The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1936-09-04
On the Hill Where Fell the Entire Force of General Custer, Showing the Custer
Monument in the Background.

On the Hill Where Fell the Entire Fore
Monument in I
Using that Golfer, after his companion,
Lewis and CLARK expedition), had been
slain by eros Ventre Indians on the
jefferson, became the first white man
of record to view the wonders OF what
Is now Yellowstone national park. Col
ter then returned to Fort Manuel by
travelling up the valley of the Big. Horn
from the Shoshone country, southeast
he had seen, of steaming terraces. gey-
sers and mud pots, but no one believed
him and it was not until years later
that the world knew that John Golfer
had told the TRUTH.
In 1909 Lisa brought a large party Of
trappers and fur traders from st. Louis
to Fort Manuel. Trappers scattered
throughout the region that summer.
Some went up the Big Horn but they
left no material evidence OF their ex,
plorations. When they found a good
beaver country they kept it a secret.
More trappers came in 1910 when a
large party under Wilson Price Hunt
of John Jacob Astor's American Flu
Go. Travelled up the Big Horn valley.
The great obstacle faced by the early
parties of fur hunters on their west
ward passage was the Big Horn can
yon-an obstacle they avoided by going
around on the side Of the Big Horn
mountains to the south of the range,
or by turning west to the Clark's fork
of the Yellowstone, and then back into
the upper Big Horn country.
There was, however, a more direct
route to the west of the canyon known
as Bad Pass. When the band who or
ganized the Rocky Mountain, Fur Co.
Andrew Henry, Jedediah Smith, Thom-
as Fitzgerald, James Bridger, Milt and
Bill Sublette and others-came through
the region in 1924, they used the b.
Pass. so-named because of the diff
Guilty Of traversing 1t.
TO Gen. william Ashley is given the
credit for the first exploration Of the
Big Horn canyon, although Ashley him
self did not take part. In his journals
Ashley tells of sending a party of four
or five men along or through the can
yon while returning to st. Louis from
the fur country in 1925 with 100000
worth Of furs. In his report. General
river explored from Wind River noun
tains to my place Of embarkation."
This was the mouth of the Big Horn
canyon, or just below, where he as
sesmbled his men and went down the
river to the Yellowstone in bull boats.
In 1859, while acting as guide for
the government survey parties under
Capt. william F. Reynolds, Jim Bridger
told Capt. Reynolds he had gone
through the Big Horn canyon many
years earlier on a raft. Hence Bridger
was undoubtedly one Of the men sent
by General Ashley to explore the gorge
back in 1925. After Ashley there is
little record of further attempts to x
plore the canyon for several decades
but trapperS crossed and recroSSed b
Big Horn country in the thirties and
forties.. In 1910 Father De Smet made
his initial visit to the northwest. and
Big Horn country, under q cottonwood
which stands to this day. This venerable
cottonwood Is known as the De Smet
tree and stands near the ruins Of old
Fort Smith IN the Grow Indian reser-
walton.
Even in this modern day compare
lively few people have seen the canyon
Of the Big Horn, but those few tour
lists who have seen this 75-mile-long
beauty and grandeur. The great ch;asm
winds and twists through the noun
tains in a tortuous course In places its
sheer walls rise, as high as 5000 feet
above the river, while a number of
tributary streams, especially in the
wall Of mountains to the east, have
cut side canyons of almost equal gram
deur; The canyon is from one-fourth
walls are brightly colored, varying from
white sandstone to deep red sandstone
and the coloring is as varied and bril-
liant as that Of the Canyon Of the
Yellowstone.
Edward Gillette, Burlington railway
surveyor, who made a thorough expl0r-
alton of the chasm in 1891, wrote: THE
Grand Canyon Of the Colorado is an
immense chasm as broad as a wide
valley: the. Royal Gorge Of the Ar.
distance. only; the Yellowstone river
canyon IS awe inspiring and gorgeously
colored for q brief space; but the Big
Horn canyon combines all these fea-
lures with that Of a true box canyon
ana such overhanging cliffs are not to
pc found anywhere else to my know
ledge. As a canyon 1t is the most salts
factory that I have seen in this country
or Alaska"
In deeper portions of the canyon the
are many rapids. While the canyon
q been traversed several times by
boats, Its passage is n Of danger and
2 number Of men have lost their lives
m the attempt. When Surveyor Gillette
went through the canyon in 1891 he
traveled with one companion, making
the trip IN winter over the frozen river
ana Dragging supplies on a sled. Sew
the ice, fortunately where the water
was shallow. In August, 1893, a party
consisting Of M. w. ENSIGN of the Bur.