It is a fairly well-attested fact that America was first discovered by Leif Ericsson about 1000 A.D.[15] However, as Mark Twain put it, “America did not stay discovered,” and therefore Columbus is not to be denied. So it was with Yellowstone. The most significant feature of its early history lies in the inconclusive nature of the early reports concerning its position and character.
Yellowstone’s isolation was not effectively invaded and broken until the decade of 1860. This narrative will explain how early, trapper observations drifted into oblivion, and later, miner excursions faded into indifference. Hence, the first conclusive visitations were those made by the Folsom-Cook party in 1869 and the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition of 1870. Why did Wonderland remain unknown to the world so long? Surely the answer is found in its relative inaccessibility. Yellowstone is a sequestered region, mountain-locked by the Absaroka, Teton, Gallatin, Beartooth, and Snowy ranges. Here, then, is a plateau a mile and a half above sea level, encircled by a still loftier quadrangle of rocky barriers. Some of these culminate in peaks and ridges that rise 4,000 feet above the level of the enclosed table land.
Of course there were a few yawning, ever-difficult canyon approaches, cut by foaming mountain torrents and several high, snow-choked passes suitable for late summer use. However, they were far removed from the principal arteries of pioneer travel, and they still remain apart from the main avenues of trade. Even now, these same bulwarks of nature, and their concomitants of snow and wind, exclude traffic from the region for half the year. Consider, then, the situation when all travel was on foot or horseback, and bases of supply were far away from all approaches to this mountain crown. Adequate mountain exploration necessitated large parties and elaborate outfits in the middle nineteenth century.
From these circumstances it is easy to understand why Lewis and Clark missed Yellowstone. They adhered quite closely to the Missouri River thoroughfare. However, as an incident of an extensive side trip on their return, Clark and a detail of ten took an alternate route that eventually brought them upon the Yellowstone River near the present site of Livingston, Montana.[16] Previously, while at Fort Mandan, they had learned that the Minnetaree Indian name for the river was “Mitsiadazi,” which means Rock Yellow River. The French equivalent, Roche Juane, was also in common use among the Indians and trappers, although when or by whom the name was given is unknown. American trappers called the river “Yallerstone!” A segment of the stream was trapped in 1805 by Antoine Larocque’s party of North West Company trappers. They struck the river at a point twenty trapping days above its mouth, which was reached on September 30.[17]
The fact of the name’s currency is further attested by Patrick Gass’ significant journal entry on July 1, 1806: “Perhaps Capt. Clarke [sic] who goes up the river here, may also take a party and go down the Riviere Juane, or Yellowstone River.”[18] Beyond the Indian stream names, little information concerning the area was ascertained by Lewis and Clark at that time.
While Lewis and Clark did not add any knowledge of Yellowstone Park to their epic-making report, still it was a member of the party who first viewed its exotic beauty. However, before delineating Colter’s discovery, the picture of the Park’s isolation should be explored further.
The first thrust toward the Yellowstone country was made by the French explorer de Verendrye, who came near the northeastern border in 1743 when he crossed the lower Yellowstone River, leaving Wonderland still undiscovered.[19]
By 1810, the Missouri Fur Company established posts on the mouths of the Bighorn and at Three Forks of the Missouri. Notwithstanding these locations, there was little penetration of the “top of the world,” as the Crow Indians called the Yellowstone country. Blackfoot Indian hostility forced the abandonment of the post at Three Forks and in the fall of 1810, Major Andrew Henry, one of the partners, led a small party into the Pacific Ocean drainage. They went up the Madison River, thereby skirting the Gallatin Range which bounds the Park on the west. They crossed a low pass and came upon a beautiful lake. Henry’s name was given the lake (Henrys Lake) and also to its outlet (Henrys Fork of the Snake River), which they followed about forty miles below its debouchment into Snake River Valley. In a pleasant spot some four miles below the present St. Anthony Falls they erected Fort Henry, but they did not prosper there and, feeling discouraged and insecure, abandoned that post. In 1811, Henry released his trappers, and while they returned to the east by various routes all of them missed the Yellowstone region.[20]
W. S. Chapman
Sacajawea with Lewis and Clark.