at present. The town is rapidly improving and the remaining lots will steadily increase in value.

The number of guests and patients is constantly increasing from year to year, as the marvelous effect of these waters becomes known throughout the country. The bath-houses on the reservation are elegant structures; handsomely and conveniently furnished, affording every possible facility to the bathers. The hotels and boarding-houses are increasing, and are ample to meet the wants of the guests, and at prices within the means of all classes. The wisdom of the government in retaining the control of this reservation and these wonderful waters, is manifested daily. Its policy not only affords elegant and delightful facilities for bathing to the wealthy and well-to-do people, but it furnishes to the afflicted poor, who come here from all parts of the country, the benefit of these waters without money and without price.

Very respectfully,

Hon. H. M. TELLER,

Secretary of the Interior.

B. F. KELLEY,

Superintendent.

REPORT

OF THE

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK.

HEADQUARTERS YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK,

Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyo., December 1, 1882. SIR: I have the honor to submit the following as my annual report: I arrived in the Park on the 22d day of May, coming in by the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha to Ogden, thence by the Utah Northern Railroad to Dillon, thence by stage to Virginia City, Mont. From there I was obliged to take private conveyance up the valley of the Madison River to its head in the great Fire-Hole Basin, a distance from Virginia City of 115 miles. After remaining there at the Marshall House two days, Mr. Marshall, with Mr. George Graham (a blacksmith, whom I had hired at Virginia City for the season), my son, and myself, set out on horseback for the Mammoth Hot Springs, the official headquarters of the Park, a distance of 50 miles over the mountains. It was a severe and perilous journey, on account of the snow and the swollen rivers and mountain streams that lay across our way. However, thanks to the experience and indomitable courage of my guides and the endurance of our faithful horses, we all reached headquarters in safety the second. day out, a little before midnight.

On reaching the house all was dark and silent, but we soon made ourselves heard. A light gleamed through the windows, the door was thrown open, and we were invited in by Mr. Stephens, the superintendent in charge, with a generous cordiality seldom found elsewhere than in these mountains.

After spending a day or two at headquarters, and advising with Mr. Stephens, I started with two teams for Bozeman, Mont., our nearest market town (from this point 80 miles distant), to purchase us supplies and tools, hire a crew of men, and prepare for the season's campaign. The road was in a horrible condition, consequently we could haul but light loads, yet we succeeded in landing sufficient supplies to last until better roads.

We also hired a small crew of men which we set at work on the 5th of June, at the north side of the Park, near the Yellowstone River, at the foot of McCartney's hill. We also employed a carpenter and a mason, and set about repairing the headquarter's house, which we found to be in a sadly dilapidated condition. and hardly habitable for a white man. Our mason first burned a small limekiln, and then pointed the house from the ground to the roof, inside and out, and whitewashed the wall through all of the inside until it was white as snow, thereby destroying the vermin that infested the premises in such vast numbers that no person with a cuticle less sensitive than that of a rhinoceros could live in them through the summer months. Meantime our carpenter was at work repairing the doors, windows, roof, and other parts of

the building, putting up ceiling overhead with cotton cloth, for want of lumber; making domestic furniture, such as tables, bedsteads, and settees; the latter we covered with calico, making a convenient seat for the numerous callers that have visited us the past summer. So we can now say that the government buildings here are in a state of preservation, and comfortable, if not elegant.

Simultaneously with commencing work on this side of the Park, I had taken steps to organize and equip another party to begin work at Riverside, on the Madison River, near the west line of the Park, and near the point where the travel from Virginia City and a place on the Utah Northern Railroad called Beaver Cañon unite, and proceed together to the central attraction, the Fire-Hole Basin and the great geysers. Here I found it necessary to do some heavy grading. Heretofore the travel had been forced principally to reach the Fire-Hole Basin by following the river through a difficult and rough cañon, involving the fording of the stream five times in the short distance of about 10 miles. The Madison River at this point is a broad and rapid stream, and except in time of low water these crossings are both difficult and dangerous. A good road, however, can be made through this cañon when the government will supply the money. I estimate that it will cost not less than $15,000 to bridge and grade about 20 miles of this route. Under these circumstances there seemed to me nothing left us but to try and scale the mighty mountains and hills that lie along the Madison, and between us and our objective point.

