Yellowstone River

“ As the Yellowstone River is the most important stream in the Park, so the Absaroka Range, in which it has its source, is the most important mountain system. It extends north and south along the entire eastern border. To the south it is prolonged under [152] the name of the Sierra Shoshone Mountains as far as the Wind River Valley, while north of Soda Butte Creek it extends to the Great Bend of the Yellowstone under the name Snowy Range. The various larger summits are remarkably uniform in elevation. ”

“ Standing upon the high point at the junction of the creek with the Yellowstone, one first gets some idea of the depth of the cañon through which the river runs. From this height the sound of the waters of the Yellowstone, tumbling over tremendous rocks and boulders, could not be heard. Everything around us—mountains, valleys, cañon and trees, heights and depths—all are in such keeping and proportion that all our estimates of distances are far below the real truth. ”

“ In comparison with the broad, rolling tide of the Yellowstone the turbid current of the tributary appeared shallow and of no great volume—the last place in the world for a river steamer to venture with any hope of going its own length without grounding. And yet, I reflected, the Big Horn could have been scarcely higher on that sultry Sunday of June 25th, 1876, when Captain Grant Marsh, acting on orders from General Terry, sparred and warped and crabbed the wonderful old Far West up twenty-five miles of those rock-choked, foam-white rapids. ”

“ Of the Yellowstone River, he was told that it had its source “in a lake in the impenetrable fastnesses of the Rocky Mountains;” and that for some distance below the lake it flowed through a narrow gorge, up which “no one has ever been able to travel.” ”

“ DRAINAGE AREAS.
Three great rivers receive the waters of the Yellowstone Park—the Yellowstone, the Missouri, and the Snake. The first two rivers are on the Atlantic slope; the third is on the Pacific slope. The areas drained by them are approximately:
The Yellowstone River has its source in the snow drifts of Yount Peak, twenty-five miles south-east of the Park. ”

“ Each of these propositions, which threatened to modify the natural character and unity of the reservation, was strenuously resisted by Park administrations and the public generally.
In 1919 an irrigation project was sponsored by Idaho interests. It was a comprehensive plan that contemplated a dam on Yellowstone River, thereby raising the level of Yellowstone Lake. The water from this mighty reservoir would then be tapped by a tunnel through the Continental Divide, which would deliver the water into the Snake River. Other dams were designed to impound water along Fall and Bechler rivers. ”

“ The water in this spring is constantly boiling, rising sometimes to a height of four or five feet. The Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, which are respectively one hundred and sixty and three hundred and fifty feet high, are very imposing, but hardly more so than the Nevada and Vernal Falls in the Yosemite, although the volume of water is a little larger. The river rises in Yellowstone Lake, which is in the southeastern part of the park, flows north, and going over the falls plunges down into the cañon. ”

“ At this point the Yellowstone shrinks to half its usual size, losing itself among huge granite [28] boulders, which choke up the stream and create alternate pools and rapids, crowded with trout. Worn into fantastic forms by the washing water, these immense rock masses give an aspect of peculiar wildness to the scenery. But the crowning wonder of this region is the group of hot springs on the slope of a mountain, four miles up the valley of Gardiner's River. ”

“ Jones Creek, just east of the northern portion of the Yellowstone Lake, shows where the party entered the Park. From the Lake the expedition passed down the east bank of the river to the valley of Junction Butte; thence west to Mammoth Hot Springs; thence back over the usual trail via Tower Creek, Mt. Washburn, the Grand Cañon and Mud Geyser, to the Lower Geyser Basin; thence via the Upper Basin to the west shore of the Yellowstone Lake; thence to the Upper Yellowstone River; thence through Two-Ocean Pass and Two-Gwo-Tee Pass to the valley of Wind River. ”

“ Be it known to you that the Yellowstone River has occasion to run through a gorge about eight miles long. To get to the bottom of the gorge it makes two leaps, one of about 120 and the other of 300 feet. I investigated the upper or lesser fall, which is close to the hotel. Up to that time nothing particular happens to the Yellowstone, its banks being only rocky, rather steep, and plentifully adorned with pines. At the falls it comes round a corner, green, solid, ribbed with a little foam, and not more than thirty yards wide. ”

