Part 3

Sublette was the entrepreneur of the trio. It was Bill who handled the outfitting, the business contracts, the transportation of trade goods and furs. That the partnership was successful is indicated by their disposal of their interests to Bridger and his partners in 1830 for an overall sum involving some $16,000. Sublette and his partners were shrewd enough to anticipate the gradual dissolution of the fur trade, which influenced their desire to get out of the business. It was Sublette's wagon caravan from St. Louis to the Popo Agie and return in 1830 that proved the overland trail could be used by wheeled vehicles, this was the caravan that pioneered the immigrants' route to Oregon. Sublette later returned to the west as a trader, in partnership with Robert Campbell, and built Fort William (later Fort Laramie) in 1834.

Sublette and Jackson first entered Jackson Hole in 1826, after the rendezvous of that year near the Great Salt Lake. They crossed the lower end of the valley on their way to Green River, while their new partner, Smith, was headed with another contingent of trappers southwest across the desert toward California.

The system of trading at annual summer "rendezvous," several of which have been previously mentioned, was inaugurated by Ashley in 1825. The rendezvous site of that year was on Henry's Fork of the Green River. By such a method, more flexible than the previously used "fixed fort" system, the trappers assembled at a previously determined place, conveniently located for the widely separated trapper bands. The trader brought his goods to the site where furs were exchanged for the trade goods. It was a time of celebration, frolic, and general carousal for all concerned. The rendezvous site can be likened to the hub of a wheel, the trails followed by the trappers as they came in from the spring hunt and departed for the fall hunt were the spokes. Thus rendezvous sites were on the Green, Wind, Popo Agie Rivers, at the Bear and Great Salt Lakes, in Pierre's Hole, and finally at Fort Bonneville. Jackson Hole was never a rendezvous site because of the difficulty of access for the traders over the high mountain passes surrounding the valley.

There is no positive evidence of trapping activity in the valley in 1827-28, although it is quite probable that the Hole received its share of attention. In 1829, however, Sublette and Jackson joined forces again in Jackson Hole, where by previous arrangement they were to meet "Diah." Smith did not appear, and the partners were greatly concerned by his absence. Tradition has it that Sublette named "Jackson's Hole" and "Jackson's Lake" in honor of his associate while they were encamped on the shore of the lake waiting for Smith. Smith was eventually located in Pierre's Hole by one of the Sublette-Jackson party, Joe Meek, and the partners were finally reunited there, Jackson and Sublette moving over via Teton Pass.

Throughout the period 1811-40, nearly every mountain man prominently connected with the fur trade visited Jackson Hole. It was an area greatly favored by Jackson, which undoubtedly accounts for Sublette's most appropriate name. Following Colter's discovery of the valley, it was traversed in 1811 by three employees of the St. Louis-Missouri Fur Company, John Hoback, Edward Robinson, and Jacob Reznor. These three, en route to St. Louis in the spring, encountered the Astorian expedition (John Jacob Astor's overland party of the American Fur Company) and agreed to guide the party, commanded by Wilson Price Hunt, over a part of the westward route. This group entered Jackson Hole that fall by way of the Hoback River, then went west over Teton Pass. Robert Stuart brought a returning band of Astorians back in the fall of 1812, following the same general way and discovering the "South Pass," as they moved eastward beyond the Green.

British interests took the initiative in the exploration of the fur country following the War of 1812 and a general, and temporary, decline of American interest. In 1819 Donald McKenzie of the Northwest Company brought a large party through Jackson Hole and on north into the Yellowstone.

The Americans again entered the picture with Smith's previously mentioned venture of 1824, and from that time forward the list of Jackson Hole visitors reads like a "Who's Who" of the western fur trade. There were James Beckwourth (with Sublette), all of Bridger's partners (Fitzpatrick, Milton Sublette, Fraeb, and Gervais), Nathaniel Wyeth, Captain Benjamin L. E. Bonneville, and probably on one occasion the redoubtable Kit Carson.

The era of the mountain man was brief. It is doubtful that the trappers, traders, and fur company men realized the significance of their exploits in the expansion westward of a new nation. Yet without their activities the exploration of the western lands might have been long delayed, and the claim of the United States to the Pacific Northwest much less secure.

Bibliography

Alter, J. Cecil: _James Bridger, Trapper, Frontiersman, Scout and Guide_, Shepard Book Company, Salt Lake City 1925.

Chittenden, Hiram Martin: _A History of the American Fur Trade of the Far West_, Academic Reprints, Stanford, California 1954.

