John Colter: His Years in the Rockies

By Burton Harris

Book Overview

John Colter was a crack hunter with the Lewis and Clark expedition before striking out on his own as a mountain man and fur trader. A solitary journey in the winter of 1807-8 took him into present-day Wyoming. To unbelieving trappers he later reported sights that inspired the name of Colter's Hell. It was a sulfurous place of hidden fires, smoking pits, and shooting water. And it was real. John Colter is known to history as probably the first white man to discover the region that now includes Yellowstone National Park. In a classic book, first published in 1952, Burton Harris weighs the facts and legends about a man who was dogged by misfortune and "robbed of the just rewards he had earned."

This Bison Book edition includes a 1977 addendum by the author and a new introduction by David Lavender, who considers Colter's remarkable winter journey in the light of current scholarship.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803272642
• ISBN13: 9780803272644
• Release Date: March 1993
• Publisher: Bison Books
• Length: 184 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Very interesting book

John Colter discovered Yellowstone and explored it extensively. He also was attacked by a grizzly bear and left for dead by his companions. This book does a good job of covering his amazing life. I've read parts of the book 2 and 3 times because it's so interesting.

The Obscure John Colter

John Colter was a member of the Louis and Clark expedition who ventured off with fur trappers. One winter he allegedly traipsed around Montana and Wyoming and discovered Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. Little is known of Colter. He left no journals so most of what is known of him is second hand at best and thus whether he actually found what he's credited with discovering is questionable. Harris clearly believes he did discover Yellowstone although some of his evidence is very questionable. This book is an entertaining and fast read. Read it with a grain of salt as little is know about the Colter. Make sure to read the introduction as it corrects some important errors in Harris's book. I disagree with the reviewer who says this book is a waste of time. It isn't. This is an ambitious work about an important explorer about whom next to nothing is known. There are no historic documents to source other than the ones Harris used. By default half of what he says has to be speculation.

Absorbing...

Yellowstone...Colter's Hell...geysers...Indians.... I found this book a total pleasure to read. Couldn't put it down! Although it is true that Colter's life was somewhat obscure by a lack of more historical documentation, Harris does an exemplary piece of work with what there is to work with. Citing such references as William Clark, Thomas James, Brackenridge, Bradbury and others, Harris does make a justifiable attempt to back up his story. Required reading for those into this time period of the early American West when mountain men roamed the wide open spaces, high mountain valleys and peaks. It must have been a tough, but very rewarding way of life...if you survived the perils and hardships of that day.