The Kootenai herald. [volume] (Kootenai, Idaho) 1891-1904, 1895-03-23
Poachers Are at Large in the YELL
Iowstone Park.
THEY ARE HARD TO CONVICT
The Bace for Life OF John Golfer. Mem
Der OF the Lewis aud Clarke
Expedition.

Will the next congress do something
for the preservation of the Yellowstone
park? A critical point in the history
of that national reservation has been
reached. Railroads represented at
Washington by agents with plenty of
money back of them are trying to pro-
cure legislative authority for the in
vasion of it's sacred precincts. Mean
while poachers, against whom no ade-
quate protection is provided by law. are
killing the buffalo, bears and elk, open
Iy selling the meat of these animals in |
the settlements on the outskirts of the |
park. No jury can be got to convict |
them, because it is a first principle with !
the frontiersman that wild game is pub |
lie property and belongs to the hunter,
wherever it may be found, says the
Washington correspondent of the Bos-
ton Transcript.
The whole question is to be brought
up before congress at it's next session.
Incidentally will be developed some i'm
portant and hitherto unpublished facts
in what may fairly be termed a geo
graphical romance. This romance is
closely connected with the famous eX-
petition of Lewis and Clarke, which
DR.. Elliott Coues has called our ma
tional epic of exploration" Who was
the first man to enter the wonderland of
nature which is now known as the yell
lOWstOne park? Whence the name yell
loWstOne, and who was the original dis
coverer of the sources of the great yell
lowstone river? Theories hitherto ac-
copied regarding these matters will be
upset in a way that will astonish peo-
pie.
JOHN GOLFERS DISCOVERY.
Not the least remarkable character
in the romance is John Golfer, who was
attached to the expedition of Lewis and
Clarke In August, 1906, he was dis
charged at his own request, going back
to his old business of hunting and trap
ping on the headwaters Of the Missouri.
He had a companion named John Potts.
The two men were captured by Indians,
who killed Potts. They stripped Golfer
naked, and, allowing him a start of a
few yards, gave him a race for life over
ground that was covered with a prick
ly pear. Almost miraculously he es-
capped and made his way to a trading
post which had been newly established
on the Yellowstone by Manuel de Lisa.
Subsequently he pursued his travels to-
ward what is now the northwest corner
of Wyoming, and entered the park, be-
ing the first white man to behold that
strange region. 1t was he who discov-
cred Yellowstone lake, the central feat
ure of the park, which has so miles of
shore line.
Golfer trail, as dotted on Captain
Clarke's map of 1914, shows that he
made a complete circuit of the lake.
Accordingly, to him must be given the
credit of having discovered the source
of the Yellowstone river which takes
it's rise from the lake After a while
Golfer got back to st. Louis and there
he told such remarkable yarns that he
was dubbed the monumental liar of the
Rocky mountains. He spoke of a re-
gion visited by him where the whole
country was atire, and where great
springs of boiling water threw streams
into the air. while the very earth seemed
to smoke as far as the eye could reach
Yet all that he said was substantially
correct and true A locality in the Vel
lowstone park is known to this day as
Golfers hell" and any visitor with 6
little imagination may really fancy il
to be actually an entrance to the infer
nal domain of Pluto.
THE BUFFALO,
Not the least important use Of tn,
Yellowstone park is to preserve certain
species of mammals which are rapidly
ed States. Through it's valleys roam
herd of about 400 buffalo. They rep
resent the only hope of the survival o
the American bison. If left undisturbeC
by man, they woul suffice in time to re
populate the great plains with thes
mighty beasts. They are as tame a
cattle and are permitted to wander a
they list, their choice of headquarter
being in the Hayden valley. They haV
plenty of room, for the reservation GOV
ers an area of about $500 square miles
OF elk, which are nearly extinct else
where, the number in the park is esti
mated at from 5000 to $4,000. There ar
plenty of bears, grizzly, brown, CHINA
mon and black, the last named bein
most common. In winter they hiber
nate in caves and hollow trunks O
trees. Antelopes there are also an
porcupines. as well as beaver, whic
have been well nigh eXterminated i
other parts of the country.
WONDERS OF NATURE.
1t is hardly necessary to say tina
more wonders of nature are to be foun
in the Yellowstone park than are as
sembled anywhere else in the worlC
There is no other such region of geS
sers. OF these there are thousand
within the limits of the reservation
representing extinct volcanoes. A
Fire Hole basin, where the Gibbon rive
joins the Madison river, the who
country seems to be on fire. Says d
Coues:
'Who ever heard of taking a vapC
hath in a snowstorm? / have stood