John Colter, Discoverer Of Yellowstone Park

STALLO VINTON

Publication: Edward Eberstadt, 1926, New York

First Edition. Limited to 530 copies. Boards with cloth spine, 113pp. Frontispiece. Map. The earliest and rarest of the few biographies written about John Colter. A classic work about this important Lewis & Clark Expedition member, explorer, and trapper. "A fur trapper by trade, Colter was the 'first to behold the marvels of the Yellowstone and the first to tell them to the world.' Though he originally accompanied Lewis and Clark, Colter moved on to a fur-trading post set up by St. Louis fur trader Manuel Lisa. It was there that Colter came to know Yellowstone. The post was located at Fort Raymond on the Yellowstone, at the mouth of the Big Horn River. This location (in present-day south-central Montana) lay within the traditional territory of the Crow Indians, a fact that probably angered the Crows' traditional enemies, the Blackfoot Indians. From there Colter set out in November 1807… to visit the Crows in their villages along the upper Yellowstone and encourage them to come trade at Lisa's post. During this winter trek, Colter explored much of present-day northwestern Wyoming… The only direct testament to Colter's 1807-1808 route is William Clark's 1810 manuscript map… Clark's cartographic effort… shows a dashed line marked 'Colter's Route,' but much of that route is contradicted by the region's actual geography. Historians agree that during his epic winter journey Colter became the first Euro-American to explore portions of present-day Yellowstone National Park." "Colter was with Lewis & Clark until 1806 and his dramatic escape from the Blackfeet in 1808 was already a legend among the Mountain Men a quarter of a century later."-- Camille E. Cazedessus II. A clean, bright copy; the nicest copy we've had the pleasure to offer. Fine. $550.00.

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