Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1920-09-03

when Thomas Jefferson, our third president,
boRvht the Louisiana territory from Napoleon
Bonaparte.
The western boundary NJ the United States
was then the Mississippi as fixed by the treaty
with Great Britain after the Revolution. Jeffer-
sent james Monroe 10 France to cooperate
with Minister Robert r. Livingston In the pur-
chase Of the ATississippis mouth for 100000.
Napoleon laughed at them. He had Just made
Spain cede him the Louisiana Territory, intend
ting to establish there an empire to replace that
lost TO the British In Canada. Then Napoleon
he must fight the British. He could not fight and
coonlze, too SO, to spite the British he told the
two Americans they could have all the country
between the Mississippi and the Rockies (Texas
not ncluded) for S15.OO0.O00 And he made Mon
roe and Livingston agree. Jefferson was scared
stiR &C the act of his agents. There q nation-
wide rumpus over the purchase but congress rati-
ned II and the people finally approved 1t.
Jefferson, had not the slightest idea what the
United States had bought and in the spring Of 1904
he started the Lewis and Clark expedition from St.
Louis to find out This famous expedition went to
the mouth OF the Columbia river and returned to
st. Louis In 1906. after having been given up for
lost. II passed few miles to the north of the
Yellowstone, without even suspecting its existence
John Golfer was one of the private soldiers of
the expedition. Before II reached st. Louis he got
his discharge and returned with two trappers to
the headwaters Of the Missouri for beaver. In the
spring Of 1907 at the mouth Of the Platte he met
Manuel Lisa and again turned back. Lisa built
Fort Lisa at the confluence of the Yellowstone and
the Big Horn. Golfer, going alone TO summon the
Crows to the fort for trade passed to the south of
the Yellowstone through Jackson's Hole to Pierres
Hole at the west of the Yellowstone. Returning
thence TO Fort Lisa he passed diagonally through
the Yellowstone the first white man to see its
ders.
Golfer, after adventures and travels that give
him front rank among explorers Of the west, re-
q II l. ON = IL
ventures and he told OF the marvels of the Yellow
stone. st. Louis believed ooma of his tales of ad
venture but would have none Of the geysers, boil
ing sprint and palnt-pots Of the Yellowstone
They derisvely dubbed 1t Golfers He'll" laughed
over 1t for time and then forgot 1t. Gen. Will
liam Clark, his commander, was the only to
believe him. On the official map of the Lewis and
Clark expedition Is q dotted line from Fort Lisa
to the Yellowstone and return. with the legend
Golfers route in 1907"
The Yellowstone was discovered the second
time about 1s27-this time by Jim Brdger, one of
Gen. William H. Ashley's lleutenants In the Rocky
Mountain Fur company. Bridger was the discov-
erer of Great Salt Lake map-maker without an
equal. mountaineer plainsman and guile with
no superior. But he he'd hobhy-big yarns. 1t
is he who made up those classic "whoppers' of
the west-the obsidian cliff. boiling spring. echo
and alum creek stories So, when he told about
the wonders of the Yellowstone. scoflng frontier
said with laughter: "Oh just another of Jim
Bridgers yarns
Warren Angus Ferris described the Upper Gey-
ser basin Of the Yellowstone in 1S42-and was not
believed. Prospectors in the Montana gold excite
ment Of 1862 again described the Yellowstone; they
were set down as liars Newspapers and maya
zines would not publish the stories; lecturers were
stoned. In 1869 the semiofficial Montana Wash
burn-Langford expedition did succeed in getting a
hearing. In 1870 the federal government sent an
official expedition which officially put the Yellow
stone on the map "
Cornelius Hedges, September 1S. 1870, by
campfire In the Yellowstone proposed that the
wonderland be made a national park-a play