Sept. 15, 1900.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
207 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
The First Written Des<»iption of the Yeflowstone Park. 
Mr. Olin D. Wheelefj in connection with his "Won- 
derland" and other literary work on the Northern Pacific 
R. R., every now and again runs across some very in- 
teresting information regarding the early West, in. re- 
gard to which land and period there are few men in the 
country better posted than himself, Mr. Wheeler has 
Unearthed an ancient Mormon newspaper, which con- 
tains what he considers to be the first written description 
of the Yellowstone Park, that Wonderland which he has 
come so much to love and which everybody loves who 
knows anything about it. Regarding his curious dis- 
covery it is proper to let Mr. Wheeler speak for him- 
self, with the hope that among the wide circle of Forest 
AND Stream readers, comprising all sorts and condi- 
tions of intelligent folk, there may be some one who 
can add to the fund of knowledge already in Mr. Wheel- 
er's hands. He says: 
"Knowing the wide interest that Forest and Stream 
takes in everytiiing pertaining to Yellowstone Park, I 
wish to call your attention to a recent discovery in rela- 
tion thereto of some interest and value from a historic 
standpoint. I first called attention to it briefly in the 
St. Paul Dispatch of Aug. 6 last. 
"The early history of this region is now well known. 
There seems no doubt that John Colter, one of the 
Lewis and Clarke expedition (1804-6), was" the first 
white man of record to visit any portion of what is now 
embraced within the Park boundaries. This was some- 
where from 1806 to 1810. James Bridger, the 'Old 
Man of the Mountains,' saw some of the geysers about 
1840-45. Capt. Raynolds — not Reynolds, as usually 
written — ^was on the borders of the Park land with 
Bridger as his guide in i860, but was unable to pierce 
the mountain barriers and penetrate the region itself. 
Capt. DeLacy, in 1863, passed around Shoshone Lake 
and through the Lower Geyser Basin. In 1869 Folson 
and Cook spent more than a month there, and in 1870 
the Washburn-Doane expedition made a thorough ex- 
AMERICAN swan, . TRUMPETER SWAN, 
"Ferris started with a party of thirty men from St. 
Louis on Feb. 16, 1830, and from certain statements made 
I suspect he himself was from the vicinity of Buffalo. 
He visited the geysers May 19 and 20, 1834. 
"The geyser article in the Wasp was undoubtedly re- 
printed from the Messenger. Two facts indicate this: 
First, the Wasp published it a month later than the 
Messenger did: second, the Mormon excitement around 
western New York and eastern Ohio and in Illinois was 
then high, as an inspection of the columns of the Mes- 
senger shows, and many Mormons were scattered 
through the New York and Ohio region. Through them 
the numlaer of the Messenger containing the descrip- 
tion of the geysers reached Nauvoo, and seeing a good 
thing the Wasp editor copied the matter, seemingly with- 
out giving credit for it. The original publication of this 
fine description should, therefore, be credited to the 
Western Literary Messenger of July 13, 1842. 
"Since this discovery I have had forwarded to me 
from the Buffalo Public Library the succeeding volinne 
of the Messenger, in which the publication of the Ferris 
articles is continued and concluded. In No. XXV., 
Vol. III., Jan. 6, 1844, the description of the geyser is 
repeated, with a porition of the article, as first printed 
left out and a few lines, material in but one sense, added. 
"In the first volume — Vol. II. — there are chapters 
I. -XXIV., inclusive. In Vol. III. the chapter notation 
is abandoned and the articles are published as "original" 
and separate ones, yet in chronological order, and there 
are twenty-six of thera. 
"It has generally been thought that Ferris' description, 
which is also given in Capt. Chittenden's 'The Yellow- 
stone National Park,' referred to the Upper Geyser Basin. 
Ferris described two geyser areas — one he himself saw, 
the other described to him by trappers. After a careful 
study of his route and of what he says I am unable to 
conclude that he visited the Upper Basin himself, but 
the description given by the trappers appears to fit that 
basin fairly well. What Ferris saw is to my mind very 
uncertain. I cannot reasonably identify it with any area 
now known and am inclined to think that he visited some 
spot now extinct in geyser action, or one remote from 
The facts in relation to our Western prairie chicken 
crop see,m to be much as below. There was without 
doubt or question an unusually large supply of birds, 
nearly double the average of the last ten years. This 
applied to practically all our Western States, Minnesota, 
North and South JJakota more especially, and also to 
Illinois in what was thought to bo less extent. The above 
situation was without doubt true up to the week just 
preceding the opening date. It was at that time that the 
real chicken crop of the Northwest was harvested, and 
more especially the crop of Minnesota and South Dakota. 
