Under the impetus of such flourishing activity, the great river valleys stemming out of the Yellowstone Plateau were soon dotted by ranches. Wind, Snake, Madison, Gallatin, and Yellowstone valleys each received its quota. None of them quite reached the Park land, but Frederick Bottler’s range almost impinged upon the northern border. It is probable that rancher invasion of the actual Park area was minor, if there was any. However, there was a rustler element that quite assuredly knew part of Yellowstone country.
The decade overlapping the sixties and seventies was the twilight period in frontier history. A transition was progressing from semi-lawlessness to orderly government. The arrogant Henry Plummer and his wicked gang of Innocents were liquidated by Montana Vigilantes in 1864, but another nefarious activity was taking heavy toll from the cattlemen. Horse and cattle rustlers found a lucrative business in preying upon the large herds grazing the open range. These cunning men would establish a rendezvous in some sequestered place like Teton Basin or the upper Madison Valley. From such a position they would make forays upon the stock owned by the big interests. The worst offenders, and those most difficult to apprehend, were men who at some time had been connected with the cattle business. Sometimes they altered the brands, but often a crisscross plan of shipment was followed; that is, Wyoming and Montana stock was whisked down to the Utah market; while Idaho material went east to Cheyenne. Men such as “Teton” Jackson, Ed Harrington, and Bob Tarter worked both sides of the Divide. The high meadows in and near Yellowstone were ideal for their purpose. It is also claimed that the notorious Butch Cassidy gang, long ensconced upon the Green River, made occasional forays among stock ranging near the southeastern borders of the Park.
It is a fact that the Washburn-Langford-Doane party encountered representatives of the rustler element upon their last day in the Park area. Mr. Langford left this account:
Mr. Hauser and Mr. Stickney all through the day were a few miles in advance of the rest of the party, and just below the mouth of the canyon they met two men who manifested some alarm at the sight of them. They had a supply of provisions packed on riding saddles and were walking beside their horses. Mr. Hauser told them that they would meet a large party up the canyon, but we did not see them, and they evidently cached themselves as we went by. The Upper Madison in this vicinity is said to be a rendezvous for horse thieves.[183]
It was actually an area of operation for the Murphy and Edmonson gang of desperadoes. Langford and Doane came upon three of their horses which they caught and pressed into service during the rest of the journey.[184] In 1874 the Earl of Dunraven remarked that the Yellowstone traveler had to keep a sharper lookout for white horse thieves than for redskin robbers.
By 1873 stock losses by rustling were so great as to force counter measures. The Wyoming Stock Growers Association hired a large force of detectives and inspectors. The movements of every newcomer were watched with suspicious vigilance; blacklists were circulated. The penalties for mis-branding and marking were doubled, and prosecution was swift and vigorous. These hard-hitting policies soon brought the problem under control.
Thus ended the major evil of another era, and the rustlers were hustled into that Shangri-la of frontier romance where “happy ghosts,” as Professor Paxson has said, “will endure forever, a happy heritage for the American mind.”[185]
By 1880 the hostile human barriers, red and white, had been removed from the way. The West’s unsettled areas were so broken as to destroy the frontier line. Yellowstone was still a wilderness, but it was accessible to man.
Chapter XI
CHIEF JOSEPH’S TRAIL OF BLOOD
The Nez Percé Indians were first encountered in 1805 by the Lewis and Clark Expedition. They were at home in the region of eastern Oregon and western Idaho. The Wallowa Valley, “land of winding water,” was their especial habitat. They referred to themselves as “Nim-i-pu,” “the real people.” The name Nez Percé or “pierced noses” was a French cognomen of doubtful validity.