Browse Map

Explore away

Explore Map Collection

Check out our basemaps

Print a Map Plus

Generate a high-quality PDF

Field Guide

Discover local flora, fauna, geology, and more

Local Flora & Fauna

Learn the ecology of your area

Local Geology

Learn the geologic formation at your feet

Get Started or Sign In

Welcome

Continue with Apple

Already have an account? Sign In

MAP

Topo

Measure

Topo

Ecoregions

Public Lands

...

BASEMAPS

Default Weather

Temperature

Smoke

...

WEATHER

Black Canyon of the Yellowstone

“Third Canyon” of the Yellowstone

Canyon on Yellowstone River in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Jardine, MT

Print Map

Generate High-Quality PDF

Historical Field Note

August 26, 1870. Lt. Gustavus C. Doane accompanied by Truman C. Everts and Private Williamson pushed ahead of the delayed Washburn Langford Doane Expedition packtrain and ascended the Yellowstone River terrace above the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone. Peering down into the canyon Doane jounaled (1873, 5-6):

The [Yellowstone] river breaks through this [Blacktail Deer] plateau in a winding and impassable canyon of trachyte lava over 2,000 feet in depth, the middle canyon of the Yellowstone, rolling over volcanic bowlders in some places, and in others forming still pools of seemingly fathomless depth. At one point it dashes here and there, lashed to a white foam, upon its rocky bed; at another it subsides into a crystal mirror wherever a deep basin occurs in the channel. Numerous small cascades are seen tumbling from the rocky walls at different points, and the river appears from the lofty summits a mere ribbon of foam in the immeasurable distance below. This huge abyss, through walls of flinty lava, has not been worn away by the waters, for no trace of fluvial agency is left upon the rocks; it is a cleft in the strata brought about by volcanic action, plainly shown by that irregular structure which gives such a ragged appearance to all such igneous formations. Standing on the brink of the chasm [Black Canyon of the Yellowstone] the heavy roaring of the imprisoned river comes to the ear only in a sort of hollow, hungry growl, scarcely audible from the depths, and strongly suggestive of demons in torment below. Lofty pines on the bank of the stream “dwindle to shrubs in dizziness of distance.” Everything beneath has a weird and deceptive appearance. The water does not look like water, but like oil. Numerous fish hawks are seen busily plying their vocation, sailing high above the waters, and yet a thousand feet below the spectator. In the clefts of the rocks down, hundreds of feet down, bald eagles have their eyries, from which we can see them swooping still farther into the depths to rob the ospreys of their hard-earned trout. It is grand, gloomy, and terrible; a solitude peopled with fantastic ideas; an empire of shadows and of turmoil.

— Doane

Further Research and Reading

Black, George. Empire of Shadows: The Epic Story of Yellowstone. St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2013.

Scott, K.A. Yellowstone Denied: The Life of Gustavus Cheyney Doane. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007.

Sources

Doane, Gustavus Cheyney. Letter from the Secretary of War, Communicating the Report of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane upon the so-Called Yellowstone Expedition of 1870. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1873. http://archive.org/details/letterfromsecret1873unit.

Whittlesey, L.H. Yellowstone Place Names. Second. Wonderland Publishing Company, 2006.