Mattes, Merrill J.: "Jackson Hole, Crossroads of the Western Fur Trade, 1807-1840, _The Pacific Northwest Quarterly_, Volume 37, April, 1946 and Volume 39, January, 1948.

Morgan, Dale: _Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West_, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Incorporated, New York 1953.

Sullivan, Maurice S.: _Jedediah Smith, Trader and Trailbreaker_, Press of the Pioneers, Incorporated, New York 1936.

Sunder, John E.: _Bill Sublette, Mountain Man_, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Oklahoma 1959.

Vestal, Stanley: _Jim Bridger, Mountain Man_, William Morrow and Company, New York 1946.

THE DOANE EXPEDITION OF 1876-77 FORT ELLIS, MONTANA TERRITORY TO FORT HALL, IDAHO By Merlin K. Potts, _former Chief Park Naturalist_

Telegram St. Paul, Minnesota October 4, 1876 To the Commanding Officer Fort Ellis, Montana Territory

Under authority received from the Lieut-General, 1st. Lieut. G. C. Doane, 2d Cavalry is ordered to make exploration of Snake River from Yellowstone Lake to Columbia River. He will be furnished a mounted detail of one noncommissioned officer and five men of the 2d Cavalry. The pack animals, 60 days rations for party, and the necessary camp equipage. You will cause also a small boat to be built by the quartermaster for Lieut. Doane's use, under his directions. Lieut. Doane will send back his Detachment from mouth of Snake River to Fort Ellis, and will himself return to his post via San Francisco, California, remaining at the latter place long enough to make his report.

By command of Gen. Terry (Signed) Edw. Smith Capt. of A. D. C.

Headquarters, Fort Ellis, Montana Territory October 7, 1876

Special Orders No. 142 Extract

II. 1st. Lieut. G. C. Doane, 2d Cavalry is hereby relieved from duty at his post and will comply with telegraphic instructions from Headquarters, Department of Dakota, Saint Paul, Minn. date Oct. 4th, 1876.

III. The following named enlisted men are hereby detailed for detached service mounted, and will report to 1st. Lieut. G. C. Doane, 2d Cavalry for duty.

Sergeant, Fred Server, Company "G" 2d Cavalry Private, F. R. Applegate, Company "G" 2d Cavalry Private, Daniel Starr, Company "F" 2d Cavalry Private, William White, Company "F" 2d Cavalry Private, John B. Warren, Company "H" 2d Cavalry Private C. R. Davis, Company "L" 2d Cavalry They will be furnished with sixty (60) days rations.

IV. The Post Quartermaster is hereby directed to furnish 1st. Lieut. G. C. Doane, 2d Cavalry with pack animals, camp equipage and boat, necessary, to enable him to carry out the telegraphic instructions from Headquarters, Department of Dakota, Saint Paul, Minn., dated October 4, 1876.

By order of Captain Ball (Signed) Chas. B. Schofield 2nd Lieut. 2nd Cavalry Post Adjutant

The foregoing orders initiated one of the most unusual and bizarre expeditions in the history of the west. Unusual because of the lack of judgment shown in selecting late fall and winter for the journey; bizzarre in the impracticability, in fact the impossibility, of execution of the orders.

Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane, selected to lead the party, was without question as capable a leader as could have been chosen. Lieutenant Doane had been detailed, with 5 cavalrymen, to accompany General Henry D. Washburn, Nathaniel Pitt Langford, and their party of 1870 on the memorable exploration of the area destined to become Yellowstone National Park 2 years later. His record of service with that expedition was exemplary; he had a firsthand knowledge of much of the country to be traversed, at least over the early stages of the route; he lacked neither courage nor aptitude; and he possessed the ability to observe, describe, and record in detail the experiences and observations of the expedition.

Hiram Martin Chittenden, in the biographical notes appended to his book, _The Yellowstone National Park_, has given us, very briefly, an impression of the man and his background.

Lieutenant Doane was born in Illinois, May 29, 1840, and died in Bozeman, Montana, May 5, 1892. At the age of five he went with his parents, in wake of an ox team, to Oregon. In 1849 his family went to California at the outbreak of the gold excitement. He remained there ten years, in the meanwhile working his way through school. In 1862 he entered the Union service, went East with the California Hundred, and then joined a Massachusetts cavalry regiment. He was mustered out in 1865 as a First Lieutenant. He joined the Carpetbaggers and is said to have become the Mayor of Yazoo City, Mississippi. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Regular Army in 1868, and continued in the service until his death, attaining the rank of Captain.

