The Yellowstone National Park Part 34

Unquestionably Bridger's chief claim to remembrance by posterity rests upon the extraordinary part he bore in the exploration of the West.

The common verdict of his many employers, from Robert Campbell down to Captain Raynolds, is that as a guide he was without an equal. He was a born topographer. The whole West was mapped out in his mind as in an exhaustive atlas. Such was his instinctive sense of locality and direction that it used to be said that he could "smell his way" where he could not see it. He was not only a good topographer in the field, but he could reproduce his impressions in sketches. "With a buffalo skin and a piece of charcoal," says Captain Gunnison, "he will map out any portion of this immense region, and delineate mountains, streams, and the circular valleys, called 'holes,' with wonderful accuracy."

His ability in this line caused him always to be in demand as guide to exploring parties, and his name is connected with scores of prominent government and private expeditions.

His lifetime measures that period of our history during which the West was changed from a trackless wilderness to a settled and civilized country. He was among the first who went to the mountains, and he lived to see all that had made a life like his possible swept away forever. His name survives in many a feature of our western geography, but in none with greater honor than in this little lake among the mountains that he knew so well; and near the source of that majestic stream with which so much of his eventful life was identified.

_Delusion Lake_ (7,850)--M: 9--1878--U. S. G. S.--This lake was long supposed to be an arm of the Yellowstone Lake, and, in the fanciful comparison of the main lake to the form of the human hand, occupied the position of the index finger. The delusion consisted in this mistaken notion of a permanent connection between the two lakes.

_Dryad Lake_ (8,250)--K: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Duck Lake_ (7,850)--M: 7--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Fern Lake_ (8,150)--H: 11--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Frost Lake_--(7,350)--I: 14--Unknown-Characteristic.

_Gallatin Lake_ (9,000)--E: 4--1885--U. S. G. S.--Source of the Gallatin River.

_Goose Lake_ (7,100)--K: 4--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Gra.s.sy Lake_ (7,150)--R: 5--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Grebe Lake_ (7,950)--G: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Grizzly Lake_ (7,490)--F: 5--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Hart Lake_ (7,469)--P: 9--According to Hayden, "long known to the hunters of the region as Heart Lake." Named prior to 1870 for an old hunter by the name of Hart Hunney who in early times plied his trade in this vicinity. He was possibly one of Bonneville's men, for he seems to have known the General well and to have been familiar with his operations. He was killed by a war party of Crows in 1852.

The spelling, _Heart_, dates from the expeditions of 1871. The notion that the name arose from the shape of the lake seems to have originated with Captain Barlow. It has generally been accepted although there is really no similarity between the form of the lake and that of a heart. Lewis Lake is the only heart-shaped lake in that locality.

Everts named Hart Lake, Bessie Lake, after his daughter.

_Henry Lake_ (6,443)--A noted lake outside the limits of the Park pa.s.sed by tourists entering the park from the west. It is named for a celebrated fur trader, Andrew Henry, who built a trading post in that vicinity in 1809.

_Hering Lake_ (7,530)--R: 5--1878--U. S. G. S.--For Rudolph Hering, Topographer on the Snake River Division of the Hayden Survey for 1872.

_Indian Pond_--J: 11--1880--Norris.--An ancient, much-used camping-ground of Indians. "My favorite camp on the Yellowstone Lake (and it evidently has been a favorite one for the Indian) has ever been upon the grove-dotted bluff, elevated thirty or forty feet above the lake, directly fronting Indian Pond."--Norris.

_Isa Lake_ (8,250)--L: 6--1893--N. P. R. R.--For Miss Isabel Jelke, of Cincinnati.

_Jackson Lake_ (6,000)--U-W: 6--Date unknown.--For David Jackson, a noted mountaineer and fur trader, and one of the first three partners of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. This lake was discovered by John Colter and was named by Clark _Lake Biddle_, in honor of Nicholas Biddle, who first gave to the world an authentic edition of the journal of the celebrated Lewis and Clark Expedition.

_Jenny Lake_--South of Leigh Lake and off the map.--1872--U. S. G.

S.--For the wife of Richard Leigh. She was a Shoshone Indian.

_Leigh Lake_--W: 5--1872--U. S. G. S.--For Richard Leigh ("Beaver d.i.c.k"), a noted hunter, trapper, and guide in the country around the Teton Mountains. The nickname "Beaver d.i.c.k" arose, not from the fact that Leigh was an expert beaver trapper, but on account of the striking resemblance of two abnormally large front teeth in his upper jaw to the teeth of a beaver. The Indians called him "The Beaver."

_Lewis Lake_ (7,720)--O: 7--1872--U. S. G. S.--For Captain Lewis of "Lewis and Clark" fame.

