In a book entitled, _The Discovery of Yellowstone Park_, written by Nathaniel P. Langford, the author gives an account of an expedition of 130 persons who started from St. Paul, June 16, 1862, for the Salmon River, as it had been widely rumored that extensive placer mines had been discovered there. The expedition was led by Captain James L. Fisk, the noted Indian fighter. Among his assistants were E. H. Burritt, Nathaniel P. Langford, and Samuel R. Bond, who acted as secretary. David E. Folsom, Robert C. Knox, Cornelius Bray, Patrick Doherty, Ard Godfrey, and Patrick Bray, were selected for guard duty. Many well-known pioneers of Montana were in this company, whose names are familiar to the writer. After eighteen weeks of hazardous adventure, the expedition arrived, on the 23d of October, at Grasshopper Creek. The weather being too cold for them to proceed on the journey, they decided to camp in that locality for the winter. This region was then the rendezvous of the Bannack Indians; and the St. Paul expedition named the settlement Bannack. To me it is a strange coincidence that this expedition of pioneers should have left St. Paul on the day of my birth, the 16th of June, 1862; and that on March 31st, 1882, a little more than nineteen years, later, I should reach this same locality, having been engaged to teach the Bannack public school, which I began the 4th of April. Frequently the early history of the town and its inhabitants was rehearsed in my hearing, but many deplored the fact that some of the old-timers had moved to Virginia City, Helena, Butte, and other places, and that the placer mines of Bannack were not so prosperous as in former days. But there were enough of the pioneers left to keep fresh in the memories of the younger generation the stories of adventures with wild beasts, the Indians, etc. Some of the stories were looked upon as fabrications, while others were known to be plain statements of facts. I heard so much about the Indians, their reprisals and cruelty, that I lived in constant dread of them, even when there was no cause for alarm. A short time before I reached Montana, which was then a territory, there had been an uprising of some tribes, and a number of persons living in Bannack and vicinity had been killed. When they were on the warpath at this particular time, the inhabitants of Bannack had to barricade themselves in the new brick courthouse and stay for days to protect themselves from a general slaughter.