Picture Courtesy of Jim Kuntz

Picture courtesy of Jim Kuntz

John Colter's three years with the Lewis and Clark Expedition had hardened him for life in the mountains. He had survived cold, hunger, grizzly bears, and Indians. It was the lure of wealth from beaver pelts that kept him in the West from 1806 to 1810. These years were marked by trapping, exploration and both friendly and hostile encounters with Indians.

On one 500 mile solo trek through the mountains he discovered a basin where he observed geysers and hot springs. His later accounts of these features would be ridiculed and called "Colter's Hell". Colter is credited as the first white man to explore the Yellowstone region which in 1872 became America's first national park. By the spring 1810 Colter became disenchanted with the West and returned to civilization.

Traveling in a dugout canoe, it took Colter only thirty days to make the trip down the Missouri River from Montana to St. Louis. He soon settled on land near the mouth of Boeuf Creek three miles east of here. With a wife and a new son, Hiram, John Colter farmed and trapped until his death on May 7th, 1812.

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