Fergus County Democrat., 1906-02-06

Gardiner river below the Mammoth
Hot springs. meeting en- rout but one
band of Indians. These were Crows
with great herd of horses, but they
did not molest the white men, though
they 1oiloWed them for many miles.
The Tower. the gigantic rock rising
hundreds of feet from the bed of the
river, was one of the first marvels
discovered. They traversed the main
valley of the Yellowstone. penetrated
| the grand canyon, stood spellbound
| upon inspiration point and forded the
river between the two falls which they
measured.
They found the mud geysers and
the paint pots and on the shores of
Yellowstone lake they carved their
initials with the date of their pres
ence there upon a stone and placed it
in tree.
The explorers kept a diary of each
days adventures and Forsom made a
map. Standing one day upon a cliff
overlooking a great valley, they saw
clouds of vapor sweeping before the
wind. They took it for smoke, but de-
scending into the bottom they found
a geyser of steaming water tossing 20
feet into the air. AS they watcheh the
valume lessened until the strange
fountain ceased to play. 1t had issu-
ed from cone-shaped spout of rock
which was surrounded by circular
basin. Cook and his companions ap-
preached to the edge of this opening
and gazing down into it saw within a
myriad jets Of bubling water rising by
degrees until the geyser was again in
play. Foot by foot the torrent uprose
until its crest was over hundred feet
above them, it's spray and steam
streaming away in the wind and
streaking down the valley in miles of
rainbows.
They decided to return down the
Madison river. struck across the low
er end of Fire Hole river, and so made
their way back to civilization after
six weeks Of the most astounding and
delightful experiences. But the peo-
pie to whom they told their story
We're inclined to be incredulous. Dan
Fisk was at that time conducting the
Helena Herald and he asked Cook and
Folsom to send him a "writeup' of
their trip. They might have done so,
but Fisk taking it for granted that
neither could write we'll enough sug-
sested that he should dress up the
story. Folsom, who was a very felici-
tions writer himself, took umbrage at
this and the story was never written
until George Clark himself an expert
enced traveller and a friend Of Cooks
wrote from Chicago asking for "the
yarn" Cook and Folsom took turn in
supplying the data. They did so, as
H.
ment.'
That gentleman, however, offered
the story to the New York Tribune,
but the editor refused to give it cred
ence. Harper's weekly got the next
chance to publish it, but hesitated to
believe the marvels recounted, and at
last demanded pictures to verify the
outlandsh claims of the adventurers.
Neither Cook nor Folsom nor Peter
son could draw and the DAY of the ko-
dak had not dawned, and their story,
generally disbelieved, did not see the
light or gain believers until the Lang
ford expedition verified their discov-
cries and, incidentally, gained the
credit of deing the first to explore the |
park.
1t was probably in the winter of 1871 |
lHdl MI. LduSlOfu gave lecture IN d |
New Hampshire town. He claimed |
then to be the first explorer of the
park. Dave Folsom happened to be
in the hall and many of the audience
knew that he claimed to have explor-
ed the Yellowstone park in 1867. The
lecturer was interrupted and was ask
ed whether or not party had not pre-
ceded him in the discovery of the Won
ders of the Yellowstone. Langford
then publicly admitted that certain
persons" had penetrated the region
a year before he had, but that little
was known about them or. what they
had seem
Mr.. Cook cares nothing about the in
justice done him in this matter, but
he is fully aware that the Langford
expedition gets all the credit for an
which he and his two
friends, with small means, few equip
ments and no encoura cement, accom-
plished a year before the accredited"
expedition started.
The Langford party added to the list
of marvels, named many of them and
verified the findings of Mr.. Cook and
his friends. But the modesty of the
first explorers, the unofficial nature of
their enterprise and the fact that the
eastern publishers refused to believe
the outlandish, though truthfuD tale
they told, had the result of bestowing