USA > Wyoming > History of Wyoming, Volume I > Part 4
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In one cavern Mr. Stein discovered the skeleton of a man covered with dust and stone fragments. It had evidently lain there for centuries. The skull was incrusted with lime accretions. Mr. Stein sent the skull to Maj. J. W. Powell of the Smithsonian Institution and it is now a part of their ethnological collec- tions. These caverns were visited by Dr. George A. Dorsey in 1900, by Harlem I. Smith's expedition in 1907 and by Mr. Gilder in 1906. Mr. Gilder found a jasper blade and stone awl lying on a shelf in one cave, ten feet from the entrance. Others found various flint instruments. The bones of rabbits and sage hens which had probably been used for food were found in these caves.
OTHER DISCOVERIES
Several discoveries of great interest have been made in the excavations made in opening up the iron mines six or eight miles south of the caves in the vicin- ity of Hartville and Sunrise. J. L. Stein and William Lauk, in running a tunnel into the hill, found at a depth of twenty feet, a stone mortar and grinding stone, an Indian necklace made of sinews strung with arrow heads, carved hoof bones, a stone tomahawk and the polished end of a horn. In another mine nearby rude stone paint mills were unearthed.
These discoveries tell their own history. On account of the presence of large bodies of red hematite, the Indians made the region a favorite resort to obtain the brilliant, soft pigment for coloring their various articles of workman- ship and particularly when large bands were organized for the warpath, and as a first preparation for the campaign, their faces and parts of the body were painted red. The rude stone paint mills found in both these mines tell the story as vividly as if the red warriors were fighting their battles today.
Hartville is rich in Indian and pioneer history. The old California and Mormon trail passes directly through the townsite. The very gulch in which the town is located was called "Indian Spring", as far back as the records of white men go. This spring gushes out of solid rock at the foot of a high cliff, and formerly furnished Hartville its supply of water. Along the outskirts of the townsite and covering a portion of it can be traced the tepee beds of the Indians who once resorted there, showing villages a mile in extent. It was also a favorite camping place of the '49ers and Mormons on account of its excellent supply of water and wood, and its beautiful situation.
About ten miles above Hartville situated in a wild and picturesque spot in the hills, between the old trail and the North Platte is Slade's canyon-the home of the famous desperado and his companions, and the place where they cached their plunder after foraging on the immigrant trains and stage travelers of that day.
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THE MEDICINE WHEELS
In this relation of Wyoming Antiquities the "medicine wheels" of the Big Horn range deserve especial mention, as having been recently discovered and still a subject of discussion and conjecture as to their origin and antiquity.
In the American Anthropologist of March, 1903, C. S. Simms of the Field Columbian Museum gives an account of the wheels found on the summit of Medicine Mountain of the Big Horn range at an elevation of over 12,000 feet.
Mr. Simms was conducted to the spot by "Silver Tip", a prospector and hunter who had lived among the Indians when a boy. The ascent was slow and difficult as there was no good trail and heavy snow drifts were encountered. The summit of the mountain is broad at the west end tapering to narrow limits on the east where the medicine wheel is located. This is described by Simms as consisting of an immense wheel built upon the ground with slabs and boulders of limestone. The circumference of the wheel measures 245 feet. In the center which corresponds to the hub of a wheel is a circular structure built of stone about three feet high and from this there radiates twenty-seven lines of stone forming the spokes. The outer circle or rim at seven different places is marked by stone structures all on the rim, except one on the south which is built several feet beyond but connected by one of the spoke lines. The eastern structure dif- fers from the others by being nearly square, and unlike the others is built higher and the opening is outside while the others open on the inside. On the project- ing slabs of this structure rested a perfectly bleached buffalo skull which had been so placed that it looked to the rising sun. Within the central structure which resembles a truncated cone there is a slightly circular depression in the ground. Mr. Simms says he was told of the medicine wheel by the Crow In- dians, but none of them could tell anything of its origin, excepting that it "was made by people who had no iron."
W. M. Camp, author of a "History of the Indian Wars" visited the medicine wheel in July, 1916, and wrote to Dr. Grace Raymond Hebard some of his ex- periences on the trip. He was accompanied by a Mr. Shepherd who unearthed beads of a peculiar character which he sent to experts in New York. They . pronounced the beads to be of a pattern worked in Venice over 300 years ago. In his letter Mr. Camp says he discovered a second medicine wheel about forty miles north in a direct line from the first, this one being larger than the first and quite different in design and in its location to landmarks, more striking and suggestive.
