looking to this
end was in 1867 and the next in 1868; but these efforts ended in nothing
more than a general discussion of the subject of an exploration, the
most potent factor in the abandonment of the enterprise being the
threatened outbreaks of the Indians in Gallatin valley.

The following year (1869) the project was again revived, and plans
formed for an expedition; but again the hostility of the Indians
prevented the accomplishment of our purpose of exploration. Hon. David
E. Folsom was enrolled as one of the members of this expedition, and
when it was found that no large party could be organized, Mr. Folsom and
his partner, C.W. Cook, and Mr. Peterson (a helper on the Folsom ranch),
in the face of the threatened dangers from Indians, visited the Grand
Canon, the falls of the Yellowstone and Yellowstone lake, and then
turned in a northwesterly direction, emerging into the Lower Geyser
basin, where they found a geyser in action, the water of which, says Mr.
Folsom in his record of the expedition, "came rushing up and shot into
the air at least eighty feet, causing us to stampede for higher ground."

Mr. Folsom, in speaking of the various efforts made to organize an
expedition for exploration of the Yellowstone says:

In 1867, an exploring expedition from Virginia City,
Montana Territory, was talked of, but for some unknown
reason, probably for the want of a sufficient number to
engage in it, it was abandoned. The next year another was
planned, which ended like the first--in talk. Early in the
summer of 1869 the newspapers throughout the Territory
announced that a party of citizens from Helena, Virginia
City and Bozeman, accompanied by some of the officers
stationed at Fort Ellis, with an escort of soldiers, would
leave Bozeman about the fifth of September for the Yellowstone
country, with the intention of making a thorough
examination of all the wonders with which the region was
said to abound. The party was expected to be limited in
numbers and to be composed of some of the most prominent
men in the Territory, and the writer felt extremely flattered
when his earnest request to have his name added to
the list was granted. He joined with two personal friends
in getting an outfit, and then waited patiently for the other
members of the party to perfect their arrangements. About
a month before the day fixed for starting, some of the
members began to discover that pressing