Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Native American inhabitation of area now known as Greater Yellowstone. Most tribes
only entered the high mountains on summer hunting trips to collect food and medicinal
plants.
1797
French map makes first reference to the 'R. des Roches Jaunes,' or Yellow Stone
River, itself a translation of the Minnetaree word
Mi tsi a-da-zi
that described the yel-
low bluffs around Billings, Montana.
1805−06
Lewis and Clark expedition passes north of Yellowstone; Clark carves his name on
Pompey's Pillar near Billings − today it is the only surviving physical evidence of the
expedition
1807−08
John Colter's winter journey into Greater Yellowstone makes him the first 'white man'
to travel through the area. Colter's Hell, a series of thermal features along the Shos-
hone River, are named after him.
1829
Bill Sublette names Jackson Hole ('hole' means valley) after fellow trapper David
Jackson; trapper Joe Meek stumbles upon Norris Geyser Basin.
1834
Warren Ferris is the first 'tourist' to Yellowstone and the first person to use the word
'geyser' to describe Yellowstone's thermal features.
1835-39
Trapper Osborne Russell travels through Yellowstone three times, eventually penning
his story in the classic autobiography
Journal of a Trapper.
1869
Folsom, Cook and Peterson's month-long expedition into what would later become
Yellowstone National Park takes them as far south as Shoshone and Yellowstone
Lakes.