“ Immense clouds of steam curl up from the surface, obstructing the view, but the noise of boiling and seething is always audible. The water is slightly salt, but not unpleasant to the taste, chemically neutral, and possesses petrifying, or rather incrusting qualities, in a high degree. The deposit is silicious, like that of the Iceland springs and the springs around Yellowstone Lake, not calcareous, like those of Gardiner's River ”

“ These springs have deposited so freely as to build up a hill 200 feet in height, from the top of which the springs boil out. The slopes of this mound have been built in the form of a succession of basins rising one above another, and the water from the springs overflows from one into another, growing gradually cooler as it descends. Upon the bank of Yellowstone river, between the falls and the lake, there was, when the region was first explored, a geyser which at intervals of about 4 hours threw up a column of mud to a height of 40 or 50 feet. ”

“ They halted three hours to rest their horses, and then pursued the buffaloe road along the bank of the river. Although just leaving a high snowy mountain, the Yellowstone is already a bold, rapid, and deep stream, one hundred and twenty yards in width. The bottoms of the river are narrow within the mountains, but widen to the extent of nearly two miles in the valley below, where they are occasionally overflowed, and the soil gives nourishment to cottonwood, rosebushes, honeysuckle, rushes, common coarse grass, a species of rye, and such productions of moist lands. ”

“ The route ascends the Firehole River to the mouth of Spring Creek, which stream it follows to the Continental Divide. For seven miles it then lies on the Pacific slope, after which it descends the mountains to the Yellowstone Lake. The drive is one of the most pleasant in the Park, and the scenery is unconventional and wild. ”

“ A large portion of the bottom land is subject to overflow by [22] the numerous mountain streams that come in from the right, and bears an abundance of grass, in many places waist high. The river is skirted with shrubbery and cedars, the latter having thick trunks, too short for ordinary lumber, yet of beautiful grain for small cabinet work, and susceptible of exquisite finish.
At the head of this valley is the second cañon of the Yellowstone, granite walls rising on either side to the height of a thousand feet or more, and the river dashing through the narrow gorge with great velocity. ”

“ In the manner described, pushing on through an unknown country, hunting and trapping as they moved, the company proceeded, passing another low chain of mountains, through a pass called Pryor's Gap, to Clark's Fork of the Yellowstone, thence to Rose-Bud River, and finally to the main Yellowstone River, where it makes a great bend to the east, enclosing a large plain covered with grass, and having also extensive cotton-wood bottoms, which subsequently became a favorite wintering ground of the fur companies. ”

“ Bozeman was their last station of supply. From there they ascended a tributary of the East Gallatin River, and crossed the divide onto the headwaters of Trail Creek, which lies on the Yellowstone drainage. By September 14 they were at the junction of the Yellowstone, near Tower Falls. They followed the East Fork of Yellowstone River (now Lamar) for a day and then doubled back to Tower Creek. The scenery at this point intrigued them:
... ”

“ The Josephine's farthest west on the Yellowstone stands as the record for steamers by many miles, but what wouldn't I have given to have found that big cottonwood and tied up there myself! No one along the river could tell me anything about it, and there is little doubt that, like so many thousands of its less distinguished brethren, it has been swallowed up by the spring floods. Neither above nor below the bridge for many miles, however, could I locate a riffle sufficiently savage to fit Captain Marsh's description of "Hell Roaring Rapids." ”

“ In Yellowstone, the two-ocean-drainage courses are almost as intricate and snug as a child’s hands folded in prayer. At either Isa Lake, or Two Ocean Pass, a pebble tossed in one stream would start vibrations upon the “water-nerve endings” of Atlantic and Pacific river systems. In fact, the Yellowstone country is the apex of North America; it is essentially the Great Divide.
Yellowstone’s summer climate is invigorating and delightful. Frequent, but fleeting, rainstorms tend to modify the prevailing atmospheric aridity. Evenings and nights are invariably cool. ”