The shooters who tried Minnesota found in very many 
instances that they were just one week too late. They 
came back home with a large percentage of stories of 
half-coveys and wild birds. It is not a matter or guess 
as to these matters with a chicken shooter. He knows 
without the least difficulty whether or not there have 
been guns in ahead of him in a country where he is 
shooting. Hence it is to be accepted as fact that most of 
the chicken shooting in many parts of Minnesota was 
done just before and not just after the opening of the 
season. This seems to be the conclusion of the Minnesota 
shooters, though, of course, it is a conclusion varied with 
many cases of fine sport in bits of country which had 
laeen better protected. Ex-Warden S. F. Fullerton, ci£ 
Minnesota, went out in the country near Fergus Falls, for 
instance, with four other shooters, and thJy had every 
right to expect fine sport there; indeed, they did have 
fine sport. The five guns in four days bagged seventy- 
seven birds, an average of not four birds a day to the 
gun, which is not sport. Last year they got 128 birds 
on the same country. They found that they were simply 
following shooters who had cleaned out the birds before 
the law was up. Their experience was a very common 
one, though nearly every one agrees that the crop was 
something phenomenal this year, and that the sooners 
must have had a picnic of most unmitigated proportions. 
I do not learn so much from North Daktoa, but I am 
disposed to believe that the gun license has pretty well 
protected that State this year. South Dakota is said 
to have been more visited by the ubiquitous sooner. From 
Wisconsin I get but scattered reports, though many state 
plo ration and gave us our first authentic and_ detailed 
knowledge concerning this Wonderland. ' It is a re- 
markable fact that until the Washburne-Doane expedi- 
tion no accounts appeared from any of these explorers 
that gave the public any real conception of what was 
to be found there. Even the stories of Bridger and the 
other trappers, who knew personally or from others 
of the geysers, were so told or published as to cause 
entire disbelief in them. 
"It seemed, therefore, somewhat strange that, as far 
back as August 13, 1842, an article accurately describ- 
ing the hot springs and geysers of this region was pub- 
lished in the Wasp, a Mormon paper of Nauvoo, 111. 
It is due to Mr. N. P. Langford, now of St. Paul, then 
of Helena, Mont., afterward the first superintendent of 
the Park and well known to your readers for his partici- 
pation in the first successful ascent of the Grand Teton 
in 1872, that this article was resurrected from its sleep 
and placed in its proper place on the record. Mr. Lang- 
ford saw it and had the foresight to have it reprinted in 
the Helena, Mont., Herald on Sept. 12, 1872, since which 
time it has formed a part of the literature of the Park. 
There was, however, no clue to the author and efforts 
to discover him have been unsuccessful until now. 
"A short time ago, by accident, my attention was 
called to an article describing the geysers in an old East- 
ern publication, which I at once connected with the 
description in the Wasp, A few days later there was 
placed in my hands Vol. II. of the Western Literary 
Messenger, published by J. S. Chadbourne Sc Co.. of 
Buffalo, N. Y., in 1842-43. 
"On page 12, No. .II., July 13, 1842, under the title 
'Roclcy Mountain Gevsers; Extract from an Unpublished 
Work Entitled "Life 'in the Rocky Mountains," ' is found 
the Wasp article, but here again the name of the author 
is not revealed. On page 20, No. III., July 20, 1842, I 
find another description from the same pen on the 
'Chanion of the Colorado'; on page 30, No. IV., July 
27, another extract from the same work on 'Indian Chiv- 
alry,' and in succeeding numbers other articles ap- 
peared. In No. XXVII., Jan. ti, 1843, on page 214, and 
preceded by an editorial notice, the chapters frqm the 
book itself are regularly begun, and now we learn who 
the writer was. 
"Under the general heading 'Wild Western Scenes' 
is the title proper, 'Life in the Rocky Mountains,' and 
then follows: 'A diary of wanderings on the sources 
of the Rivers Missouri, Columbia and Colorado, from 
February, 1830. to November, 1835, by W. A. Ferris, 
then in the employ of the American Fur Co.' 
"This well illustrates the character and scope of the 
work. It is taken from the unpublished manuscript and 
the contents are a treasure house of lore, respecting the 
trappers, fur traders and mountaineers and their life in 
the mountains seventy years ago. 
the usual paths of exploration and consequently known 
to us but slightly, if at all. What may have seemed to 
him, or indeed may have been, a wonderful spot sixty- 
six years ago, might now be passed almost unnoticed. 
"I am curious to find out more about the man himself 
if possible, and if any of your readers who may chance 
to read this can assist me -in this line I shall be grateful 
to them. As before stated, I think he came from the 
vicinity of Buffalo." . 
