page_title: John Colter
section_title: Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Jackson Hole
hierarchical_section_title: John Colter / Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Jackson Hole
context_page_description: John Colter was a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Though party to one of the more famous expeditions in history, Colter is best remembered for explorations he made during the winter of 1807–1808, when he became the first known person of European descent to enter the region which later became Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Mountain Range. Colter spent months alone in the wilderness and is widely considered to be the first known mountain man.
context_section_description: Colter left Fort Raymond in October, 1807 with a pack weighing roughly thirty five pounds (not including his rifle and ammunition,) and traveled over five hundred miles to establish trade with the Crow nation. Over the course of the winter, he explored the region that later became Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Colter reportedly visited at least one geyser basin, though it is now believed that he most likely was near present-day Cody, Wyoming, which at that time may have had some geothermal activity to the immediate west. Colter probably passed along portions of the shores of Jackson Lake after crossing the Continental Divide near Togwotee Pass or more likely, Union Pass in the northern Wind River Range. Colter then explored Jackson Hole below the Teton Range, later crossing Teton Pass into Pierre's Hole, known today as the Teton Basin in the state of Idaho. After heading north and then east, he is believed to have encountered Yellowstone Lake, another location in which he may have seen geysers and other geothermal features. Colter then proceeded back to Fort Raymond, arriving in March or April 1808. Not only had Colter traveled hundreds of miles, much of the time unguided, he did so in the dead of winter, in a region in which nighttime temperatures in January are routinely −30 °F (−34 °C).
  Colter arrived back at Fort Raymond and few believed his reports of geysers, bubbling mudpots and steaming pools of water. His reports of these features were often ridiculed at first, and the region was somewhat jokingly referred to as "Colter's Hell". The area Colter described is now widely believed to be immediately west of Cody, Wyoming, and though little thermal activity exists there today, other reports from around the period when Colter was there also indicate observations similar to those Colter had originally described. The exact location of Colter's Hell remains partially contested, as the name could have been applied to several different areas prone to geothermic activity. It is commonly believed that Colter's Hell referred to the region of the Stinking Water, now known as the Shoshone River, particularly the section running through Cody. The river's original title was thanks to presence of sulphur in the surrounding area. His detailed exploration of this region is the first by a white man of what later became the state of Wyoming.
caption: Map of Lewis and Clark's Track, including Colter's route.
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