Nov. $, 1898.] 
365 
tions from Prof. Hayden, having reached the camp on 
a branch of Teton River, described above, and finding it 
a fairly convenient point from which to attempt the 
ascent, I told Mr. Bechler that we would remain here 
until I had carried out Prof. Havden's instructions. 
Accordingly, permanent camp was made at this point 
some time 111 the month of July, 1-877 — I do not remem- 
ber the exact elate. 
On the following morning at 3 o'clock, accompanied 
by Peter Pollock and Louis McKean, I set out for the 
peak, riding to a point about ten miles from camp. 
Here we tied our mules to stone monuments and pro- 
ceeded thence afoot, traveling over snow for a distance 
of perhaps five miles, reaching finally the well-known 
large amphitheater lying at the west base of the Grand 
peton. 
We ascended along the northwest slope of the moun- 
tain to a shoulder where we found a circular inclosure 
of rocks, which, from their nature, had evidently been 
carried there by some person or persons, for their char- 
acter geologically was entirely different from the stone 
constituting the peak. In this circle we left a can con- 
taining a slip of paper which bore our names. 
I made an attempt to ascend beyond this point, but was 
absolutely unable to proceed, owing to the precipitous- 
ness of the wall, which at this point was all but straight 
up and down, 
The aneroid given me by Prof. Hayden especially for 
this trip showed an altitude slightly in excess of 13.000ft. 
—the exact figures I cannot recall, but I made a careful 
note of them at the time, and subsequently gave them 
to Prof. Hayden, 
We remained at this point about an hour, and then 
set out on the return trip, reaching our camp about 12 
o'clock that night. 
The following day we crossed Teton Pas's into Jack- 
son's Hole, proceeding up the Gros Ventre River to 
Union Peak. Here I left the party to get mail at Fort 
Washakie, rejoining them at the North Fork of Big 
Wind River a short time after. 
Ending the season's work near Fort Washakie, we 
returned to the railway at Rawlins. Wvo., in October, 
$77- 
Here/. I met Mr. James Stevenson, Mr. Langiord's 
partner in the alleged ascent of the Teton, and he, know- 
ing of the trip I had taken, and its purpose, said: "Well, 
Tom, did you get to the top of the Teton?" I jokingly 
told him '"Yes." "Did you get clear to the top?" he 
asked. I said I had gotten as far as he and Mr. Langford 
had, and that that was a long way from the top. Mr. 
Stevenson then and there acknowledged to me that I 
was right; that the granite inclosure on the western pin- 
nacle is the highest point reached by him and Langford. 
and that they did not reach the summit of the peak. 
Tn the month of October, shortly after our return to 
Rawlins, as described above, I met Prof. Hayden at 
Cheyenne, Wyo., and he asked me what the aneroid 
showed. From my memorandum I gave him the exact 
figures. I cannot, of course, remember what these figures 
were, but I am positive of two things — that they were 
very close to 13,000ft, and that they were slightly above 
that number. 
In the summer of 1878, being still in the seiwice of the 
U. S. Geological Survey, and in Mr. Henry Gannett's 
party, I again met Prof. Hayden at the Upper Fire Hole 
Basin in the Yellowstone National Park. He e the 
alleged ascent of the Grand Teton by Stevenson and 
Langford was again referred to and discussed; and in 
the course of our conversation, in which I stated that 
these gentlemen had never reached the top of the 
Teton, Prof. Hayden said: "I knew their statements 
were not correct; I knew Stevenson and Langford had 
never been on top of the peak." 
I have to say further that I have frequently talked 
this matter over with Mr. Henry Gannett, whom I 
know very well, and have often told him that Stevenson 
and Langford did not reach the summit; and it. was a 
fact of common notoriety at that- time among members 
of the Geological Survey that these two gentlemen did 
not get to the top. 
And I do also repeat that, on the date and at the 
place named above, Mr. James Stevenson stated to me 
that he and Langford did not reach the summit of the 
Grand Teton, but that they reached a point no higher 
than the inclosure of granite slabs described by Mr. 
Langford in his narrative of the alleged ascent. 
Thomas Cooper. 
Subscribed and sworn to before me, F. B. Sheldon, a Notary 
Public within and for the county of Larairue, State of Wyoming, 
this 21st day of October, 1S9S; and J do hereby certify that I am 
personally acquainted with this deponent, Thomas Cooper, and 
know him to be a person of veracity and one to whose testimony 
full faith and credence should be given. My commission expires 
Sept. 5, 1899. F. B. Sheldon, Notarv Public. 