Doane's whole career was actuated by a love of adventure. He had at various times planned a voyage to the Polar regions, or an expedition of discovery into Africa. But fate assigned him a middle ground, and he became prominently connected with the discovery of the upper Yellowstone country. His part in the Expedition of 1870 is second to none. He made the first official report (to the War Department) upon the wonders of the Yellowstone, and his fine descriptions have never been surpassed by any subsequent writer. Although suffering intense physical torture (from a felon on his thumb, finally lanced by Mr. Langford) during the greater portion of the trip, it did not extinguish in him the truly poetic ardor with which those strange phenomena seem to have inspired him. Dr. Hayden (Ferdinand V. Hayden, United States Geologist, Department of the Interior, 1871) says of this report: "I venture to state, as my opinion, that for graphic description and thrilling interest it has not been surpassed by any official report made to our government since the times of Lewis and Clark."

Doane's record, unpublished, of his heroic attempt to lead his party through the wilderness of the Yellowstone, southward through Jackson Hole, and down the "Mad River" to the Columbia is no less graphic in its vividness, no less thrilling in its expression of the hazards and the wild beauty of the land. It is marked by his absolute determination, no matter what the odds, to carry out his orders.

The Lieutenant, as his journal records, had previous notice that the expedition was to be ordered, and partial preparation had been made before the orders were received at Fort Ellis, near the present city of Bozeman, Montana. Ration boxes were prepared and a boat was built, possibly the first such "prefabricated" craft ever constructed. It was a double-ender, 22 feet long, 46 inches in the beam, 26 inches deep, and curved strongly fore and aft.

It was built entirely of inch plank, and put together with screws, then taken apart again and the lumber lashed in two equal bundles, like the side bars of a litter. The whole forming an easy load for two pack mules.

For shelter the party carried an "Indian Lodge," constructed of army wagon covers cut to the proper pattern and with a diameter of 14 feet. The shelter weighed "but thirty pounds and sheltered the entire party."

On the evening of October 10th, all preparations were complete for an expedition never attempted before in the winter time, and never accomplished since. The enlisted force was of picked men selected for special qualifications. In addition to those enumerated in the previous order, Private Morgan Osborn "G" Troop, the carpenter who built the little boat, and John L. Ward of "L" Troop, a teamster and packer, were taken along to bring back extra mules and the wagon from whatever point might be selected enroute.

On October 11, the expedition moved out from Fort Ellis and south-eastward toward the valley of the Yellowstone, reached that stream the following day and thence up that "wild and winding" river toward the "Mammoth Springs." The wagon bearing supplies was drawn by 8 mules, 2 others carried the boat material, each man was mounted except the teamster, an extra horse was led for him. All went smoothly until the third day, when, not far from the northern boundary of the Park, the

... wagon came to grief, an unruly wheeler failed to pull at the right time, and the heavy vehicle cramped and went over crushing a hind wheel and reducing the body to something resembling kindling wood.

As a result of this not unexpected mishap, the wagon was abandoned, the load, comparatively undamaged, was made into packs, and after a 2-day delay to rest the animals and arrange the loads, the party proceeded. In his entry of October 16, Doane enumerates the equipment carried by his party.

Our outfit was an arctic one, omitting the stereotyped religious literature. We had buffalo coats and moccasins, rubber boots and overshoes, heavy underclothing, and plenty of robes and blankets. The detachment carried carbines only. Pistols are worthless in the mountains. In fact they are worthless anywhere in the field. I carried a 12-pound Sharpes Buffalo Rifle, with globe sight on the stock and chambered for long range cartridges. Our provisions did not include pemmican, Biltongue, limejuice or any other of the orthodox food preparations, but consisted of plain American rations, with some added commissaries, and an abundance of tea and tobacco. Matches were packed on every animal, and each individual carried several boxes constantly. Each man had a good hunting knife, not the crossed hilted and murderous looking kind but a short one intended for cutting up game. Our cooking apparatus included two fry pans, two Dutch ovens, four camp kettles, and some mess pans. We had plenty of axes and each man carried a hatchet on his saddle. To put together the boat required only a saw, a screw driver and a Gimlet, and we had a sack of oakum, with which to calk the seams. Before starting, there had been no solemnites, but each man's personal outfit was complete, arranged with a view to meet all possible contingencies without delay. I had duplicate notebooks, one of which Sergeant Server carried and from his, the only one left, I take my notes for this report. Of instruments, I carried a prismatic compass, Aneroid Barometer, max and min thermometers, and a long tape measure. None of these were provided by a generous government, but all were purchased by myself--as usual in such cases.

