The Kalispell bee. [volume] (Kalispell, Mont.) 1900-192?, 1903-04-21
The Discovered Wonderland.


marvellous part Of the entire west
that in which President Roosevelt is
now staying, was one of the last
spots delineated on the map of the
country AS the president is stu
dent of western history, it is to be
presumed that he knows the tale
which the Yellowstone region has to
tell. John Golfer was the first white
man who saw the wonders of the Vel
ltstone region, but that was long be-
fore the press of the country was
numerous or active enough to take
much interest in the doings of wan
dering hunters or Indian traders.
When Golfer, who had been a mem
Der of Lewis and Clark's exploring
expedition of I804-6, left his COM
ranions on their homeward journey,
not far from the present Bismarck,
and went back along the Missouri
with two hunters who offered flatter
ing inducements to him, his old asso-
ciates thought he was making a
great mistake to plunge again into
tie wilderness. But Golfer, unknown
to- his old or new friends and to him
self, was about to connect his name
conspicuously and permanently with
the history of western discovery. 1t
was not in 1906, however, but the
rext year or the year afterward that
Golfer, the first of civilized men, en-
tered the present Yellowstone reser-
ration and gazed on it's marvels
The world knew nothing of this I'M
ii! many years afterward, and the
hCnors which have come to Golfer
did not appear until half century
o. more after his death. Wyoming
&c state IN which nearly all Yellow
stone park is located, was the last
community. Formed into terri
tory in 1868 and made into a state
il 1890. Wyoming is the newest state
except Utah. 1t was late in being
developed because the mineral dis
covcries. to which nearly all the
states in the great Cordilleran region
owe their first settlement. We're late
in being made. The hunters and the
gold seekers. and not the government
explorers, We're the real pathtiinders
CT the west. While the hunters were
the first to see the country and to
trace out passes in the mountains
and to follow up the courses of the
llvers, practica. results did not al
ways come from them until after the
Glscoverers were dead. 1t was the
finding of gold at the sources of the
Sweetwater in 1867 that started the
> rush to Wyoming that put it on the
map But Jim Bridger had built his
the Green river, in the. western part
OF the state as early as 1912. while
John Golfer had been at the Yellow
stone geysers a third of century
earlier.
When Golfer, after he returned tt
St. Louis, in 1909 and 1910, told O.
the marvels which he had seen of
in the northwest corner of the pres
= ent Wyoming, he was laughed at b!
: every one except General Clark, thu
explorer Nobody had ever dreamed
that any such wonders would eve,
be found outside of fairyland ant
Golfer was an object Of derision t.
most of his associates in this tow1
: and in the other places in which HI
IL told his story. 1t was not until tn
Washburn-Doane government eXpedi
ton made an exploration of the local
= ity, around 1870. that the world wa
l. made acquainted with it's wonders
5 Then it was remembered that Collie
i had told about them 60 years earlier
that Jim Bridger, a later discOverel
: Lad spoken about them, and recent
a newspaper was unearthed Whlcl
: contained an account of visit l.
y 1884 to part Of the Yellowstone par
! by w. A. Ferris. an employe of As
:. tors American Fur company. Cor
Il gress in 1872 set the Yellowston
u park apart as a pleasure ground fo
u the people of the country. but nobod
then gave any attention to John Co
: ter, the intrepid hunter and explore
+ who found that locality many d.
i cades before the earliest governmer
go | cN peulllolS udu loiu dHy IHihS avn
" il or had seen it. In erecting NOM
L. ments at the ST. Louis worlds ia
& for the pathfinders Of the great ives
E. some sort of a memorial should t
u put up to tell the story of John Co
$ ter's discovery of the YellOwstor
lie wonderland-St. Louis Globe Dem
10 crat.
IL r. .,r,, ,odo o,o.ho dow