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Stevenson Island

Long, Narrow Island on Yellowstone Lake

Island on Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone NP, Rocky Mountains near Lake Village, WY

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Geographic Name Origin

Hayden Survey members, James “Jim” Stevenson and Thomas Elliott sailed the small boat Annie to Stevenson Island on Saturday, July 29, 1871, where Elliott named the island after Stevenson. Ferdinand Hayden heartily agreed and gave the name of his loyal friend and assistant “Stevenson” to the island in Yellowstone Lake and a nearby mountain. (Hayden, 1872, 5; Merrill 1999, 141-42, 264-65 note 160, Whittlesey 2006, 240)

My principal assistant, Mr. James Stevenson, labored; with his usual efficiency and fidelity throughout the entire trip. In honor of his great services not only during the past season, but for over twelve years of unremitting toil as my assistant, oftentimes without pecuniary reward, and with little of the scientific recognition that usually comes to the original explorer, I have desired that one of the principal islands of the lake and one of the noble peaks reflected in its clear waters should bear his name forever.

— Hayden

Stevenson and Hayden USGS Survey Camaraderie

In 1853, James “Jim” Stevenson, age 13, met Dr. Ferdinand Hayden in the White River Badlands near Fort Pierre, Dakota Territory. It was a turning point for both men. Hayden, just out of medical school, turned his attention to geology. Stevenson would become a self taught ethnologist, anthropologist, geologist, a naturalist, and a lifelong friend of Hayden. (Whittlesey 2006, 181-82)

Stevenson gained another skill set that proved invaluable to Hayden. He accompanied Lt. G.K. Warren’s survey to the Black Hills of Dakota and the Yellowstone River in 1856, where a 16-year-old Stevenson met guide Jim Bridger now in his 50s. Bridger undoubtedly served as a role model, influencing Stevenson with mountain stories and invaluable skills in guiding, organizing, and directing expeditions. Jim Stevenson would meet both Bridger and Hayden again during Capt. William F. Raynolds survey of 1859-60 that covered northern Wyoming and southern Montana. This survey included the Tetons, but winter snows denied the expedition access to Yellowstone. (Haines 1974, 143-44, 178-49; Nottage 2003)

During the Civil War (1861-65) both Hayden and Stevenson served with the Union. Hayden was a surgeon, and Stevenson a private who rose to lieutenant. After the war, the two men rekindled their scientific adventures and friendship in the west. “In 1866, James Stevenson accompanied Hayden into the badlands of the Dakota Territory in a search for fossils, and from that time on he was the assistant of the great geologist in every venture until the Hayden Survey was merged with those of King and Powell to form the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879.” (Haines 1974, 143-44, 178-49)

Stevenson Island and Bears

Early Montana newspaper men Harry J. Norton, James “Jas.” H. Mills and five other men rode through Yellowstone in the fall of 1872 ( Breitenstein 1915, Norton 1873, 4). Norton, in his self-published travel book promoting Yellowstone tourism, paraphrased and quoted Stevenson about the island named after him (36-38):

Norton described Stevenson and Elliott’s boat trip to the island on July 29th:

Early on the morning of the _____, Messrs. Stevenson and Elliott embarked in the little boat and started for the island, which was judged to be about four miles distant. It was not their expectation to find the island inhabited, except by animals that could fly ; but after about one-and-a-half hours rowing they reached the shore of the island, and to their utter astonishment the first thing that met their eyes was the track of a bear, the dimensions of which indicated one of the largest of his kind. On alighting from the boat and looking around, numerous tracks were observed of the same animal ; also those of the wolf, elk, deer, rabbits, and evidences of a variety of smaller quadrupeds, such as mice, moles, etc.

— Norton 1873, p.37

The National Park Service moved in June 2005, a grizzly bear yearling from Stevenson Island to the south arm of Yellowstone Lake. Grizzly bears reached Stevenson Island either by swimming or traveling over thick lake ice. Although the idea of bear, wolves, elk and deer swimming 2 miles in frigid water to and from Stevenson Island seems preposterous. Information listed below in Further Research and Reading makes the amazing swimming feat of these animals a credible possibility. Perhaps the animal tracks Stevenson and Elliott noted in 1871 are historical evidence of what biologists are rediscovering and documenting today.

Stevenson Island and Native Americans

Norton then quoted Stevenson about finding a Native American spear point on the island:

Indeed, the natural history of this island is quite equal to any of that portion of the Rocky mountains. It was our intention to explore this body of land thoroughly, but the great number of dangerous animals that appeared to infest it, and the difficulty of penetrating the dense jungle which overspread it, deterred us from making the attempt. Large pines of every species known to that region of the mountains, were abundant, and the undergrowth of every variety was almost impenetrable. We again embarked in our little canvas craft to sail around the island, which we found to be about four miles in circumference. Portions of its shores were well adapted for wild fowls, such as geese, ducks, and waders of all kinds, all of which were abundant. Before leaving the island, we landed again on the western shore, to make some examinations and to ascertain if any evidences of white men could be found. In wandering about we found a spear-head of white flint, made no doubt by some of the Indians still wandering about in this region, the only thing we found during our visit, to indicate that human beings had been there before.

