Terry Engr. Co.
U. S. Geological Survey.
First Bridge Over the Yellowstone.
Baronett’s Bridge crosses the river immediately opposite Junction Butte. It is the first and only bridge yet (1895) built across the Yellowstone within the limits of the Park. It was built by the well known mountaineer, J. H. Baronett, in the spring of 1871, for the convenience of Clark’s Fork miners. It was partially destroyed by the Nez Percés in 1877, but was repaired by Howard’s command, and still further repaired the following year by Baronett and Norris. In 1880, it was replaced by a more substantial structure. At present it enjoys the unique distinction of being a private toll bridge on a government reservation.
Junction Valley, [BR] described elsewhere, is a name properly applicable to the valley inclosed by Crescent Hill, Mt. Washburn, Specimen Ridge, and the mountains north of Lamar River. This valley, and those of tributary streams, form the largest treeless tract in the Park.
[BR] The popular name for this locality is “Yancey’s,” from John Yancey, who has long held a lease in the Valley of Lost Creek at the foot of Crescent Hill. He has kept a sort of hotel or stopping place for the convenience of travelers to Cooke City, as well as for tourists between the Grand Cañon and Mammoth Hot Springs by way of Mt. Washburn.
Amethyst Mountain, Specimen Ridge, and the Fossil Forests are names at once suggestive of the action of geological agencies which have been described in another chapter. Amethyst, limpid quartz, milky quartz, chalcedony, carnelian, prase, chrysoprase, banded agate, flint, jaspers of all colors, semi-opal, calcite, and many other varieties abound. The forest petrifactions present one of the most interesting scientific problems in the Park.
The Lamar River Cañon (7 miles above Junction Butte) is a gorge about half a mile long, the chief characteristic of which is the enormous number and size of boulders which have fallen into it. These are almost spherical in shape, and, in many instances, are as smooth as if from the hand of a stone glazier. They are piled up like billiard balls, to such a depth that the stream flows entirely out of sight beneath them. [BS]
[BS] Above the head of this cañon are the remains of what seems to have once been a bridge, but no record concerning it has come to the writer’s notice.