Chapter 2:
The Nation's First National Park
THE FIRST GROUP of white men to visit the area that
later became Yellowstone National Park were the fur trappers, followed
by the traders, and, with the discovery of minerals, the prospectors.
The United States Army was there, as it was in most of the Western
frontier area, but instead of facilitating settlement and exploitation
as it did elsewhere, here it prevented it.
Until 1869a scant three years before Congress
created Yellowstone Parkknowledge of the natural curiosities and
wonders of the region was based principally upon the tales of the
occasional trapper or explorer. Probably the first white man to visit
the Yellowstone region was John Colter, who, during the winter of
1807-1808, traveled through the wilderness area that was to become the
first National Park. [1] Colter reported
seeing geysers and other evidences of hydrothermal activity around the
headwaters of the Yellowstone River, but it was not the reports of
natural curiosities that aroused interest in this Western country; it
was the news brought back by the Lewis and Clark Expeditionreports
of mountain streams teeming with beaver, and an all-water route along
the Missouri River that would lead the trapper to those streams.
During the winter of 1806-1807, St. Louis was the
scene of much activity and excitement as traders and trappers
congregated to await the spring thaw that would clear the Missouri of
ice and allow their passage into the mountainous regions to the west.
One such trader was the Spaniard, Manuel Lisa, who, with a group of
forty-two frontiersmen, journeyed up the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers
in 1807 to the mouth of the Big Horn, where a timbered blockhouse was
constructed. From here the men dispersed in various directions to trap,
trade, and hunt. The indomitable John Colter was one of these trappers,
and it was from Fort Manuel, as the blockhouse was named, that he
started his trip into the Yellowstone region. The success of this
group's first venture led to the formation of the Missouri Fur Company
in 1809. Soon trappers representing Astor's American Fur Company, the
Hudson's Bay Company, and later the Rocky Mountain Fur Company spread
throughout the northern and central Rockies, and some six hundred
trappers searched the many streams for "sign," traded with the Indians,
and explored vast areas of what, until their arrival, had been unknown
to white men.
It is probable that many of these explorers wandered
into the Yellowstone region, but only a few left reports of their
findings; initials carved in trees and remnants of campsites indicate
that they were there. [2] It is generally
believed that trappers working for England's North West Company and,
later, the Hudson's Bay Company visited the area in 1818 and again in
1824, and it is quite likely that famous "mountain men" like James
Bridger, Thomas Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah S. Smith were familiar with
the geyser region as early as 1824. The first printed account of the
"infernal region" appeared in the Philadelphia Gazette and Daily
Advertizer on September 27, 1827, and was reprinted in the Niles
Weekly Register on October 6, 1827. This report of the natural
phenomena found at the headwaters of the Yellowstone contains an
accurate description of Yellowstone Lake and some of the thermal springs
located near it. [3] During the 1830's, when
the American fur trade was approaching its apogee, many trappers and
traders ventured into the area, and some of their descriptions were
placed in journals or later published in book form. [4]
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George S. Anderson and pet bear cub.
National Park Service.
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Actually the geyser areas were best described by the
trappers, who considered their talents as storytellers second only to
their prowess in killing game. Naturally their stories were often
embellished, exaggerated, and sometimes totally untrue. The stories Jim
Bridger is said to have told best exemplify this process, and though
fact is to be found in many of these tales of the Yellowstone region,
they were far from literal truth. Bridger told of glass mountains, of
geysers spouting water seventy feet into the air, of petrified birds
perched on petrified trees singing petrified songs. [5] Perhaps the most accurate and descriptive
diarist among the early trappers was Osborne Russell, who visited the
Yellowstone area at least three different times between 1835 and 1839,
but his competent observations failed to replace the tall tales of
Bridger and others. [6] But by the 1840's the
days of the trader and trapper were ending and the white man was seen
less frequently in this portion of the West. [7]
In some instances the trails blazed by the trapper
were followed by prospectors searching for a trace of "color" that might
indicate a large ore body, but precious minerals were scarce in the
Yellowstone region, and for the most part this area was bypassed. Some
parties who ventured into the geyser basins left a few place names and
influenced later and larger explorations of the area, but fortunately
for the preservation of the later National Park, the only big strikes
discovered were located to the north and east of the present boundaries
of the park.
