[A Yellowstone geyser in action] frontispiece [Sacajawea with Lewis and Clark] 33 [Manuel Lisa’s fort built in 1807] 39 [Eastern section of Colter’s route] 46 [Map of 1814 depicting Lewis and Clark route] 48-49 [Colter and Potts under attack] 53 [Mountain Indian clan] 62 [Family of Sheepeater Indians] facing 66 [Beaver at work] 72 [Part of a trapper brigade] 75 [Gun and powder horn] 79 [Remnants of Sheepeaters’ wickiup] facing 86 [Horse and travois transportation] 89 [Trapper observing Riverside Geyser] 97 [Jim Bridger] 109 [Rare species of aquatic life] 119 [Bighorn resentful toward invaders] 125 [Part of Washburn-Langford-Doane party in camp] 133 [Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden] facing 136 [The Hayden expedition in camp] facing 138 [President Ulysses S. Grant signing the Yellowstone National Park Bill] 143 [The iron horse in buffalo country—an early Wyoming scene] facing 154 [Strong medicine against the Indians] facing 158 [Chief Joseph, war chief of the Nez Percé] 167 [A general map of Chief Joseph’s flight] 171 [George F. Cowan stands up to Nez Percé warriors] 174 [Radersburg tourist party marker] facing 173 [Detail map showing Nez Percé movements in Yellowstone Park] 179 [Indian war club and peace pipe] 191 [Stagecoach] 193 [“Yankee Jim”—James George] facing 198 [“Uncle” John Yancey] 203 [Golden Gate drive] 209 [“Beaver Dick”—Richard Leigh—and family, 1871] facing 238 [Superintendent Philetus W. Norris] facing 240 [Old Fort Yellowstone] 243 [Poacher caught in the act] 249 [Wild and dangerous despite appearances] 255 [Grizzly, king of the Rockies] 257 [Cavalry troops in Park patrol] 263 [Park ranger-naturalist and tourist group] 271 [Madison Junction Historical Museum] 275 [Park Ranger] 278 APPENDICES [Young men camping in Yellowstone] facing 282 [Figure I. Yellowstone section of Colter’s route] 287 [Figure II. Western section of Colter’s route] 289 [Figure III. “Double-Entry” map of Yellowstone] 293 [Figure IV. A section of fictitious geography] 295 [Figure V. Western section of Colter’s route] 297
THE STORY
of
MAN IN YELLOWSTONE
Chapter I
YELLOWSTONE—THE GEM OF THE MOUNTAINS
Yellowstone National Park was one of the last regions in the United States to come into the scope of man’s knowledge. This fact is partly responsible for its development as a wild animal retreat. Grizzlies and people do not go well together under natural conditions. Yet nature has bequeathed a rare portion of her treasure upon this enchanting land that forms the crown of the Rockies. Within the confines of what the world calls Yellowstone the visitor may find great and wondrous manifestations of natural handiwork. Indeed, nature seems to have indulged in several grand orgies of creation. Here are lofty mountain majesties and shining rivers of silver and green wind athwart the heights and plateaus like living, breathing things. Everywhere the air is pierced by lodgepole pines. Erect they stand, bristling with fierce determination, while prone beneath their feet lie their uprooted brethren in tangled disorder and various degrees of decay.[1]
The whole plateau is dotted by myriad alpine lakes of surpassing beauty. Surely it is comparable to a vast sponge which receives a five-foot mantle of snow annually. From this precipitation sufficient water is derived to feed a legion of springs and streams. “The altitude renders it certain that winter comes early and tarries late; in fact, it is almost always in sight and liable to drop in any day.”[2]
Deep and delicately etched canyons involuntarily shock the visitor as he views their kaleidoscopic grandeur. Massive mountains display their mighty ramparts in a silhouette that is unmistakable and unforgettable. Indeed, some of these serrated spires once served as pilots to the wayfarer; and Indians named them “Pee-ah,” meaning large and permanent.[3] So are they still, mute testaments of the ages.
Surely such an impressive alternation of rivers, forests, lakes, canyons, and mountains is in itself complete. Someone has said, “Yellowstone has everything except a cave and a glacier.” Actually, there are caves and glaciers in the Park’s environs, but the most unique feature of all this Wonderland is its thermal activity. Thousands of hot springs and hundreds of geysers reveal strange secrets of the inner earth. Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces represents the actual process of a mountain turning inside out.
Yellowstone Park is roughly located between longitude 110° W. and 111° W. and latitude 44° N. and 45° N. In respect to Wyoming, the Park is located in the northwestern corner, encroaching slightly upon Montana and Idaho. The area comprehends three thousand, four hundred and seventy-two square miles, and the average elevation is eight thousand feet above sea level. Occupying a central portion of the Rockies’ greatest girth, the Park’s scenic position is most strategic. From the top of Mt. Washburn a majestic rock-ribbed panorama is disclosed. It is indeed a vast area, surrounded by lofty mountain ranges, some of whose towering peaks are reflected in Lake Yellowstone. This comprehensive view reminds one of a gigantic amphitheatre or, from another angle, a colossal orange juicer with the Yellowstone River as its spigot. At the river’s outlet from the Park at North Gate the elevation is five thousand, three hundred and fourteen feet above sea level, whereas the maximum height of eleven thousand, three hundred and sixty feet is achieved on the summit of Eagle Peak on the southeastern boundary.[4] Cartographers have segregated the most conspicuous elevations into seven plateaus, three ranges, four ridges, and several minor units of mountains and hills.[5] Thirty-two mountain peaks loom above the ten-thousand-foot level, and another six exceed the eleven-thousand-foot scale.[6]
The Continental Divide winds among the Park’s southern plateaus in the manner of a serpent. From these circumstances, Yellowstone Park has become truly the wondrous land of water and the source of that life-giving liquid to lands hundreds of miles away in all directions. Nowhere else does water so well display its varied charms. From the Divide’s snowy, timber-rimmed pockets, icy rivulets flow into sylvan pools, thence to rushing rivers with thundering waterfalls. Other water issues from steaming vents and towering geysers connected with the earth’s internal heat and weaves vaporous trails into streams called warm or fire rivers.[7]
Great rivers have their origins in its alpine parks, from whence they follow their devious courses to the several seas. Oh, the rivers of Wonderland, what strength and beauty they possess! There is the Yellowstone itself, arising upon Yount’s Peak and its vicinity among the high Absarokas. It rolls northward through that vast lake of limpid blue referred to by the natives as “the smile of the Great Spirit.” From the famous Fishing Bridge outlet it flows tranquilly again beyond Hayden Valley, but soon it flashes into milk-white cascades, a transitional phase of noisy preparation for its two great falls. These awe-inspiring plunges are one hundred and nine and a sheer three hundred and eight feet, for the Upper and Lower Falls respectively. At each point the river’s mighty volume sets up an awful tumult of sound, earth tremor, and spray in the immediate environs. The river’s pulsating reverberation seems to follow its imprisoned rush along a tortuous path for many miles toward the Missouri.