"As it had no name, so far as we could ascertain, we decided to call it Lewis Lake, in memory of that gallant explorer Captain Meriwether Lewis. The south fork of the Columbia, which was to have perpetuated his name, has reverted to its Indian t.i.tle Shoshone, and is commonly known by that name, or its translation, Snake River. As this lake lies near the head of one of the princ.i.p.al forks of that stream, it may not be inappropriately called Lewis Lake."--Bradley.[CN]

[CN] Page 249, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Loon Lake_ (6,400)--R: 3--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Lost Lake_ (8,500)--M: 7--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.--This is probably Norris' Two-Ocean-Pond, and is doubtless also the lake referred to by Hayden in the following paragraph from his report for 1871:

"We camped at night on the sh.o.r.e of a lake which seemed to have no outlet. It is simply a depression which receives the drainage of the surrounding hills. It is marshy around the sh.o.r.es, and the surface is covered thickly with the leaves and flowers of a large yellow lily."--Hayden.

_Madison Lake_ (8,250)--N: 4--1872--U. S. G. S.--Head of the Madison River.

"A small lake, covering perhaps sixty acres, occupies the southern end of the [Firehole] valley, where it bends to the eastward; and as the ultimate lake source of the Madison River, is the only proper possessor of the name 'Madison Lake.'"--Bradley.[CO]

[CO] Page 243, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Mallard Lake_ (8,000)--L: 5--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Mary Lake_ (8,100)--J: 7--1873--Tourist Party.--Circ.u.mstance recorded by Rev. E. J. Stanley, one of the party, and author of the book "Rambles in Wonderland," describing the tour. The following extract is from his book:

"We pa.s.sed along the bank of a lovely little lakelet, sleeping in seclusion in the shade of towering evergreens, by which it is sheltered from the roaring tempests. It is near the divide, and on its pebbly sh.o.r.e some members of our party unfurled the Stars and Stripes, and christened it Mary's Lake, in honor of Miss Clark, a young lady belonging to our party."

This lake appears on Jones' map for the same year as Summit Lake.

Everts is said to have pa.s.sed it in his wanderings, but there is no reliable evidence to that effect.

_Mirror Lake_ (8,700)--G: 12--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Obsidian Lake_ (7,650)--E: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Riddle Lake_ (7,950)--N: 8--1872--U. S. G. S.--

"'Lake Riddle' is a fugitive name, which has been located at several places, but nowhere permanently. It is supposed to have been used originally to designate the mythical lake, among the mountains, whence, according to the hunters, water flowed to both oceans. I have agreed to Mr. Hering's proposal to attach the name to this lake, which is directly upon the divide at a point where the waters of the two oceans start so nearly together, and thus to solve the unsolved 'riddle' of the 'two-ocean-water.'"--Bradley.[CP] This was a year before Captain Jones verified the existence of Two-Ocean-Pa.s.s.

[CP] Page 250, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Shoshone Lake_ (7,740)--M-N: 5-6--1872--U. S. G. S.--From Shoshone, or Snake River, which here finds its source. This lake was first named De Lacy Lake, after its discoverer. The Washburn Party (1870) appear to have named it after their leader. In 1871, Doctor Hayden, failing to identify its location, and believing it to be tributary to the Madison River, renamed it Madison Lake. It is this name which appears on the first map of the Park and in the Act of Dedication, where the west boundary of the Park is described as being "fifteen miles west of the most western point of Madison Lake." In 1872, when the correct drainage of the lake was discovered, the name "Madison Lake" was transferred to its present location (See "Madison Lake"), and its place supplied by "Shoshone Lake." The Act of Dedication is therefore misleading, and it is necessary to know that "Madison Lake" of the Act, is "Shoshone Lake" now, in order to understand the true location of the west boundary of the Park.

In changing the name from "De Lacy" to "Shoshone," Prof. F. H.

Bradley, of the United States Geological Survey, took occasion to reflect severely and unjustifiably upon De Lacy's work in mapping the country.[CQ]

[CQ] Page 24, Sixth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

De Lacy felt deeply wronged by this action, and Dr. Hayden promised him that he would set the matter right; but nothing was done. At a later day, Colonel Norris endeavored to do De Lacy tardy justice by placing his name on the stream which enters the lake from the north and drains the beautiful valley now crossed by the tourist route. This name remained for several year's, when it also was removed by the United States Geological Survey, and its place filled by "Heron Creek." During the past year, however, the name "De Lacy Creek" has been restored.

_Summit Lake_ (8,450)--M: 3--1885--U. S. G. S.--Near Continental Divide.

_Swan Lake_ (7,200)--D: 6--1879--Norris--Characteristic.

_Sylvan Lake_ (8,300)--L: 13--1878--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Tern Lake_ (8,150)--I: 11--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.