The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive. Hiram Martin Chittenden
of the west. That he discovered one of the easy passes between Wind River and the Pacific slope, is evident from the reference in the Missouri Gazette already alluded to and here reproduced for the first time. It is from the pen of a Mr. H. M. Brackenridge, a contemporary writer of note on topics of western adventure. It reads:
"At the head of the Gallatin Fork, and of the Grosse Corne of the Yellowstone [the Bighorn River], from discoveries since the voyage of Lewis and Clark, it is found less difficult to cross than the Allegheny Mountains. Coulter, a celebrated hunter and woodsman, informed me that a loaded wagon would find no obstruction in passing."
The “discoveries” are of course those of Colter, for no other white man at this time had been in those parts.
From the summit of the mountains he descended to the westward; crossed the Snake River and Teton Pass to Pierre’s Hole, and then turned north, recrossing the Teton Range by the Indian trail in the valley of what is now Conant Creek, just north of Jackson Lake. [L] Thence he continued his course until he reached Yellowstone Lake,[L] at some point along its south-western shore. He passed around the west shore to the northernmost point of the Thumb, and then resumed his northerly course over the hills arriving at the Yellowstone River in the valley of Alum Creek. He followed the left bank of the river to the ford just above Tower Falls, where the great Bannock Trail used to cross, and then followed this trail to its junction with his outward route on Clark’s Fork. From this point he re-crossed to the Stinkingwater, possibly in order to re-visit the strange phenomena there, but more probably to explore new trapping territory on his way back. He descended the Stinkingwater until about south of Pryor’s Gap, when he turned north and shortly after arrived at his starting point.
[L] For the names given by Captain Clark to these bodies of water, see Appendix A, “Jackson Lake” and “Yellowstone Lake.”
The direction of Colter’s progress, as here indicated, and the identification of certain geographical features noted by him, differ somewhat from the ordinary interpretation of that adventure. But, while it would be absurd to dogmatize upon so uncertain a subject, it is believed that the theory adopted is fairly well supported by the facts as now known. It must in the first place be assumed that Colter exercised ordinary common sense upon this journey and availed himself of all information that could facilitate his progress. It is probable that he was under the guidance of Indians who knew the country; but if not, he frequently stopped, like any traveler in an unknown region, to inquire his way. He sought the established trails, low mountain passes, and well-known fords, and did not, as the map suggests, take a direction that would carry him through the very roughest and most impassable mountain country on the continent. It is necessary to orient his map so as to make both his outgoing and return routes extend nearly due north and south, instead of north-east and south-west, in order to reconcile his geography at all with the modern maps. With these precautions some of the difficulty of the situation disappears.
Colter, it is therefore assumed, followed the great trail along the Absarokas to the Wind River Valley, and crossed the divide by one of the easy passes at its head. His two crossings of the Teton range were along established trails. He evidently lost his bearings somewhat in the vicinity of the Yellowstone Lake, but as soon as he arrived at the river below the lake he kept along the trail until he reached the important crossing at Tower Falls. If he was in company with Indians who had ever been through that country before, he learned that it would be no advantage to cross at Mud Geyser, inasmuch as he would strike the great Bannock Trail at the next ford below. Moreover, the distance below the lake to the point where Colter touched the Yellowstone is clearly greater than that to the Mud Geyser Ford. The bend in the river at the Great Falls, and the close proximity of the Washburn Range to the river, are distinctly indicated. The locality noted on the map as “Hot Springs Brimstone” is evidently not that near the Mud Geyser, as generally assumed, but instead, that of the now world-renowned Mammoth Hot Springs. As will be seen from the map, it is nearer the Gallatin River than it is to the Yellowstone where Colter crossed. If Colter visited the Springs from Tower Falls, as is not unlikely, a clue is supplied to the otherwise perplexing reference to the Gallatin River in the above extract from the Missouri Gazette, for it would thus appear that he was near the sources of both the Grosse Corne and of the Gallatin.
The essential difficulties in the way of this theory (and they exist with any possible theory that can be advanced) are the following: (1.) There is no stream on the map that can stand for the Snake River either above or below Jackson Lake, although Colter must have crossed it in each place. “Colter’s River” comes nearest the first location, and may possibly be intended to represent that stream; but Clark’s evident purpose to drain Jackson Lake into the Bighorn River doubtless led to a distortion of the map in this locality. (2.) The erroneous shape given to the Yellowstone Lake will be readily understood by any one who has visited its western shore. The jutting promontories to the eastward entirely conceal from view the great body of the lake and give it a form not unlike that upon Clark’s map. (3.) The absence of the Great Falls from the map is not easily accounted for, although the location and trend of the Grand Cañon are shown with remarkable accuracy. (4.) The absence of the many hot springs districts, through which Colter passed, particularly that at the west end of the Yellowstone Lake, may be explained by the same spirit of incredulity which led to the rejection of all similar accounts for a period of more than sixty years. It is probable that Clark was not willing to recognize Colter’s statements on this subject further than to note on his map the location of the most wonderful of the hot springs groups mentioned by him.
The direction in which Colter traveled is a matter of no essential importance, and that here adopted is based solely upon the consideration that the doubling of the trail upon itself between Clark’s Fork and the Stinkingwater River, and the erratic course of the route around Yellowstone Lake, can not be well accounted for on the contrary hypothesis. [M]
[M] In adopting, as Colter’s point of crossing the Yellowstone, the ford at Tower Creek, the author has followed the Hon. N. P. Langford, in his reprint of Folsom’s “Valley of the Upper Yellowstone.” (See Appendix E.) All other writers who have touched upon the subject have assumed the ford to be that near the Mud Geyser.
Such, in the main, is “Colter’s route in 1807.” That he was the discoverer of Yellowstone Lake, and the foremost herald of the strange phenomena of that region, may be accepted as beyond question. He did not, as is generally supposed, see the Firehole Geyser Basins. But he saw too much for his reputation as a man of veracity. No author or map-maker would jeopardize the success of his work by incorporating in it such incredible material as Colter furnished. His stories were not believed; their author became the subject of jest and ridicule; and the region of his adventures was long derisively known as “Colter’s Hell.” [N]
[N] This name early came to be restricted to the locality where Colter discovered the tar spring on the Stinkingwater, probably because few trappers ever saw the other similar localities visited by him. But Colter’s descriptions, so well summed up by Irving in his “Captain Bonneville,” undoubtedly refer in large part to what he saw in the Yellowstone and Snake River Valleys.
The story of Colter’s subsequent experience before he returned to St. Louis is thrilling in the extreme. Although it has no direct bearing upon this narrative, still, since it is part of the biography of the discoverer of the Upper Yellowstone, it can not be omitted. The detailed account we owe to the naturalist Bradbury, already referred to. He saw Colter above St. Louis in the spring of 1811, one year after his return from the mountains, and received the story directly from him. All other accounts are variations from Bradbury. Irving, who has made this story an Indian classic, borrows it in toto. Perhaps in all the records of Indian adventure there is not another