[Seal.] 
III. — Statement of Chief Justice Charles N, Potter. 
OFFICE OF THE CLERK OF THE SUPREME COURT, WYOMING. 
Cheyenne, Wyo., Oct. 21, 1898.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have been long personally acquainted with 
Thomas Cooper, who has made an affidavit as to the 
alleged ascent of the Grand Teton by Messrs. Stevenson 
and Langford, which has been furnished you by Hon. 
W. O. Owen in connection with an article prepared by 
him. 
Mr. Cooper has resided in this city and vicinity for 
many years, more recently being in the employ of the 
Union Pacific Railway Compan.v. He has at all times 
sustained a reputation for good citizenship and integrity, 
and is, without question, a gentleman of absolute truth- 
fulness and veracity. I would have no hesitation what- 
ever in accepting implicitly any statement made by him. 
If is reputation in this country, where he is well known, 
fully accords with my opinion of his character. That 
opinion has not been acquired from observation only, 
but partly from personal dealings with him. Yours truly, 
Charles N. Potter, 
Chiei Justice Supreme Court of Wyoming. 
IV. — Extract from a Letter of Mr. Henry Gannett, Chief 
Geographer U. S. Geological Survey, of 
Date Dec. 4, 1896. 
"The Grand Teton has, to my knowledge, been climbed 
twice, although in neither case did the parties reach the 
exact summit. The first is probably the one to which 
you refer, composed of Messrs. Langford and Stevenson 
in 1872. The second was composed of Mr, A. D. Wil- 
son and his assistant in 1878. 
'The situation is this: From the saddle between the 
peaks south of the Grand Teton there runs up the moun- 
tain a crevice with a sheer wall upon either side. This 
crevice, the only way up, goes 011 up over the summit 
of the mountain, and at the. summit from the crevice 
the wall rises on the right 40ft. sheer; upon the left it . 
is broken down. Both these parties went up this crevice 
and turned to the left, and so reached a point which is 
about 200ft. distant from the main summit and about 
Soft, below it. From this point in 1878 Mr. Wilson 
measured angles for primary triangulation with a large 
theodolite, which he succeeded in transporting 1o this 
point. The distance and difference in height here given 
are the result of computations for position and altitude, 
and are therefore stated definitely. Sincerely yours, 
(Signed) "Henry Gannett, 
"Geographer." 
V— Affidavit of Gov. fm. A. Richards. 
State of Wyoming, [ 
County of Laramie. ) ss ' 
Will iam A. Richards, being first duly sworn, deposes 
and says: that at the present time he is Governor of Wyo- 
ming; that by profession he is a civil engineer and sur- 
veyor; that in the year 1874 he was employed in survey- 
ing and establishing the western boundary of the State 
of Wyoming; that on or about June 30, 1874, he met a 
hunter and trapper known as Beaver Dick at a point on 
Salt River near where said stream. joins Snake River; 
that at that time he submitted to said Beaver Dick an 
article written by one Nathaniel P. Langford entitled 
"The Ascent of Mount Hayden," and printed in the 
Scribncr's Magazine for June, 1873; that after reading 
said article, descriptive of an alleged ascent of Mount 
Hayden, said Beaver Dick emphatically stated that the 
assertion therein made that Langford and Stevenson had 
ascended to the summit of Mount Hayden, properly 
called the Grand Teton, was not true; that he. was one 
of the party, and knew just how far up the mountain 
said Langford and Stevenson had gone, and knew that 
they had not reached the summit thereof. 
Wm. A. Richards. 
Subscribed and sworn to before me, a Notary Public in and for 
the county of Laramie. State of Wyoming, this 4th dav of October, 
A.D. 1898. My commission expires Sept. 5, 1899. 
F. B, Sheldon, Notary Public. 
[Seal.] 
VI— Letter from Mt. Nathaniel P. Langford. 
St. Paul, Minn., Oct. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Tn the New York Herald of Sept. 18 Mr. W. O. Owen, 
State Auditor of Wyoming, published an account of his 
ascent of the Grand Teton, in which he says that he is 
compelled "to make the clean-cut statement that our 
party was the first to reach the summit of the peak." 
