USA > Colorado > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 80
USA > Nevada > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 80
USA > Wyoming > History of Nevada, Colorado, and Wyoming, 1540-1888 > Part 80
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6 Herman G. Nickerson, born in Ohio in 1841, received a collegiate edu- ,cation in the same state, and entered the union army in 1861 as a private in the 23d Ohio regt, and was mustered out in 1865 at Nashville, with the cus- tomary honors. He returned to Ohio to study law, but his health failin ?? he went first to Nebraska City, then to Bozeman, Mont., in 1866, driving a team, and fighting Indians nearly all the way from Fort Laramie, having ? of his company killed. On one occasion 180 head of stock were captured. Selling his goods, and engaging in mining, for 15 years Nickerson continued to reside in this district, undergoing all the difficulties attending pioneering and Indian disturbances. He went into sheep-farming in 1882 on a large scale. In 1868 he was appointed supt of schools, and was chosen justice of the peace several times, appointed U. S. commissioner in 1870, elected to the lower house of the legislature in 1871 and 1884, and was elected probate judge and county treasurer of Frémont co., of which he secured the organi- zation.
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WYOMING.
In the winter of 1868-70 a scheme was set on foot at Cheyenne for raising an expedition of two thousand men to explore the " unceded Indian territory," which by the treaty of 1868 was promised to the Sioux for a special preserve.
Meanwhile the Indian commissioner invited Red Cloud and Man-afraid-of-his-horses to Washington, in order that they might observe the power and magnifi- cence of the government. Red Cloud became so well convinced of the superiority of the United States in a long war that he gave his influence for peace, and for some months restrained his band from hostilities. It was during the summer of 1870 that a geological sur- vey of Wyoming was made from Cheyenne to Fort Fetterman, to the South pass, to Fort Bridger and the Uinta mountains, to Henry fork of Green river, to Brown's hole, to Green river station, on the Union Pacific railroad, and thence via Bridger's pass back to Cheyenne.
In May 1873 General Ord, commanding the mili- tary department of the Platte, ordered a military expedition to the headwaters of the Snake, Bighorn, and Yellowstone rivers, which was placed in charge of Captain Jones. The route of the expedition lay from Bryan, on the Union Pacific railroad, north through the Wind river valley, across Wind river mountains, and that interesting northwest corner of the territory dedicated to the nation for a public park. This was the first attempt of a government expedition to approach this region from this direction,' and was
7 In 1870 Lieut Gustavus C. Doane, by order of Major Baker, command- ing at Fort Ellis, Mont., made a reconnaissance from the fort to Yellowstone lake, via the general course of the east Gallatin river This was the first military expedition to this lake, and was accompanied by a party of civilians from Helena, namely, the surveyor-general of Montana, H. D. Washburn, N. P. Langford, T. C. Everts, C. Hedges, Samuel T. Hauser, Warren C. Gil- lette, Benjamin C. Stickney, jr, Walter Trumbull, and Jacob Smith. They proceeded to the geyser basins and Yellowstone lake, making an extended report of their explorations. The highest mountain in that region was named after the surveyor-general, Washburne. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc., 51, 41st cong., 3d sess .; Overland Monthly, vi. 431-7, 489-96; Missoula Pioneer, March 9-30, 1872. It was upon the report of this expedition to the sec. of war, and through the labors of the Montana delegate, Claggett, that the Yellowstone
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successful, the expedition proceeding through the Yellowstone national park to Fort Ellis.8
national park was reserved for a pleasure ground for the benefit and enjoy- ment of the people. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 326, p. 162, 41st cong., 3d sess .; Cong. Globe, 1871-2, app. 694; Annual Rept Supt Nat. Park, 1881, 74-5; Hayden, Great West, 36-8. Another government party in 1872 designed visiting the Yellowstone park, namely, the peace commissioners to the Sioux,
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YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.
headed by Gen. Cowan. They were prevented by these Indians. No, so the U. S. geol. surveying exped., under Hayden, which approached from the west by the Snake river cañon through the Teton range, finding immense snow- drifts and glaciers in July, and a lake at an altitude of 10,200 feet, which was frozen 15 feet deep. N. Y. Herald, in Helena Rocky Mountain Gazette, Sept. 29, 1872. Hayden penetrated to the geyser basin, which was described in his report. Numerous visiting and exploring parties have traversed the park since 1872, notably one which fell in with the Nez Perces, under Joseph in 1877, by whom they suffered severely. A reconnaissance for a wagon-road from Fort Washakie was made in 1881 by Gov. Hoyt and Col Julius W. Mason, 3d cav., and a small escort. Trans Wyom. Acad. Sciences, 43-69.
