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Show 1 SCENIC I PLAYGROUNDS j OF AMERICA Hi By G. M. KILBOLRN I j Fate of Near-Sighted Explorer ONE of the strangest chapters in the history of tlie Yellowstone I park country is the story of a nearsighted near-sighted man, a civilian entirely unaccustomed unac-customed to the ways of the wilderness, wilder-ness, who was lost in the present park region for thirty-seven days with neither weapons, food, nor blankets, and who even lost the help of his spectacles in the midst of that emergency. emer-gency. And scarcely less surprising than this wanderer's adventures is the perplexed fate of the places that were, or sometimes weren't, named after him, Every visitor to Mammoth Hot Springs, where the present park headquarters head-quarters are located and where Gardiner Gar-diner gateway arrivals begin their circle cir-cle tours, has seen across the Gardiner river a high plateau called ML Everts. This "mountain," and also a "Rescue creek" nearby, commemorate the rescue res-cue of Truman G. Everts, fifty-four years old and a member of the Washburn Wash-burn party of exploration in 1S70 who, as later Information showed, had really been found more than ten miles farther east, at a point nearer Tower falls than Mammoth, and a few miles north or northwest of the petrified tree which most tourists today visit by auto. His came continued to grace the wrong mountain, however; and In the southern half of the pnrk the much nobler peak which had originally original-ly been given his name (the very night before he was lost from the party!) by virtue of his having climbed to its 10,-250-foot summit, was never able to claim that name through having been additionally, and permanently, christened christ-ened ML Sheridan (for Gen. Phil Sheridan, who was also a friend of the park). Rumors of boiling springs along the upper Yellowstone had been current for three-quarters of a century when a party of nineteen, headed by Gen. Henry D. Washburn, surveyor-general of Montana, set out in 1S70 to Investigate; Inves-tigate; "a confirmed set of skeptics" they were, they confessed later. One of the number was Mr. Everts, a former for-mer United States assessor for Montana. Mon-tana. Their route led straight up the Y'ellowstone river (thus missing Mammoth Mam-moth Hot Springs) and over the commanding com-manding summit since named ML Washburn, from which they first saw Yellowstone lake and discovered the winding rim of the great yellow chasm which gave stream and park their names. (Auto travelers from Canyon to Mammoth may now ride over ML Washburn, and bus patrons may get this superlative added thrill for only $2 extra). The party continued southward, going go-ing to the east of Yellowstone lake and circling the southern shore. It lllillllilil fS ;iss;?.!'i S J:si j.iv'i: j: ' :l";;:f Wi s A3 it: 5 : WKs is; : ; ii&ixi:; mm4:mmmmM m IhIIIIIB m ;5p; .: .via.- . . : : I : i, A mK .H S .C! Mount Everts. was there that Mr. Everts became separated sep-arated from the party on September 9, "150 miles from home, without a blanket or a fire, In so high an altitude alti-tude that there were frosts every night." The next morning his horse got away from him, and soon the loss of his glasses left this extremely nearsighted near-sighted man as helplessly hobbled In vision as in travel, unable to see even their signal fires at night. After two days of hunger, he learned to live on the radish-like roots of a thistle, which he was able to cook in the boiling springs. Around him was game In plenty, but he had no way to capture it except wdieu a blinding snowstorm swept one little numb bird Into his hands, or the waves washed up a gull's wing that the famished man was able to turn into soup. Succeeding in making mak-ing a fire with the lens of a small field glass, he attempted to carry a burning brand thereafter; but one night his fire ignited the woods above him, and added the perils of a forest fire to the terrible call of the coyote or the I sneaking threat of a mountain lion that followed him for days. Then a high plateau brought frigid winds and grew no thistles. He was starving, starv-ing, and wrecked with mental hallucinations hallu-cinations as well as fatigue, when two scouts of a rescue party found him, fallen and the lion near! But he lived to be eighty-five! ((c). 1930. Western N'ewsoaper Union.) |