CHAPTER XXII.

DISCOVERIES IN YELLOWSTONE PARK.

JOSEPH MEEK STRAYS INTO THE PARK IN 1829, AND TELLS WHAT HE SAW-AN UNKNOWN EXPLORER IN 1833 WRITES THE FIRST DESCRIPtion of the GEYSERS-JIM BRIDGER IN 1850 TAKES HIS FRIENDS TO SEE THE CURIOSITIES AT THE HEAD OF THE YELLOWSTONE, WHICH HE HAD BEEN TELLING ABOUT FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS-REYNOLDS EXPEDITION OF 1860 IS PREVENTED BY DEEP SNOW FROM ENTERING THE GEYSER COUNTRY-NUMEROUS PROSPECTORS SEE THE THERMAL SPRINGS AND GEYSERS-THE FOLSOM EXPEDITION OF 1869 -ORGANIZATION OF THE WASHBURN EXPEDITION IN 1870.

I have already mentioned the first discovery of the Yellowstone National Park by John Colter in the year 1807. I also refer in another part of this work to the visit of Jim Bridger and Robert Meldrum to that locality in 1824, and now in regular order comes the important explorations of Joseph Meek in the year 1829. He was one of Captain William Sublette's men and was in company with other trappers. They were leaving the Snake River country, passing over into Montana, and were attacked by Blackfeet Indians. By some means Meek was cut off from the main body, and on foot and alone he wandered for several days, and by chance his route lay through the most interesting portion of the park. His adventures are thus described in "The River of the West," a book written in 1869 but not published until 1871. I will make but a single quotation from this work, simply to show that the curiosities in the park were noted by that wandering class, the trappers. Meek's biographer thus describes what this man, who was lost, saw while trying to work his way out of the desolate country. He had traveled five days without food or shelter, his course had been in a southerly direction, and consequently he had reached Wyoming.

"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 feet across. Out of these craters issued blue flames and molten brimstone."

This man Meek was three years later with Captain Bonneville and remained with him for three years, and was well known among trappers in Wyoming.

The above account by Meek may be considered reliable as far as it goes, but he only got a glimpse of a small portion of the park. By many persons this trapper is considered an exaggerator, but in this instance he could hardly be accused of this to any great extent.

Hon. N. P. Langford has kindly contributed for this work a clipping from "The Wasp," a Mormon paper published at Nauvoo, Illinois. The article is taken from the issue of August 13, 1842, but the incident referred to took place nine years earlier. This is the first written description of the park by a man who was on the ground. All that has come before are stories told by trappers around the camp fire. The name of the writer is unknown and at one time Mr. Langford was of the opinion that Captain Bonneville was the author, but a letter from him in 1875 to the Montana Historical Society proves that he did not write it. Mr. Langford has furnished me with a copy of the Bonneville letter, which reads as follows:

sers.

"You ask me if I knew of the thermal springs and geyNot personally; but my men knew about them and

called their location the Fire Hole. I recollect the name of Alvarez as a trader. I think he came to the mountains as I was leaving them. * Half a century is a long time

# *

to look back, and I do so doubting myself."

The "Wasp" letter I regard as a valuable contribution to the History of Wyoming, and it is with satisfaction that I give it a place in these pages. In speaking of the author of this letter, Mr. Langford says:

"The writer's graphic descriptions stamp him as a man of culture and ability, and it would be interesting to know who he is and what fortune or enterprise brought him into that region at that early day. As the narrative was published in a Mormon paper, it is not impossible that the writer was spying out the country in the interest of the Latter Day Saints."

The communication to "The Wasp" reads as follows:

"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 soon occur, I parted with the company after supper, and taking with me two Pen d'Oreilles (who were induced to make 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 Kamas Creek. Refreshed by a few hours' sleep, we started again after a hasty breakfast and entered into a very extensive forest known as the Pine Woods (a continued succession of low mountains or hills entirely covered by a dense growth of this species of timber), which we passed through, and reached the vicinity of the springs about dark, having seen several small 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 had traveled.

"We regaled ourselves with a cup of coffee, the ma

terials 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.

"When I arose in the morning clouds of vapor seemed like a dense fog to overhang the springs, from which frequent reports or explosions of different loudness constantly assailed our ears. I immediately proceeded to inspect them, and might have exclaimed with the Queen of Sheba, when their full reality of dimensions and novelty burst upon my view, 'the half was not told me.'

"From the surface of a rocky plain or table burst forth columns of water of various dimensions, projected high in the air, accompanied by loud explosions and sulphurous vapors which were highly disagreeable to the smell. The rock from which these springs burst forth was calcareous, and probably extends some distance from them, beneath the soil. The largest of these wonderful fountains projects a column of boiling water several feet in diameter to the height of more than one hundred and fifty feet, in my opinion; but the party of Alvarez, who discovered it, persist in declaring that it could not be less than four times that distance in height-accompanied with a tremendous noise. These explosions and discharges occur at intervals of about two hours. After having witnessed three of them, I ventured near enough to put my hand into the water of its basin, but withdrew it instantly, for the heat of the water in this immense cauldron was altogether too great for my comfort; and the agitation of the water, the disagreeable effluvium constantly exuding, and the hollow, unearthly rumbling under the rock on which I stood, so ill accorded with my notions of personal safety that I retreated back precipitately to a respectful distance. The Indians who were with me were quite appalled and could not by any means be induced to approach them. They seemed astonished at my presumption in advancing up to the large one, and when I safely returned, congratulated me on my 'narrow escape.' They believed them to be supernatural, and supposed them to be the production of the Evil Spirit. One of them remarked that hell, of which he had heard from the

whites, must be in that vicinity. The diameter of the basin into which the waters of the largest jet principally fall, and from the center of which, through a hole in the rock of about nine or ten feet in diameter, the water spouts up as above related, may be about thirty feet. There are many other smaller fountains that did not throw their waters up so high, but occurred at shorter intervals. In some instances, the volumes were projected obliquely upwards, and fell into the neighboring fountains, or on the rock or prairie. But their ascent was generally perpendicular, falling in or about their own basins or apertures. These wonderful productions of nature are situated near the center of a small valley, surrounded by pine-crowned hills, through which a small fork of the Madison flows.

"From several trappers who had recently returned from the Yellowstone, I received an account of boiling springs that differ from those seen at Salt River only in magnitude, being on a vastly larger scale; some of their cones are from twenty to thirty feet high, and forty to fifty paces in circumference. Those which have ceased to emit boiling vapor, etc., of which there were several, are full of shelving cavities, even some fathoms in extent, which give them, inside, an appearance of a honey-comb. The ground for several acres in extent in the vicinity of the springs is evidently hollow and constantly exhales a hot steam or vapor of disagreeable odor, and a character entirely to prevent vegetation. They are situated in the valley at the head of that river, near the lake which constitutes its source.

"A short distance from these springs, near the margin of the lake, there is one quite different from any yet described. It is of a circular form, several feet in diameter, clear, cold and pure; the bottom appears visible to the eye, and seems seven or eight feet below the surface of the earth or water, yet it has been sounded with a lodge pole fifteen feet in length without meeting any resistance. What is most singular with respect to this fountain is the fact that at regular intervals of about two minutes, a body or column of water bursts up to the height of eight feet, with an explosion as loud as the report of a musket, and then falls back into it; for a few seconds the water is roiled, but it speedily settles, and becomes transparent as before the efluxion. This spring was believed to be connected with the lake by some subterranean passage, but the cause of its periodical eruptions or discharges is entirely unknown. I have never before heard of a cold spring whose waters exhibit the phe