploits might pass for fairy tales were they not substantiated by the most reliable evidence. During his service under Lewis and Clark he won the respect and praise of those officers, and his work after he left them has won for him the respect and praise of his posterity.

When Lewis and Clark reached Fort Mandan on their return journey in 1806, Colter appealed to them to be relieved from further service in order that he might remain in the country and trap for beaver. The incident is thus recorded in the journal under date of August 15 and 10, 1806 :

';ln the evening we were applied to by one of our men, Colter, who was desirous of joining the two trappers who had accompanied us, and who now proposed an expedition up the river, in which they were to find traps and give him a share of the profits. The offer was a very advantageous one, and, as he had always performed his duty, and his services might be dispensed with, we agreed that he might go, provided none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. To this they cheerfully answered that they wished Colter every success and would not apply for liberty to separate before we reached St. Louis. We therefore supplied him, as did his comrades also, with powder, lead, and a variety of articles which might be useful to him, and he left us the next day/''

To our explorers, just returning from a two years' sojourn in the wilderness, Colter's decision seemed too remarkable to be passed over in silence. The journal continues:

"The example of this man shows us how easily men may be weaned from the habits of civilized life to the ruder but scarcely less fascinating manners of the woods. This hunter has now been absent for many years from the frontier, and might naturally be presumed to have some anxiety, or some curiosity at least, to return to his friends and his country; yet just at the moment when he J3 approaching the frontiers, he is tempted by a hunting scheme to give up those delightful prospects, and go back without the least reluctance to the solitude of the woods."

Colter remained on the upper rivers until the spring of 1807, but just where, or with what adventure, is not known. After his first winter in the trapping business he decided to return to St. Louis. He set out in a log canoe entirely alone and made his way in safety as far as to the mouth of the Platte River. Here he met an expedition under the celebrated trader, Manuel Lisa, bound for the headwaters of the Missouri to verify the glowing reports brought back by Lewis and Clark concerning the wealth of beaver fur to be found in that region. To Lisa the accession of such a recruit as John Colter, fresh from the very country to which he was going, was a matter of the very highest importance. What inducements were offered we do not know, but enough to decide the self-exiled hunter to give up his return to civilization and to set his face for the third time toward the wilderness.

Nothing occurred on the voyage with which his name is connected until the arrival of the expedition at the mouth of the Bighorn. Lisa had expected to find the Blackfeet nation very hostile, and it may have been a fear of this hostility that caused his unlucky decision to establish himself in the country of their enemies, the Crows. But it seemed that a detachment of Lisa's party met a band of Blackfeet, either before or soon after the arrival at the mouth of the Bighorn, from whom interesting and important information was obtained. Far from being hostile, these Indians evinced a pacific disposition, and said that the provocation under which Captain Lewis had acted in killing one of their number was so obvious and flagrant that they had not cherished this act as a justification of hostility, and were ready to open relations of trade with the whites.