The DeLacy party represents the most notable gold-inspired visitation. This party, consisting of twenty-seven men, left Virginia City on August 3, 1863. They crossed southeastern Idaho, thence to Jackson Hole. They followed the Snake River into the Park and discovered the fact that Lewis and Shoshone lakes were a branch of the Snake River drainage. In fact, the larger lake was named DeLacy, but unfortunately it was later renamed Shoshone by the Hayden Survey. DeLacy’s party crossed the Divide, and on September 9 they entered the Firehole Basin where they “nooned.” They were actually in the midst of the Lower Geyser Basin, picking their way cautiously because “the ground sounded hollow beneath our feet.” Allow Mr. DeLacy to describe their reactions:
The water of these springs was intensely hot, of a beautiful ultramarine blue, some boiling up in the middle, and many of them of very large size, being at least twenty feet in diameter and as deep. There were hundreds of these springs, and in the distance we could see and hear others, which would eject a column of steam and with a loud noise. These were probably geysers, and the boys called them “steamboat springs.” No one in the company had ever seen or heard of anything like this region, and we were all delighted with what we saw.[106]
Had Walter W. DeLacy been more of a naturalist and less the prospector he might have achieved the distinction of being the real and effective discoverer of Yellowstone. However, he and his associates were looking for gold, and while they saw many wondrous things they failed to appreciate them. They were in a hurry. Even so, the time was not ripe for any special interest in Wonderland. Montana was only a name signifying rowdy mining camps. There were no newspapers to herald the discovery, no telegraph to transmit the news. Indeed, general attention was focused upon the Civil War.
However, DeLacy drew a more accurate map of the area than had been drafted before. Actually, he alone correctly represented the drainage of the Shoshone basin as tributary to the Snake River, a point which even later explorers such as Folsom, Washburn, and Hayden failed to observe. He also kept a daily journal, but it was not published until 1876. Walter W. DeLacy was, therefore, just another explorer who failed to take “time by the forelock” and, hence, lost an opportunity to win considerable fame.
While the DeLacy party prospected the southwestern section of the Park, a similar group, led by a man named Austin, explored the eastern periphery for the same purpose and with better success.
James Stuart might logically have been Yellowstone’s honor man, but the breaks were against him. He and his brother Granville were outstanding leaders in Montana’s pioneering. In the spring of 1863 James Stuart led an exploratory party into the lower Yellowstone. They were searching for gold, but fate so arranged that six miners who intended to join them (the Fairweather party) had the great good fortune of finding the famous Alder Gulch, whereas the main expedition under Stuart experienced a serious battle with the Crows, in which two men were killed and three wounded.[107] After their unpleasant encounter this party encircled the entire “crest of the world,” traveling sixteen hundred miles.
James Stuart was a natural leader of men and a superb Indian fighter. In 1864 he organized and directed a frontier militia to punish Indians for the outrages before mentioned and others perpetrated in the vicinity of Deer Lodge. This party crossed the lower Yellowstone River, skirted the Absarokas to Shoshone River, thence proceeded westward. At least a part of the expedition returned by way of Yellowstone Lake and Canyon, but Stuart was not in that particular division. Because of his sterling worth and vast experience he was the unanimous choice for leader in the final discovery effort of 1870, but misfortune dogged him to the last. He was summoned for jury service, and the court refused to excuse him for a pleasure trip!
In 1864 H. W. Wayant and William Hamilton led a party of approximately forty miners, with horses and pack train, into the Lamar Valley. Their horses were stolen by Indians near Soda Butte, but the mules would not stampede. Wayant, Harrison, and ten others with their mules ascended Cache Creek to Index Peak. Later they circled back by way of Amethyst Mountain to Tower Falls.
Later in the same year, 1864, a small company of miners, including George Huston, Rube Libby, George Hubbard, Soos, Lewis, and a Mexican, made a cursory trip in the Park area. They entered the region from the west and ascended the main Firehole River. They were startled by the eruption of the Giantess and other geysers, but they passed by with a glance and dismissed them as of slight importance.[108] An account of this journey was discussed with L. M. Freeman, a newspaper reporter, at Emigrant Gulch. He arranged to have it published in the Omaha Herald.[109] Other prominent miners whose explorations in Yellowstone are well known were C. J. Baronett, Bart Henderson, H. Sprague, Frederick Bottler, Adam Miller, and Adams and Crandall. The latter two were killed by Indians in the Hoodoo region in 1870, while Adam Miller and two companions narrowly escaped.[110] It would appear that probably a dozen nondescript mining groups had some contact with the region during the sixties. Yet these miner meanderings did not definitely confirm the actual existence of Wonderland, even though they added another chapter to an increasingly impressive legend. However, the persistence of this marvelous legend between 1820 and 1870 was largely due to the influence of Jim Bridger.