Doctor Long, a Sheridan minister, recently made a trip to the Medicine Mountain wheel, going up through the main canyon of the Little Big Horn and gives a graphic description of his journey and the magnificent scenic views he enjoyed. He says the history and origin of the medicine wheel is veiled in ob- scurity. The Indians of today frankly acknowledge their ignorance of its origin. One Crow chief said, "It was built before the light came," meaning it was pre- historic. One said. "It was a shrine for the worship of the sun."
Mr. Long has the idea it is in some way related to the worship of the Aztecs, or a people akin to the Aztecs of Mexico, who at one time inhabited this moun- tain region. Others think that its origin dates back to a much earlier period, or as the Indian says. "when the people had no iron." The Aztecs carried certain
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arts and manufactures to a high state of perfection. They were especially skilled in making pottery and everywhere they lived in New Mexico and Arizona, may be found pottery and other specimens of their handiwork among their ruined structures. Here, none of many examples of Aztec manufacture and domestic life has been noted. The origin of the medicine wheel is therefore still open to conjecture and speculation.
RUDE STONE ART IN BRIDGER BASIN
Prof. Joseph Leidy, of Hayden's Geological Survey of 1873. gives a very interesting report of the remains of primitive art which he discovered in Bridger Basin, or in the region adjacent to Fort Bridger, made up of table lands, val- leys, buttes and plains. He says :
"In some localities the stones strewn over the lower buttes and plains are broken and flaked in such a manner as in many cases, to assume the appear- ance of rude works of art. Among those of rudest construction there are a few of the finest finish. In some places the stone implements are so numerous, and at the same time so rudely constructed that one is constantly in doubt when to consider them as natural or accidental and when to view them as artificial. Some of the plains are so thickly strewn with natural and artificial splintered stones that they look as if they had been the battlefields of great armies during the stone age."
. Representations of a few of the flaked stones are pictured in the report of which he says, "These with little doubt may be viewed as rude implements of art." He asked Dr. J. Van A. Carter, residing at Fort Bridger and acquainted with the language, history and customs of the neighboring Indian tribes, about the origin of these specimens and the doctor said the present races of Indians knew nothing of them. He said the Shoshones look upon them as the gift of God to their ancestors. Of the illustrations given of sixteen specimens by Doctor Leidy all the rudest were manufactured from quartzite exactly corre- sponding with the stone of the great quarries first described in this chapter. and were of the same shape and type of workmanship, of coarse flaking. Un- doubtedly these implements came from the same locality and were used by the same ancient races.
In this connection mention should be made of a beautiful vase that was found near one of the quarries on the Muddy, standing upon a stone block. This vase was 14 inches high, ten inches in diameter and the opening at the top was seven inches. This of course has no relation to the stone art, but was left by some late Indians or Mexicans that roamed that section.
PRE-HISTORIC ANIMALS OF WYOMING
The ancient animal life of the earth is always interesting. The strangeness and mystery of this life, the peculiar types and the enormous size of many fossil specimens discovered, have made it the subject of much scientific inves- tigation and systematic research, as well as of extensive mining operations.
Wyoming affords the most remarkable quarries and fields for this research and has for the last quarter of a century given to the scientific societies, col-
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leges and museums of the world the most rare and gigantic specimens ever dis- covered.
In this way the animals that roamed the western plains in pre-historic times, the enormous reptiles that plashed around in these inland seas, and the huge birds that tracked their shores, have been reconstructed from their discovered fossilized bones, and their environment visualized, so that we of the present day may realize their surroundings, habits of life, powers of locomotion and habitat. The principal fields of research for the remains of extinct animals in Wyoming that have been successfully worked, are found on Lance Creek, north of Lusk, in the foot hills north of Medicine Bow, and at Fossil, a few miles west of Kemmerer. Operations have also been carried on in other sections of the state where valuable examples of pre-historic animal life have been un- earthed.
The question has been often asked, how many years ago did this or that animal live? Prof. Fred A. Lucas of the United States National Museum, says: "The time that has elapsed since the beginning of the Jurassic age when the dinosaurs held carnival, is variously estimated from six to fifteen million years."
How these animals were exterminated or died off from natural causes is a matter of conjecture. Poisonous gases, lava, earthquakes, floods, etc., may have played a part. The earliest traces of animal life says Doctor Lucas, "are found beneath something like eighteen to twenty-five miles of rock!"
If an animal is sunk in a quiet lake the waves accumulate mud and sand and deposit over it, a process of entombment takes place, the air is excluded and the lime or silica soon makes the strata a solid mass. The period of fos- silization, however, is very slow, often a matter of many centuries.
Some are animals changed into stone, some are footprints made by animals in an impressible stratum, some are simply moulds of the form where the ani- mal lay, from which casts are made in restoring the subject. Among the animals found in Wyoming the dinosaurs claim distinction as being the largest known quadrupeds that have walked the face of the carth. The brontosaurus or Thun- der Lizard, beneath whose mighty tread the earth shook, and his kindred were from 40 to 60 feet long, their thigh bones measuring from five to six feet. A tooth of the Mammoth of the elephant type in the United States National Museum has a grinding space five by eight inches and weighs over 15 pounds.
The skull of a Triceratops when boxed for the museum weighed 3,650 pounds. This will give the reader a general idea of the gigantic size of some pre-historic animals. In the West of late years there has been a vast amount of collecting and much new information has been gained. In Wyoming attention was called to our precious animal deposits by Professor Hayden's reports in the United States Geological Surveys of 1868 to 1873. On his expedition in 1868, Hayden was accompanied by Professor Agassiz, the celebrated scientist, and during their explorations of this section Agassiz made his headquarters in Cheyenne, his especial studies being in the department of paleontology. The fossils then un- earthed were small sea-fish, shells, ferns, etc., and were studied with reference to the geologic periods of the formations examined.
Impressions of feathers have been found in the Green River and Florrisant shales 'of Wyoming. In the rock formations at Fossil, many forms of marine
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life, various kinds of fish, as well as snakes, and queer birds, and various forms of typical vegetation are found in great abundance. The largest specimen taken from this field was a fish about ten feet long. The products of the Wyoming fossil fields may be found today in museums in many parts of the world, al- though the deposits have been only partially worked.
Recent publications of the National Museum by Charles W. Gilmore, de- scribe "new species of fossil turtles," from the Lance formation and "the oste- ology of an orthopodous" from the same section in Wyoming. Professor Gil- more is curator of fossil reptiles for the museum and before going to Wash- ington, spent several years in the great fossil fields of this state while a mem- ber of the faculty of the University of Wyoming.
The large reptiles are found in the shales, chalk or hard clay, and the work of excavating them comes under a special class of mining requiring expert di- rection. It is done with mining tools, picks, shovels, drills, hammers and wedges. Every bone or section must be carefully removed and is duly recorded by letter and number and its position designated so the parts can be assembled in the work room and the skeleton reconstructed. Single bones weighing from 100 to 500 pounds, even when shattered into fragments are reunited by the skill of the paleontologist, covered with plaster bandages and shipped by freight for a thousand miles or more. The real task of restoration is done at the museum. To clean a single vertebra of a large dinosaur requires a month of continuous labor, and a score of these are included in one back bone. In its remarkable fossil fields Wyoming has made notable contributions to science and to the study of pre-historic animal life on this continent.
CHAPTER III
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
FIRST INHABITANTS-INDIAN TRAILS-ORIGIN OF THE NAME "YELLOWSTONE" - . GENERAL DESCRIPTION, SURFACE, WATERCOURSES, ETC .- GEOLOGY-THE GEYSERS -JOHN COLTER-JIM BRIDGER-EXPLORING EXPEDITIONS-ACT OF DEDICATION -MANAGEMENT OF THE PARK-AN ANIMAL SANCTUARY-BIRDS AND FISH.
In the northwest corner of the State of Wyoming is situated the Yellow- stone National Park, which has justly been called "Nature's Wonderland." Probably no other spot of equal size on this planet presents as much romantic scenery of mountain, lake and plateau, or as interesting natural curiosities as the obsidian cliff and the great geysers, which may have been sending forth their volumes of hot water from the interior of the earth "when the morning stars sang together." The visitor to the park, as he gazes with awe from In- spiration Point down the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, or witnesses the action of the geysers in the Firehole Basin, may well be filled with wonder at why American citizens will travel in foreign countries to the neglect of the beauties of their own land.
FIRST INHABITANTS
For years before the wonders of the Upper Yellowstone region became known to the white man, the country about the park was inhabited by Indian tribes of the Algonquian, Siouan and Shoshonean families. The Blackfeet, an Algonquian tribe, dwelt around the sources of the Yellowstone River. The Crow, a Siouan tribe, lived farther down in the valley of the Yellowstone and eastward to the Big Horn River. The Bannock Indians and another Shoshonean tribe called the Tu-ku-a-ri-ki (Sheepeaters) inhabited the country now embraced within the limits of the Yellowstone National Park. None of these Indians knew much about the wonders of the park, for the reason that their ancestors for generations had a superstitious fear of the geyser region, and brave, in- deed, was the red man who would venture into the district where the evil spirits held sway.
INDIAN TRAILS
Even in locating their trails, these aboriginal inhabitants studiously avoided close contact with the dreaded geysers. The principal Indian trail was the "Great Bannock," which ran westward from the Mammoth Hot Springs, in the northern part of the park, over the Gallatin Range to Henry Lake. At the Mam-
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moth Hot Springs it was joined by a trail coming up the valley of the Gardiner River. Another important trail followed the Yellowstone River from the northern boundary of the park to the foot of Yellowstone Lake, where it divid- ed, one branch running along the eastern shore of the lake until it intersected the trail leading to the valleys of the Snake and Wind rivers. The other branch followed the western shore of the lake, crossed the divide, and continued southward to the Jackson's Hole country and the Snake River. From the foot of Yellowstone Lake a trail ran westward along the base of the Continental Divide to the Madison Plateau. Nearly all these trails are now established routes of travel for tourists to the park.
ORIGIN OF THE NAME "YELLOWSTONE"
David Thompson, an English fur trader, who spent part of the winter of 1797-98 among the Mandan Indians, was probably the first man to give the name "Yellowstone" to the river, which in turn gives its name to this land of scenic wonders. The Minnetaree Sioux called the river the "Mi-tsi-a-da-zi," which in their language means "Rock Yellow Water." The French called the river the "Roche Jaune" (sometimes written "Pierre Jaune"), signifying "Yel- low Rock," but when or by whom the name was thus first applied is not known. That there is good reason for the adoption of the name is seen in the report of Captain Jones, who visited the Upper Yellowstone in 1873. Says he: "In and about the Grand Canyon the rocks are nearly tinged a brilliant yellow."
GENERAL DESCRIPTION
The central portion of the park may be described as a "broad, elevated, vol- canic plateau, with an average altitude of about eight thousand feet above the sea level." Different names have been given to different parts of this plateau. In the eastern part it is called "Mirror Plateau," in the southeast "Two Ocean Plateau," in the southwest "Pitchstone Plateau," and in the western part "Madi- son Plateau." At the northeast corner, where the Snowy and Absaroka moun- tain ranges meet, the surface is broken and the scenery equals any to be found among the Swiss Alps. The Snowy Range extends westward along the northern boundary of the park to the Yellowstone Valley. West of the Yellowstone lie the Gallatin Mountains, which extend to the northwest corner of the park, where Electric Peak, the highest elevation of the range, affords a commanding view of the surrounding country. Besides these mountain ranges, there are many peaks, buttes and hills that have been identified by name, such as Bison Peak, Mount Washburn, Folsom Peak, The Needles, Overlook Mountain, Pyramid Peak, Mount Hancock and Mount Hoyt, the last having been named in honor of one of the territorial governors of Wyoming.
Over 150 streams of clear mountain spring water flow through the park, the principal ones being the Yellowstone, Lamar, Gardiner, Madison, Gallatin, Snake, Gibbon and Firehole rivers, Obsidian, Soda Butte, Boundary, Slough and Clear creeks. Along the courses of these streams are numerous cascades and waterfalls, the best known of which are the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, Tower Falls, Osprey Falls, Kepler Cascade, Fairy Falls, Gibbon
OLD FAITHFUL, YELLOWSTONE PARK
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Falls and the Virginia Cascade. These vary in height from 310 feet at the Lower Yellowstone Falls to 60 feet at the Virginia Cascade.
Government reports on the park mention forty-four lakes, the largest of which is the Yellowstone and the one having the highest altitude is Gardiner Lake. Yellowstone Lake is about sixty miles in length. At the south end it is divided into two arms, between which is a beautiful headland called "The Promontory." and an arm extending from the west side is called "The Thumb."
GEOLOGY
In 1912 Arnold Hague, of the United States Geological Survey, made ex- tended investigations in the Yellowstone National Park, and his report gives many interesting and scientific facts concerning the phenomena of the geysers, the general geological formation, etc. Near the northeast corner of the park he found an extinct volcano, the summit of which has an altitude of 10,000 feet. The rocks of this section he classified as granite, gneiss, schist, etc., be- longing to the pre-Cambrian series. Mingled with these rocks in places he found in abundance the volcanic rock known as "Andesite," which has played an important part in the production of the structural features of the mountains in' and about the park.
Mr. Hague found evidence of glacial action in a huge granite bowlder- 24 feet long, 20 feet wide and 18 feet high above the ground. This bowlder he found in a forest on the brink of the Grand Canyon, and the nearest stone of similar formation, so far as known to geologists, is some forty miles dis- tant. Think of the mighty force that must have been exerted by the great sheet of ice that covered the northwestern part of the United States at the close of the Pleistocene period !
THE GEYSERS
The number of geysers, hot springs, mud pots, paint pots, etc., scattered over the park, Mr. Hague estimated at over three thousand. "To which," says he in his report, "should be added the fumaroles and solfatores, from which issue in the aggregate enormous volumes of steam and acid sulphur vapors, by which the number of active vents would easily be doubled. Each of these vents is a center of decomposition of the acid lava."
There are several well defined geyser basins, the most important of which are the Upper and Lower basins on the Firehole River, which takes its name from these wonderful phenomena of nature; the Norris Basin, near the source of Obsidian Creek; and the Heart Lake Basin, at the north end of that lake in the southern part of the park. Of the large geysers there are sixty-seven. The action of these geysers is far from uniform. The one called "Old Faith- ful," because of the regularity of its eruptions, throws a column of hot water 150 feet into the air every sixty-five minutes, the eruption lasting about 41/2 minutes. Excelsior Geyser, the greatest in the park, throws water to a height of 300 feet and spouts at intervals varying from one to four hours. Mr. Hague estimated the discharge of this geyser at "forty-four hundred gallons of boil- ing water per minute."
CASTLE GEYSER, YELLOWSTONE PARK
FIREHOLE RIVER FALLS, YELLOWSTONE PARK
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Other noted geysers, with the height of column and interval of eruption are: The Giant, 200 feet, once in six days, duration of eruption 11/2 hours ; the Giantess, 250 feet, every fourteen days, time of eruption twelve hours; the Bee Hive, 220 feet, once every twenty hours, eruption lasts eight minutes; the Grand, 200 feet, once in twenty hours, time of action twenty minutes; the Castle, 100 feet, every twenty-four hours, lasts twenty-five minutes; the Mon- arch, 125 feet, at intervals of twelve hours, eruption lasts twenty minutes.
JOHN COLTER
To John Colter must be accorded the distinction of having been the first white man to behold the wonders of what is now the Yellowstone National Park. Colter was a private soldier with the Lewis and Clark expedition. In August, 1806, as the expedition was returning to St. Louis and when near the Mandan villages on the Missouri River, two trappers named Hancock and Dixon, visited the camp and pictured in such glowing language the excitement and profits of a trapper's life, that Colter was induced to ask for his discharge that he might join them on the Yellowstone River. The journal of the expedi- tion for August 15, 1806, contains the following entry. "As he had always per- formed his duty and his services might be dispensed with, we agreed that he might go, provided none of the rest would ask or expect a similar indulgence. To this they cheerfully answered that they wished Colter every success and would not apply for liberty before we reached St. Louis. We therefore sup- plied him, as did his comrades also, with powder, lead and a variety of articles which might be useful to him and he left us the next day."
The following spring Colter passed through the Pryor Gap of the Big Horn Mountains and wandered about on Clark's Fork, the Stinking Water (now the Shoshone River), and it is believed he reached the headwaters of the Green River. On his return he struck the headwaters of the Wind River, which he mistook for the Big Horn, but finally found his way back to the camp of the previous winter. He then decided to return to St. Louis and set out alone in a log canoe. Near the mouth of the Platte River he met Manuel Lisa, who persuaded him to return to the Upper Missouri country. Lisa established a trading post at the mouth of the Big Horn River and Colter again struck into the wilderness to the southward in pursuit of fur-bearing animals. Somewhere on this expedition he came in contact with a band of hostile Indians and wan- dered many miles out of his way in his efforts to reach the trading post. It was on this occasion that he passed through what is now the Yellowstone National Park. In the spring of 1810 he returned to St. Louis, where he met his old commander, Captain Clark, who outlined the course described in the map of the Lewis and Clark expedition, marking it "Colter's Route in 1807." By this means Colter's wanderings were given official recognition and made a matter of public record.
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