8 Mess. Gov. Campbell, 1873, 10. Wyom. H. Jour., 1873, 27. IlIngerso, Knocking Round the Rockies, 181. 'It is the intention of the military authori-
Quadrant Mt.
RYAN.G.E
GRAND
HANT'S
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WYOMING.
The inevitable crisis was approaching when the adoption of a decided policy with the Indians would be forced upon the government for the mutual good of white and red men. Some depredations being again committed by the Cheyennes and Arapahoes in Wind river valley in 1874, Captain Bates attacked
ties,' says Gov. Campbell, 'to ask of congress an appropriation sufficient to construct a military road from some point in Wyoming on the N. P. R. R., to Fort Ellis.' Jones, on p. 55 of his report, says one important object of his expedition was to discover a practicable route to Yellowstone lake from the south or southeast, and that he has found it practicable to build a wagon road via Yellowstone lake to Montana, which would save a considerable distance. It was discovered that there were three passes through the Sierra Shoshones, affording approaches to Yellowstone basin. First, from the head of Clarke fork to the east fork of the Yellowstone; second, from the head of the north fork of Stinkingwater, entering the basin opposite the foot of Yellowstone lake, (Colter's route, 1807) which route was followed by the expedition; third, from the head of Ishawooa river, entering the basin oppo- site the head of the lake. Missoulian, Aug. 22, 1873. All these passes were, he acknowleged, difficult. But one at the head of Wind river, a little south- east of the lake was practicable from Wind river valley. This pass he named Togwater, an Indian word. Its altitude was 9,621 feet, and the slopes of approach long and gradual, so that a railroad could be built over it. U. S. H. Ex. Doc., 285, p. 55, 43d cong., Ist sess. Jones' report contains contributions on the geology, meteorology, botany, and entomology of Wyoming, besides its geographical and descriptive matter. The Wyoming legislature of 1873 petitioned congress to appropriate money to establish a military road over the 'route reported upon by Capt. Jones. Wyom. Sess. Laws, 1873, p. 261-2. Again in 1879 congress was memorialized on the sub- ject of a road to Montana over the Jones survey of 1878, but nothing resulted from these petitions, and the approach via the route from Bozeman, has alone been rendered practicable to ordinary tourists.
N. G. Langford, of Montana, was made superintendent of the Yellow- stone park in 1872, and made some improvements by way of laying out roads to points of special interest in the reservation. Little, however, has been done, the object being to keep it in a state of nature as much as possi- ble, and to preserve the game. For a long time it had not even one resident, and no accommodations for visitors until 1880. In that year G. W. Mar- shall erected a cabin at Mammoth hot springs in Firehole basin, and kept a hotel. Marshall was born in Ill. in 1846. In the Firehole he was in truth a tresspasser; but Secretary Schurz, of the interior department, being in the park during a rainstorm, and having no shelter, suggested that he should enlarge his domicile and prepare to furnish accommodation to tourists, for which purpose he secured Marshall a permit from the government, to reside in the park and keep a hotel. In 1884 he obtained a lease for ten years. He had a daugliter born there Jan. 30, 1881, the first child born on the reserva- tion, and 50 miles from any neighbors. Gov. Hoyt named her Rose Park, in memory thereof. Marshall married Sarah Romrell in 1875.
The government superintendent of the park had his headquarters at Mammoth springs, but as no work could be carried on in the winter, did not reside there permanently. His duty is to construct roads and bridle paths, to discover mountain passes, geysers, hot springs, falls, fossil forests, and relics of prehistoric people, in which latter search considerable success was attained, as shown in a previons chapter. He also enforced the observance of rules against the spoliation of timber; against hunting, trapping, and fish- ing, except to supply food to visitors or residents; against the removal of
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MILITARY AND INDIAN AFFAIRS.
their camp at Point of Rocks, on the head of Powder river, with thirty-five soldiers and seventy-five Sho- shones, killing about forty of them, with a loss of three soldiers killed and several wounded, including himself. The Indians were in force, numbering be- tween two and three thousand, and the battle was a victory which relieved the western division of the territory of the Arapahoes for the remainder of the summer, only one murder occurring during the re- mainder of the year.º In the meantime the Sioux, as before, were preserving an armed neutrality, drawing their rations, and keeping the agents who furnished them in a state of alarm by their overbearing man- ners. Red Cloud had consented, reluctantly, to be removed to an agency of his own on White river, late in 1873. Like Spotted Tail's agency, it proved, on the survey of the boundary, to be in Nebraska, with-
mineral deposits, or any curiosities; against liquor selling; and against set- tling on the reservation, except under a lease from the department of the interior. Report of P. Norris, supt, 1881, p. 75; Helena, Montana Herald, Nov. 18, 1879.
