People Important to the History of Yellowstone
Many individuals were connected with the founding or history of Yellowstone.
- Hiram ChittendenW
- John ColterW
- Truman C. EvertsW
- Ferdinand HaydenW
- Frank Jay HaynesW
- William Henry JacksonW
- Thomas MoranW
- Robert ReamerW
- Henry WashburnW
- John F. YanceyW
- Harry YountW
- Horace AlbrightW
- Frazier BoutelleW
- Herbert MaierW
- Dan Christie KingmanW
- The team of the Cook–Folsom–Peterson ExpeditionW
- The team of the Washburn–Langford–Doane ExpeditionW
- The team of the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871W
Historical Expeditions in the Yellowstone Area
Although Yellowstone had been thoroughly tracked by trappers and tribes, in the view of the nation at large it was really “discovered” by formal expeditions. The first organized attempt came in 1860 when Captain William F. Raynolds led a military expedition, but it was unable to explore the Yellowstone Plateau because of late spring snow. The Civil War preoccupied the government during the next few years. Afterward, several explorations were planned but none actually got underway.
The 1869 Folsom-Cook-Peterson Expedition
In 1869, three members of one would-be expedition set out on their own. David E. Folsom, Charles W. Cook, and William Peterson ignored the warning of a friend who said their journey was “the next thing to suicide” because of “Indian trouble” along the way. From Bozeman, they traveled down the divide between the Gallatin and Yellowstone rivers, crossed the mountains to the Yellowstone and continued into the present park. They observed Tower Fall, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone— “this masterpiece of nature’s handiwork”— continued past Mud Volcano to Yellowstone Lake, then south to West Thumb. From there, they visited Shoshone Lake and the geyser basins of the Firehole River. The expedition updated an earlier explorer’s map (DeLacy, in 1865), wrote an article in Western Monthly magazine, and refueled the excitement of scientists who decided to see for themselves the truth of the party’s tales of “the beautiful places we had found fashioned by the practiced hand of nature, that man had not desecrated.”
The 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition
In August 1870, a second expedition set out for Yellowstone, led by Surveyor-General Henry D. Washburn, politician and businessman Nathaniel P. Langford, and attorney Cornelius Hedges. Lt. Gustavus C. Doane provided military escort from Fort Ellis (near present-day Bozeman, Montana). The explorers traveled to Tower Fall, Canyon, and Yellowstone Lake, followed the lake’s eastern and southern shores, and explored the Lower, Midway, and Upper geyser basins (where they named Old Faithful). They climbed several peaks, descended into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and attempted measurements and analyses of several of the prominent natural features.
The 1871 Hayden Expedition
Ferdinand V. Hayden, head of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, led the next scientific expedition in 1871, simultaneous with a survey by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Hayden Survey brought back scientific corroboration of the earlier tales of thermal activity. The expedition gave the world an improved map of Yellowstone and visual proof of the area’s unique curiosities through the photographs of William Henry Jackson and the art of Henry W. Elliot and Thomas Moran. The expedition’s reports excited the scientific community and aroused even more national interest in Yellowstone.
Source: Source for the information above was the Yellowstone Resources & Issues, 2010.
