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Signal Point

Hayden Expedition Signal Fire Location

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

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Signal Point on Yellowstone Lake’s eastern shore earned its name because it served as a prominent signaling location.

The earliest attempt to produce a detailed map of the shoreline and bathymetry of Yellowstone Lake was during the 1871 U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) expedition led by Ferdinand V. Hayden. Hayden’s party made a thorough survey of the lake and used a 4.5 foot by 11 foot oak boat with a horse blanket or tent fly sail to map the lake. The expedition team had packed this dissembled boat frame into Yellowstone Lake by mule from Fort Ellis, Bozeman MT. At the lake they reassembled the boat frame and wrapped the hull with an oil coated tarp. They made oars from nearby pine trees and outfitted the two-person crew with them. (Merrill 1999, 22; Whittlesey 2006, 227; Hydrothermal Dynamics)

The boat Annie, with James Stevenson, expedition manager and director (L), and Chester M. Dawes, general assistant (R). Historical photograph by William Henry Jackson (USGS 1871).

Hayden’s land expedition traveled counter-clockwise around the lake. Sometimes, they would split into smaller groups, leaving the main camp to explore more area. The main camp and separated parties would then light signal fires, to signal each other their location. Here, the wagonmaster had moved the main camp and was signaling the new camp location.

Merrill’s use of mineralogist Albert C. Peale’s expedition journal documents the communication practice and the probable naming of Signal Point and nearby Signal Hills:

When we got to the [lake] point Steve [D. Hovey, wagonmaster had] visited yesterday, we found [Henry] Elliott [,artist] and Cam [E. Campbell Carrington, zoologist] with the boat [Annie].

— Peale on August 14, 1871

The Lake was very rough. The waves coming in were equal to waves on the sea coast. Elliott says they were able to take but three soundings [depth measurements], it being rough all the time. (Following sentence inserted by Merrill from a Peale letter:The wind once was so strong that the mast was broken off and [was] carried away.) The boat rode splendidly. They [Elliott and Carrington] saw the [signal] fire we [ Peale and Hovey] built on the hill.

— Albert Peale on August 14, 1871

Henry Elliott 1871 Yellowstone Lake Map.

Hayden Expedition 1871 Yellowstone Lake Map

Unfortunately, Hayden’s topographer, Anton Schonborn, apparently took his own life shortly after the expedition left Yellowstone. He died by “cutting his throat”, while he had a train ticket from Omaha to Washington in his pocket. He was supposed to draw the maps in the capital city for Hayden’s final report. In his place, Edwin Hergesheimer compiled an 1871 Yellowstone Lake area map from expedition field notes of artist Henry Elliott and deceased chief topographer Anton Schonborn. Hayden never published a Fifth Annual “Final” Report. (Merrill 1999, 220)

Sources

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.” Report. Annual Report. Washington D.C., 1872. USGS Publications Warehouse. https://doi.org/10.3133/70038938.

Hergesheimer, Edwin, Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming Territory (1872) Map. Montana History Portal, accessed 29/11/2023, https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/45458

Hydrothermal Dynamics of Yellowstone Lake. “History of Mapping Yellowstone Lake.” Accessed December 13, 2023. https://hdylake.org/about/history-of-mapping-yellowstone-lake/.

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

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