During their explorations, members of the party made detailed maps and observations of the Yellowstone region, exploring numerous lakes, climbing several mountains, and observing wildlife. The expedition visited both the Upper and Lower Geyser Basins, and after observing the regularity of eruptions of one geyser, decided to name it Old Faithful, since it erupted about once every 74 minutes.
One member of the expedition, Montana writer and lawyer Cornelius Hedges, later wrote a number of articles for a Helena, Montana-based newspaper, describing the things the expedition had witnessed. In discussions with other members of the party and in his writing for the newspaper, Hedges was a vocal supporter of setting aside the Yellowstone region as a National Park, an idea originally proposed by former acting Montana Territorial Governor Thomas Francis Meagher.
The Washburn party was clearly inspired by the journals kept by Charles W. Cook and David E. Folsom, as well as their personal accounts. Immediately after the Cook–Folsom–Peterson Expedition, Folsom went to work as a surveyor for Washburn.
Additionally, Langford had personal connections with Jay Cooke of the Northern Pacific Railroad well before their expedition. Cooke was interested in the potential of the Yellowstone region to attract railroad business. After the expedition, Cooke financed Langford's early 1871 speeches in Virginia City, Helena, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. about the 1870 expedition on behalf of the Northern Pacific Railroad.[2][3][4]
On January 19, 1871, one of those speeches in Washington, D.C. was attended by geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who became inspired to conduct his next geological survey in the Yellowstone region. The result was the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871.
September 3, 1870 – After crossing the Yellowstone river, the party proceeded up the valley to Yellowstone Lake, camping just east of the lake's outlet.
September 7, 1870 – By this date, the party had traveled south along the eastern shore of Yellowstone Lakes to its headwaters. During this time, Langford and Doane ascended peaks in the Absaroka Range that were ultimately named for them: Mount Langford and Mount Doane.
September 16, 1870 – After extensive unsuccessful searches for Mr. Everts, the party eventually traveled along the southern reaches of the lake to the West Thumb area.
September 23, 1870 – After the party travels several days down the Madison, Lt Doane and his soldiers left the party on the Madison River near the trail to Virginia City and traveled back to Fort Ellis, arriving on the afternoon of the 24th. Washburn, Langford and the other civilians traveled back to Helena.
October 2, 1870 – Gillette, Private Moore and Williamson arrive at Fort Ellis having been un-successful in their search for Mr. Everts.
October 10, 1870 – Mr. Everts is found alive on the benches above the Gardner river by a three-man search party organized in Helena.
Period accounts by members of the expedition[edit]
Langford, Nathaniel P. (May–June 1871). "The Wonders of the Yellowstone". Scribner's Monthly. II (1–2).
Everts, Truman C. (November 1871). "Thirty-seven Days of Peril". Scribner's Monthly. III (1).
The report of Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane upon the so-called Yellowstone Expedition of 1870, presented to the Secretary of War, February 1871
The Washburn Yellowstone Expedition, accounts of Trumbull published in the Overland Monthly, Vol 6, No 5–6, May–June 1871
Hedges, Cornelius (1904). "Journal of Judge Cornelius Hedges, Member of the "Washburn Expedition of 1870"". Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana. V: 370–394.
^Haines, Aubrey L. (2000). "The Washburn Party (1870)". Yellowstone National Park: Its Exploration and Establishment. U.S. Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on 2012-06-29. Retrieved 2008-12-25.
^Cook, Charles W.; Folsom, Dave E.; Peterson, William (1965). Haines, Aubrey L. (ed.). The Valley of the Upper Yellowstone-An Exploration of the Headwaters of the Yellowstone River in the Year 1869. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
^Merrill, Marlene Deahl, ed. (1999). Yellowstone and the Great West-Journals, Letters and Images from the 1871 Hayden Expedition. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN0-8032-3148-2.
^Schullery, Paul; Whittlesey, Lee (2003). Myth and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 30–32. ISBN0-8032-4305-7.
^Stout, Tom (1921). Montana Its Story and Biography-A History of the Aboriginal and Territorial Montana and Three Decades of Statehood. Vol. II. Chicago: American Historical Society. p. 81.
^ abcdHaines, Aubrey L. (1996). The Yellowstone Story-A History of Our First National Park (Revised ed.). Yellowstone National Park, WY: Yellowstone Library and Museum Association. pp. 108–109. ISBN0-87081-391-9.
^Haines, Aubrey L. (1996). Yellowstone Place Names.
Chittenden, Hiram Martin (1918). The Yellowstone Park-Historical and Descriptive. Cincinnati, Ohio: Stewart and Kidd Company Publishers.
Bonney, Orrin H. (1970). Battle Drums and Geysers-The Life And Journals Of Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, Soldier And Explorer Of The Yellowstone And Snake River Regions. Chicago: Swallow Press.
Cockhill, Brian (1972). "The Quest of Warren Gillette: Based on the Original Diary". Montana The Magazine of Western History. XXII (3). Helena, MT: Montana Historical Society: 12–30.
Schullery, Paul; Whittlesey, Lee H. (2003). Myths and History in the Creation of Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone National Park: The Yellowstone Association. ISBN0-8032-4305-7.
Scott, Kim Allen (2007). Yellowstone Denied-The Life of Gustavus Cheyney Doane. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN978-0-8061-3800-8.
