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    • How to Score a Deer
    • Cool Story, Bro
    • Chuck Adams: Interview With the World’s Greatest Bowhunter
    • Yes, I Do Teach My Kids to Shoot Guns…Here’s Why
    • Randy Newberg: Here’s How to Hunt Elk Out West On Your Own
    • Wild Game Recipe: Venison Enchilada Meatballs
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    • 10 Best Books on Hunting
    • The Best Rifle Caliber for All Big Game Hunting
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    • Your Guide to a Surviving a Family Fishing Trip 
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  • Legends
    • Marie Dorion: Tough Momma of Willamette Valley
    • The Life of James Beckwourth
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    • Hugh Glass: The Real Revenant Badass
    • The Surly Life of Jeremiah “Livereatin’ ” Johnson
    • John Wesley Powell: Badass Explorer of the Grand Canyon
    • John Colter: First White Dude to See Yellowstone’s Hell on Earth
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    • The Life of James Beckwourth
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    • Cure Cabin Fever with…a Rental Cabin
    • #Buglife
    • Load Up With Royal Tine: Montana’s Hunting Guide School
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    • The Mission Mountain Wilderness Divide
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Home Legends

John Colter: First White Dude to See Yellowstone’s Hell on Earth

by PJ DelHomme
in Legends
John Colter Yellowstone

1774-1813?

John Colter was as mountain man as a man could be. By all accounts, he used up his nine lives a few times over exploring Montana, including being forced to wade into the Missouri to out-maneuver a pursuing grizzly. For $5/month, he enlisted in Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery in his early 30s, proving himself a competent hunter and interpreter. Colter even got out of building Fort Clatsop, being told to hunt elk along the Oregon Coast instead. On his way back east with Lewis and Clark, Colter got permission to leave the expedition and join two trappers in Montana and Wyoming. In 1807, he ventured solo exploring the Grand Tetons during the coldest months of a Rocky Mountain winter. 

Colter helped build a fort at the mouth of the Bighorn River in present-day Montana, and he made the first reports of hell on earth (geysers and fumaroles) around Yellowstone National Park. The tales became known as Colter’s Hell, because at the time, no one believed him. His biggest claim to fame, though, is known as Colter’s Run. 

Colter’s Run

Colter knew the area near the three forks of the Madison, Jefferson and Gallatin Rivers, which form the Missouri River, was prime beaver country. He also knew the Blackfeet Indians would do anything to keep trappers out of the area, but the temptation of a big pay-day was too much to resist for Colter. Inevitably, Colter and his partner, John Potts, were surrounded by several hundred Blackfeet while trapping on the Jefferson.

Potts tried to paddle away and was instantly filled with bullets and arrows. Colter put his paddle down and surrendered. He was then stripped of clothes and shoes and told to run, which he did. Warriors gave chase and he managed to escape by out running all but one (he killed that warrior and stole his blanket). He then jumped into the river and clung to a log jam with only his nose breaching the surface. His pursuers gave up and he walked 200 miles east back to the trading fort he helped build. After moving back east to Missouri and settling down into family life, he died of jaundice around age 40.

Read about mountain man legend Hugh Glass.

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No Result
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  • Home
  • About
  • Hunting
    • How to Score a Deer
    • Cool Story, Bro
    • Chuck Adams: Interview With the World’s Greatest Bowhunter
    • Yes, I Do Teach My Kids to Shoot Guns…Here’s Why
    • Randy Newberg: Here’s How to Hunt Elk Out West On Your Own
    • Wild Game Recipe: Venison Enchilada Meatballs
    • Seven Tips to Keep Your Wild Game Meat Clean in the Field
    • 10 Best Books on Hunting
    • The Best Rifle Caliber for All Big Game Hunting
  • Fishing
    • Your Guide to a Surviving a Family Fishing Trip 
    • How to Fish for Trout in Alpine Lakes
    • The Best Trout (and Moose) Fishing in Saskatchewan
    • Best Fishing Books and Stories Ever
    • Don’t Do This When Fishing with Kids
  • Legends
    • Marie Dorion: Tough Momma of Willamette Valley
    • The Life of James Beckwourth
    • George Drouillard—Lewis and Clark’s Backcountry Renaissance Man
    • Montana Pioneer Woman Stagecoach Mary Fields
    • Hugh Glass: The Real Revenant Badass
    • The Surly Life of Jeremiah “Livereatin’ ” Johnson
    • John Wesley Powell: Badass Explorer of the Grand Canyon
    • John Colter: First White Dude to See Yellowstone’s Hell on Earth
    • Who Was Jim Bridger?
    • The Life of James Beckwourth
  • The Wild Life
    • Off Grid
      • Five Ways to Keep Your Off-grid Cabin Secure
    • Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town
    • Chef Kristy Crabtree on Cooking with Wild Game
    • Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town
    • Cure Cabin Fever with…a Rental Cabin
    • #Buglife
    • Load Up With Royal Tine: Montana’s Hunting Guide School
    • Dog Sledding in Montana
  • Conservation
    • Montana’s Love Affair with Invasive Species
    • The Mission Mountain Wilderness Divide

© 2021 Crazy Canyon Media, LLC