Ferris not only wrote the foregoing account in his journal, but his sense of its importance impelled him to expand it for publication. He submitted his “Life in the Rocky Mountains” to several papers. Subsequently the narrative appeared in the _Literary Messenger_ of Buffalo, New York, in issues running during the early forties. The scholarly observations of Mr. Ferris were reprinted in _The Wasp_, a Mormon organ of Nauvoo, Illinois, on August 13, 1842. It was the best article prepared before 1870. Henceforth, the lack of knowledge about Yellowstone must be charged to common indifference and skepticism. The facts had all been well attested but slenderly disseminated. Foremost among all trapper visitations in point of extent and accuracy were those of Osborne Russell. Between 1835 and 1839 he accompanied three specific Yellowstone expeditions. The first party, which numbered twenty-four, was organized at Fort Hall in June, 1835. Instructions directed them to proceed to Yellowstone Lake and return, hunting and trapping the intervening territory. Their route of travel was northeast to Jackson Hole, thence into the Absarokas. No one in the group had ever entered Yellowstone until July 28, when they descended the mountains into what they called “Secluded Valley.” The point of ingress was probably the upper Lamar drainage. There they encountered a small band of friendly Snake Indians, rich in pelts which they sold for a “song.” Mr. Russell revealed an unerring instinct of appreciation for the area in his first and subsequent visits. Said he: We stopped at this place and for my own part I almost wished I could spend the remainder of my days in a place like this, where happiness and contentment seemed to reign in wild, romantic splendor, surrounded by majestic battlements which seemed to support the heavens and shut out all hostile intruders.[103] [Illustration: W. S. Chapman Trapper observing Riverside Geyser.] While his impression of security was to prove incorrect the reaction to grandeur was wholly sustained. One trapper was lost, and after a futile search they reluctantly crossed the Yellowstone River. Their next camp was in Gardner Hole, named for trapper Johnson Gardner, formerly an Ashley employee, who had worked the area several years before. Russell’s party then crossed the Gallatins and joined Jim Bridger’s company in making a stand against the marauding Blackfeet. The next season found Russell attached to Bridger’s party and again on his way to Wonderland. They entered from the southeast along Yellowstone River. By mid-August they reached the lake. Two weeks were spent in trapping the lake and Gardner Hole streams. Russell again expressed his unqualified partiality for this region.