As Henry’s men circled eastward a much larger expedition was threading its course between the Wind River Mountains and the Tetons. In 1811, Wilson Price Hunt led the “Overland Astorians,” a band of sixty trappers, toward the Pacific. They reached Henry’s deserted post early in August. It is probable that a member of this party inscribed a rock “calling card” that reads: “Fort Henry 1811 by Capt. Hunt.” This marker is now included in the historical collections of the Yellowstone Park museums. It was found at the fort site in 1933 and donated to the museum by Seasonal Park Ranger-Naturalist Merrill D. Beal.[21] Hunt’s party unfortunately decided to switch from horses to hurriedly-made canoes, which were launched upon Snake River near the fort. The hardship, privation, and recurring peril experienced by this band are among the most severe ever encountered by civilized men. Although they were obliged to separate into three groups in order to subsist each part finally reached the mouth of the Columbia. In 1812, a smaller party called the “Returning Astorians,” under Robert Stuart, probably discovered South Pass.[22]
Notwithstanding the extensive peregrinations of these splendid wayfarers, Lewis and Clark, Andrew Henry, and Wilson Price Hunt, Wonderland, large though it is, remained a place apart. Only one white man had been sufficiently venturesome to gain entrance into the enchanted land.
John Colter was the son of Joseph and Ellen Shields Colter. He was born in or near Staunton, Virginia, probably in 1775.[23] Little is known of Colter’s youth except that the family moved from Virginia to the vicinity of Mayville, Kentucky, when he was about five years old. As John grew to manhood it is evident that he possessed a restless urge to be in the wilderness. An unparalleled opportunity to satisfy this desire came upon the arrival of Captain Meriwether Lewis on his voyage down the Ohio River. From this contact Colter joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition at Louisville, Kentucky, on October 15, 1803.[24] The following spring they were on their way up the Missouri. Doubtless he was already experienced in woodcraft and the use of firearms. Strong, active, and intelligent, he soon won the rank and privileges of a hunter.
Colter’s fitness for the business of exploration was early recognized and universally accepted.[25] For two years he shared the expedition’s many trials and triumphs, but they had obviously failed to satisfy his desire for adventure. Before the explorers returned, intrepid fur traders were moving westward along the great Missouri artery as was their custom. Two Illinoisans, John Dickson and Forest Hancock, were encountered west of the Mandan Indian Villages in what is now the state of North Dakota. They had high expectations of fortunes in fur, and from them Colter caught the trapping fever. This was early in August of 1806. They evidently recognized John Colter as a man after their own hearts and offered to furnish him an equal share of their supplies. Then, and there, they became boon companions, and Colter requested an honorable discharge from government service. This wish was granted with the understanding that no one else would request such consideration.[26]
The government party gave their comrade powder, lead, and other articles that would be useful to him. Is this not evidence that he was in the best possible standing with the company? Indeed, he was an admirable embodiment of the American scout. He was a person of sturdy, athletic frame, above the average height. He was physically quick, alert, enduring, a fine shot, the ideal frontiersman. His greatest asset was an extraordinary coordination of thought and action. This balance, combined with an abundance of energy, made Colter particularly dynamic. Patient and loyal, he performed his duties faithfully. In tribute to him a creek tributary to the Clearwater River, near Lapwai, had already been named Colter Creek. In numerous references to him his associates did not once hint of any mean or selfish act. He was constantly possessed by good temper, and he was of the open-countenanced Daniel Boone type cast.[27] Surely Colter was fully qualified for high adventure because he was, indeed, a two-fisted man with the sinews of a bear and the surefootedness of a cougar. He was wholly unafraid of wild animals, savages, or elements.
From August until the spring of 1807, this trio of Dickson, Hancock, and Colter trapped and traded along the upper Missouri. Then Colter gathered his pelts and started for St. Louis in a canoe. At the mouth of the Platte River, toward the end of June, he met Manuel Lisa.[28] They also struck up a friendship and bargain. Colter was still set for adventure and his new friend had such an assignment. In this meeting the strongest and boldest of the early American trappers of the West met the greatest Missourian trader. Upon hearing Manuel Lisa’s plans, the travel and weatherworn Colter turned westward for the second time, as a member of the Lisa party.
Manuel Lisa proposed the establishment of posts on both sides of the Continental Divide. His plan was to send men along the course of every stream and out among the wandering tribes of Indians, until the commerce of the entire country was in the control of the Missouri Company. He had with him some of the most intrepid Kentucky and Tennessee hunters, rawboned backwoodsmen with their long-barrelled flintlocks, which they usually carried across their knees while on the boat. It was a larger undertaking than any before, and he needed fighters who were experienced and daring from the start.
As they neared the mud-hutted village of the Arickaras the warriors swarmed forth but soon backed up before the leveled muskets of Lisa’s hunters. The traders went ashore and smoked the pipe of peace with the chiefs. This heretofore warlike tribe thereupon became temporarily pacified and sought presents and traffic in scarlet cloth and trinkets. The trappers purchased ponies from these Indians and struck westward toward the Yellowstone Valley. In amazement they viewed the bad lands on the north of the Bighorn. The party arrived at the mouth of the Bighorn River on November 21 and began the building of Fort Raymond, usually called “Manuel’s Fort,” which was their first trading post.[29] They feared the Blackfeet Indians and considered it expedient to abide temporarily in the land of the friendly Crows.
According to the authoritative report of Henry M. Brackenridge, Colter was appointed to carry the news of this undertaking to all the Indian tribes in the south.[30] Since this is an original reference to Colter’s assignment it should be quoted:
He [Lisa] shortly after despatched Coulter [sic], the hunter ... to bring some 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 thence to several other tribes....[31]