San Antonio as a Game Resort. 
Away down South in Dixie lives Aztec, once a semi- 
quasi-Mexican, since he lived across the line (I hope 
for nothing which he cannot live down, and I presume 
not, since he now writes from San Antonio). Aztec 
vaunteth the charms of Santone as a game region, in- 
stancing the fact that in the dooryard of one of her 
leading citizens, to wit, Albert .Frederick, of_23o Obraje 
street, there was on last Saturday caught a live alligator 
whose load water line was above 4 feet in lineal extent. 
This march of progress causes one's heart to sink. 
For a long time we thought Chicago had the record for 
wild animals, and we even yet occasionally kill a wolf, 
a fox or a boa constrictor in our midst, as they say in 
New York; but this last news from Santone casts a 
gloom. We have never caught a wild .alligator in Chi- 
cago, nor even heard of one in this immediate vicinity. 
Still Buying Hound Pups. 
Our old friend Capt. Bobo, who is now located at 
Ingram's Mill, Miss., has been down in bed with fever 
for quite a while back, but to-day comes a letter from 
his neighbor, Capt. W. I. Spears, who says that Bobo 
is up and around again, and that the first thing he did 
was to buy twelve brand new hound pups, just to show 
there is no coldness. I wonder what Bobo would do if 
he had to live in a city where he couldn't have forty or 
fifty hounds around the place. These new ones go into 
commission next November and take their own chances 
when theV go on a Bobo bear htmt. 
The Western Chicken Crop. 
Chicago, III., Sept. 8.— The returns of all things human 
are apt to differ somewhat from the anticipations in re- 
gard to the aforesaid things human. In no respect is this 
more true than as applied to the annual chicken crop. We 
predict a grand success of the annual campaign the week 
before the seasons opens, and the week after it opens we 
diligently take it all back again. At least, this is the 
usual course of the game news regarding the Western 
grouse, supply, which is one of the most elusive subjects 
that anybody ever did try to hold down in a news way. 
provided one is bothered with any conscience or is trying 
to get at the facts". 
that the birds were about as numerous as they were last 
year. Near Fox Lake, Wis., the shooters went out after 
ducks more especially, and they nearly drove the local- 
bred ducks to the tall timber, but the chicken hunters did 
not do much business with the grouse, a shooter by ngrae 
of Austin, of Fox Lake, who bagged fourteen on one 
day, seeming to be high gun for that neighborhood. There 
are not many chicken dogs in there, and without a good 
dog chicken shooting is a delusion and a snare. I have 
not yet had word from my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Neal 
Brown, who made a camp hunt near Babcock, but feel 
.quite sure they gave some account of themselves. 
Here in Illinois something of a surprise turns up. We 
seem, from all available sources of information, to be 
about the banner State of the Middle West in the chicken 
industry. The largest bags of which I have word, with 
one exception, were made in Illinois, and made within, 
sixty miles of Chicago. Eddie Pope, of this city, whb 
shot near Emmetsburg, la., killed sixty birds to his own 
gun in two days, and this, I think, is the best bag of 
which I get authentic word. Yet right here at home, 
near Aurora, III., which is a thriving little city on the 
Fox River, and only forty miles or so from Chicago, 
three men bagged sixty-seven chickens in one day. This 
last is the best Illinois bag of which I have any word. It 
is closely followed by another report from Oilman, a 
town just south of Chicago, on the Illinois Central R. R., 
and a place once much affected by our upland shooters. 
Two guns there bagged sixty-two chickens in two days, 
or rather a day and a half. A less well-authenticated bag 
is reported from the Kankakee, of thirty-seven birds to 
two guns, Sept. i. 
Dr. Oughton, of this city, who went out with a small 
party of friends from Dwight. 111., the first of the season, 
comes back delighted after his experience in that once 
famous chicken region, which I suppose was in its day 
the original natural empire of the prairie grouse. He 
got forty birds to his own gun, and says he never in all 
his life saw the birds more abundant. 
Two Mayors. 
On opening day of the chicken season there went forth a 
nice little party of two from the city of Chicago — Mayor 
Carter H. Harrison, of Chicago, and Ex-Mayor Hemp- 
stead Washburne, of Chicago. It is of record that these 
two were mayors on different platforms, but they are good 
friends, and they think quite alike when it comes to the 
platform of Forest and Stream and of sportsmanship in 
general. Mr. Washburne was guide, and led the way to a 
P9int not so very far to the westward of the city, where 
he said there Was no visible reason why there should not 
be plenty of prairie chickens. They could not scare up a 
good dog between them, and though they came back satis 
fied that they could have made a good bag had they had 
a good dog to work on the many big bunches of bird.s. 