In order to maintain these laws and regulations against infringement, the legislature of Wyoming in March 1884, passed an act making that portion of the park which was altogether in Wyoming, (a narrow strip on the north and west, projecting beyond the boundary, ) a precinct of Uinta county, the governor appointing commissioners, justices of the peace, and constables, to serve until officers were elected, and the territorial laws are made operative in the park; and to carry out this act, an appropriation was made from the territorial treasury for the payment of these officers, and the construction of a jail in Firehole basin. Wyom. Sess. Laws, 1884, 177-83, 194-5, 195-7. Laws appertaining to the Yellowstone National Park, passed by 47th cong., 2d sess., ch. 143, Sess. Laws; 48th cong., Ist sess., ch. 332, Sess. Laws; Mont. Jour. Council, 1883, 239-40.
Wyoming thus became actually possessed of the largest and most remark- able pleasure ground in the world. Among the many descriptions of its scenery, are Gen. Gibbons' Lecture on the Wonders of Yellowstone Park in Helena Gazette, Sept. 29, 1872. Letters of C. C. Clawson in Deer Lodge New Northwest, May 18th and June 1, 1872. Norton's Wonderland, 1-81, a complete account of the different geysers and other curiosities, with a good map; Richardson's Wonders of Yellowstons Park, 1-256, a more labored description than the former; Ray mond, Camp and Cabin, 154-207, narrative of a visit to the park; Gunnison, Rambles Overland, 29-44, including a ramble in the park; a series of descriptive articles in The Contributor for 1883, a monthly magazine pub- lished in Salt Lake City; a series of articles in Deer Lodge New Northwest, from Oct. 5th to Nov. 23, 1872. Rept of Supt, for 1880, with map; Dunraven's Great Divide, 194-293, a readable narrative of a tour by a party of English- men. among whom was the author, the earl of Dunraven, in 1874, and Stan- ley's Wonderland, still another descriptive and narrative account of a tour.
9 The battle was fought July 4th, and the 17th of Sept. following a murder was committed. Rep. Sec. Int., vol. 1, 578, 43d cong., 2d sess.
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WYOMING.
out the limits of the reservation, but since it was the best location for opening farms, the land being good and water plenty, it was retained for the Indians.
Owing to an extraordinary nugget of gold being exhibited at Bismark by a Sioux woman, who pro- fessed to have obtained it in the Black hills, General Custer determined upon a military reconnaissance to that region, accompanied by scientists who should settle the question of its value as a mining country.' 10 It was a well organized and well furnished expedition, and when it returned there was wild agitation over the question of to go or not to go where Custer had led. No secret was made of the existence of gold in abundance; on the contrary, the military officers, the scientific explorers, and the press correspondents con- nected with it, combined to paint the Black hills region with the most brilliant touches of fascinating description. Water, soil, timber, minerals, all came in for a share of this enthusiastic praise. If a scheme had been purposely devised for violating the treaty of 1868, it could not have aroused the people more quickly. As if to remove the last impediment, an- other military expedition was fitted out at Rawlins late in the summer, the object of which was to rid the country of wandering Indians. A camp was to be established on the Sweetwater, where the infantry should guard the military stores, while the cavalry scouted as far north as Fort Reno, and scoured the whole country east of the Bighorn mountains and west of the Black hills, drained by the Cheyenne,
10 The expedition consisted of 5 companies of cavalry under Custer, and 5 under Gen. Forsyth, and Gen. Tilson; 2 companies of infantry under Major L. H. Sanger; a battery of gatling guns under Lieut Josiah Chance; a detachment of engineers, under Col Ludlow, W. H. Wood, asst; 60 scouts under Lieut Wallace; Lieut Calhoun, A. A. A. Gen; Capt. A. E. Smith, quartermaster; J. W. Williams, chief medical officer; Allen and Bergen, asst surgeons; Col Fred Grant, acting aid-de-camp; Louis Argard, guide and interpreter; Professors Winchell and Grinnell, and others. Bismark Tribune, June 17, 1874; Deer Lodge New Northwest, July 11, 1874. The route of the expedition was Fort Laramie, thence north, striking the Black hills about French creek, passing northward to Bear Lodge mountain, the Little Mis- souri, and Hart river, and thence east.
