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Washburn-Langford-Doane September 6, 1870 Campsite

Beaverdam Creek Campsite

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

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place:2327685

The second day of bushwhacking a trail around Yellowstone Lake proved considerably more difficult than the first day. Fallen timber, mud, and soft geothermal ground slowed the horses and frustrated the men. Cornelius Hedges, not a horseman and usually last in the pack train, got a rare chance to lead the expedition. Unfortunately, the marshy, flooded lowlands near Beaverdam Creek, stopped the expedition in its tracks and forced them to seek higher ground and settle for a dismal campsite. Hedges noted he tried to sleep between two logs during that chilly night. Lt. Doane had recovered enough from his hand surgery to explore and name Brimstone Basin and write in his field notes the lake area was full of tracks from elk, bighorn sheep, bear, beaver, and even a mountain lion.

From this valley our route was greatly obstructed by fallen timber, obliging us to follow the lake shore whenever practicable, and this was often miry, being a bed of soft clay, covered with coarse lava pebbles, growing larger in sizes as we advanced. In the afternoon we reached the lower end of the lake, at its southeast angle. Here a large stream comes in through a swampy valley grown up with willows, and about 4 miles in width. The whole valley is filled with pools of water, a resort for great numbers of waterfowl, but the soil bears up the weight of a horse, though muddy on its surface. The ground was trodden by thousands of elk and sheep. Bear tracks and beaver trails were also numerous, and occasionally was seen the footstep of a California [mountain] lion. The lake shore was barricaded with stranded pine trees, in huge rafts of driftwood. We endeavored to cross the valley on the beach, but after struggling through the tangled willows for two hours, found the creek channel to be a wide and deep slough, impassable for man or beast. Retracing our steps, we rode along the mountain side up the valley a couple of miles, and camped on its border, at the confluence of a small stream [Beaverdam Creek] (Haines 1974, 71 note 128). Distance, 10 miles. During the night we were several times disturbed by the dismal screaming. of California lions, and in the morning found their huge tracks close around the camp.

— Doane 1873

Illustrations and Maps

Shown above. “Jake Smith was on guard three nights ago [Sept. 6, 1870], and he was so indifferent to the question of safety from attack that he enjoyed a comfortable nap while doing guard duty, and I have asked our artist. Private Moore, to make for me a sketch (Langford).” Image from page 141 of “Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the year 1870” (1905)

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.

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.

Taxonomy

Classified As

Historic Campsite