The Yellowstone National Park Part 28

_Moran, Mt._ (12,800)--W: 5--1872--U. S. G. S.--For the artist, Thomas Moran, who produced the picture of the Grand Canon now in the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton.

_Needles, The_ (9,600)--E: 14--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Norris, Mt._ (9,900)--E: 13--1878--U. S. G. S.--For Philetus W.

Norris, second Superintendent of the Park, and the most conspicuous figure in its history.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHILETUS W. NORRIS.]

He was born at Palmyra, New York, August 17, 1821. At the age of eight, he was tourist guide at Portage Falls on the Genesee River, New York, and at seventeen he was in Manitoba in the service of British fur traders. In 1842, he settled in Williams County, Ohio, where he founded the village of Pioneer. Between 1850 and 1860 he visited the Far West. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the army and served a short time as spy and captain of scouts. He was then placed in charge of Rebel prisoners on Johnson's Island. He next entered politics as member of the Ohio House of Representatives, but being later defeated for the State Senate, he joined the United States Sanitary Commission and went again to the front. He soon returned and became trustee of certain landed property near the City of Detroit belonging to officers and soldiers of both armies. These lands he reclaimed at great expense from their original swampy condition, and built thereon the village of Norris, now part of Detroit. In 1770, he went west again and undertook to enter the Park region in June of that year, but permitted the swollen condition of the streams to defeat his project. He thus missed the honor which a few months later fell to the Washburn Party--a misfortune which he never ceased to deplore. In 1875, he again visited the Park, and in 1877, became its second Superintendent. In 1882, he returned to Detroit, after which he was employed by the government to explore old Indian mounds, forts, villages, and tombs, and to collect relics for the National Museum. He died at Rocky Hill, Kentucky, January 14, 1885. He is author of the following works: Five Annual Reports as Superintendent of the Park; "The Calumet of the Coteau," a volume of verse, with much additional matter relating to the Park; and a long series of articles on "The Great West," published in the _Norris Suburban_ in 1876-8.

The above sketch sufficiently discloses the salient characteristic of Norris' career. His life was that of the pioneer, and was spent in dealing first blows in the subjugation of a primeval wilderness. He was "blazing trails," literally and figuratively, all his days, leaving to others the building of the finished highway. It is therefore not surprising that his work lacks the element of completeness, which comes only from patient attention to details.

Nowhere is this defect more apparent than in his writings. A distinct literary talent, and something of the poet's inspiration, were, to use his own words, "well nigh strangled" by the "stern realities of border life." His prose abounds in aggregations of more than one hundred words between periods, so ill arranged and barbarously punctuated as utterly to bewilder the reader. His verse--we have searched in vain for a single quatrain that would justify reproduction. Nevertheless, his writings, like his works, were always to some good purpose. They contained much useful information, and, being widely read throughout the West, had a large and beneficial influence.

Perhaps no better or more generous estimate of his character can be found than in the following words of Mr. Langford who knew him well: "He was a good man, a true man, faithful to his friends, of very kind heart, grateful for kindnesses, of more than ordinary personal courage, rather vain of his poetical genius, and fond of perpetuating his name in prominent features of scenery."

Concerning which last characteristic it may be noted that three mountain peaks, one geyser basin, one pa.s.s, and an uncertain number of other features of the Park, were thought by Colonel Norris deserving of this distinction. With inimitable fidelity to this trait of his character, he had even selected as his final resting-place the beautiful open glade on the south side of the Grand Canon, just below the Lower Falls.

_Observation Peak_ (9,300)--G: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Obsidian Cliff_ (7,800)--F: 6--1878--Norris--Characteristic.

_Paint Pot Hill_ (7,900)--H: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Pelican Cone_ (9,580)--I: 12--1885--U. S. G. S.--Near source of Pelican Creek.

_Pilot k.n.o.b_ (11,977)--C: 16--See "Index Peak."

_Pinon Peak_ (9,600)--S: 10--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Prospect Peak_ (9,300)--D-E: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Pyramid Peak_ (10,300)--J: 14--1895--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Quadrant Mountain_ (10,200)--D: 4--1878--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Red Mountain Range_--P: 7-8--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Reservation Peak_ (10,600)--M: 14--1895--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Roaring Mountain_ (8,000)--F: 6--1885--U. S. G. S.--"It takes its name from the shrill, penetrating sound of the steam constantly escaping from one or more vents near the summit."--Hague.

_Saddle Mountain_ (11,100)--H: 15--1880--Norris--Characteristic.

_Schurz Mt._ (10,900)--N: 14--1885--U. S. G. S.--For Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior during President Hayes' administration. This name was first given by Colonel Norris to the prominent ridge on the west side of the Gibbon Canon.

_Sepulcher Mountain_ (9,500)--B-C: 5-6--The origin of this name is unknown. The following remarks concerning it are from the pen of Prof.

Wm. H. Holmes:[CH]

"Why this mountain received such a melancholy appellation I have not been able to discover. So far as I know, the most important thing buried beneath its dark ma.s.s is the secret of its structure. It is possible that the form suggested the name."

[CH] Page 15, Twelfth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

_Sheepeater Cliffs_ (7,500)--D: 7--1879--Norris--From the name of a tribe of Indians, the only known aboriginal occupants of what is now the Yellowstone Park. (See Chapter II, Part II.) It was upon one of the "ancient and but recently deserted, secluded, unknown haunts" of these Indians, that Colonel Norris, "in rapt astonishment," stumbled one day, and was so impressed by what he saw, that he gave the neighboring cliff its present name. He thus describes this retreat:[CI]

"It is mainly carpeted with soft gra.s.s, dotted, fringed, and overhung with small pines, firs and cedars, and, with the subdued and mingled murmur of the rapids and cataracts above and below it, and the laughing ripple of the gliding stream, is truly an enchanting dell--a wind and storm sheltered refuge for the feeble remnant of a fading race."