The tales of the early trappers did generate some
further interest in the unexplained phenomena referred to by these early
explorers. In 1859 Captain W. F. Raynolds of the Corps of Topographical
Engineers, United States Army, was directed to head an expedition to
investigate the character and habits of the Indians and the
possibilities of agriculture and settlement of the area surrounding the
headwaters of the Missouri Riverincluding sources of the
Yellowstone, Gallatin, and Madison Rivers. This was the first effort by
the government to ascertain the validity of the fabled stories. The
expedition failed to explore the area because of the combined obstacles
of snow and mountains. It did, however, link up the past and future. Jim
Bridger was the guide for the party, and Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden, who
later saw and described the phenomena in scientific terms, was the
geologist. [8] The formal report of the
expedition was not published until 1868, too late to provide any real
impetus to further exploration. Chittenden considers Raynolds' failure
to fully explore the Yellowstone region "a fact quite as fortunate as
any other" in the region's history, since a full report authenticating
what had previously been discounted as myth and fantasy would surely
have drawn speculators and settlers into the area. [9] Before Bridger's tales reached the public in
the form of a government document a few private individuals were
developing plans for the "rediscovery" of the Yellowstone wonderland.
[10]
A year before the publication of the Raynolds report
there was talk among the people of Montana Territory about organizing an
exploring party to journey into the Yellowstone country and either
confirm or refute the accounts of volcanic phenomena earlier reported by
the trappers and miners; however, no expedition was formed that year.
[11] Plans were again made in 1868, and
while these, too, failed to materialize, the interest aroused was
sufficient to prompt three men to ascend the Yellowstone River and
thoroughly explore the regions surrounding its headwaters. David E.
Folsom, C. W. Cook, and William Peterson, in 1869, made the first
purposeful exploration of the area with the sole objective of
determining its actual character. Upon their return the explorers were
hesitant to make known their discoveries, for, unlike Bridger, they
wished to maintain their reputations as honest men. Some time later,
however, Folsom, aided by Cook, prepared an article accurately
describing the wonders the small party had seen; after being rejected by
several Eastern publications, it was finally published in July, 1870, by
the Lakeside Publishing Company of Chicago in their Western
Monthly. [12]
The lucid and articulate reports of Folsom, Cook, and
Peterson served to stimulate some interest in the heretofore rumored
wonderland and in the spring of 1870 two leading citizens of the Montana
Territory appealed to General Winfield S. Hancock, Commanding Officer,
Department of Dakota, for military escort for a projected Yellowstone
exploration party. One of these men, Nathaniel P. Langford, famous for
his part in the vigilante days of 1863 and 1864 in the Territory, later
wrote that he "indulged, for several years, a great curiosity to see the
upper valley of the Yellowstone," his curiosity having been aroused by
the stories told "by trappers and mountaineers of the natural phenomena
of that region." As a result of his urging a group was formed who
"determined to make the journey." [13]
Under the leadership of Henry D. Washburn,
Surveyor-General of Public Lands for Montana Territory, Langford, Samuel
T. Hauser, Cornelius Hedges, Warren C. Gillette, Truman C. Everts,
Walter Trumbull, Benjamin F. Stickney, and Jacob Smith, accompanied by
Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane and six cavalrymen, departed from Fort
Ellis on August 22, 1870, for the Yellowstone Region. The expedition
made an extensive and thorough exploration of the geysers, hot springs,
and towering falls and through its efforts the unique wonders of the
region were at last reported in detail. Upon their return several
members of the party prepared articles for magazines and newspapers, [14] and Langford gave lectures in Helena,
Minneapolis, New York City, and Washington, D. C. Through these
descriptions the public was at last made aware of this remarkable
mountain wilderness. The official report of the expedition, prepared by
Lieutenant Doane, was described by Dr. F. V. Hayden as being "remarkable
. . . written under the inspiration of the wonderful physical phenomena"
and "that for graphic descriptions and thrilling interest it has not
been surpassed by any official report . . . since the time of Lewis and
Clark." [15]
The immediate result of the Washurn-Langford-Doane
Expedition was the organization, a year later, of two government
expeditions to secure further official scientific information on the
area. The sources of the Yellowstone River were explored and plotted by
the Barlow-Heap Expedition, a party of Army Engineers that was sent out
in 1871 under direct orders from Lieutenant General Philip Sheridan,
Commanding Officer of the Division of the Missouri. At the same time the
region was canvassed by the Hayden Expedition sent out by the Interior
Department. [16] The ultimate results of the
three exploration parties into the Yellowstone region between 1869 and
1871 was the establishment of the Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
The idea of establishing the geyser region and its
environs as a national park has been credited to many. Chittenden
admitted that "no special credit for originality should attach to the
matter," then proceeded to state categorically that the source of the
idea could be found in "the Washburn Expedition of 1870"; the place of
conception was at a campsite near the junction of the Firehole and
Gibbons Rivers, the date was September 19, 1870, and the man responsible
was Cornelius Hedges. [17] In 1904 Hedges
published his diary, to which he appended a note maintaining that it
"was at the first camp after leaving the lower Geyser Basin when all
were speculating which point in the region we had been through, would
become most notable that I first suggested the uniting all our efforts
to get it made a National Park." [18]
Lieutenant Doane made no reference to this suggestion in his official
report, nor did Langford or Trumbull in the articles they published in
May and June, 1871, in Scribner's and the Overland
Monthly.