On October 17, the party lost the first of the pack animals.

The morning air broke chilly and the air filled with frosty mist. One mule, a queer slabsided one was down, paralyzed across the kidneys. Here was an emergency. It was unable to stand alone when lifted to its feet, and would starve to death in a few days if we left it. But one remedy was available and that was a severe one. We heated kettles of water and scalded the animal along the spine. The first kettleful brought him to his feet, without further assistance, and a few cups full from a second restored his nerves enough so that he kicked vigorously at his kind physicians, and refused further treatment. He was fearfully scalded but restored, and returned to Fort Ellis next spring of his own volition, got entirely well and survived all of his comrades of the pack train several years.

A heavy snow storm began on the night of October 19, the party laid over on October 20, and on October 21 made an early start for Mount Washburn, camping on its upper slopes that night, to the great relief of the Lieutenant.

This was the highest point to be crossed (9,200 feet) and I was terribly uneasy lest we should find it (the gap) blocked with snow as a depth of 30 feet is not unusual in February. Beyond and at our feet now lay the Great Basin of the Yellowstone, with its dark forests, its open spaces all wintry white, and its steam columns shooting upward in every direction. It was like coming suddenly upon the confines of the unknown, so differently did the snow landscape appear in the summertime. To us it was an enchanted land, the portals of which had just been safely passed, and we struck the downward trail full of enthusiasm, reached the open basin of Chrystal Spring Creek, the lowest point in the Great Basin, and camped in snow two feet in depth. Distance 18 m. Elevation 7250 feet.

On October 23, the party reached Yellowstone Lake, camping at its outlet. En route that day Doane encountered a tremendous elk herd.

Taking light loads and leaving a man with balance of the plunder to keep off the bears as these animals are affected with a childish curiosity in relation to government rations, I started in advance of the party on the Lake trail, and was riding along slowly with my eyes shaded when my horse shied violently, with a snort, and stood trembling. I jerked away the shade and saw that I had ridden close up to a herd of at least two thousand elk. They had been lying in the snow, and had all sprung up together, frightening my horse. In a minute the great herd was out of sight, crashing through the forest, the old bulls screaming their strange fog-horn cry. It was a magnificent sight as the bulls were in full growth of horns, and the calves all large enough to run freely with the herd. No game animal has the majestic presence of a bull elk when he is not frightened, and in herds they manuevre with a wonderful precision breaking by file at a long swinging trot and coming into line right-left or front to gaze at some object of apprehension with a celerity and absence of confusion truly remarkable. In chasing them on horseback the first effect is to break them into a gallop, when they move more slowly and soon tire. In deep snow, when the herd breaks the trail for the horse to follow in, there is no difficulty in catching them.

I remember a chase in the Yellowstone Valley one winter day when two of us killed seventeen elk in less than an hour. Two large wagon loads of meat. On this occasion I did not shoot, as we had a long march to make and it would have caused delay, but watched them 'til lost to view and rode on. This sign of abundant game was exceedingly favorable and gave a confidence which nothing else could have inspired.

For the following 2 days the expedition remained in camp on the shore of the lake, preparing the outfit for double transportation by land and water, the pack animals and part of the men to follow the shoreline, the others to take the boat across the lake. The little boat was assembled, the seams pitched, and the "Teeps" erected for the first time, bough shelters having been used previously.

On October 24, the men worked until late in the night making equipment ready and

... retired to rest feeling all was well so far. During the night the stock stampeded and ran in close to the camp fire. A strange, threatening voice was heard in the dense forest nearby, a noise I had never heard before. A loud roaring was repeated. Applegate gathered his belt and carbine and I the big rifle, and while the others quieted the stock we moved out in the direction from which the sound came. It receded as we advanced, and shortly, with a continued crashing the animal retreated out of hearing into the timber. We soon came upon its trail and I sent back for a lantern. It was an old bull moose. It had pawed up quite a space and barked a couple of young trees with its horns thus producing the crashing sound we had first noticed. In accounts of moose hunting, read previously, I had never seen it stated that a moose gave any call whatever. These in the Park have voices, unquestionably, and use them with the utmost freedom. Toward morning we were again roused by a flock of swans circling over us with their wild and splendid notes, harmonized to a glorious symphony. In the morning I shot and wounded a large wolverine but did not stop him, and Starr, while prowling along the river bank below camp, shot a goose and found a small plank canoe in which he proceeded to paddle out into the lake.

Doane's description of the moonlight night which followed is a classic example of his ability to portray, in words, a picture of the wilderness he loved so well.