Lieutenant Gustavus C. Doane's
Report to the Secretary of War Concerning the Washburn Expedition of 1870
brought
to you by
Jim Macdonald
Lt. Doane in 1876.
Lt. Gustavus
C. Doane led the military escort of the famed Washburn Expedition of 1870.
That expedition helped lead to the Hayden Expedition of the following year,
and ultimately to the creation of Yellowstone National Park in 1872.
Doane's report on the expedition is heavy on facts, full of scientific
description, and not light at all in awe of what he was seeing. Although
not nearly as colorful as the famous journal published by Nathaniel Pitt
Langford in 1905 of the expedition, it is more reliable in that it is less
prone to exaggerate and is altogether a more truthful account of what actually
happened. Both accounts are useful in getting a sense of a very exciting
adventure.
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