Even though the suggestion may have been made by
Hedges at the now famous campfire, the idea of establishing national
parks did not originate there. Chittenden's statement concerning the
birth of the national park idea has been repeated in almost every book
dealing with the origins of national parks despite evidence to the
contrary. Cramton, writing in 1932, and Huth in 1950, effectively
demolished the historical basis for the National Park Service's campfire
vignette, presented annually on the banks of the Madison; finally, in
1964, the Park historian was able to end the historical travesty. [19]
While members of the Washburn Expedition worked in
many ways to promote the establishment of the Yellowstone area as a
national park, the suggestion of setting that region apart for the use
of the public at large seems to have been made before 1870. As early as
1865 a young Jesuit priest, Father Francis X. Kuppens, visited the
Yellowstone region and described the wonders he had seen to a group of
men, among whom were Cornelius Hedges and the Acting Governor of Montana
Territory, Thomas F. Meagher. Kuppens later wrote that the Acting
Governor, upon hearing a description of the area, stated that the area
should be reserved as a park by the government, if indeed "things were
as described," and agreed with the rest of the company that further
explorations should be made. [20] Others
suggest that David Folsom, upon returning from the 1869 exploration,
"discussed with General Washburn the project of creating a park" in
order to preserve the natural wonders of the region, [21] and that he incorporated in the article
submitted to the Western Monthly a similar suggestion. [22]
But regardless of all of these "suggestions," one
must speculate that the park idea did not originate in the Yellowstone
area, but in the act of Congress in 1864 granting the Yosemite Valley to
the State of California "for public use, resort and recreation."
Yosemite was soon referred to as a National Park. [23] In 1871 an editor, referring to Yosemite,
went on to describe the Yellowstone area and stated, "Let this, too, be
set apart by Congress as a domain retained unto all mankind . . . and
let it be esta perpetua." [24]
The legislation creating the California grant had
established a precedent; but since the Yellowstone region embraced parts
of three Territories, it could not be given in trusteeship to one state.
The only way to preserve the area was to place it directly under Federal
control.
One of the most influential events that led to the
park legislation was the expedition led by F. V. Hayden, head of the
United States Geological Survey of the Territories. Through his efforts
an item appropriating $40,000 for survey work around the sources of the
Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers was included in the sundry civil act of
March 3, 1871. Since he had not had the money or opportunity to
thoroughly explore the region in 1860 when he was attached as geologist
to the Raynolds Expedition, Hayden organized a comprehensive group of
scientists, artists, and photographers, and during the summer of 1871
they thoroughly surveyed the Yellowstone region, compiling extensive
data on its geology, zoology, botany, paleontology, and meteorology. [25] In addition to the scientific reports,
visual reproductions of the natural curiosities were prepared by W. H.
Jackson, the frontier photographer, and the artist Thomas Moran. [26]
When he returned to Washington, Hayden was met by
Nathaniel Langford, Cornelius Hedges, and Samuel Hauser, Helena bank
president and a member of the 1870 expedition. This small group feared
that if some action were not taken to preserve the Yellowstone area, it
would soon be claimed by homesteaders. Langford and Hedges had already
enlisted the aid of William H. Clagett, newly elected Delegate from
Montana Territory. Working under the guidance of Congressman Henry L.
