The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-26
WERE CALLED LIARS
Jim Bridger Told People About
Cheat Salt Lake.
WOULDN'T BELIEVE HIM
Golfer REVILED FOR TALES
OF YELLOWSTONE.
ochicago Record.)

Chicago Record)
Canyon of the Yellowstone, Aug. o.
The principal reason why the Yellow
stone park country was so long IN
known was the incredulity of the pub
lie and their refusal TO believe the
amazing stories that were told of the
natural wonders it contains The first
white man TO witness these wonders
was a trapper named Golfer, who ac-
companied. Lewis and Clark in their
celebrated exploration of the northwest
in 1905. When they arrived at Mandan
on their return in 1905 Golfer was dis
charged and went into the employ of
the Northwestern Fur company. IN
pursuit of this occupation he entered
the Yellowstone valley and followed 1t
TO this region, by The Indians called
the summit Of the world, because it is
the source Of all the great rivers in the
west. The roadway between Old Faith
full and Yellowstone lake crosses the
grand continental divide twice, where
a little spring upon the summit Of the
continent feeds two rivulets, flowing
in different directions, and forming
thus d continuous water connection be-
tween the Atlantic and Pacific oceans,
and covering a distance of over 5000
miles.
Besides, the road between Mammoth
Hot Springs and Norris basin and the
Twin lakes presents a similar phenom-
enOn. They We're formerly a single
body Of water until the beavers built
dam across the middle and divided
them almost equally. The water OF one
of these little lakes finds its way
through the Missouri and the Missis-
civ TT = he milf or
The other feeds GibbOn river, which
flows westward into the Snake, the
Columbia and the Pacific ocean. When
they were one lake they had two out
lets as now The water of one of these
lakes is a dense dark blue and sparkles
like a sapphire. The other, from what
ever point you observe it, is a livid
green, like the color of the waves of
the ocean when they rise between you
and the light.
There is no doubt that Golfer discov-
cred the geysers. the Yellowstone lake
and others of the most remarkable Gu
riosities in the park, but when he told
about them upon his return to st.
Louis in 1911 people refused to believe
him, and, in ridicule, called the region
which he claimed to have visited Col
ters He'll" This name appears upon
many OF the early maps and was at
tached TO the Yellowstone park cOun-
try for at least quarter of century.
Golfer was not the only discoverer
of the Yellowstone park, but suffered
the most extraordinary experience Of
any man that ever visited this region.
The Indians attacked him and killed
his partner. Golfer was taken prisoner,
stripped naked. led to a point 300 or
400 yards in advance of a body Of
about 500 bucks and ordered to run for
his life He did so, with half a thou
sand bowling savages after him. This
happened, fortunately for Golfer, be-
fore an indulgent government supplied
its wild wards with shooting imple-
ments, and it seemed to be understood
that bows and arrows must not be
used against the fugitive. Golfer, be-
ing overtaken by one fleet Indian,
turned and killed him. Then, resum-
ing his fight, he plunged into a river
and concealed himself under some logs
so effectually that the Indians sup
posed he was drowned.
The next man to bring the news of
the Yellowstone park and its wonders
was Jim Bridger, after Kit Carson, the
most famous scout ever known upon
the frontier. He was CarsOn's partner,
was with Fremont on both of his ex-
petitions to California, discovered the
which the overland caravans crossed
the continental divide. Army engineers
used to say that Jim Bridger was the
best natural tOpOgrapher ever born.
Captain GunniSOn, in a report 20 the
government, declared that Bridger
could draw an accurate map of the en-
tire Rocky mountain region from men,
DRY on the back of a buffalo hide with
a piece Of charcoal.
The public refused for many years TO
accept Bridger's report of the Great
Salt lake, and the remarkable nara
tives he told of the wonders of the Vel
lowstone country were universally
characterized as "Oid Jim Bridger' 5
lies He tried to have a description
of the country published, but no news
paper of that day would accept it. Col
Onel r. T. Van Horn, for many years ed
itOr of the Kansas City Journal, and for
several terms a member of congress,
prepared a series Of articles with ma
terial furnished by Bridger, but it was
impossible TO induce any magazine or
other reputable periodical to accept
them. Although they were usually ac-
curate descriptions of natural phenom-
ena, since witnessed by every visitor
to this park, they were then regarded
as the inventions of a vulgar Munchau-
sen. Bridger described the country
tersely as "a place where hell bubbles
up"
For example, he never could make
anybody believe in the existence of a
mountain of glass which is now known
to all tourists as Obsidian Cliff, a re-
markable formation of volcanic glass
rising like bisalt in vertical columns
several hundred feet high. A con-
siderable portion Of the soil in that
section Of the park is silica. a crystal
sand of which glass is usually made
At this particular spot, in some remote
age, the silica was melted by volcanic
heat, and running together formed a