Discovering Yellowstone: John Colter (1807) and the 1870 Expedition

John Colter, a member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, was the first known Euro‑American to enter the Yellowstone region in 1807. His tales of geysers and boiling springs were dismissed as “Colter’s Hell.”

In 1870, the Washburn‑Langford‑Doane Expedition confirmed his accounts, leading to Yellowstone’s designation as the world’s first national park on March 1, 1872, by President Ulysses S. Grant.