[CI] Page 10, Annual Report Superintendent of the Park for 1879.

_Sheridan Mt._ (10,250)--P: 8--1871--Barlow--For Gen. P. H. Sheridan, who actively forwarded all the early exploring expeditions in this region, and, at a later day, twice visited the Park. His public warnings at this time of the danger to which the Park was exposed from vandals, poachers, and railroad promoters, and his vigorous appeal for its protection, had great influence in bringing about a more efficient and enlightened policy in regard to that reservation. (See "Mt.

Everts.")

_Signal Hills_ (9,500)--M: 12--1871--U. S. G. S.--A ridge extending back from Signal Point on the Yellowstone Lake.

_Silver Tip Peak_ (10,400)--K: 13--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Specimen Ridge_ (8,700)--E: 11--Name known prior to 1870.--Characteristic. (See Chapter V, Part II.)

_Stevenson, Mt._ (10,300)--M: 13--1871--U. S. G. S.--For James Stevenson, long prominently connected with the U. S. Geological Survey.

"In honor of his great services not only during the past season, but for over twelve years of unremitting toil as my a.s.sistant, oftentimes without pecuniary reward, and with but little of the scientific recognition that usually comes to the original explorer, I have desired that one of the princ.i.p.al islands of the lake and one of the n.o.ble peaks reflected in its clear waters should bear his name forever."--Hayden.[CJ]

[CJ] Page 5, Fifth Annual Report of Dr. Hayden.

Mr. Stevenson was born in Maysville, Ky., December 24, 1840. He early displayed a taste for exploration and natural history, and such reading as his limited education permitted was devoted to books treating of these subjects. At the age of thirteen he ran away from home and joined a party of Hudson's Bay Fur Company's traders, bound up the Missouri River. On the same boat was Dr. F. V. Hayden, then on his way to explore the fossiliferous region of the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers. Noticing Stevenson's taste for natural history he invited him to join him in his work. Stevenson accepted; and thus began a relation which lasted for more than a quarter of a century, and which gave direction to the rest of his life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JAMES STEVENSON.]

He was engaged in several explorations between 1850 and 1860, connected with the Pacific railroad surveys, and with others under Lieutenants G. K. Warren and W. F. Raynolds. In 1861 he entered the Union service as a private soldier, and left it in 1865 with an officer's commission. After the war he resumed his connection with Dr.

Hayden. He was mainly instrumental in the organization of the United States Geological Survey of the Territories in 1867, and during the next twelve years he was constantly engaged in promoting its welfare.

When the consolidation of the various geographical and geological surveys took place in 1879, under the name of the United States Geological Survey, he became a.s.sociated with the United States Bureau of Ethnology. He had always shown a taste for ethnological investigations and his scientific work during the rest of his life was in this direction, princ.i.p.ally among the races of New Mexico and Arizona. He died in New York City July 25, 1888.

In the paragraph quoted above from Dr. Hayden there is more than any but the few who are familiar with the early history of the geological surveys will understand. It rarely happens that a master is so far indebted to a servant for his success, as was true of the relation of Dr. Hayden and James Stevenson. Stevenson's great talent lay in the organization and management of men. His administrative ability in the field was invaluable to the Survey of which Hayden was chief, and his extraordinary influence with Congressmen was a vital element in its early growth. His part in the Yellowstone Explorations of 1871 and 1872 is second to none in importance. It will not be forgotten that he was the first to build and launch a boat upon the Yellowstone Lake, nor that he, and Mr. Langford who was with him, were the first white men to reach the summit of the Grand Teton.

_Storm Peak_ (9,500)--E: 8--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Survey Peak_ (9,200)--T: 4--1885--U. S. G. S. This mountain was a prominent signaling point for the Indians. It was first named Monument Peak by Richard Leigh who built a stone mound on its summit.

_Table Mountain_ (10,800)--O: 14--1885--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Terrace Mountain_ (8,100)--C: 6--1878--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.

_Teton, Grand_ (13,691)--Not on Map.--This mountain has borne its present name for upward of four score years. Through more than half a century it was a cynosure to the wandering trapper, miner and explorer. The name has pa.s.sed into all the literature of that period, which will ever remain one of the most fascinating in our western history. Indeed, it has become the cla.s.sic designation of the most interesting historic summit of the Rocky Mountains. That it should always retain this designation in memory of the nameless pioneers who have been guided by it across the wilderness, and thousands of whom have perished beneath its shadow, would seem to be a self-evident proposition. Individual merit, no matter how great, can never justify the usurpation of its place by any personal name whatever. An attempt to do this was made in 1872 by the United States Geological Survey who rechristened it Mt. Hayden. The new name has never gained any local standing, and although it has crept into many maps its continued use ought to be discouraged. It is greatly to the credit of Dr. Hayden that he personally disapproved the change, so far at least, as very rarely, if ever, to refer to the mountain by its new name.

_Three Rivers Peak_ (9,900)--E: 4--1885--U. S. G. S.--Branches of the Madison, Gallatin and Gardiner Rivers take their rise from its slopes.

_Thunderer, The_ (10,400)--D: 14--1885--U. S. G. S.--Seemingly a great focus for thunder storms.

_Top Notch Peak_ (10,000)--L: 13--1895--U. S. G. S.--Characteristic.