The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive. Hiram Martin Chittenden
inscription, giving the initials of a name and the date when inscribed. It was discovered in 1880 by Col. P. W. Norris, then Superintendent of the Park. It is now practically illegible from overgrowth, although some of the characters can still be made out. Col. Norris, who saw it fifteen years ago, claims to have successfully deciphered it. He verified the date by counting the annual rings on another tree near by, which bore hatchet marks, presumably of the same date. The time that had elapsed since these cuts were made corresponded well with the inscribed date. The inscription was:
J O R
Aug 19 1819
Efforts have been made to trace this inscription to some of the early noted trappers, but the attempt can hardly succeed. Even if an identity of initials were established, the identity of individuals would still remain in doubt. Nothing short of some authentic record of such a visit as must have taken place can satisfy the requirements of the case. In the absence of any such record, the most that can be said is that the inscription is proof positive that the Park country was visited by white men, after Colter’s time, fully fifty years before its final discovery.
Col. Norris' researches disclosed other similar evidence, although in no other instance with so plain a clue as to date. Near Beaver Lake and Obsidian Cliff, he found, in 1878, a cache of marten traps of an old pattern used by the Hudson’s Bay Company’s trappers fifty years before. He also examined the ruins of an ancient block-house discovered by Frederick Bottler at the base of Mt. Washburn, near the Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone. Its decayed condition indicated great age. In other places, the stumps of trees, old logs used to cross streams, and many similar proofs, were brought to light by that inveterate ranger of the wilderness.
The Washburn party, in 1870, discovered on the east bank of the Yellowstone, just above Mud Geyser, the remains of a pit, probably once used for concealment in shooting water fowl.
In 1882, there was still living in Montana, at the advanced age of one hundred and two years, a Frenchman by the name of Baptiste Ducharne. This man spent the summers of 1824 and 1826 on the Upper Yellowstone River trapping for beaver. He saw the Grand Cañon and Falls of the Yellowstone and the Yellowstone Lake. He passed through the geyser regions, and could accurately describe them more than half a century after he had seen them.
A book called “The River of the West,” [P] published in 1871, but copyrighted in 1869, before the publication of any modern account of the geyser regions, contains the record of an adventure in the Yellowstone three years after those of Ducharne. The book is a biography of one Joseph Meek, a trapper and pioneer of considerable note. The adventure to which reference is made took place in 1829, and was the result of a decision by the Rocky Mountain Fur Company to retire from competition with the Hudson’s Bay Company in the Snake River Valley. In leaving the country, Captain William Sublette, the chief partner, led his party up Henry Fork, across the Madison and Gallatin Rivers, to the high ridge overlooking the Yellowstone, at some point near the present Cinnabar Mountain. Here the party was dispersed by a band of Blackfeet, and Meek, one of its members, became separated from his companions. He had lost his horse and most of his equipment and in this condition he wandered for several days, without food or shelter, until he was found by two of his companions. His route lay in a southerly direction, to the eastward of the Yellowstone, at some distance back from the river. On the morning of the fifth day he had the following experience:
"Being desirous to learn something of the progress he had made, he ascended a low mountain in the neighborhood of his camp, and behold! the whole country beyond was smoking with vapor from boiling springs, and burning with gases issuing from small craters, each of which was emitting a sharp, whistling sound. When the first surprise of this astonishing scene had passed, Joe began to admire its effect from an artistic point of view. The morning being clear, with a sharp frost, he thought himself reminded of the City of Pittsburg, as he had beheld it on a winter morning, a couple of years before. This, however, related only to the rising smoke and vapor; for the extent of the volcanic region was immense, reaching far out of sight. The general face of the country was smooth and rolling, being a level plain, dotted with cone-shaped mounds. On the summit of these mounds were small craters from four to eight feet in diameter. Interspersed among these on the level plain were larger craters, some of them from four to six miles across. Out of these craters, issued blue flames and molten brimstone." [Q]
[P] See Appendix E.
[Q] Page 75, “River of the West.”
Making some allowance for the trapper’s tendency to exaggeration, we recognize in this description the familiar picture of the hot springs districts. The precise location is difficult to determine; but Meek’s previous wanderings, and the subsequent route of himself and his companions whom he met here, show conclusively that it was one of the numerous districts east of the Yellowstone, which were possibly then more active than now.
This book affords much other evidence of early knowledge of the country immediately bordering the present Park. The Great Bend of the Yellowstone where Livingston now stands, was already a famous rendezvous. The Gardiner and Firehole Rivers were well known to trappers; and a much-used trail led from the Madison across the Gallatin Range to the Gardiner, and thence up the Yellowstone and East Fork across the mountains to the Bighorn Valley.
In Vol. I, No. 17, August 13, 1842, of The Wasp, a Mormon paper published at Nauvoo, Ill., occurs the first, as it is by far the best, of all early accounts of the geyser regions prior to 1870. It is an extract from an unpublished work, entitled Life in the Rocky Mountains. Who was the author will probably never be known; but that he was a man of culture and education, altogether beyond the average trader, is evident from the passing glimpse which we have of his work. He apparently made his visit from some point in the valley of Henry Fork not far west of the Firehole River, for, at the utmost allowance, he traveled only about sixty or seventy miles to reach the geyser basins. The evidence is conclusive that the scene of this visit was the Upper Geyser Basin. It fits perfectly with the description, while numerous insuperable discrepancies render identification with the Lower Basin, which some have sought to establish, impossible. Following is this writer’s narrative:
"I had heard in the summer of 1833, while at rendezvous, that remarkable boiling springs had been discovered on the sources of the Madison, by a party of trappers, in their spring hunt; of which the accounts they gave, were so very astonishing, that I determined to examine them myself, before recording their description, though I had the united testimony of more than twenty men on the subject, who all declared they saw them, and that they really were as extensive and remarkable as they had been described. Having now an opportunity of paying them a visit, and as another or a better might not occur, I parted with the company after supper, and taking with me two Pend d’Oreilles (who were induced to take the excursion with me, by the promise of an extra present,) set out at a round pace, the night being clear and comfortable. We proceeded over the plain about twenty miles, and halted until daylight, on a fine spring, flowing into Camas Creek. Refreshed by a few hours' sleep, we started again after a hasty breakfast, and entered a very extensive forest, called the Pine Woods; (a continued succession of low mountains or hills, entirely covered with a dense growth of this species of timber;) which we passed through and reached the vicinity of the springs about dark, having seen several lakes or ponds on the sources of the Madison, and rode about forty miles; which was a hard day’s ride, taking into consideration the rough irregularity of the country through which we traveled.
"We regaled ourselves with a cup of coffee, the materials for making which we had brought with us, and immediately after supper, lay down to rest, sleepy and much fatigued. The continual roaring of the springs, however, (which was distinctly heard,) for some time prevented my going to sleep, and excited an impatient curiosity to examine them, which I was obliged to defer the gratification of until morning, and filled my slumbers with visions of waterspouts, cataracts, fountains, jets d’eau of immense dimensions, etc., etc.