— Stevenson quoted in Norton p. 37-38

Native Americans reached this narrow, one mile long forested island long before Stevenson and Elliott. All Lake Yellowstone islands have Native American archeology sites, with archaeologists debating how these hunters reached the islands. Transportation and subsistence models vary from walking over the lake’s thick winter ice hunting for hibernating bears in their den, to using watercraft to gather blue camas bulbs and other plants from islands in the spring. (MacDonald 2018, 116-18; Whittlesey 2008, 24)

Stevenson’s 1871 discovered “spear-head of white flint” on the island, supports Native American island bear hunting practices and MacDonald’s research:

In support of this supposition, Yellowstone National Park’s bear management officer told me that he has observed bears on three islands and recorded one (Stevenson Island) with a bear hibernation den. The hunting of hibernating bears on the islands certainly would have encouraged native hunters to walk across early spring ice, especially if the hunter had pre-scouted the presence of a den. This supposition could easily explain the presence of archaeological sites on the lake’s islands and would not require construction of boats to make the trip.

— MacDonald 2018, p. 118

Steamboat EC Waters Shipwreck

The remains of steamer EC Waters are on the eastern shoreline of Stevenson Island. Eli Collins Waters, the owner, named the vessel after himself. Waters assembled his ship at Yellowstone Lake in 1905, where he planned to ferry tourists between the Lake Hotel and West Thumb with a stop at his commercial wildlife zoo at Dot Island. However, federal officials never licensed the new vessel and Waters’ original vessel, the Zillah they deemed unsafe in 1907.That same year, they barred Eli Waters from entering the park.

The large steamboat EC Waters remained moored off Stevenson Island until 1921, when a storm drove the vessel ashore. Eventually, they removed the steam boilers and repurposed them to heat the Lake Hotel for almost 50 years. In 1930, officials purposely burned the wooden ship, where the charred and rusted remnants remain. (Root 2023; USGS 2018; Whittlesey 2008, 24-27)

Photographs

Stevenson Island photographs below:

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. Camp scene. James Stromson(Stevenson?) U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories (Hayden Survey).

Grizzly bear yearling moved June 2005 from Stevenson Island to the South Arm of Yellowstone Lake.

Moose in water off of Stevenson Island, 1974.

Steamboats Zillah in the foreground along with EC Waters docked on Yellowstone Lake.

E.C. Waters shipwreck on Stevenson Island.

Sources

Breitenstein, William Goodheart. “History of Early Journalism in Montana 1863-1890.” University of Montana, 1915. Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5033?utm_source=scholarworks.umt.edu%2Fetd%2F5033&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages.

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

Hayden, Ferdinand Vandeveer. “Fifth Annual Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and Portions of Adjacent Territories: Being a Fifth Annual Report of Progress.” 1871 Survey Report. Annual Report. Washington D.C., 1872. USGS Publications Warehouse. https://doi.org/10.3133/70038938.

MacDonald, Douglas H. Before Yellowstone: Native American Archaeology in the National Park. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2018.

Merrill, Marlne Deahl, ed. Yellowstone and the Great West: Journals, Letters, and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Norton, Harry J. Wonder-Land Illustrated, or, Horseback Rides through the Yellowstone National Park. Virginia City, Montana: H. J. Norton, 1873. http://archive.org/details/wonderlandillust00nort.

Nottage, James H. “Rivers, Mountains and Plains: The Raynolds Expedition of 1859-1860.” WyoHistory.org, May 31, 2023. https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/rivers-mountains-and-plains-raynolds-expedition-1859-1860.

Root, Chris. “A Steamboat in Yellowstone: The E.C. Waters Story.” Denver Public Library, April 11, 2023. https://history.denverlibrary.org/news/western-history/steamboat-yellowstone-ec-waters-story.

USGS. “The Misadventures of E.C. Waters – the Man and the Boat!,” November 12, 2018. https://www.usgs.gov/observatories/yvo/news/misadventures-ec-waters-man-and-boat.

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

Whittlesey, Lee H. “Byways, Boats and Buildings: Yellowstone Lake in History, Part 3.” Points West, Buffalo Bill Center of the West, 2008. https://centerofthewest.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Points-West_2008.06.pdf.

Further Research and Reading

Payton, Brian. “Where Now Grizzly Bear?” Hakai Magazine, January 26, 2021. https://hakaimagazine.com/features/where-now-grizzly-bear/.

Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. “Are Elk Good Swimmers?,” March 30, 2018. https://rockymountainelkfoundation.org/elk-network/are-elk-good-swimmers/.

Ross, Matt. “How Far Can a Deer Swim?” National Deer Association, May 17, 2023. https://deerassociation.com/how-far-can-a-deer-swim/.

Tong, Ziya. “The Amazing Sea Wolves of the Great Bear Rainforest.” Canadian Geographic, February 6, 2023. https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/the-amazing-sea-wolves-of-the-great-bear-rainforest/.

On the Web

On Wikipedia

Stevenson Island is a small, uninhabited island in Yellowstone Lake, Teton County, Wyoming. It was originally called Stevenson's Island after Colonel James D. Stevenson, and is now sometimes called Stevensons Island. The island is long and narrow, lying in a generally north-south orientation. At the widest, it is about 250 metres (820 ft), and the length is about 1,800 metres (1.1 mi) long. It is about 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) from the west shore of Yellowstone Lake, where Weasel Creek enters the lake.

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Yellowstone Lake

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