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Washburn-Langford-Doane September 1-2, 1870 Campsite

Mud Volcano Area Campsite

Historic Campsite in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Lake Village, WY

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Washburn-Langford-Doane September 3-4, 1870 Campsite

Washburn-Langford-Doane August 30-31 1870 Campsite

Expedition members were up early packing up camp, taking one last look at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and its waterfalls, before the pack train started up the west river bank. Quickly they traveled into the ancient Yellowstone Lake bed known today as Hayden Valley. Observing and pondering the expansive, wide open space and a slow moving serpentine Yellowstone River, they rode into the crater of the sleeping volcano. They had left the high summit of Mount Washburn and the deep rugged Grand Canyon world behind and were deliberately heading directly into what looked like smoke from a wildfire. Their next waypoint was a small cluster of hills, bumped up from the flat land. They had learned in this part of the world, whether mountain, canyon, or broad valley, what looked like smoke was the steamy sulphur smelling stench of a volcanic thermal area with worldly sights to behold. They stopped for 2 days exploring, just like at the Grand Canyon. Crater Hills, a Mud Volcano, Mud Geyser, Dragons Mouth Spring, and excellent fishing, easily provided excitement, nourishment, and rest at their riverside campsite. (Doane 1873, 14-18; Haines 1974, 69-70; Hedges 1876, 381-83)

It was during this time, that Cornelius Hedges was involved in a life-threatening incident while trying to get a up close view of the Mud Volcano from the downwind side. (Langford 1905, Diary 44-45)

Some of these pulsations are much more violent than others, but each one is accompanied by the discharge of an immense volume of steam, which at once shuts off all view of the inside of the crater; but sometimes, during the few seconds intervening between the pulsations, or when a breeze for a moment carries the steam to one side of the crater, we can see to the depth of thirty feet into the volcano, but cannot often discover the boiling mud; though occasionally, when there occurs an unusually violent spasm or concussion, a mass of mud as large in bulk as a hogshead is thrown up as high as our heads, emitting blinding clouds of steam in all directions, and crowding all observers back from the edge of the crater. We were led to believe that this volcano has not been long in existence; but that it burst forth the present summer but a few months ago. The green leaves and the limbs of the surrounding forest trees are covered with fresh clay or mud, as is also the newly grown grass for the distance of 180 feet from the crater. On the top branches of some of the trees near by - trees 150 feet high - we found particles of dried mud that had fallen upon the high branches in their descent just after this first outburst, which must have thrown the contents of the volcano as high as 250 or 300 feet. Mr. Hauser, whose experience as an engineer and with projectile forces entitles his opinion to credit, estimates from the particles of mud upon the high trees, and the distance to which they were thrown, that the mud had been thrown, in this explosion, to the height of between 300 and 400 feet. By actual measurement we found particles of this mud 186 feet from the edge of the crater.

— Langford

We did not dare to stand upon the leeward side of the crater and withstand the force of the steam; and Mr. Hedges, having ventured too near the rim on that side, endangered his life by his temerity, and was thrown violently down the exterior side of the crater by the force of the volume of steam emitted during one of these fearful convulsions. General Washburn and I, who saw him fall, were greatly concerned lest while regaining his feet, being blinded by the steam, and not knowing in which direction to turn, he should fall into the crater.

— Langford

Further Research and Reading

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

Sources

Cramton, Louis C. Early History of Yellowstone National Park and Its Relation to National Park Policies. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1932. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yell/cramton/index.htm.

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.

Everts, Truman C. “Thirty-Seven Days of Peril.” Scribner’s Monthly, November 1871. http://archive.org/details/scribnersmonthly31newy.

Haines, Aubrey L. “Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment,” 1974. http://npshistory.com/handbooks/historical/yell/haines/index.htm.

Hedges, Cornelius. “Journal of Judge Cornelius Hedges.” In Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana, 1904 Edition. Vol. 5. Helena, MT: Independent Publishing Company, 1876. https://www.google.com/books/edition/Contributions_to_the_Historical_Society/yt4UAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1.

Hedges, Cornelius. “Sulphur Mountain and Mud Volcano.” Helena Daily Herald, October 24, 1870, in Cramton, Louis C. Early History of Yellowstone National Park and Its Relation to National Park Policies. Appendix J. https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/yell/cramton/appj.htm.

Langford, N. P. “The Wonders of the Yellowstone.” Scribner’s Monthly, May 1871. http://archive.org/details/scribnersmonthly02newy.

Langford, N. P. “The Wonders of the Yellowstone.” Scribner’s Monthly, June 1871. http://archive.org/details/scribnersmonthly02newy.

Langford, Nathaniel Pitt. Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870. St. Paul, Minn., [c1905]. http://archive.org/details/diaryofwashburne00langrich. However, Langford’s “Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870” or “The Discovery of Yellowstone National Park” material, which was published 35 years after the expedition, and used bearing that in mind.

Trumbull, Walter. “The Washburn Yellowstone Expedition.” The Overland Monthly, 1871. California State Library. http://archive.org/details/overlandmonthly06hart.