Mr. Owen here states what is not true. On July 29, 1872, 
Mr. James Stevenson, of the United States Geological 
Survey, and I climbed the Grand Teton and stood upon 
the summit of its highest pinnacle. This fact is noted 
with little detail in the 1872 report of Dr. Hayden, di- 
rector of the United States Geological Survey— and a 
detailed account of our ascent was published by me in 
Scribner's (now Century) Magazine for June, 1873. On 
a lower or secondary summit of the mountain we found 
an inclosure. about 6ft. high, made by granite slabs set 
up on edge. This appeared to be the work of human 
beings — but whether of white men or Indians is not 
easy to determine. Various discussions of the subject 
by the members of the United States Geological Survey 
seem to have left the impression upon the minds of 
some of them that the pinnacle or buttress upon which 
we found the granite slab inclosure was the highest 
pinnacle of the mountain. Dr. Hayden himself fell into 
this error. He does not so state in his report proper, 
where on page 85 he notices the fact that Stevenson 
and I reached the summit- — the erroneous statement ap- 
pears only in his note to the Secretary of the Interior 
advising him of the transmittal of his report. In this 
separate note he says: 
"Yet on the summit of this peak there were indications 
that human beings had made the ascent at some period 
in the past. On the top of the Grand Teton and for 
300ft. below are great quantities of granite blocks or 
slabs of different sizes. Those blocks had been placed 
on end, forming a breastwork about 3ft. high, inclosing 
a circular space 6 or 7ft. in diameter." 
Doubtless Hayden was led into this error by the con- 
fusing discussions of the various members of the Survey, 
and their uses therein of the word "summit." Strictly 
speaking, there is but one summit of a mountain; but 
it is not unusual for explorers to speak of two or more 
summits of the same mountain. Thus in a recent letter 
to me a prominent member of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey, in referring to A. D. Wilson's report of his 
climb of the Teton in 1878, says: "Wilson speaks of 
reaching the summit in this crevice. On his right rose 
a smooth wall 50ft.. going up to the main summit." And 
again he says: "On this secondary summit which he 
reached he found a wall of rocks,''' etc. These quotations 
show that among the members of the United States Geo- 
logical Survey the word "summit" did not always sig- 
nify the highest point of a mountain. Mr. Fdward 
Whymper, one of the most renowned of all mountain 
climbers, in his fascinating book "Scrambles Among the 
Alps" repeatedly uses the word in this double sense. 
And herein lies the origin of the doubt which some 
persons may have once entertained that Stevenson and I 
reached the actual summit. Having in mind the im- 
pression that the. slab inclosure was on the highest point 
we reached, and learning subsequently that the true sum- 
mit was above the slab inclosure, they have thought that 
we did not reach the summit. 
Mr. Stevenson and I did not say that the slab inclosure 
was on the summit. The record made and published 
by me at that time shows the facts. In a brief report 
made by me and published in Hayden' s general report 
for 1S72, I say: "We found on one of the buttresses a 
little lower than the extreme top of the mountain evi- 
dence that at some former period it had been visited by 
human beings. There was a circular inclosure about 7ft. 
in diameter formed by vertical slabs of rough "granite." 
And in my Scribner article for June, 1873. I say on 
page 145: "On the top of an adjacent pinnacle, but 
little lower than the one we occupied, we found a circular 
inclosure 6ft. in diameter, composed of granite slabs, 
set up edgewise." 
Mr. Owen now challenges the truth of my report, and 
declares that we did reach the summit of the Teton, 
and he seeks to support his challenge by evidence of 
the flimsiest character, but which he declares "unim- 
peachable." This evidence consists of a statement in a 
letter of Henry Gannett, Chief Geographer of the United 
States Geological Survey, written before Mr. Gannett's 
attention had been called to the erroneous and misleading 
statement of Dr. Hayden. 
Second— Owen's declaration that the tracks of the 
American ibex, or mountain sheep, could not have been 
seen where I found them — above a belt of ice which we 
clambered. 
Third. — That we left no mound or monument to fur- 
nish evidence of our visit; and, 
Fourth. — The affidavit of one Thomas Cooper that 
Stevenson acknowledged to him before he died that 
we did not reach the summit. 
Since the time when Mr. Gannett wrote to Mr. Owen 
I have had a conversation with Mr. Gannett, in which 
he said that any opinion he had expressed had been 
formed from what he had learned from Hayden's re- 
port, and that he could now see that Hayden's errone- 
ous statement had been misleading. Mr. Owen quotes 
from Mr. Gannett's letter to him the expressed belief 
that Stevenson and I "reached a point which is about 
200ft. distant from the main summit, and about 50ft. be- 
low it"; and then Owen has the effrontery to assume that 
Mr. Gannett did not know what he was talking about; 
for he rejects Mr. Gannett's estimate, and says: "It 
was 500 instead of 50ft." Mr. Owen's idea seems to be 
that if the facts as Mr. Gannett believed them to be do 
not accord with Owen's theory then, the facts are inad- 
missible. 