The Fire-Hole Basin work was begun here on the 8th of June, and after six weeks of hard digging, plowing, and scraping, the summit was attained, leaving behind us a road and grade up which our four-mule team has hauled repeatedly a load of freight weighing over 2,500 pounds. This party, headed by Mr. George Graham and my son, C. M. Conger (when not engaged in doing blacksmith work or hunting), proceeded on the road towards the Fire-Hole, removing the stumps and rocks from the path, putting in culverts and cross-ways or bridges over mirey ground and deep gulleys, until they reached the big hills on the verge of the basin, where another long and heavy grade had to be made to let us down to a level with the Fire-Hole River at Marshall Hotel.

In the meantime the party commencing work at McCartney's hill had been recruited to about a dozen men, and placed under the command of Capt. E. S. Topping. They worked up from McCartifey's, making an excellent road, considering the high and rough character of the ground over which the road lies. Thence they pushed on over the immense mountains which surround the valley of the Gardiner River at this place, doing all that could be done to render passable the road out over this range, until a level plateau is reached, over which our way passes for a distance of about 8 miles, bringing us to the main branch of the Gardiner River, and about 12 miles from headquarters. Here we found it necessary to construct a bridge, as the river is deep and rapid, and an attempt to ford it, except at low water, is attended with great diffi culty and danger. Indeed, a party of tourists went into camp for a week here, waiting for a decline of the water before venturing to cross. My assistant, Mr. G. L. Henderson, went with me out to the river, and, after a careful examination of the same for a mile or two, up and down, we agreed upon the most eligible point to locate the bridge, and upon the plan of its construction. Captain Topping and his men took hold of the work in earnest, and in less than two weeks they had finished a substantial structure across the river that we think reflects credit upon its builders. The bridge is built with abutments on each shore, well

out into the river. The abutments are made by a crib of logs firmly pinned together at the corners, and then filled with rock above highwater mark. The center pier we made in the shape of a V, fastened in the same manner at the corner, and filled, like the abutments, with rock; then the structure was covered with hewn logs five inches thick, the whole making a bridge that I think will stand any strain that is likely to happen it, either from the elements or otherwise. The cover of the bridge is 96 feet long. Up to this time it was the custom of Mr. Henderson or myself to be on the ground daily with the men; and, indeed, during the whole season one or both of us has been in the field nearly all of the time.

After the bridge was finished, the captain, with his party, pushed on south toward the Fire-Hole Basin, that being the grand center towards which both parties were aiming. Our route now runs up the Willow Creek to near the great obsidian or glass mountain, which is a marvelous thing in nature and well worth the journey to see. There was considerable work on this part of the road in taking out rocks in the path, and building and repairing culverts and cross-ways.

After passing the glass mountain we soon come upon high hills and rough country, requiring a great amount of labor to render the road passable. We are now leaving the waters that flow into the Gardiner River, and are climbing the mountains that separate the Gardiner from the Gibbon River. About here we pass a beautiful lake, called Lake of the Woods. I do not know what the altitude is at this point, but it cannot be less than 7,500 feet above sea level.