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MILITARY AND INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Powder, and Tongue rivers, thus enabling the settlers to further break the treaty at will. To prevent this, General Sheridan hastened to warn the public against invading the Sioux Indian reservation, unless author- ized by the secretary of the interior or act of congress to do so. In spite of this interdiction, several com- panies proceeded to organize, at different points in Dakota, Montana, and Iowa. Orders were issued to generals Terry and Ord, should these companies tres- pass on the Sioux reservation, to burn their trains, destroy their entire outfit, and arrest their leaders, confining them at the nearest military post. The commander of Fort Ellis, in Montana, succeeded in preventing a Bozeman company from starting. They were more readily quieted, the promise having gone out that Sheridan would soon open the country from the western slope of the Black hills to the Gallatin valley.
The only party that really reached the Black hills during the season of 1874, was one which left Sioux City October 6th, consisting of twenty-seven men, a · woman and boy. The men were well mounted and armed; they had six wagons and were provided with provisions and mining tools. They proceeded to the Niobrara above its mouth, where they met 200 mounted Indians, and held a parley with them. No opposition was made to their progress, and they kept on to their destination, finding a pass through the hills to a point two miles from Harney peak, where they erected a stockade eighty feet long, and built a log house. They found the weather cold, but sunk twenty-five prospect holes, finding gold in each, and discovered several quartz lodes. They were not dis- turbed either by Indians or military companies for a considerable time,11 but were finally arrested and taken to Fort Laramie. In March 1875, the presi- dent directed another order to be issued, excluding all white persons from the Sioux reservation
11 Deer Lodge New Northwest, March 19, 1875. Among the party were Eph. Witcher. of Yankton, and Gordon. Witcher returned to Yankton before the arrest.
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WYOMING.
The government was now forced into a position in which it must pay or fight. It preferred to pay, and steps were taken to secure the consent of the Sioux to the sale of the Black hills, a commission being appointed to negotiate for the purchase. While this matter was pending, preparations went on uninter- ruptedly for mining. The books of the Black Hills Transportation company at Sioux City showed that from April 7th to May 7, 1875, over 300 men, forty wagons, and a pack-train had left that point for the mines, and about 200 had gone from Yorktown and other points, including a few women. In the east a company of 1,800 men was formed, O. H. Pierson, president, which was only waiting the result of the negotiations of the commissioners. It was the inten- tion of this company to open mines and lay out towns by corporate means.
So confident was the secretary of the interior of the purchase of the Black hills that he authorized an exploring expedition under the charge of Walter P. Jenney of the school of mines of New York,12 which organized at Cheyenne in May. It was attended by a military escort under Colonel R. I. Dodge.
In the meantime meetings had been held in Chey- enne early in January, looking to the organization of a citizens' company for the purpose of exploring in the Bighorn mountains, and developing the Black hills mining region,13 Cheyenne being once more filled with a surging mass of humanity panting to acquire wealth by luck rather than labor. The merchants of the town quickly perceived the advantage to be reaped from a mining excitement, with Cheyenne for an outfitting point, and entered into the project of an exploring company with enthusiasm.
12 His assistants were Henry A. Newton of Ohio, geologist; H. P. Little, formerly of the U. S. navy, astronomer; Dr V. P. McGillicuddy, topog- rapher; D. Newberry, and a corps of surveyors. Id. Rept Sec. Int., vol. 1, 538; 44 cong., 1 sess. : Deer Lodge New Northwest, May 14, 1875.
13 Cheyenne News, Jan. 11, 12, and 13, 1875. The committe appointed to devise plans for carrying out the purposes of the organization were F. E. Warren. A R Converse. J. R. Whitehead, Luke Murrin, P. S. Wilson, J. Joslin, E. P. Snow, D. McLoughlin, M. E. Post, and A. E. Swan.
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MILITARY AND INDIAN AFFAIRS.
Early in May there appeared upon the scene a leader such as the occasion demanded. This was C. C. Carpenter, a man with considerable experience both as a frontiersman and a military officer. Making Cheyenne his headquarters, he issued his general orders like the commander of an authorized army, vindicating the character and purposes of his men, which Governor Pennington of Dakota had attacked, and promising them that they should not be prevented from entering the Black hills or Bighorn mountains. And, in truth, it would be an awkward thing for the government to train its guns on the citizens of an organized territory for traversing any part of it for what it might contain.
