Clark: "The Roche passes out of a high rugid mountain covered with snow"
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Yellowstone National Park
History:
Clark missed discovering Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone Park by about 40 miles on his eastward exploration of the Yellowstone River. Near Livingston, his party stopped to rest and appreciate the view south into the phenomenal Paradise Valley, but moved on the next day.
It was left to expedition member John Colter to be the first white to explore the area. Unfortunately for Colter, nobody believed him. The spouting geysers, sprawling fields of hot springs and boiling rivers sounded too fanciful to the 19th-century mind. For years, he would tell anyone who'd listen about the land that came to be called, "Colter's Hell." Mountain man Jim Bridger had the same trouble.
Yellowstone's unique and awe-inspiring natural features are due to its explosively volcanic history. Like a blowtorch, a volcanic field beneath the area superheats rock and creates steam. The tourists came early, after enough people had surveyed the sights that Colter and Bridger described to make them believable. Gold was discovered in the surrounding valleys, bringing throngs of would-be millionaires. It was inevitable that others would come to be amazed by what the area offered in natural beauty.
In 1877 the Nez Perces during their attempted escape to Canada, took prisoner several of these early tourists. The tribe moved through Madison Junction and the Yellowstone Basin over the course of several weeks, assisted in their escape by fallen trees and primitive paths.
A series of expeditions in the early 1870s led President Ulysses S. Grant to make Yellowstone the nation's first national park.