Concerning my statement that we found the tracks of 
the American ibex, or mountain sheep, on the summit 
above the snow belt over which we clambered, Mr. 
Owen says: "If there were no other evidence in the 
world on this one question that one statement would con- 
vict. * * * A cat might crawl up that slope, but 
the mountain sheep would stop 600ft or 700ft. below," 
If Mr. Owen's knowledge of the habits of the moun- 
tain sheep had been as complete as that of hundreds 
of men who have hunted both mountain sheep and moun- 
tain cats in Montana, or of the learned compilers of our 
cyclopedias, or of zoologists, he would have known 
that a meuntain sheep or ibex can scale a mountain slope 
that neither man nor a mountain cat can crawl up. Prof. 
Richard Harlan, author of "Fauna Americana," says of 
the. mountain sheep: "They are exceedingly active, and 
are able to ascend precipices inaccessible to other ani- 
mals; they leap from rock to rock at great distances 
and with incredible velocity." 
For Mr. Owen, who reached the summit, to say that 
a mountain sheep cannot reach the summit of the Grand 
Teton, above the ice belt which Stevenson and I climbed, 
is to affirm that he (Owen) can climb where mountain 
sheep cannot climb. This argument is too absurd to 
merit attention. 
Third. — It would appear that Mr. Owen did not think 
that the affidavit of his employee, Cooper (which will, 
be referred to later), was the best evidence to establish 
his contention-, for he says: "The last and very convinc- 
ing proof that these gentlemen did not reach the summit 
lies in the fact that we found not the shadow of a mound 
or other evidence of man's having been there before." 
He also says: "We chiseled our names in the granite 
and planted the Rocky Mountain Club's colors to wave 
where flag never waved before.'"' 
Mr. Owen made an unsuccessful attempt to reach the 
summit in 1891, and again in 1897. It is reasonable to 
believe that his knowledge of the mountain and the 
difficulties to be overcome which this experience gave 
him was turned to profitable account this year, and that 
before starting he regarded his success as reasonably 
assured, for he carried with him a chisel and other ap- . 
pliances for carving his name on the granite. 
Mr. Owen concludes that because we did not chisel our 
names on the granite at the summit, nor build a monu- 
ment such as he built — in short, because we did not do in 
all things just as he did — therefore we could not have 
reached the spot he reached. To such an absurd propo- 
sition 1 may answer that if, before leaving civilization, 
we had supplied ourselves with all the appliances which 
failures in two previous attempts would suggest as neces- 
sary to success and to complete the record in a way 
Owen deems indispensable we might have included in 
our equipment the chisel and mallet necessary to carve 
our names and deeds on the imperishable granite. But 
as we had nothing better adapted to granite cutting than 
our pocket knives we failed to do that which Mr. Owen 
did, and which he regards as so essential to complete 
the proof that we reached the summit. It seems, how- 
ever, that Mr. Owen did not find time to build his 
monument on the day of his ascent, as will be seen from 
a letter in Forest and Stream, written from Cheyenne 
by one of his champions, who, over the signature of 
Wyoming, says: "The time on the mountain top was so 
short on the nth that on the da3 r following Messrs. 
Spaulding. Peterson and Shive made another ascent to 
finish the work of building the monument and to com- 
plete the record of the climb." 
.If Mr. Owen's party of four men, with a home camp 
much nearer to the Teton than our 1872 camp was, had 
not time to build a monument and return to their camp 
before night, why should it be thought that our party 
of two men only had ample time to erect a monument? 
Owen's argument is that as we left undone the things 
which he did. or did not do them after the manner 
he chose to adopt, therefore we were not there to do 
them at all. I recall a case in point. Mount Rainier 
was ascended by Gen. Hazard Stevens and P. V. Van 
Trump on Aug. 17. 1870. During the following twenty- 
four years the summit of that mountain was reached by 
no less than thirty persons. I have the names of seven- 
teen of these mountain climbers. The list includes 
the name of Olin D. Wheeler, the well-known author 
of the interesting and attractive Wonderland series of 
annual publications issued by the Northern Pacific Rail- 
