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John Colter Left His Mark on the American West
Friendship with Nathan Boone and Ties to the Nine Young Men From Kentucky
By Helen E. McKinney All photos taken in Yellowstone National Park
He became famous a member of the “Nine Young Men From Kentucky”, a member of Lewis & Clark’s epic journey to explore the western part of the United States from 1804-1806. From his ties to the expedition to his friendship with Daniel Boone’s son Nathan, John Colter left behind a legacy that supersedes the Corps of Discovery.
Colter was born in 1774 in Augusta Co., VA. Sometime around 1780 his family moved near present-day Maysville, Ky. Daniel Boone and his family lived at Maysville (first known as Limestone) after the American Revolution ended. While Boone and his family lived there in 1784, historian John Filson published The Discovery, Settlement And present State of Kentucke, which told of Boone’s adventures and made him somewhat of a celebrity. As he grew older, Colter no doubt heard tales of the famous woodsman living in his area.
Years later in October 1803, Colter approached Captain Meriwether Lewis about joining his expedition when Lewis stopped at Maysville while waiting for the completion of the expedition’s vessels in Pittsburgh and Elizabeth, Pennsylvania. Lewis offered Colter the rank of private and a pay of five dollars a month. Colter’s enlistment in the U.S. Army’s First Regiment was recorded at Louisville on October 15.
During the famous expedition, Colter was known as one of the best hunters in the group. He was often sent out alone to scout the surrounding countryside for game, and trusted with responsibilities that went beyond his hunting and woodsman skills. He was instrumental in helping the expedition find passes through the Rocky Mountains.
In 1806 the Lewis & Clark Expedition returned to Mandan villages in present-day North Dakota. There they met Forest Hancock and Joseph Dickson, two frontiersmen who were headed into the upper Missouri River country to trap for furs. On August 13, 1806, Lewis and Clark permitted Colter to be honorably discharged almost two months early so that he could lead the two trappers back into the region they had explored.
Many bison roam the open fields today, just as they did in Colter's time
Colter is best remembered for explorations he made during the winter of 1807–1808. He became the first known person of European descent to enter the region which later became Yellowstone National Park and to see the Teton Mountain Range. Because he spent months alone in the wilderness, he earned the reputation of being the first known mountain man.
Colter, Hancock, and Dixon left from a fur trapping fort in present-day southern Montana and ventured into the wilderness with 20 beaver traps, a two-year supply of ammunition, and additional small tools such as knives, rope, hatchets, and personal utensils. They headed south toward what is known today as Cody, Wyoming. The exact route of the trapping party is not known, as no map exists.
On the return trip, Colter passed through what became Yellowstone National Park. The path for the middle section of his journey is not clear. One theory indicates he traveled via Togowtee Pass. The other commonly held view traces Colter’s route through Jackson Hole, over Teton Pass, and north along the west side of the Teton Range.
The Grand Teton mountains
Parting ways with Hancock and Dixon, Colter decided to return to civilization and was near the mouth of the Platte River when he encountered one of the founders of the Missouri Fur Trading Company, Manuel Lisa. Lisa was leading a party that included several former members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition towards the Rocky Mountains.
But Colter realized he couldn’t stay away from the wilderness. He helped build Fort Raymond at the confluence of the Yellowstone and Bighorn Rivers. Lisa later sent him to establish trade with the Crow nation, a journey of over 500 miles and full of harrowing adventures.
Yellowstone’s landscape is the result of tectonic activity (volcanoes and earthquakes) combined with the erosional actions of ice and water
While exploring Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, Colter reported visiting at least one geyser basin. Colter probably passed along portions of the shores of Jackson Lake after crossing the Continental Divide near Togwotee Pass or Union Pass in the northern Wind River Range. Colter also explored Jackson Hole below the Teton Range, later crossing Teton Pass into Pierre’s Hole, known today as the Teton Basin in the state of Idaho.
