Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-09-07


one knows it. The story of John Golfer and Col
ter's Hell properly begins away back in loO3,.
when Thomas Jefferson, our third president,
bought the Louisiana territory from Napoleon
BOnaDarte.
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 II. Livingston in the pur-
chase of the MSsSsppi's mouth for $2OOO,OOO
Napoleon laughed at them. He had just made
Spain cede him the Louisiana Territory, intend
ing 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
cOonize, 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 included) for $15OOO,0OO And he made Mon
roe and Livingston agree Jefferson scared
stiff at the act of his agents. There a nation
wide rumpus the purchase but congress rati-
fled it anu 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 ont. This famous expedition went to
the mouth of the Columbia river and returned to
81. Louis in 1906, after having been given up for
lost 1t passed few miles to the north of the
Yellowstone, without even ssIspecttng its existence
John Golfer was of the private soldiers Of
the expedition Before It reached st. Louis he got
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 Jackson's Hole TO Perres
Hole at the west of the Yellowstole Returning
thence TO Fort Lisa. he passed diagOnally through
the Yellowstone. the first white to see it's
CerS.
Golfer, after adventures and travels that give
him frcNt rank among explorers of the west re-
turned 30 st. Louis In 1910. He recounted his ad-
ventures and he told of the marvels 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 paint-pOts of the Yellowstone.
They derisively dubbed it Golfers He'll laughed
it for a time and then forgot it. Gen. Will
liam Clark. his commander was the only one 10
believe him. On the official map of the Lewis and
Clark expedition is dotted line from Fort Lisa
To the Yellowstone and return. with the legend.
Golfers route in 1907"
The Yellowstone discovered the second
time about 1s27-this time by Jim Bridger one of
Gen William H. Ashley's lieutenants In the Rocky
Mountain Fur company Bridger was the dscOv-
erer of Great Salt Lake. a map maker without an
equal. mountaineer, plainsman and guide with
superior. But he had hobby--big yarns Ii
is he who made up those classic "whoppers" of
the west-the obsdan cliff boiling spring. echo
and alum creek stories. So, when he told about
the wonders of the Yellowstone, soothing frontier
said. with laughter: "Oh, just another of Jim
Bridger'S yarns"
Warren Angus Ferris described the Upper Gey.
basin OF the Yellowstone in 1S42-and was not
believed. Prospectors in the Montana gold excite
ment OF 1862 again described the Yellowstone they
set down liars. Newspapers and maya
zines would not publish the stories lecturers were
stoned In 1869 the semi-offical Montana Wash
'hurn-Langford expedition did succeed in getting Il
hearing. IN 1870 the federal government sent an
official expedition which officially put the Yellow
stone the map
Cornelius Hedges, September IS, 1870, by
campfire in the Yellowstone proposed that the
wonderland be made national park-a play