The Yellowstone National Park Part 1

The Yellowstone National Park.

by Hiram Martin Chittenden.

PREFACE.

Twenty-five years ago, this date, a company of gentlemen were encamped at the Forks of the Madison River in what is now the Yellowstone National Park. They had just finished the first complete tour of exploration ever made of that region. Fully realizing the importance of all they had seen, they asked what ought to be done to preserve so unique an a.s.semblage of wonders to the uses for which Nature had evidently designed them. It required no argument to show that government protection alone was equal to the task, and it was agreed that a movement to secure such protection should be inaugurated at once. So rapidly did events develop along the line of this idea, that within the next eighteen months the "Act of Dedication" had become a law, and the Yellowstone National Park took its place in our country's history.

The wide-spread interest which the discovery of this region created among civilized peoples has in no degree diminished with the lapse of time. In this country particularly the Park to-day stands on a firmer basis than ever before. The events of the past two years, in matters of legislation and administration, have increased many fold the a.s.surances of its continued preservation, and have shown that even the petty local hostility, which has now and then menaced its existence, is yielding to a wiser spirit of patriotism.

The time therefore seems opportune, in pa.s.sing so important an epoch in the history of the Park, and while many of the actors in its earlier scenes are still among us, to collect the essential facts, historical and descriptive, relating to this region, and to place them in form for permanent preservation. The present literature of the Park, although broad in scope and exhaustive in detail, is unfortunately widely scattered, somewhat difficult of access, and in matters of early history, notably deficient. To supply a work which shall form a complete and connected treatment of the subject, is the purpose of the present volume.

It deals first and princ.i.p.ally with the history of the Upper Yellowstone from the days of Lewis and Clark to the present time. The main text is supplemented by a considerable amount of appendical matter, the most important features of which are a complete list of the geographical names of the Park, with their origin and signification; a few biographical sketches of the early explorers; and a bibliography of the literature pertaining to this region.

The descriptive portion of the work contains a succinct, though comprehensive, treatment of the various scientific and popular features of the Park. While it is sufficient for all the requirements of ordinary information, it purposely refrains from a minute discussion of those details which have been, or are now being, exhaustively treated by the scientific departments of the government.

In describing a region whose fame rests upon its natural wonders, the a.s.sistance of the ill.u.s.trative art has naturally been resorted to. The various accompanying maps have all been prepared especially for this work and are intended to set forth not only present geography but historical features as well. The folded map embodies every thing to date from the latest geographical surveys. It will bear careful study, and this has been greatly simplified by a system of marginal references to be used with the list of names in Appendix A.

The ill.u.s.trations cover every variety of subject in the Park and represent the best results of photographic work in that region. They are mostly from the studio of Mr. F. J. Haynes, of St. Paul, the well-known Park photographer, who has done so much by his art to disseminate a knowledge of the wonders of the Yellowstone. A considerable number are from views taken during the Hayden surveys by Mr. William H. Jackson, now of Denver, Colorado. A few excellent subjects are from the amateur work of Captain C. M. Gandy, a.s.sistant Surgeon, U. S. A., who was stationed for some years on duty in the Park. The portraits are restricted to the few early explorers who visited the Upper Yellowstone prior to the creation of the Park.

To any one who is familiar with the recent history of the Park, a work like the present would seem incomplete without some reference to those influences which endanger its future existence. A brief discussion of this subject is accordingly presented, which, without considering particular schemes, exposes the dangerous tendencies underlying them all.

In the course of a somewhat extended correspondence connected with the preparation of this work, the author has become indebted for much information that could not be found in the existing literature of the Park. He desires in this place to return his sincere acknowledgments to all who have a.s.sisted him, and to refer in a special manner.

To the Hon. N. P. Langford, of St. Paul, whose long acquaintance with the Upper Yellowstone country has made him an authority upon its history.

To Dr. Elliott Coues, of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., who has contributed, besides much general a.s.sistance, the essential facts relating to the name "Yellowstone."

To Captain George S. Anderson, 6th U. S. Cavalry, Superintendent of the Park, for the use of his extensive collection of Park literature.

To Prof. Arnold Hague, and others, of the U. S. Geological Survey, for many important favors.

To Prof. J. D. Butler, of Madison, Wis., for biographical data relating to James Bridger.

To Dr. R. Ellsworth Call, of Cincinnati, Ohio, for valuable a.s.sistance pertaining to the entire work.

