Madison River, Wyoming
August 23- Nez Perce enter Yellowstone
On August 14, nine days before the Nez Perce arrived, a party of tourists from Radersburg, Montana, passed here on their way to the Lower Geyser Basin where they set up their main camp while they explored the Park. The party consisted of George Cowan and his wife Emma, her brother Frank D. Carpenter, and her sister Ida Carpenter, as well as several other friends. Their experience of the Park was very different than it is today. Roads had not yet been developed through the new Park and travel was challenging.
“We come to vast quantities of fallen timber and we find our progress impeded to such an extent that we are compelled to call our axes into requisition, and cut our way for more than a mile when we again find open timber.”
– Frank Carpenter (tourist, Radersburg party)
When the Nez Perce entered the Park a full three days ahead of the U.S. Army, they were headed east along the Madison River in the direction of their potential ally, the Crow Tribe. Hotóoto (Lean Elk) and other men in the bands were familiar with the area and took leadership roles while in the Park. Oral histories reveal that once inside the Park, the Nez Perce began to feel the curative and healing powers from the landscape. They slowed their arduous pace to allow their people time to rest, to grieve for those lost, and to find the strength to continue.
