2 THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 



early in the last century to a few wandering hunters and trap- 

 pers who visited the region in search of beaver. John Colter, 

 a hunter who had accompanied Lewis and Clark on their expe- 

 dition to the Pacific, visited the park region in 1807, and was 

 probably the first white man to see the curiosities it contained. 

 Lewis and Qark themselves, in 1806, skirted the region, and 

 just missed becoming its discoverers by about fifty miles. 



During the heyday of the fur trade a few other trappers 

 found their way into the neighborhood, and in the era of 

 gold-hunting which went on over the entire mountain country 

 after 1849, some prospectors also visited it. 



Practically all of these men, from Colter down, brought 

 back accounts, some truthful, some exaggerated, of the won- 

 ders they had seen in the shape of geysers, hot springs, etc. 

 These accounts, however, were almost universally disbelieved. 

 Colter's being hailed with especial derision, and the thermal 

 region he described coming to be known popularly as "Col- 

 ter's Hell." 



TTie persistency of these hunters' tales, however, and their 

 essential agreement resulted eventually in the arousing of 

 curiosity. In Montana especially there developed a desire 

 to settle definitely the truth or falsity of the rumors of amaz- 

 ing phenomena around the upper reaches of the Yellowstone. 

 This resulted, in 1869, in the first expedition which had for 

 its definite object the exploration of the much-talked-of area. 

 This expedition, consisting of David E. Folsom, C. W. 

 Cook, and William Peterson, spent a month in the park region 

 in September-October, 1869, during which time they investi- 

 gated a considerable number of the principal phenomena which 

 it contains. Mr. Folsom afterwards wrote an excellent nar- 

 rative of the party's exploration which was first published in 

 the "Western Monthly" of Chicago, and subsequently (1894) 

 published in pamphlet form by Hon. N. P. Langford, the 

 first superintendent of the Yellowstone Park, who added an 

 interesting preface. 



In the following year, Mr. Langford was a member of the 



