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Washburn
Report Index
YELLOWSTONE EXPEDITION OF 1870
Page 7
The opening formed at the junction of the two
streams is probably three miles in diameter, and of nearly circular shape.
The mountains on the opposite side and toward the head of the East Fork are
composed wholly of lava, heaped up in every imaginable form. In the center
of the valley rises a table mountain, perpendicular on its sides, and capped
with a horizontal stratum of trap rock about fifty feet in depth; standing
isolated in the surrounding level valley, and between the channels of the
two streams, it has a very singular and remarkable appearance. The channel
of the Yellowstone, where it enters this valley, cuts to the depth of 300
feet, through a bed of gypsum, overlaid by a stratum of trap, the columns of
which show great perfection of crystallization. The valley itself abounds in
springs, small lakes, and marshes. The slopes and ravines to the right and
beyond the Yellowstone are heavily timbered with pine, affording a strong
contrast to the bare rocks on the opposite side of East Fork.
Descending from the plateau through a steep ravine
into the valley, and skirting for a distance of two miles a swampy flat, we
came to the first warm spring found on the route. This spring is on the
right of the trail, and of small size; temperature, milk-warm, and highly
impregnated with sulphur. Passing thence, the trail leads over a spur of the
mountain coming in from the right, and through a deep ravine, crossing Warm
Spring Creek, where we camped for the night, in company with the two hunters
aforementioned. The remainder of the party did not arrive until the next
day. We passed, a mile before going into camp,
near a small lake, the "wickey ups" of fifteen lodges
of Crows, the Indians whose trails we had been following across the plateau.
Distance traveled 18 miles.
Sixth day -- August 27. -- Barometer, 23.70;
thermometer, morning, 46; elevation, 6,546 feet. We remained in camp at Hot
Sprint Creek awaiting the arrival of the rest of the party. In the morning I
rode down to the confluence of the two rivers and found the East Fork to be
a smaller stream that Gardiner's River. This valley showed evidence of
diminished volcanic action, calcareous mounds being frequently seen, which
had originated in the action of hot springs, the waters of which had now
ceased to flow. The valley was full of drift, and numerous prospect holes
indicated the enterprise of the miners in penetrating these unknown regions
thus far. At the mouth of Hot Spring Creek we found a system of sulphurous
and mineral springs distributed for a distance of two miles in the bottom of
the deep caņon through which the river runs. These springs were invariably
small, several of them having the temperature at the boiling point; many of
them were highly sulphurous, having in fact more sulphur than they could
carry in solution, and depositing it in yellowish beds along their courses.
Several of them were impregnated with iron, alum, and other substances. The
sulphurous fumes could be detected at the distances of half a mile. The
gypsum walls of the caņon were very remarkable, the excess of sulphur in the
combination over the proportion of limestone giving a brilliant yellow color
to the rocks in many places. The formation was usually very friable, falling
with a natural slope to the edge of the stream, but occasionally masses of a
more solid nature projected from the wall in curious shapes of towers,
minarets, &c., while above and over all the solid ledge of trap, with its
dark and well-defined columns, made a rich and beautiful border inclosing
the pictured rocks below.
Standing on the margin of the stream, a few hundred
yards further down, is Column Rock, a huge pile of alternate layers of
basalt and amygdaloid cement, several hundred feet in height, surmounted by
a
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