Hot springs and geysers are everywhere
Another beautiful landscape scene in Yellowstone
Heading north and then east, it is believed he encountered Yellowstone Lake, a location in which he may have seen geysers and other geothermal features. Colter then proceeded back to Fort Raymond, arriving in March or April 1808. Colter had made an amazing journey, traveling hundreds of miles in the dead of winter, much of the time unguided. Nighttime temperatures in January are routinely −30°F (−34 C).
When Colter arrived back at Fort Raymond, very few believed his reports of geysers, bubbling mudpots and steaming pools of water. Ridiculed at first, the region was somewhat jokingly referred to as “Colter’s Hell.”
It is commonly believed that Colter’s Hell referred to the region of the Stinking Water, now known as the Shoshone River. The river earned its original name due to the presence of sulphur in the surrounding area. Colter’s detailed exploration of this region is the first by a white man of what later became the state of Wyoming.
One of the many gorgeous mountain scenes with a cold bubbling strea
Yellowstone Falls is located in the north-central part of the park
The most famous geyser of all - Old Faithfull, who spouts about every 90 minutes
Full of geysers, hot springs, and mudpots, approximately 50 percent of the world’s hydrothermal features are in Yellowstone National Park
An elk heard emerging near the Grand Tetons early one morning
Colter settled in Missouri, marrying a woman named Sallie Lucy Dye (or Sallie Loucy). He purchased a farm near Miller’s Landing, Missouri (now New Haven, MO). Around 1810, he visited with his old commander William Clark, and gave him detailed reports of his explorations from which Clark created a map. Despite discrepancies it was the most comprehensive map produced of the region of Colter’s explorations for the next seventy-five years.
Colter felt the call to defend his country and during the War of 1812 he enlisted and fought under Nathan Boone, Daniel Boone’s son. Nathan had been commissioned a captain of the Missouri Mounted Rangers in March 1812. While serving in the United States Army, Nathan spent much of his time on the border and in Indian territory.
While military records show that Private John Colter died on May 7, 1812, other sources state his death as occurring on November 22, 1813. His cause of death is generally referred to as jaundice. He was buried near Miller’s Landing, MO.
Attacks by Native American’s did not cease in the Missouri territory until 1817, three years after the war was over and Colter was already dead. There were many notably individuals of the time - William Clark, Daniel Boone, his sons Nathan and Daniel Morgan, Henry Dodge, Augustus Chouteau, Zachary Taylor, William Ashley, Zebulon Pike, and John Colter - who all played a significant part in the War of 1812 in the western part of the United States.
The Mysterious Colter Stone-Leaving His Mark on the West
So well-known was he, that several locations in northwestern Wyoming have been named in Colter’s honor: Colter Bay on Jackson Lake in Grand Teton National Park and Colter Peak in the Absaroka Mountains in Yellowstone National Park. In Maysville, KY at Limestone Landing, an Historical Marker commemorates Colter as one of the Lewis and Clark Expedition’s “nine young men from Kentucky”.
But it may be the Colter Stone, discovered near Tetonia, Idaho in 1933, that gets most people’s attention. The stone is a piece of rhyolite lava carved in the shape of a human head, engraved on one side with the name “John Colter”, on the other side the year “1808”. If it is authentic, it represents the only solid proof of the route followed by Colter and the tangible mark he left behind.
The stone was found by farmer William Beard and his son while clearing a field in an area which is immediately west of the Teton Range. The stone is 13 inches long, 8 inches wide, 4 inches thick. It has become known as the “Colter Stone” and attributed to John Colter.
The story goes that the stone was purchased from the Beards in 1933 by A.C. Lyon, who presented it to Grand Teton National Park in 1934. Fritiof Fryxell, a noted mountain climber of numerous Teton Range peaks, geologist and Grand Teton National Park naturalist, concluded that the stone had weathering that indicated that the inscriptions were likely made in the year 1808. He also thought the Beards were not familiar with Colter, and therefore did not concoct a story.
It is possible the stone is a hoax, but if not and it is ever proven to be an actual carving made by Colter in the year 1808, it would coincide with the period he is known to have been in the region. It would also prove that he did cross the Teton Range and descend into Idaho, and collaborate with the story he told William Clark many years ago.
