Roanoke Rapids herald. [volume] (Roanoke Rapids, N.C.) 1914-192?, 1920-09-03

one knows it. The story Of John Golfer and Col
ter's Hell" properly begins away back in 1913,
when Thomas jefferson. our third president,
bought the Louisiana territory from Napoleon
B0naparte.
The western boundary of the United States
was then the Mississippi as fixed by the treaty
with Great Britain after the Revolution. Jefer-
son sent James Monroe to France to cooperate
with Minister Robert H. Livingston In the pur
chase of the Mssissippfs mouth for S20OO,OOO
Napoleon laughed at them He had Just made
Spain cede him the Louisiana Territory. intend
ing TO establish there an empire to replace that
lost TO the British in Canada. Then Napoleon saw
he must fight the British. He could not fight and
cOlonize, too. SO, TO spite the British he told the
two Americans they could have all the country
between the Mississippi and the Rockies Crexas
not incuded( for S15,O00.0OO. And he made Mon
roe and Livingston agree jefferson was scared
stiff at the act of his agents There was u nation
wide rumpus over the purchase but congress rati.
fled 1t and the people finally approved it,
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. 1t passed II few miles to the north of the
Yellowstone, without even suspectng 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 the fort for trade passed to the south of
the Yellowstone through Jacks0n's Hole TO Perres
Hole at the west of the Yellowstone. Returning
thence to Fort Lisa, he passed diagonay through
the Yellowstone the first white man TO see its Won
ders.
Golfer, after adventures and travels that give
him a front rank among explorers of the west, re-
turned to ST. Louis in 1910. He recounted his ad
ventures and he told of the marves of the Yellow
stone St Louis believed some of his tales Of ad-
venture, but would have none of the geysers. boil
ing springs and pant-pots>~of the Yellowstone.
They derisively dubbed 1t Golfers He'll" laughed
over 1t for time and then forgot 1t. Gen Will
liam Clark, his commander, was the only one 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 II. Ashley's lieutenants in the Rocky
Mountain Fur company. Bridger was the discov-
erer of Great Salt Lake. a mapmaker without an
equal. m0untaneer, puinsman and guide with
no superior But he had hobby-big yarns. II
Is he who made up those classic "wh0ppers" of
the west--the obsidian cliff, boiling spring echo
and alum creek stories So, when he told about
the wonders of the Yellowstone, a scofing frontier
said. with laughter. "Oh just another of Jim
Bridger's 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 maga-
zines would not publish the stories lecturers were
stoned. In 1869 the semi-oficial Montana Wash
burn Langford expedition did succeed in getting
hearing In 1870 the federal government sent an
official expedition which officially put the Yellow
stone on the map.
Cornelius Hedges September IS, 1870, by
campfire in the Yellowstone proposed that the
wonderland be made a national park-a play