INDIAN REMAINS ON THE UPPER YELLOWSTONE.* 



By Col. Wm. S. Urackett. 



If you look on almost any laiii;e maj) of Montana and Wyoming' you 

 will note tbo source of the Yellowstone lvi\er near a mountain marked 

 on the map as "Youth's I'eak," ami lyini;- about 2") miles southeast of 

 the Yellowstone National Park. The river Hows from an immense 

 snow-field on this nujuntain, In a m>rtlnvesterly direction, and empties 

 into Yellowstone Lake, which lies wholly within the paik; then it 

 fiows out of the lake at the lower or northern end and leapini;- down- 

 ward a sheer depth of 300 feet, <>ver the Great Falls of the river, it 

 rushes still northward for a hundred miles — one of the most beautiful 

 streams of the Rocky Mountains. The real name of the mountain where 

 the Yellowstone rises is Yount's Peak, so called after a trapper who 

 lived for a long- time along- the banks of the river in the early days of 

 Montana's settlenuMit. Perhaps the fine new majjs of this region uow 

 being- made by the Ignited States Geological Survey will not rob 

 Yount's Peak of its true name. 



About 25 uiiles north of tlic park is a widening of the valley of the 

 Yellowstone, where there are a number of fine ranches, and on one ot 

 them, opposite P]niig-rant Peak, where 1 am writing, there are interest- 

 ing remains lett by the In<lians who lived and hunted in this now fertile 

 valley as late as the year 1S7(>. 



Just above our ranch house is a uu'sa. or tal>U'laii<l, fiom whose flat 

 top can be seen the grecii lichls under irrigation along tlnM'iver, and 

 the loft>' mountains hemming in the valley on every side. Only ten 

 years ago there wei'c no cultivated Melds in this valley, ami the elks 

 and buftidocs found here their favorite feeding ground. The plain on 

 this mesa is almost rectangular in shape, and at the corner, overlook- 

 ing the whole region, are stone structuies that w(^ have named the 

 "Lidian Forts.'' We do not know whether the Lidians, who undoubtedly 

 built them, used them as foils for defending their village or camp uj) 

 on the mesa, or whethei- tlie.\ w<M-e used as watchtowers foi- their sen- 

 tinels. Sometimes we think tin' Indian hunters used them to ci'cep 

 into and to si)y out the lai'ge game feeding among the hills ami in the 

 valley below. 



*From The American FUld, Feb. 11. 1893, vol. xxxix (No. vi.), pp. V^l, 128. 



577 

 H. Mis. 114 37 



