north of the northern boundary of Wyoming. Clark found the Yellowstone river at a point near Livingston (named after Robert Livingston) and following this east and north struck the Missouri river near Fort Buford at which place Lewis joined him. From Fort Missoula, where Clark went south, Lewis went north and east and crossed the Rocky Mountains about one hundred and forty miles north of the Lewis and Clarke Pass and eighty miles north of Clarke's Pass, then on to the Missouri river to Fort Buford just east of the Montana line where Clark joined him and together they returned to St. Louis having been gone two years and four months.*

On Lewis' return President Jefferson made him Governor of Louisiana, and in 1813, when the Missouri Territory was created out of that portion of the Louisiana Purchase not included in the State of Louisiana, Clark was made territorial Governor of that wonderful northwestern country in which was situated all the land now embraced in the State of Wyoming. Lewis and Clark opened a new country and blazed a path for Western progress. In the northwestern part of the State of Wyoming we have a lake named for Lewis and a town and stream named for Clark. From this time on we have more or less authentic information as to the settlers and traders in Wyoming. There are many unsubstantiated reports of the expeditions made into Wyoming across our southern boundary line by early Spaniards. We have discovered no written records of these explorations although many stone and iron implements have been found in the various counties. This indicates beyond a possible doubt that Wyoming was visited by daring adventurers be

*Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to observe carefully the country over which they passed and to collect all specimens possible of a botanical and zoological nature and to keep a journal or diary and to make maps of the expedition as they traveled. These instructions were carefully executed and most of the original records are now in the possession of the American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia. In 1903 it was found that a Mrs. Clark Voorhis of New York had received as an inheritance from her father, who was the son of the explorer Clark, a portion of this manuscript. Some of the collections made on the journey are still preserved.

fore the time of Lewis and Clark. Who they were, how they came, and when they left is a problem which may never be solved. Our first authentic information as to the early explorers commences with the French Canadian, De la Verendrye, who explored in Wyoming as early as 1843 entering the State from Montana, coming down the Shoshone River and southwest into Fremont county.

During the year of the Lewis and Clark expedition Zebulon Pike explored into the northern part of Missouri as far south as Mexico and into Colorado discovering the famous Pike's Peak, bearing his name. John Colter was with Lewis and Clark and left the party on its return at Fort Mandan and in the fall and winter of 1806 trapped in Wyoming on the streams of the Big Horn and Stinking Water (now called Shoshone river by act of Wyoming legislature of 1901). He crossed the Big Horn country into Fremont, then west into Uinta and out of the State. He crossed Teton Pass and then back into Wyoming, up Lewis river into the Yellowstone Park and back to the point where he entered the State. He carried to Clark wonderful tales, which were not believed, of the marvellous Yellowstone which he found in 1807. Colter is not only the discoverer of the Yellowstone, but the first American to enter Wyoming. Mr. Coutant in his History of Wyoming says there had been other white men before Colter but they were not Americans.

John Jacob Astor organized a company known as the Pacific Fur Company and placed at its head Wilson P. Hunt to conduct an expedition into the Rocky Mountains. In August, 1811, they entered the northeastern part of the State in Crook county, traversed the county from northeast to southwest and to a point as far west as Buffalo in Johnson county from which they traveled further west and south by crossing the Big Horn Mountains, going up the Big Horn river, then to the Wind river, through what is now the

Wind river or Shoshone Indian Reservation, through Sherman Pass, sighted the three snowy peaks of the Grand Teton Mountains, down Hobach river along Snake river and thus crossed the State. From here Hunt and his party pushed west to the mouth of the Columbia river and in 1812 reached Fort Astor which was built in March, 1811, as a trading post on the Pacific Ocean. Thus they opened a way before used by no white man for our great American fur trade. The Astor expedition added to our claim by right of settlement to all of the Oregon territory, which the English did not acknowledge to be ours until 1846.

One of the Astor men, Robert Stuart, on his return from the Pacific Coast to New York, in the summer and fall of 1812, discovered South Pass, a gap in the Rocky Mountains located in Fremont county, also the Sweetwater River. He definitely located the source of North Platte river in the southern part of Fremont county, being the first to find a stream whose water flowed toward the Mississippi river.

During December of this year he and his party traveled along the North Platte to Nebraska and thus was the path found for the Overland Trail through Wyoming over which thousands upon thousands of explorers and settlers have traveled on their way to the Pacific Ocean or to the States west of Wyoming.

Lewis, Clark, Colter, Hunt, Stuart are all identified with the early history of Wyoming. During the year 1822 William Ashley of St. Louis trapped extensively in Wyoming on the streams in Big Horn county and in 1823 again returned to Wyoming by the way of the North Platte river and named the Sweetwater and Green rivers.

James Bridger, who built Fort Bridger in Uinta county, and discovered Bridger Pass, was of this party. Many people in our state know Mr. Bridger, who died in 1881. He was born in Virginia in 1804 and came to Wyoming in 1822. Ashley sold all of his interests in Wyoming in 1824 at the

time when we were Missouri Territory and had not yet become a part of Nebraska. Through his influence numerous fur trappers and traders had been through our state to its borders. The history of their lives is the History of Wyoming. Mr. Coutant has made many interesting chapters in his History of Wyoming on this subject. In 1828 William Sublette discovered Jackson Lake south of the Yellowstone Park and named it Jackson Hole after his friend David Jackson who was exploring at that time with him. Captain Bonneville, whom Washington Irving has aptly described, came to Wyoming in 1832 and was interested in the fur trade. Bonneville was an officer in the regular army and had instructions to observe the traits, customs. and modes of living of the Indians. Similar instructions were given by the Government to Lewis and Clark when they explored in 1804-06. Captain Bonneville wandered up the North Platte, the Green river, the Little Wind river, saw the Hot Springs of Fort Washakie in Fremont county, climbed Mt. Bonneville in the Wind River Range and finally left Wyoming by the way of the Snake river on his way to Fort Astor. He returned through Wyoming by way of Bear river, Ham's Fork, Green river, Sweetwater and the Platte to Nebraska.

Kit Carson, the noted marksman, hunted in Wyoming in 1830 and with him the historic character, Jim Baker. In 1835 Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman passed over the State by the way of the Platte, Laramie and Sweetwater rivers. They stopped at Independence Rock (on whose sides one may read to-day the names of hundreds of pilgrims who were on their western march) went through South Pass, along Green river and out of the State to Walla Walla, Washington.

In 1836 they returned to Wyoming again from the east with their brides and on July 4, at South Pass, in the name of the country took possession of the land which is now Wyoming. From here they pushed on to Walla Walla.

Whitman's noted interest in the organization of Oregon which at one time embraced a part of Wyoming, makes his life and history worthy of more careful study. It was he who recommended to the Government the establishment of forts along some of our streams and through his influence Fort Laramie and Fort Bridger were purchased which were then trading posts.

Father Peter De Smet traveled through and about Wyoming in the early forties, fifties, sixties and seventies. Fremont explored in Wyoming during 1842. He visited Fort Laramie, and here he addressed the Indians, crossed the State in August, discovered Fremont's Peak near the western line of the county bearing his name. He established the necessity of some direct overland communication between the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1843 he again toured over this country and has left valuable records of his explorations.

Mr. Coutant in his History gives the following table of our early settlers covering a period of one hundred years: