The Yellowstone National Park Part 27

"A thunder-shower was approaching as we neared the summit of the mountain. I was above the others of the party, and, when about fifty feet below the summit, the electric current began to pa.s.s through my body. At first I felt nothing, but heard a crackling noise, similar to a rapid discharge of sparks from a friction machine. Immediately after, I began to feel a tingling or p.r.i.c.king sensation in my head and the ends of my fingers, which, as well as the noise, increased rapidly, until, when I reached the top, the noise, which had not changed its character, was deafening, and my hair stood completely on end, while the tingling, p.r.i.c.king sensation was absolutely painful.

Taking off my hat partially relieved it. I started down again, and met the others twenty-five or thirty feet below the summit. They were affected similarly, but in a less degree. One of them attempted to go to the top, but had proceeded but a few feet when he received quite a severe shock, which felled him as if he had stumbled. We then returned down the mountain about three hundred feet, and to this point we still heard and felt the electricity."

[CD] Page 807, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Elephant Back_ (8,600)--J: 9--1871--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic. "On account of the almost vertical sides of this mountain, and the rounded form of the summit, it has received the name of the Elephant's Back."--Hayden.[CE]

[CE] Page 98, Fifth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

This name, as now applied, refers to a different feature from that originally designated by it. Many years before the Park was discovered, it was used to denote the long ridge of which Mt. Washburn is the commanding summit, and which was distinctly visible from beyond the present limits of the Park, both north and south. It so appears upon Raynolds' map of 1860, and was so used by the Washburn Expedition (1870), by Captain Barlow (1871), and by Captain Jones (1873). The United States Geological Survey, however, in 1871, transferred the name to an inconspicuous ridge more than a thousand feet lower than the surrounding mountains. Whether the change was made by accident or design does not appear. Captain Ludlow, as late as 1875, refers to it and deplores the fact that it had taken place.

_Everts, Mt._ (7,900)--C: 7--1870--Washburn Party.--For Hon. Truman C.

Everts, member of the Expedition of 1870, whose terrible experience is elsewhere alluded to. The following succinct account is from the pen of Lieutenant Doane, and is in the main correct:[CF]

"On the first day of his absence, he had left his horse standing unfastened, with all his arms and equipments strapped upon his saddle; the animal became frightened, ran away into the woods, and he was left without even a pocket knife as a means of defense. Being very near-sighted, and totally unused to traveling in a wild country without guides, he became completely bewildered. He wandered down to the Snake River Lake [Hart Lake], where he remained twelve days, sleeping near the hot springs to keep from freezing at night, and climbing to the summits each day in the endeavor to trace out his proper course. Here he subsisted on thistle-roots, boiled in the springs, and was kept up a tree the greater part of one night by a California lion. After gathering and cooking a supply of thistle-roots, he managed to strike the south-west point of the [Yellowstone] Lake, and followed around the north side to the Yellowstone [River], finally reaching our [old] camp opposite the Grand Canon. He was twelve days out before he thought to kindle a fire by using the lenses of his field-gla.s.s, but afterward carried a burning brand with him in all his wanderings. Herds of game pa.s.sed by him during the night, on many occasions when he was on the verge of starvation. In addition to a tolerable supply of thistle-roots, he had nothing for over thirty days but a handful of minnows and a couple of snow-birds. Twice he went five days without food, and three days without water, in that country which is a net-work of streams and springs. He was found on the verge of the great plateau, above the mouth of Gardiner's River. A heavy snow-storm had extinguished his fire; his supply of thistle-roots was exhausted; he was partially deranged, and perishing with cold. A large lion was killed near him, on the trail, which he said had followed him at a short distance for several days previously. It was a miraculous escape, considering the utter helplessness of the man, lost in a forest wilderness, and with the storms of winter at hand."

[CF] Page 37, "Yellowstone Expedition of 1870." See Appendix E.

On the thirty-seventh day of his wanderings (September 9th to October 16th), he was discovered by Jack Baronett and George A. Pritchett, near the great trail on a high mountain a few miles west of Yancey's.

Baronett threw up a mound of stones to mark the spot. He carried Everts in his arms the rest of that day, and pa.s.sed the night on a small tributary of Black-tail Deer Creek. The next day he was taken on a saddle to near the mouth of the Gardiner.

The commemoration of this adventure in the naming of Mt. Everts was an awkward mischance. The mountain which should bear the name is Mt.

Sheridan. It was named for Everts by the Washburn Party the night before he was lost, in recognition of his having been the first white man (except Mr. Hedges, who was with him) known to have visited its summit. In the writings of the Washburn Party after their return, it is so used; one very interesting article, by Mr. Hedges, with this name as a t.i.tle, being published in the _Helena Herald_ before it was known that Mr. Everts had been found. But the name, Mt. Everts, was finally given to the broad plateau between the Gardiner and the Yellowstone, a feature which is not a mountain at all, and which is ten miles from where Everts was found. The actual locality of the finding was erroneously supposed to be near "Rescue Creek."

In 1871, Captain Barlow ascended the mountain which should have borne the name of Everts, and called it Mt. Sheridan, in ignorance of its former christening.

_Factory Hill_ (9,500)--O: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--The term "factory"

has at various times been applied to several different localities in the Park, because of their striking resemblance on frosty mornings to an active factory town. The resemblance was noted as far back as 1829.

The name has now become fixed, as above indicated.

_Flat Mountain_ (9,000)--N: 9--1871--U. S. G.

S.--Characteristic.--This mountain had already been named by the Washburn Party Yellow Mountain, from its color.

_Folsom Peak_ (9,300)--E: 8--1895--U. S. G. S.--For David E. Folsom, leader of the Expedition of 1869, and author of the first general description of the valley of the Upper Yellowstone.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DAVID E. FOLSOM.]

_Forellen Peak_ (9,700)--T: 5--1885--U. S. G. S.--From the German name for Trout.

_Gallatin Range_--A-F: 1-4--Name in use prior to 1870. Raynolds has "Mt. Gallatin" on his map. Gallatin River (see name) rises in this range.

_Garnet Hill_ (7,000)--C: 9--1878--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Giant Castle_ (10,000)--K: 14-15--1873--Jones--Characteristic.

_Gibbon Hill_ (8,600)--H: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--From the Gibbon River.

_Gravel Peak_ (9,600)--T: 11--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Gray Peak_ (10,300)--C-D: 4--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Grizzly Peak_ (9,700)--L: 12--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Hanc.o.c.k, Mt._ (10,100)--R: 10--1871--Barlow--For General W. S.

Hanc.o.c.k, U. S. Army, who, as commanding officer of the Department of Dakota, had lent his active aid in the prosecution of the Yellowstone Explorations.

_Hawk's Rest_ (9,800)--R: 14--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Hedges Peak_ (9,500)--G: 9--1895--U. S. G. S.--For Cornelius Hedges, a prominent member of the Washburn Expedition, author of a series of descriptive articles upon the trip, and first to advance and publicly advocate the idea of setting apart that region as a National Park.

_Holmes, Mt._ (10,300)--F: 4--1878--U. S. G. S.--For W. H. Holmes, Geologist, U. S. Geological Survey. This peak had been previously called Mt. Madison.

_Horseshoe Hill_ (8,200)--E: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Hoyt, Mt._ (10,400)--L: 13--1881--Norris--For the Hon. John W. Hoyt, then Governor of Wyoming.

_Huckleberry Mountain_ (9,700)--S: 7--1885--U. S. G.

S.--Characteristic.

_Humphreys, Mt._ (11,000)--N: 14--1871--Barlow--For General A. A.

Humphreys, then Chief of Engineers, U. S. A.

_Index Peak_ (11,740)--C: 16--This mountain, and Pilot k.n.o.b near it, received their names from unknown sources prior to 1870.

"One of them [the peaks] derives its name from its shape, like a closed hand with the index-finger extending upward, while the other is visible from so great a distance on every side that it forms an excellent landmark for the wandering miner, and thus its appropriate name of Pilot k.n.o.b."--Hayden.[CG]

[CG] Page 48, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Joseph Peak_ (10,300)--C: 4--1885--U. S. G. S.--For Chief Joseph, the famous Nez Perce leader in the war of 1877. He deservedly ranks among the most noted of the North American Indians. His remarkable conduct of the campaign of 1877 and his uniform abstinence from those barbarous practices which have always characterized Indian warfare, were a marvel to all who were familiar with the facts. No Indian chief ever commanded to such a degree the respect and even friendship of his enemies.

_Junction b.u.t.te_ (6,500)--D: 10--When or by whom given not known. The name arose, of course, from the fact that this b.u.t.te stands at the junction of the two important streams, the Yellowstone and Lamar Rivers. Barlow records that the b.u.t.te was known as "Square b.u.t.te" at the time of his visit in 1871.

_Lake b.u.t.te_ (8,600)--K: 11--1878--Characteristic.

_Landmark, The_ (8,800)--F: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Langford, Mt._ (10,600)--M: 13--1870--Washburn Party--For the Hon.

Nathaniel Pitt Langford, first Superintendent of the Yellowstone National Park.

Mr. Langford was born August 9, 1832, in Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York. His early life was spent on his father's farm, and his education was obtained by winter attendance at district school. At nineteen, he became clerk in the Oneida Bank of Utica. In 1854, he went to St. Paul, where we find him, in 1855, cashier of the banking house of Marshall & Co., and in 1858, cashier of the Bank of the State of Minnesota. In 1862, he went to Montana as second in command of the Northern Overland Expedition, consisting of 130 men and 53 wagons drawn by oxen. In 1864, he was made Collector of Internal Revenue for the new territory. In 1868, he was appointed by President Johnson Governor of Montana, but as this was after the Senate's imbroglio with the President and its refusal to confirm any more presidential appointments, he did not reach this office. He was one of the famous Montana Vigilantes, a member of the Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, and first Superintendent of the newly created Park. In 1872, he was appointed National Bank Examiner for the Pacific States and Territories, and held the office for thirteen years. He now resides in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is author of a series of articles in _Scribner's_ for 1871, describing the newly-discovered wonders of the Yellowstone, and of the important work, "Vigilante Days and Ways," the most complete history in existence of that critical period in Montana history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NATHANIEL PITT LANGFORD.]

The notable part which Mr. Langford bore in the discovery of the Upper Yellowstone country, and in the creation of the Yellowstone National Park, has been fully set forth elsewhere. He has always been its ardent friend, and his enthusiasm upon the subject in the earlier days of its history drew upon him the mild raillery of his friends, who were wont to call him, "National Park" Langford--a soubriquet to which the initials of his real name readily lent themselves.

For the circ.u.mstance of naming Mt. Langford, see "Mt. Doane."

_Mary Mountain_ (8,500)--J: 7--Probably so named by tourists from Mary Lake, which rests on the summit.