From thence we worked our way over a rough and hilly country to the Gibbon Basin, where the traveler is startled by his first sight of this wonderful Fire-Hole. Standing on the eminence that surrounds and overlooks this basin, with its thousand columns of hissing steam rising to the clouds, and its hundred spouting and boiling springs, all in active operation, hurling their heated waters high into the air, he sees a sight so novel and so sublime as to daze the beholder and fill him with awe. In this basin are several large geysers and a great number of lesser ones. We have now reached a point 30 miles nearly south of headquarters, or the Mammoth Hot Springs, and about 35 miles from the north line of the Park. It is yet 20 miles to the great Fire-Hole Basin. Our road is still in a mountainous and rugged country, requiring much labor and expense before it can be said to be a good road. Still we pushed on; but owing to the limited amount of the appropriation (and when you consider the extent of the territory and the great natural obstructions that have to be encountered, it seems to me it must be evident to you that the amount heretofore placed at the disposal of the Secretary of the Interior "for the protection and improvement of the Yellowstone National Park" is entirely inadequate) we are obliged to content ourselves by making such roads and improvements only as will render travel possible.

But to proceed with our road: we have to pass over some very high hills to reach the valley of the main Gibbon, where we encounter a wide, low bottom called the Geyser Meadows, a place where it will require a large amount of labor to make a good road. After passing this meadow our road enters the Gibbon Cañon, and follows the river down several miles, close on the edge of the stream, crossing the same three times in as many miles over difficult and dangerous crossings in time of high water. After passing through this cañon our road gains the highlands by a steep grade along the side of the mountain on the south side of the river. We soon come to the great falls of the Gibbon, where the

river plunges over a perpendicular precipice of 75 feet, which in the stillness of the evergreen forest that covers this country renders the scene as enchantingly beautiful as "fairy-land." We are now within 10 miles of our objective point, viz, the Lower Fire-Hole Basin; and as the character of the country differs little from that over which we have passed, I need not particularize further than to mention that we made two quite important grades on the way, changing the road from the old track, and materially lessening the difficulties over two high and rugged hills.

At last, through much tribulation, we have arrived at the head of the Madison River, which is formed by the junction of the two Fire-Hole Rivers at the northern edge of the Lower Fire-Hole Basin. When I tell you that at this point the Madison River is a deep and rapid stream, nearly or quite 200 feet in width, you will have some conception of the immense flow of boiling hot water that comes out of the earth within less than 15 miles of this point, and forms the two Fire-Hole Rivers which here unite.

My working force (both parties) were now here, and I found it an imperative necessity to build a storehouse and blacksmith shop in order properly to care for our provisions and supplies, the government having no building nearer than our headquarters, 50 miles distant. Besides, this point is the grand center of attraction, and a place to which every tourist who visits the Park is certain to come. One other reason why I selected this site for a storehouse was, on account of its central position working parties can be supplied from this depot in one day from almost any part of the Park. After having resolved to build, and decided upon the size and style of the buildings required, I drafted the plans and set part of the men to getting out the timber for the proposed buildings.

The rest of the men, under Captain Topping, continued work on the road. I directed them first to go over the road to the Yellowstone Lake, a distance of 35 miles from this point, and put the same in good repair, and then turned their attention toward the Great Falls and the Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone, about 20 miles below the lake. The work was comparatively light on the road from the Fire-Hole to the lake; but when we neared the falls and cañon I found it necessary to cut a new road along the bank of the river for over three miles to enable tourists to ride to the falls. Heretofore they have been compelled to abandon their carriages, and climb almost impassable mountains on the back of a pony or on foot. This road along the river was a difficult and costly piece to build, requiring heavy excavation along the side of the steep mountain for nearly the whole distance. But it is finished, and we have received the commendation and thanks of every person who has passed over the road, for having built it.

Meantime our buildings are progressing at the Fire-Hole Basin, the place we now call our summer headquarters. The government storehouse here in dimensions is 34 by 22 feet, built of hewn logs, substantially and neatly put up, one story high, with solid log partition framed into the structure, making two rooms in the building. One room is floored with hewn logs, 5 inches thick, neatly fitted together, for the storage of provisions; this heavy partition and floor being necessary to protect our supplies from the ravages of the mountain rats and squirrels that here abound. The other room is not yet floored, as we have no lumber except what we manufacture with an ax; but by putting in an old cooking stove, which I was fortunate enough to obtain here, it makes a very convenient and comfortable place for us when at work in this