The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and DescriptiveChittenden, Hiram Martin
History
The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive
Chittenden, Hiram Martin
Yellowstone National Park
The pack-train continued its course along the side of the mountain,
and went into camp after a march of only twelve miles. That evening,
Messrs. Washburn, Doane, and Hedges went on ahead of the main party,
discovering the extensive mud springs at the southern base of the
mountain, and finally reached the verge of a cliff beyond which yawned
the stupendous cañon of the Yellowstone. It was the first real view
from near by, but darkness prevented further examination.
The next day saw the arrival of the party at the Falls of the
Yellowstone, close by the mouth of Cascade Creek, which, with its
Crystal Falls, received that day their present names. The remainder of
this day, August 30th, and the next, were spent in exploring the cañon
and measuring the heights of the falls. Messrs. Hauser and Stickney
descended the sides of the cañon to the brink of the river about two
miles below the falls; and Lieutenant Doane and Private McConnell
accomplished the same difficult feat further down. It needs not to be
said that the members of the party were profoundly impressed with the
incomparable scenery of the Grand Cañon, although their descriptions
of it are, perhaps, least satisfactory of any they have left us.
From the Cañon the party ascended the now placid river amid
ever-changing wonders. They passed Sulphur Mountain and the uncanny
region around the Mud Volcano and Mud Geyser, then crossed to the east
shore of the river, and finally went into camp, September 3d, on the
shore of the Yellowstone Lake. Here our explorers were again in
ecstacies, and not without cause; for, seen under favoring conditions,
this "watery solitude" is one of the most beautiful objects in nature.
After a day spent in this camp, the expedition continued by slow
stages up the east shore of the lake. Messrs. Doane and Langford
scaled the lofty Absaroka Range just east of the lake, being the first
white men known to have accomplished this feat, and their names now
designate two of its noblest summits.
September 7th, the party forded the Upper Yellowstone and traversed
the almost impassable labyrinths of fallen timber between the several
projecting arms. on the south of the lake. It was on this portion of
the route, September 9th, that Mr. Everts became separated from his
party, lost his horse with all his accoutrements, and commenced those
"thirty-seven days of peril," which so nearly cost him his life. This
unfortunate affair cast a deep gloom over the little party and
seriously interfered with the progress of the expedition. A week was
spent in searching for the lost companion, without other result than
the discovery of the hot springs basins at Hart Lake and on the west
shore of the Yellowstone Lake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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