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Washburn-Langford-Doane August 29, 1870 Campsite

Head of Sulphur Creek Campsite

Historic Campsite on Washburn-Langford-Doane Route in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Canyon Village, WY

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Washburn-Langford-Doane August 30-31 1870 Campsite

Washburn-Langford-Doane August 26-28, 1870 Campsite

Rather than follow the difficult and roundabout way Folsom-Cook-Peterson took last year to the Lower and Upper Falls, they left Camp Comfort at Tower Fall keeping the Yellowstone River on their left. Washburn and Private Williamson had scouted this route the day before and were pretty sure it would lead them eventually to the waterfalls and Yellowstone Lake beyond that. The eventful day included summiting a high mountain they named Mount Washburn while catching brief views of the Grand Canyon on their left. The commanding view from Mount Washburn surrounded them with sights both and near and far that fascinated them. They marveled at the large Yellowstone Lake in the distance and way beyond the water on the skyline, the jagged summits of the Teton Range. Until now, they had only seen a few minor thermal features, namely Calcite Springs, but now several plumes of volcanic steam dotted the landscape. They were seeing, smelling, and comprehending a new world. They had crossed over the basin rim now entered the sunken caldera. After picking a camp site on Sulphur Creek, Washurn, Doane, and Hedges could not wait anymore and ventured out to gaze into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and investigate a large white cloud reaching far above the green pines. In this unexplored territory, after 10 miles, they failed to reach an edge of the canyon that offered them a view into the canyon, but a hot spring Hedges’ named “Hell-Broth Springs” [Washburn Hot Springs] rewarded their toil. (Doane 1873, 8-11; Hedges 1870 in Crampton 1932; Haines 1974, 69)

Coming into camp in advance, passing through a grove of pine on the margin of a little creek, I was met face to face on the path by two magnificent buck elk, one of which I wounded, but lost in the woods. Shortly afterwards Mr. Smith started up a small bear, which also got away. The ground was everywhere tracked by the passage of herds of elk and mountain sheep; and bear sign was everywhere visible. In the evening, accompanied by Mr. Washburn and Mr. Hedges, I followed down the channel of the creek to the brink of the Grand Canyon. Passing for a mile down an open glade with a heavy coating of rank, green grass, and dotted with clumps of pine, we came to a bed of whitish substance extending for a hundred yards on each side of the creek and through which its channel ran. Having no chemical tests we were at a loss to classify this deposit; some thought it volcanic ashes. This formation abounds in the vicinity in deep beds underlying the ridges of the valley and overlaid by masses of lava almost entirely composed of obsidian. A mile below this point small, hot springs of sulphur, sulphate of copper, alum, and mud were found in great numbers; and soon we came to an opening in the woods, at the foot of a bluff, where there appeared [Washburn Hot Springs] a system of boiling-hot springs of muddy water, with clouds of vapor escaping therefrom. The large ones were five in number, of which the first measured 25 by 30 feet, hot, with slight ebullition in the center; water slate color, and not flowing. The second, 4 feet in diameter, boiling violently and flowing; water dark brown, muddy, but without deposit. The third, 20 by 25 feet measurement, brown, muddy water, boiling up 3 feet in the center, with an occasional violent rush of vapor to the height of 100 feet. The spring flows periodically. It lies close under a projecting bank of sulphureted calcareous formation; and in one corner of the spring rises a sort of honeycomb deposit, of beautifully variegated colorings, and composed of sublimated sulphur on a bed of metallic luster resembling silver. This deposit is several feet in height and would weigh many tons. The vapor is forced through the interstices of this honeycomb with a loud, hissing sound. Above this spring, 30 feet on the bank, is a fourth, similar, and measuring 7 by 8 feet; and beyond, another, of black, paint-like consistency, which deposits a crater from the ejected material. Around these larger are dozens of smaller springs, vapor jets, and mud spouts. The ground in the vicinity is in layers, like pie crust, which break through or settle when trodden upon, giving one a sensation of extreme uncertainty, as a rush of hot, sulphur vapor invariably rises from the fracture. It was with extreme difficulty and some little risk that we obtained specimens of the deposits.

— Doane