24 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
TWO-OCEAN PASS. 
The next day, August 17, we traveled G miles farther up Pacific Creek and came 
to the famous Two-Ocean Pass. The importance of this pass justifies more than a 
brief notice. I have therefore collected all the published data regarding it that I 
could find. The first printed reference to this pass seems to be that made by Capt. 
W. F. Reynolds in his report of the exploration of the Yellowstone in 1868, page 11. 
Capt. Reynolds says : 
Bridger also insisted that immediately west of where we made our final attempt to penetrate this 
singular valley [Yellowstone] there is a stream of considerable size which divides and flows down 
either side of the watershed, thus discharging its waters into both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. 
Having seen this phenomenon on a small scale in the highlands of Maine, where a rivulet discharges 
a portion of its waters into the Atlantic and the remainder into the St. Lawrence, I am prepared to 
concede that Bridger’s “ Two-Ocean River” may he a verity. 
Capt. Joues, of the U. S. Engineers, in his report of a Reconnaissance of north- 
western Wyoming, published in 1875, gives a description of the pass. He seems to have 
been the first to describe this interesting place from actual observation. He says : 
At this divide occurs a phenomenon, probably the one referred to by the early trappers as the 
“Two-Ocean Pass.” Marching at the head of the column where the trail approached the summit I 
noticed that the ribbon of meadow, in which the stream lay we had been following, suddenly dropped 
away in front of us with a contrary slope. I could still see the stream threading it and for a moment 
could scarcely believe my eyes. It seemed as if the stream was running up over this divide and down 
into the Yellowstone, behind us. A hasty examination in the face of the driving storm revealed a 
phenomenon less startling perhaps, but still of remarkable interest. A small stream coming down 
from the mountains to our left I found separating its waters in the meadow where we stood, sending 
one portion into the stream ahead of us and the other into the one behind us, the one following its 
destiny through the Snake and Columbia Rivers back to its home in the Pacific ; the other through 
the Yellowstone and Missouri, seeking the foreign waters of the Atlantic by one of the longest voyages 
known to running water. On the Snake River side of the divide the stream becomes comparatively 
large at once, being fed by many springs and a great deal of marsh. 
Capt. Jones gave a map of the pass, a copy of which I give in Fig. 1, PI. n. 
In October, 1878, Dr. Hayden visited the pass, an account of which he gave in 
Article xv, Bulletin 2, U. S. (Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, as 
follows : 
This pass is located about longitude 110° 00', and latitude 44° 05'. Atlantic Creek is a branch of 
the Upper Yellowstone River. The party with which the writer was connected passed up the east 
side of the Yellowstone Lake to the mouth of the Upper Yellowstone River, and thence up the valley 
of that stream about 30 miles to what may be called the Three Forks, near Bridger’s Lake. The 
east [west] fork hears the name of Atlantic Creek. 
From the Three Forks the party passed up the valley of Atlantic Creek to the southwest, for 
the most part over a grassy valley, which was inclosed between vertical walls of volcanic breccia 
1,000 to 1,200 feet in height. This valley is purely one of erosion. The breccia itself is of very 
modern age, probably quaternary date, and the wearing out of this great groove must have been an 
exceedingly modern event. So far as can be seen from the summit of the mountains on either side no 
divide can be observed. The erosion seems to have produced a gentle slope on either side of the 
watershed. At the summit, not over 10 miles from the junction of Atlantic Creek with the Upper 
Yellowstone, the elevation, 8,081 feet, is not more than 150 feet above the valley of the main stream. 
The valley is at first quite narrow, but it gradually expands into an open, grassy meadow, which, near 
the pass, becomes one-third of a mile in width, and gradually closes up again into a canon on the 
Pacific slope. So obscure is the drainage that we camped the night of October 3, 1878, within a fourth 
of a mile of the water divide, hut did not perceive it until we commenced our march the following 
morning. 
