Conclusive evidence of the trappers’ discovery and exploration of Yellowstone has been adduced. The fur traders were well acquainted with every portion of it, but their knowledge passed with them. Only a tradition persisted. In 1860 the elements of this tradition came within a rifle shot of conversion to truth. During the latter fifties the United States government had a corps of Topographical Engineers in the upper Missouri country. Only a double assignment to Captain W. F. Raynolds saved the Park from official discovery in June, 1860. He was directed to explore the country from which the headwaters of the Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Madison rivers originated. He was also told to be on hand north of the Canadian border on July 18 to observe the eclipse of the sun. The expedition traversed the Wind River Valley, crossed Union Pass, and turned north. From a position nearly opposite Two Ocean Pass the party attempted to knife its way through the Absaroka Mountains, but it was June, and the defiles were choked with snow. Guide Jim Bridger pleaded with them to swing south and enter the plateau from Snake River. He told them they couldn’t get through, that even a “bird wouldn’t fly over there without takin’ a supply of grub along.” But the time was short, and Captain Raynolds reluctantly turned away from the prospect of verifying “marvelous tales of burning plains, immense lakes and boiling springs,” to witness the certain obliteration of Old Sol. It was a lucky choice for the future of Yellowstone because discovery in 1860 could hardly have been so propitious as it was a decade later. Parties in Search of Gold Another series of partial exploration was inaugurated in the early sixties by the Argonauts. Nature’s distribution of precious metals is rather far-flung in western America. Therefore, miners were not inclined toward geographic discrimination. Spirit brothers to the trappers, they searched the Rockies with wonderful energy and daring. Deep snow, arctic cold, yawning precipices, and fierce Indians were all defied in their eager quest for a new Eldorado. It would have been strange indeed if they had missed the Yellowstone country.