To the Hon. D. M. Browning, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, for important data relating to the Indian tribes in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Park.

To the officers of the War and Interior Departments, the U. S. Fish Commission, the U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, and of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, for public doc.u.ments and other information of great value.

To R. T. Durrett, LL.D., of Louisville, Ky.; Mr. J. G. Morrison, of the Library of Congress, Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; Mr. J. D. Losecamp, of Billings, Mont.; Mr. George Bird Grinnell, of _Forest and Stream_, New York City; Major James F. Gregory, Corps of Engineers, U. S. A.; Lieutenant Wm. H. Bean, Second Cavalry, U. S. A.; Hon. David E.

Folsom, White Sulphur Springs, Mont.; Was.h.i.+ngton Mathews, Major and Surgeon, U. S. A.; Dr. A. C. Peale, of Philadelphia, Pa.; William Hallett Phillips, of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; Dr. Lyman B. Sperry, of Bellevue, O.; Mrs. Matilda Cope Stevenson, of Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C.; Mrs.

Sirena J. Washburn, of Greencastle, Ind.; Miss Isabel Jelke, of Cincinnati, O.; Mr. O. B. Wheeler, of St. Louis, Mo.; Mr. O. D.

Wheeler, of St. Paul, Minn.; Mr. J. H. Baronett, of Livingston, Mont.; Mr. W. T. Hamilton, of Columbus, Mont.; Mr. Richard Leigh, of Wilford, Idaho; Mr. Edwin L. Berthoud, of Golden, Colo.; and Miss Laura S.

Brown, of Columbus, O. H. M. C.

Columbus, Ohio, _September 19, 1895_.

PART I.--Historical.

CHAPTER I.

"YELLOWSTONE."

Lewis and Clark pa.s.sed the first winter of their famous trans-continental expedition among the Mandan Indians, on the Missouri River, sixty-six miles above the present capital of North Dakota. When about to resume their journey in the spring of 1805, they sent back to President Jefferson a report of progress and a map of the western country based upon information derived from the Indians. In this report and upon this map appear for the first time, in any official doc.u.ment, the words "Yellow Stone" as the name of the princ.i.p.al tributary of the Missouri.

It seems, however, that Lewis and Clark were not the first actually to use the name. David Thompson, the celebrated explorer and geographer, prominently identified with the British fur trade in the North-west, was among the Mandan Indians on the Missouri River from December 29, 1797, to January 10, 1798. While there he secured data, mostly from the natives, from which he estimated the lat.i.tude and longitude of the source of the Yellowstone River. In his original ma.n.u.script journal and field note-books, containing the record of his determinations, the words "Yellow Stone" appear precisely as used by Lewis and Clark in 1805. This is, perhaps, the first use of the name in its Anglicised form, and it is certainly the first attempt to determine accurately the geographical location of the source of the stream.[A]

[A] Thompson's estimate:

Lat.i.tude, 43 39' 45" north. Longitude, 109 43' 17" west.

Yount Peak, source of the Yellowstone (Hayden):

Lat.i.tude, 43 57' north. Longitude, 109 52' west.

Thompson's error:

In lat.i.tude, 17' 15". In longitude, 8' 43", or about 21 miles.

Neither Thompson nor Lewis and Clark were originators of the name.

They gave us only the English translation of a name already long in use. "This river," say Lewis and Clark, in their journal for the day of their arrival at the mouth of the now noted stream, "had been known to the French as the _Roche Jaune_, or, as we have called it, the Yellow Stone." The French name was, in fact, already firmly established among the traders and trappers of the North-west Fur Company, when Lewis and Clark met them among the Mandans. Even by the members of the expedition it seems to have been more generally used than the new English form; and the spellings, "Rejone," "Rejhone,"

"Rochejone," "Rochejohn," and "Rochejhone," are among their various attempts to render orthographically the French p.r.o.nunciation.

Probably the name would have been adopted unchanged, as so many other French names in our geography have been, except for the recent cession of Louisiana to the United States. The policy which led the government promptly to explore, and take formal possession of, its extensive acquisition, led it also, as part of the process of rapid Americanization, to give English names to all of the more prominent geographical features. In the case of the name here under consideration, this was no easy matter. The French form had already obtained wide currency, and it was reluctantly set aside for its less familiar translation. As late as 1817, it still appeared in newly English-printed books,[B] while among the traders and trappers of the mountains, it survived to a much later period.

