blackfoot-valley

An occurrence worth noting on this last long leg of the Lewis and Clark journey: while pausing at the Mandan villages near Bismarck, North Dakota, Private John Colter asked, and got, permssion to leave the expedition and go back upstream with a pair of American trappers they had met who were heading that way. So on August 17th, in Stephen Ambrose’ words, “ Colter turned back to the wilderness, back to the mountains, on his way to the his- tory books as America’s first mountain man and discoverer of Yellowstone National Park.” Regarding the latter, Colter’s subsequent reports of geysers, bubbling pots or cauldrons, and hot springs with strong sulfurous odors were greeted by incredulity, and as stories spread the area became known as “Col- ter’s Hell,” until Yellowstone Park replaced that name after being officially Mountain men and the fur rush “ Mountain Man” @ John Phelps studio 67