In July the commissioners reached the Black hills, finding mining camps and military camps at peace with each other, and the Indians more or less sullen on this account. They had exhibited some temper by destroying a few hundred dollars' worth of goods belonging to a trader, but further than that there had been no trouble in the Black hills. It was in vain, however, that terms were proposed for the ceding of the mining territory, or any part of the unceded Indian lands heretefore reserved by treaty from the occupation of the white race. At a general council held in September,14 the demands of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were exorbitant, being no less than $600,000,000. In this matter the ability of a savage to comprehend such a sum being on its face impossi- ble, it was plain that they were not without malicious white advisers. The council ended by placing the government under greater embarassment than before. " However unwilling we may be to confess it," said the secretary of the interior, "the experience of the past summer proves either the inefficiency of the large military force under the command of such officers as generals Sheridan, Terry, and Crook, or the utter
14 In May a large Sioux delegation had been taken to Washington for an interview with the president, which was intended to smooth the way to an arrangement. Rept Sec. Int., vol. 1, 509; 44 cong., 1 sess,
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WYOMING.
impracticability of keeping Americans out of a coun- try where gold is known to exist, by any force of orders, or of United States cavalry, or by any consid- eration of the rights of others." 15
15 If the government was in a hole, as the Indians would have said, it was put there by the secretary, and not by the people of the west, who would never have bound themselves by such a treaty as that of 1868. The nation was bound by a promise, the inevitable breaking of which could produce but one result, since the very explorers authorized by the secretary of the interior to make an examination of the Black hills had reported finding a gold field fifty miles in extent.
Up to this time miners, except about 500, had yielded to authority, and kept out of the forbidden territory. But seeing that delay did not lessen the difficulty, they began early in this year to prepare for a general move- ment in that direction. In Feb. 1876 Custer City had been laid off, and was the central point for trade. The improvements mentioned were Bevy and Boughton's saw-mill from Cheyenne; two portable saw-mills en route from Colorado; the steam saw-mill from Spotted Tail agency being the first to blow a whistle in the Black hills, Feb. 6, 1876. A herd of cows had ar- rived for a dairy. A couple had been married at Custer, namely William Hardesty and Ida Simms. Cheyenne Leader, Feb. 19, 1876.
Parties from Illinois, Nebraska, and Colorado were on the road in Febru- ary, and newspapers gave full information about routes and outfitting places, each one in its own interest, Omaha and Cheyenne taking the lead. By the 4th of March there were 4,000 people in the Black hills, and the military had orders from the president not to interfere with them.
The Sioux nation at this time numbered about 35,000 persons, divided among ten agencies, situated chiefly in north-eastern and eastern Dakota. Of these, 9,087 were Ogallalas, of whom Red Cloud was principal chief, and 7,000 Brulés, over whom Spotted Tail was head chief. Add to these 2,294 northern Arapahoes and Cheyennes, who were associated with the Ogallalas and Brulés in the treaty of 1868, and there vere over 19,000 aboriginals, who had the privilege of roaming over a large part of Wyoming.
Generals Reynolds and Crook, hoping to gain a victory over some of the hostiles which should render future concessions obtainable without a general war, left Fort Fetterman early in March to attack Crazy Horse. After passing Fort Reno, from which point only the cavalry was allowed to pro- ceed, he took a northerly direction seventy miles to Tongue river, the march lying over high, well-grassed plains, watered by numerous streams flowing toward Tongue river, which was found to course through a narrow valley furnished with an abundance of timber. After scouting toward the Yellow- stone, and exploring the lower Tongue and Rosebud valleys without finding the enemy, the expedition marched toward Powder river through a moun- tainous region, the weather being very cold, and the troops enduring much hardship. The scouts discovered the enemy's camp on that stream, which was attacked at daylight on the 17th by the main force under Reynolds, Crook having gone toward Sitting Bull's camp on the Rosebud, with only two companies of cavalry. The attack on Crazy Horse failed through the disobedience of Captain Webb of the 3d cavalry, who remained inactive, although ordered to charge from one side of the village, while Captain Eagan met him from the other. Eagan was left to fight his way out, after having plunged into the midst of the Sioux, with a loss of ten men killed and wounded. The savages fled, leaving their lodges and camp property, which were destroyed, and many of their horses captured. Knowing that this blow would only exasperate the Sioux, and finding circumstances against him, while his command was insufficient to carry out his designs, Reynolds returned to Fort Fetterman, and Crook went to Omaha, determined not to
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