Foreword (not included) Introduction Journal Appendix Index (not included)  ...

When the rumored discovery in the year 1861 of extensive gold placers on Salmon river was confirmed, the intelligence spread through the states like wild fire. Hundreds of men with dependent families, who had been thrown out of employment by the depressed industrial condition of the country and by the Civil War, and still others actuated by a thirst for gain, utilized their available resources in providing means for an immediate migration to the land of promise. Before midsummer they had started

Wednesday, August 17, 1870 .—In accordance with the arrangements made last night, the different members of our party met at the agreed rendezvous—the office of General Washburn—at 9 o'clock a.m., to complete our arrangements for the journey and get under way. Our party consisted of Gen. Henry D. Washburn, Cornelius Hedges, Samuel T. Hauser, Warren C. Gillette, Benjamin Stickney, Truman C. Everts, Walter Trumbull, Jacob Smith and Nathaniel P. Langford. General Washburn has been chosen the leader

It is much to be regretted that our expedition was not accompanied by an expert photographer; but at the time of our departure from Helena, no one skilled in the art could be found with whom the hazards of the journey did not outweigh any seeming advantage or compensation which the undertaking promised. The accompanying sketches of the two falls of the Yellowstone, and of the cones of the Grand and Castle geysers, were made by Walter Trumbull and Private Moore. They are the very first ever made