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Washburn-Langford-Doane Route

Historic Route in Yellowstone NP, Gallatin NF, Rocky Mountains in Virginia City in MT, WY

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Length

281mi

August 22, 1870, the government’s first expedition into Yellowstone departed Fort Ellis near today’s Bozeman, MT. Henry D. Washburn the Surveyor General of the Montana Territory led the expedition, which included expedition promoter Nathaniel P. Langford, with Lt. Gustavus C. Doane providing the military escort.

Additional members of the Washburn Langford Doane Expedition were (Crampton; Haines; Wagenen):

Samuel T. Hauser, civil engineer, president of the First National Bank of Helena, and expedition promoter.

Cornelius Hedges, a prominent Helena lawyer, who arrived in the territory in 1864 following Jim Bridger’s wagon train along the Bridger Trail.

Truman C. Everts, first federal tax assessor for the Montana Territory.

Warren C. Gillette, pioneer merchant and freighter supporting Montana gold mining boom towns.

Benjamin Stickney, another pioneer freighter supporting Montana boom towns.

Walter Trumbull, son of Senator Lyman Trumbull, employed by Truman C. Everts as an assistant tax assessor.

Jacob W. Smith, previously a risk it all, made it, lost it, Nevada stockbroker; who most recently failed as hide tanning merchant in Helena.

Sergeant William Baker, an Irish immigrant and Civil War veteran.

Private John Williamson enlisted a year earlier.

Private George W. McConnell.

Private William Leitner, a German immigrant and Civil War veteran.

Private Charles Moore, a Canadian immigrant, enlisted 2 years prior.
Charles Reynolds, packer.
Elwyn Bean, packer.
Newton Nicholas, cook.
John Butler, cook.
Booby, Newton Nicholas’s dog.

The expedition ascended the Yellowstone River from Montana, bushwhacked clockwise around Yellowstone Lake where Truman Everts became lost for 37 days, journeyed to Old Faithful from West Thumb, and then left Yellowstone by descending the Firehole and Madison Rivers.

Langford, Washburn, and Hedges reported their experiences in Montana newspapers, while Lt. Doane presented his daily experiences in his government report. Historic campsites along the Washburn-Langford-Doane Route showcase these experiences. (Crampton; Doane; Haines) Natural Atlas has divided the newspaper accounts, which were written by them or the interviewing journalist, into daily campsite segments. The accounts begin with the expedition’s initial campsite after leaving Fort Ellis:

August 22, 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Campsite

Artistic Representations

Lower Falls of the Yellowstone; Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition; Above sketch by Pvt. Moore; 1870

Further Research and Reading

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.

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, 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.

Wagenen, Michael Scott Van. “Remembering Yellowstone National Park’s First African American Explorers.” Montana the Magazine of Western History, Summer 2020. https://mths.mt.gov/pubs/MMWHSum2020_VanWagenen.pdf.

White, Thomas Edward. Cornelius Hedges Story. Edited by Reid L. Gardiner. Grand Lodge of Montana, 2015. https://www.grandlodgemontana.org/mmn/Cornelius%20Hedges%20Story/mobile/index.html#p=1.