Dawes, [27] Chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee, these men began to frame legislation that would establish a
national park in the Yellowstone region. [28]
A bill to "set aside a certain tract of land lying
near the headwaters of the Yellowstone River as a public park" was
introduced in the two houses of Congress on December 18, 1871, and was
immediately referred to the committees on public lands. [29] The Senate bill was reported back on
January 22, 1872, by Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy of Kansas, who, speaking
for the Committee, recommended its passage. After a series of minor
legislative delays, the bill finally came up for consideration on
January 30, 1872. [30] The only serious
opposition to its passage was voiced by Senator Cornelius Cole of
California, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, who, in
a speech representing the attitude of many 19th-century men, stated:
I have grave doubts about the propriety of passing
this bill. . . . The geysers will remain, no matter where the ownership
of the land may be, and I do not know why settlers should be excluded
from a tract of land forty miles square. . . . I cannot see how the
natural curiosities can be interfered with if settlers are allowed to
appropriate them. . . . I do not see the reason or propriety of setting
apart a large tract of land . . . in the Territories of the United
States for a public park. [31]
Nevertheless the Senate passed the measure without a
call for ayes and noes and it went to the House, where it remained on
the Speaker's table until February 27. [32]
While the bill was being considered by Congress, its
proponents were far from idle. Langford was busy writing, lecturing, and
attempting to influence any member of Congress with whom he came in
contact. Four hundred copies of Scribner's Magazine, in which his
articles describing the Yellowstone area had appeared the previous May
and June, were obtained and placed upon Congressional desks. [33] Hayden, with the aid of the Secretary of
the Interior, exhibited Jackson's photographs, maps, and specimens
acquired on his expedition in the lobbies of Congress and personally
expounded the wonders of the region in interviews with Congressmen. [34] He wrote another article for
Scribner's [35] and one for the
American Journal of Science and Arts. In this he asserted that
the speedy passage of the park bill would "prevent squatters from taking
possession of the springs and destroying the beautiful decorations." [36]
Further pressure for the preservation of the area
came from the legislature of the Territory of Montana, which, however,
proposed that the new park be placed under Territorial control. These
Montana frontiersmen exhibited the same desire for local control as had
been shown by the residents of California in respect to the Yosemite
Valley. Settlers in Wyoming Territory, fearing ejection from the
Yellowstone region, opposed the formation of a park, but the editor of
the Rocky Mountain Gazette criticized their position. A desire
for preservation of forests was also present in Montana Territory even
at this early date. Noting the existence of forest fires, the editor of
the Helena Daily Herald stated, "The loss to us is trifling, but
the value of these timber lands to future generations is incalculable."
[37]
When, on February 27, 1872, the Senate bill providing
for the establishment of the park came before the House for
consideration, attempts were made to delay the measure by referring it
to either the Committee on Public Lands or the Committee on Territories.
Representative Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts recommended immediate
consideration and explained its purpose:
This bill follows the analogy of the bill passed by
Congress six or eight years ago, setting apart the Yosemite valley . . .
for the public park, with this difference: that bill granted to the
State of California the jurisdiction over that land beyond the control
of the United States. This bill reserves the control over the land and
preserves the control over it to the United States. Nobody can dwell
upon it for the purpose of agriculture . . . it will infringe upon no
vested rights, the title to it will still remain in the United States. .
. . This bill treads upon no rights of the settler . . . and it receives
the urgent and ardent support of the Legislature of that Territory [
Montana] and of the Delegate himself. . . . [38]
In part because of assurances that the land to be set
aside was economically worthless, and the fact that the bill provided
for the reservation of land already belonging to the government and
contained no appropriation, no speech was made in the House in
opposition to the Yellowstone bill. On the roll call, 115
representatives favored the bill, 65 opposed, and 60 failed to vote. [39] The bill was promptly signed by President
Grant and became operative on March 1, 1872.
The editors of Scribner's assured their
readers that the Yellowstone bill would call attention to the
"unexampled richness" of Montana and Wyoming Territories, enticing both
the artist and the pleasure tourist, "while it aims to ensure that the
region in question shall be kept in the most favorable condition to
attract travel and gratify a cultivated and intelligent curiosity. By
the Act, some 2,500 square miles of territory . . . are set apart as a
National Park (!) . . . Verily a colossal sort of junketing-place!" [40]
Thus, through the efforts of an energetic and zealous
group of men, the long, though sometimes faint, tradition of
conservation in the United States was finally recognized. The setting
apart "as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and
enjoyment of the people" of more than two million acres of land with a
wealth of timber, game, grass, water power, and possible minerals was a
dramatic departure from the general public land policy previously
followed by Congress. This occurred during a period when public opinion
was more materialistic than idealistic; when millions of acres were
being reserved not for the public but for the railroads; when vast areas
of timber in the old Northwest were being slashed and cut by greedy
lumbermen, without thought of reforestation; when cattlemen were
spreading their herds over the public domain and resisting any efforts
toward conservation that might interfere with the development of power
and riches; when the frontier military commanders claimed that the
Indians could be brought to terms only when their main subsistence was
destroyed, urged the slaughter of buffalo, and resisted through Congress
any effort to protect and preserve them.
The new Yellowstone Park was fortunately situated
somewhat to the west of most private activity, so when the bill came
before Congress an attitude of indifference prevailed on the part of
both Congressmen and the public. However, this historic Act did not mean
that the public had suddenly become aware of its wasteful habits. It did
not mean the end of exploitation of the country's resources; the ravages
of uncontrolled enterprise continued unabated for at least two decades,
and Congress wavered constantly on the advisability of even maintaining
the nation's one park. On several occasions members of Congress,
representing the views of their constituents, advocated selling the area
to private parties as had been done with other public lands, and getting
out of the "show business," since it was not the purpose of the
government to "raise wild animals" nor was it the government's duty to
establish a hunting reserve for the "wealthy and traveling foreign
dignitaries."
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