The Pre-Park Years, 1795-1871
Tall Tales, Mysteries and Mountain Men
This is part one of two parts of the
Pre-Park story of Yellowstone.
1795
-- The first written description of the river now known as the Yellowstone was penned.
1797-1798 -- David Thompson, explorer and geographer in the British
fur trade of the Northwest, used the words "Yellow Stone" in notes he made while
visiting Mandan villages on the upper Missouri. It is uncertain exactly how the words
originated, although the canyon walls which tower over the river near its headwaters look
like "Yellow Rock." (1: p.4)
1805-06 -- The Lewis and Clark expedition, as they made their way through what is now
Montana, heard reports of a volcano to the south which sounded like thunder and made the
earth tremble. For whatever reason, they did not investigate.
(2: p.18)
1808 -- John
Colter, who had traveled with Lewis and Clark, visited the area, probably the first white
man to get a glimpse of Yellowstone. (1:
p.35)
1827 -- The
first written account of the Yellowstone region appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper, but
it appears not to have been taken seriously because of the wild tales told therein. (2: p.20)
Also,
trapper Daniel T. Potts composed one of the earliest letters regarding present-day
Yellowstone Park, in which he described the thermal features in the area.
(1: p.41-43)
1829 --
Trapper Joe Meek stumbled upon what is now known as the Norris Geyser basin area. His
stories of "fire and brimstone" were met with unbelief.
(1: p.43)
 1830s -- Mountain man Jim Bridger began exploring the Yellowstone
region. Few believed the outlandish stories of waterfalls spouting upwards and petrified
"birds and trees" which he repeated over and over. (2: p.23-24)
1834 -- Warren Angus Ferris, clerk of the American Fur Company, visited what is now
Yellowstone Park and made a name for himself. He was the first actual "tourist"
to visit the Yellowstone region (that is, he did so purely out of curiosity), he was the
first to provide an adequate description of a geyser, and the first to apply the word
"geyser" to Yellowstone's thermal features.
(1: p.46-47)
 1835-39 --
Trapper
Osbourne Russell, during the height of the "Trapper Era," ventured into the
Yellowstone region three times, traveling the shores of Yellowstone Lake and many of the
thermal areas and smaller lakes to the south of Yellowstone Lake.
(1: p.49-52)
1842 --
Another account of the Yellowstone region was published anonymously by ex-trapper Warren
Ferris in the Western Literary Messenger. Ferris was the first to identify the park's
thermal features as "geysers," a term which had originated in Iceland.
1850's-60's
-- The struggle over slavery, the American Civil War which it led to, the immediate
aftermath of that war, and skirmishes with Indians kept the United States government from
sending an official exploration party to the Yellowstone region. (2: p.34)
1863 -- A group of prospectors, headed by "Colonel" Walter
Washington deLacy, pushed into the southern portion of Yellowstone Park, where they
encountered some thermal features. A few years afterward, deLacy Lake appeared on a map of
the area, until the name was changed to the present-day Shoshone Lake.
(1: p.64-65)
Continue to the
second part of
Yellowstone's Pre-Park Years.
|
