The Yellowstone Park in Early Days 
By COL. WILLIAM D. PICKETT 
T HE early part of the winter of 1877-1878 
was devoted to a hunt in the Highwood 
Mountains, which border the valley of 
the Missouri to the south and opposite Fort Ben¬ 
ton, Mont. After Feb. 7 I was in Helena, Mon¬ 
tana. 
On this hunt I had my first experience of a 
Northwestern winter. We were snowed in for 
a week in eighteen to twenty-four inches of snow 
and were compelled to send opt our horses for 
feed. The minimum temperature was 15 degrees 
below zero, and all we had for a tent was a 
wagon sheet. We, however, were very comfort¬ 
able, our camp being located in an old Indian 
war house; there was an abundance of dry wood. 
Whitetail deer were very abundant and fat, and 
the result of the hunt was two wagonloads of 
deer, which served as winter’s meat for the two 
ranchmen who were my hunting companions. 
While wintering in Helena, my principal rec¬ 
reation was long range target shooting with a 
few gentlemen of that city interested in such 
sport. 
I spent the time from the 28th of June to the 
15th of August east of the Missouri River, travel¬ 
ing from a point opposite Helena to Fort Benton. 
Aside from my hunting experiences the most in¬ 
teresting sight was the Great Falls of the Mis¬ 
souri, about thirty miles above Fort Benton. 
These are a succession of falls, extending seven 
or eight miles above the river. The lower falls 
form a cascade of eighty feet depth for half the 
width of the stream, the other half having a 
slope of about 45 degrees. In volume, at high 
water, and in evidence of force and power, these 
falls are second only to Niagara in this country. 
The Great Falls of the Yellowstone are more 
beautiful, but lack the grandeur and power of 
the two first named falls. Probably the most in¬ 
teresting of the succession of falls and rapids 
of this group is one about three miles above the 
main fall, with a cascade of about forty feet 
depth for the full width of the river. At this 
point the chasm must be fifty per cent, wider 
than at the Great Falls below. 
On the day of my visit to these falls in July 
I suffered from heat more than I ever did in 
my life; so much so, that in the middle of the 
day we lay several hours in the water of a little 
cove connected with the rapids. 
I had come so far north, expecting a friend 
of Fort Benton would accompany me through 
the Yellowstone National Park on a trip which 
we had contemplated in the early fall; but in 
this I was disappointed. I therefore made prepar¬ 
ations to make the trip alone. I had not yet 
discovered the luxury a pack outfit offers, and 
was traveling with a light two-horse spring wagon 
with Levi, a Missouri colored man, as driver and 
cook. The only route lay through the Judith 
basin, thence around the great hills of the Crazy 
Woman Mountains to the Yellowstone River, 
and thence up that stream. 
The Judith basin, formed by the Highwood 
Mountains, tjie Belt Mountains on the north and 
west, and the Snowy and Moccasin Range on 
the south and east, was rich in grass and, at 
that season of the year, was usually the resort 
of immense herds of buffalo. The buffalo were 
usually followed up by the Indians. I was ad¬ 
vised by many old-timers and frontiersmen that 
it was very dangerous to make the trip through 
that basin at this time of the year. The only 
white men on the route were a ranchman at a 
trading store on the Musselshell River, and an¬ 
other ranch on the Yellowstone River five miles 
above, the mouth of Big Timber Creek. As the 
abandonment of this route would be to give up 
my trip through that Great Wonderland for that 
year, I determined to make the trip; Le^i, who 
had seen a good deal of the Indian, being will¬ 
ing to go with me. 
On the 15th of August we passed from the 
waters of Belt Creek through the Belt Pass and 
into the basin, which contained many rich valleys, 
and at this date has been long occupied by stock- 
men. We passed through the basin without any 
mishap, though almost every night there was an 
Indian scare. We reached the vicinity of the 
Judith Gap on the 19th of August. In the out¬ 
fit there was a little red mule that was a splen¬ 
did sentinel, for should anything approach camp 
he would give a succession of snorts. A coyote 
was his especial aversion. 
On making camp on the evening of the 19th 
we discovered the advance of a herd of buffalo 
coming through the Judith Gap from the Mus¬ 
selshell country. The next morning camp was 
not moved, but we approached the outskirts of 
the immense herd with care so as not to alarm 
the main band. After killing only what meat we 
needed, among others a fat calf, a high butte 
was climbed and we had a view of the whole 
gap, about one mile in width. It was a warm, 
lazy day inducing in man or beast that common 
malady known as spring fever. There in sight 
of us were about five thousand buffalo, lolling 
about in various positions; some grazing, some 
lying down, and some old bulls “sitting up.” 
The scene was new to me and was viewed for 
an hour through a good pair of field glasses. 
Then I noticed for the first time a peculiarity 
in which the buffalo differs from other split-hoof 
animals. Cattle, in rising from a prone position, 
lift the hind part first and then the fore part, as 
do also the deer family. A whitetail deer or 
antelope, if alarmed, will spring from the ground, 
hind and fore parts at once apparently. My ob¬ 
servation that day with wild buffalo was that 
they rose with the fore feet first and then the 
hind feet. A horse rises the same way. On that 
lazy spring fever day there were quite a num¬ 
ber of old bulls sitting up, something like a dog, 
lolling about and enjoying the sunshine. From 
this peculiarity of the buffalo doubtless old Sit¬ 
ting Bull, that persistent enemy of the white 
man, derived his name. 
At 11 o’clock at night a courier passed our 
camp with dispatches for the Seventh Cavalry, 
Col. Sturgis, with orders to repair at once to 
Fort Ellis in consequence of the set back re¬ 
ceived by General Gibbon on the Big Hole River 
in his attack on the Nez Perces Indians, who 
after repulsing the attack of the soldiers, con¬ 
tinued their march toward the Yellowstone and 
the buffalo country. 
We reached the trading post of Mr. Fettig 
at the forks of the Musselshell on the 20th and 
spent a day at that camp getting information 
from Mr. Gordon and other ranchmen of that 
vicinity as to the best route for wheels to the 
Yellowstone Valley. They agreed to put me on 
the trail of the only bull train that had ever 
passed through that country around the Eastern 
foothills of the Crazy Woman Mountains. 
We left camp on the Musselshell, Aug. 22, ac¬ 
companied by Mr. Gordon, who volunteered to 
stay with me until the wagon road was reached. 
At noon we passed Big Elk Creek, where we 
met a Mr. Miller who had established himself 
in a dugout on the side of the mountain and 
was looking after quite a band of Oregon horses 
in a splendid range. We camped eight or ten 
miles beyond. 
It was many years afterward—in Billings, Mon¬ 
tana—that I met this same Mr. Miller who in¬ 
formed me, after renewing our acquaintance, that 
the night after we had met on Big Elk a band 
of Piegan Indians had swooped down on his 
band of fifty horses and made away with them. 
The country was too sparsely settled to get to¬ 
gether a force sufficient to pursue. The loss did 
not appear to have discouraged him, for at the 
time we met again he was a prosperous sheep¬ 
man of the Yellowstone Valley. 
Just one year afterward in the same vicinity 
a war party of the same tribe made a dash at 
about ti o’clock at night on a large horse freight 
outfit, loaded with rifles and ammunition for 
Walter Cooper, of Bozeman. Montana, which was 
camped at the big spring in the Judith Gap. But 
for the vigilance of the night herder in giving 
timely alarm, and the vigorous fusilade given 
them by the foreman of the outfit and the drivers 
