The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1924-08-29
DISCOVERER OF
THE YELLOWSTONE
PARK TELLS OF TRIP
WAS FIRST WHITE MAN TO SEE
WONDROUS BEAUTY OF THE
YELLOWSTONE CANYON
Charles w. Cooke of White Sulphur
Springs, Modestly Tells of Thrill
ing Experiences Which Accompan-
led The Discovery Expedition.

Over in White Sulphur Springs
lives an old man. He is tall, spare,
bearded man, whose eye, despite
So years, is bright, and whose
frame is still erect. The marks life
has left upon him are like the writ
ings of time upon the mountains
* they have traced upon his coun-
tenance the record of strong
mans life, softened and mellOwed
now by age.
But there is nothing about this old
man, living simply there among his
neighbors to set him apart from them
or to distinguish him as person of
note. Fame has not paused by his
humble home, to point him out to the
throngs of his countrymen who hurry
past. 1t is often that way with these
old timers.
To the home of this old man, the
other day, came two others, in the
manner of men making pilgrimage
to see parsonage. They were busy
men, whirled along on the rapid
stream of today, but they pulled away
form the swift current into the quiet
backwater where this old man lives.
They did this because they wanted to
shake his hand, to- give him, while he
lives, the assurance that there are
some who accord him that honor.
These two men were Stephen t.
Mather, director of the national park
service, and H. M Albright, superin-
tendent of Yellowstone National park
two fairly busy men these days,
when Yellowstone and other national
parks are in the midst of their biggest
season. On their way to Yellowstone
from an engagement in Great Falls,
they stopped at White Sulpher to see
the old man.
They found him milking his cow
They shook his hand. In these hand
clasps the past and the present of
Yellowstone park met.
Steer Saves Lives.
1t was the summer of 1864. A party
of young men with herd of cattle
from the Little Missouri had come
into the Montana country. Their trail
was barred by scalping party of In
dams, from whose belts dangled the
still dripping scalps of white men.
The Indians councilled on the fate
of this little group of cattlemen.
Some were in favor of adding their
scalps to the dripping belts, their cat
tie to the Indian herds. But most of
the warriors were stated with killing. |
A queer notion took them. They Of |
fered in exchange for one steer from
the white mems herd, to let the lit |
tie party go free. And so, for steer
life was bought.
In those days the gold fever was
high in Montana. The cattle bust
ness was beginning. The Indians
were many and hostile. 1t was
wild and stirring time,
Stories came of a great country at
the headwaters of the Snake, Wind
and Yellowstone rivers, where boil
ing water spouted from the earth to
the height of the flagpole at Vir-
ginia City-a full sixty feet-of a
marvellous lake lying in a high
bowl; of boiling springs
and smoking mountains, or rivers
whose bottoms were warm, of won
drous waterfalls that dropped over
sheer precipices into deep chasms
co1ored with the war paints of hum
dred Indian tribes.
Mostly these stories we're not be-
lieved. Jim Bridger, the old noun
hunter and trapper, had told
Of them. Now Bridger was account
ed great liar in day of wondrous
liars, and he was not believed by
many people at any time. And yet
men wondered and some determined
to go and see.
Braves Dangers.
Several efforts to send an expedi-
lion into the Yellowstone failed, in
The period from 1867 to 1869, be-
cause of fear of the Indians. But in
he summer of 1869, Charles w.
Cook and David E. Folsom, with a
'anch hand named Peterson, declin-
ng to be deferred longer by the tim
dity of others, plunged into the un-
explored wilderness.
Three men and five horses, they /.
Jet out up the Yellowstone river from I.
Fort Ellis, near Bozeman, Montana
Territory Their way lay through
leavy timber, and was crossed by
streams roaring through deep can
IONS. Many times they had to work
heir way to the headwaters of these
treams and then down the other
ide to the river again, but they al