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Trumball Journal
Index
THE WASHBURN YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION.
NO. I.
Page 3
In the evening we camped on the Yellowstone, at
the mouth of Gardiner's River. The beach was of sand, with large rocks
lying right at the water's edge. It was wide enough for us to spread our
blankets upon it, and was lined upon the inside by a row of cedar-trees,
beyond which the bluff, covered with sage-brush, rose a hundred feet.
The next day we forded Gardiner's River at its
mouth, followed up the Yellowstone about two miles, and then, finding the
caņon impassable, took a trail leading up the gulch to the right. In
crossing the mountains, we attained the highest elevation we had yet
reached. During the day an antelope was killed by one of the party. In the
evening we camped on a clear mountain stream, not more than ten miles from
our previous camp. The grass was abundant, and the location excellent. Two
of the party, who went ahead, missed the camp, and were out overnight,
although every endeavor was made to find them. they, however, got along
well, by building a shelter of pine boughs, in front of which they made a
large fire.
By the brook-side we found a number of
prospect-holes, and some blazed trees, showing that enterprising miners had
preceded us. A gentleman got a pan of dirt from one of the holes, and
succeeded in panning out two nuggets, evidently from different gulches,
their combined value being about $8.
The next day we traveled about six hours, nearly
due east, over the mountains. After going sixteen miles, up hill and down,
through gulches and woods, we camped on Warm Spring Creek, about a half-mile
from its mouth, and at an elevation of 7,200 feet. Here we found our two
lost friends, who had preceded us. The Yellowstone was several hundred feet
beneath us; and but a short distance below our camp one of the gentlemen had
discovered some very picturesque falls, on Warm Spring Creek. At the foot
of this creek we found a few warm springs, which probably caused early
prospectors to so name the stream. The springs were small, and principally
alum and sulphur, but they were interesting to us, as they were a new
feature on the trip.
On the Yellowstone, opposite the mouth of the
creek, huge, basaltic cliffs and columns rose to a height of six hundred
feet, looking like castles and massive fortifications. A short distance
below our camp there was a fall in the creek of 112 feet. For a few hundred
yards above the fall the stream had worn its way through a sandstone bluff,
cutting quite a deep caņon. Immediately about the head of the falls
the rocks were worn into curious and fantastic shapes, looking, in daylight,
like spires or steeples, rising from thirty to sixty feet above the falls;
but, in the moonlight, reminding one of the portal of an old castle, or a
number of fabled genii standing ready to hurl adventurous mortals
into the gorge below, which was enveloped by the shadows on the night in
impenetrable darkness.
It was proposed to name these falls in honor of
the discoverer, but it was decided to be in bad taste to name prominent
objects after members of the expedition; besides, one of the party took an
unaccountable interest in bestowing upon them the name of Tower Falls, which
was finally adopted. His peculiar interest was afterward satisfactorily
explained, as we learned he had a sweetheart by that name, somewhere in the
States. Another of the party was in favor of the name of Minaret (Minnie
Rhett); but that was too apparent, and he was outvoted.
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