[B] Bradbury's "Travels in the Interior of America." See Appendix E.

By whom the name _Roche Jaune_, or its equivalent form _Pierre Jaune_, was first used, it would be extremely interesting to know; but it is impossible to determine at this late day. Like their successor, "Yellow Stone," these names were not originals, but only translations.

The Indian tribes along the Yellowstone and upper Missouri rivers had names for the tributary stream signifying "yellow rock,"[C] and the French had doubtless adopted them long before any of their number saw the stream itself.

[C] The name "Elk River" was also used among the Crow Indians.

The first explorations of the country comprised within the present limits of the State of Montana are matters of great historic uncertainty. By one account it appears that, between the years 1738 and 1753, Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, the Sieur de la Verendrye, and his sons, particularly the Chevalier de la Verendrye, conducted parties of explorers westward, from Lake Superior to the a.s.sinnaboine River, thence south to the Mandan country, and thence to the very sources of the Missouri. Even the date, January 12, 1743, is given for their first ascent of the Rocky Mountains. But such is the dearth of satisfactory evidence relating to these explorations, that positive inferences concerning them are impossible. The most that can be said is, that if De la Verendrye visited these regions, as is generally believed, to him doubtless belongs the honor of having adopted from original sources the name of the Yellowstone River.

The goal of De la Verendrye's explorations was the Pacific Ocean; but the French and Indian war which robbed France of her dominion in America, prevented his ever reaching it. Following him, at the distance of nearly half a century, came the traders and trappers of the North-west Fur Company. As already noted, they were among the Mandans as early as 1797, and the name _Roche Jaune_ was in common use among them in 1804. They appear to have been wholly ignorant of the work of De la Verendrye, and it is quite certain that, prior to 1805, none of them had reached the Yellowstone River. Lewis and Clark particularly record the fact, while yet some distance below the junction of this river with the Missouri, that they had already pa.s.sed the utmost limit of previous adventure by white men. Whatever, therefore, was at this time known of the Yellowstone could have come to these traders only from Indian sources.[D]

[D] An interesting reference to the name "Yellowstone," in an entirely different quarter, occurs on Pike's map of the "Internal Provinces of Spain," published in 1810. It is a corrupt Spanish translation in the form of "_Rio de Piedro Amaretto del Missouri_," (intended of course to be _Rio de la Piedra Amarilla del Missouri_) river of the Yellow Stone of the Missouri. No clue has been discovered of the source from which Pike received this name; but the fact of its existence need occasion no surprise. The Spanish had long traded as far north as the Shoshone country, and had mingled with the French traders along the lower Missouri. Lewis and Clark found articles of their manufacture among the Shoshones in 1805. There is also limited evidence of early intercourse between them and the Crow nation. That the name of so important a stream as the Yellowstone should have become known to these traders is therefore not at all remarkable. There is, however, no reason to suppose that the Spanish translation antedates the French. It certainly plays no part in the descent of the name from the original to the English form, and it is of interest in this connection mainly as showing that, even at this early day, the name had found its way to the provinces of the south.

We thus find that the name, which has now become so celebrated, descends to us, through two translations, from those native races whose immemorial dwelling-place had been along the stream which it describes. What it was that led them to use the name is easily discoverable. The Yellowstone River is pre-eminently a river with banks of yellow rock. Along its lower course "the flood plain is bordered by high bluffs of yellow sandstone." Near the mouth of the Bighorn River stands the noted landmark, Pompey's Pillar, "a high isolated rock" of the same material. Still further up, beyond the mouth of Clark's fork, is an extensive ridge of yellow rock, the "sheer, vertical sides" of which, according to one writer, "gleam in the sunlight like ma.s.sive gold." All along the lower river, in fact, from its mouth to the Great Bend at Livingston, this characteristic is more or less strikingly present.

Whether it forms a sufficiently prominent feature of the landscape to justify christening the river from it, may appear to be open to doubt.

At any rate the various descriptions of this valley by early explorers rarely refer to the same locality as being conspicuous from the presence of yellow rock. Some mention it in one place, some in another. Nowhere does it seem to have been so striking as to attract the attention of all observers. For this reason we shall go further in search of the true origin of the name, to a locality about which there can be no doubt, no difference of opinion.