“ Arrows and spear heads have been found in considerable numbers. Obsidian Cliff was an important quarry, and the open country near the outlet of Yellowstone Lake a favorite camping-ground. Certain implements, such as pipes, hammers, and stone vessels, indicating the former presence of a more civilized people, have been found to a limited extent; and some explorers have thought that a symmetrical mound in the valley of the Snake River, below the mouth of Hart River, is of artificial origin. ”

“ From the summit of the Grand Teton, the range of vision covers probably the most remarkable group of river sources upon the earth. To the north rises the Missouri which flows three thousand miles through Montana, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. To the east rises the Yellowstone, which, after leaving the Park, flows four hundred miles through southern and eastern Montana until it unites with the Missouri. From the eastern foot-hills of the Absaroka and Shoshone Ranges flow the Wind and Big Horn Rivers through the extensive valleys of the same names in Wyoming and Montana. ”

“ Rising just beyond its S. limits, it flows into and through Yellowstone Lake, a magnificent sheet of water, very irregular in shape, dotted with forested islands, having an area of about 140 sq. m., lying 7741 ft. above the sea and nearly surrounded by lofty mountains. A few miles below the lake, the river, after a succession of rapids, leaps over a cliff, making the Upper Fall, 109 ft. in height. Half a mile lower down it rolls over the Lower Fall, which has a clear descent of 308 ft. The river at this point carries, at the average stage of water, about 1200 cub. ft. ”

“ The plateaus are Buffalo, Mirror, Two Ocean, Pitchstone, Madison, and Central. The ranges are Gallatin, Washburn, and Absaroka. The ridges include the Big Game, Chicken, Speciman, and Crowfoot. The Red Mountains form a unit by themselves in the south-central area.
[6] These are Electric, Pollux, Atkins, and Eagle peaks, and Schurz and Humphreys mountains.
[7] Warm River originates west of the Park, but Firehole is the best example of a really warm river. It does not freeze over in temperatures 50° below zero. There are literally thousands of hot springs in Yellowstone. ”

“ The Yellowstone, above the confluence of the Bighorn, is a clear stream; its waters were now gradually growing turbid, and assuming the yellow clay color of the Missouri. The current was about four miles an hour, with occasional rapids; some of them dangerous, but the voyagers passed them all without accident. The banks of the river were in many places precipitous with strata of bituminous coal. They now entered a region abounding with buffalo—that ever-journeying animal, which moves in countless droves from point to point of the vast wilderness ”

“ In this valley, the Yellowstone, a broad, strong stream, meanders back and forth, forming on both sides strong, perpendicular bluffs of rock and clay, forcing the road constantly out of the flat valley over the points, and causing wide deflections in the road to head the ravines or ‘coolies,’ which flow to the river. There is a strongly-marked wagon trail, but no bridge or cuts, a purely natural road, with steep ascents and descents, and frequent gullies, about as much as wagons could pass. We sometimes shifted into our light wagons, to save the fatigue of travel. ”

“ Another party of forty men went through almost the identical experience in 1839. They entered the area via the Snake River, crossed the Divide, and trapped the upper Yellowstone to the lake. Near its outlet they fought Piegan Indians and lost five men, with the same number wounded. [104] Yellowstone was not a choice trapping ground and the risks involved by reason of remoteness and Indian menace offset the margin of profit. ”

“ The Snake River drains the south-west portion of the Park. It rises about fifteen miles south of Yellowstone Lake, just outside the Park. It then takes [151] a northerly circuit into the Park, receiving the waters of Hart and Lewis Rivers, and leaves the Reservation just north of Jackson Lake. Its principal tributary is the Lewis River, which drains Shoshone and Lewis Lakes. Several large streams, Bechler and Falls Rivers among them, cross the south-west boundary of the Park and join the main Snake further south. ”