Images of the West

Bottler staked his claim at a spot where springs bubbled out of the mountain and formed streams that provided water for irrigation. He plowed the land and soon had crops of hay, grain, and vegetables. He raised pigs, milked cows and made butter in a churn turned by a small water wheel.

In the days before train travel and formal concessionaires most of the first Yellowstone tourists planned to live off the land, but they could stock up at Bottler’s with a sack of flour and a side of bacon — just in case the fish didn’t bite and game was scarce. Many a returning traveler expressed the joy of tasting Bottler’s “civilized grub” after weeks of living on meat roasted over a campfire and bread made in a frying pan.

But like Sawtell, Bottler didn’t confine himself to agriculture. Bottler was an innkeeper, guide and commercial hunter. (He sold more than 2000 elk hides in 1875.) While prospecting in the 1860s, he explored the upper Yellowstone including the Firehole Basin. His combination of skills made him an ideal candidate to join several early expeditions as a hunter and guide. During the great Yellowstone “discovery” expeditions sanctioned by the government between 1869 and 1872, Bottler was present. He and Philetus Norris, who became the second Yellowstone Park Superintendent, climbed Electric Peak in 1870 while scouting the area. Bottler also earned praise in the journals of several early explorers and adventurers including F.V. Hayden, who led the first official government surveys of Yellowstone in 1871 and ’72, and an English nobleman, The Earl of Dunraven, in 1874.

Bottler promoted his business aggressively. He advertised in the first Yellowstone travel guide published by Harry J. Norton in 1873 that he was “prepared to furnish all parties visiting the park with everything necessary to make their tour pleasant and agreeable.” The ad said Bottler was available as a guide and hunter and would provide horses for riding and to pack provisions. It said he was building a hotel and could provide diners with “all the delicacies of the season” and “fine trout and game.”

During this same period, Virginia City and Bozeman were fighting to see which town would capture the lion’s share of the tourist trade to the new Yellowstone National Park. Known as the Dean of Yellowstone, historian Aubrey Haines says a man named Bart Henderson came up with the idea for a road up Yankee Jim Canyon in 1872. Henderson apparently formed a partnership with businessmen from Bozeman and Helena who sought a federal charter for their road and promised “to make all principle points and objects of interest accessible” in exchange for authority to build roads, houses and “a commodious hotel for the accommodation of visitors.” The bill didn’t make it out of committee and the group gave up on the road project.

An enterprising settler seized the opportunity by laying claim to the road through the canyon that came to bear his name. He was James George, known as “Yankee Jim.” Yankee Jim cleared the road of the rocks and debris that had accumulated over the winter and announced in the Bozeman Avant Courier that the toll road was ready for business in 1873.

Even after railroad tracks passed within a few feet of his house in 1883, Yankee Jim continued to collect tolls from pedestrians and equestrians, so thousands of park visitors knew him. He made a point of being friendly and courteous, particularly to ladies, and developed a reputation as a teller of tall tales. He was also the subject of several stories himself, including one about an encounter with surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1882.

One version said that when Yankee Jim saw the surveyors come onto his property, he ran to his cabin, put on a buckskin shirt, broad brimmed hat and a red neckerchief. He then strapped on a brace of six-shooters, and carried a rifle when he went out to drive the railroad men away. In a more likely version, Jim grabbed a shotgun and threatened to blow the head off the first man to set foot on his property. The dispute was settled in court and the railroad bought the original toll road and promised to build a new one for Yankee Jim.

On the western edge of Yellowstone, Virginia City countered Yankee Jim’s toll road by hiring Gilman Sawtell to extend the road from his ranch at Henry’s Lake to the Lower Geyser Basin. Sawtell’s road crossed the Continental Divide over Raynolds Pass and getting to the park required crossing the Divide again over the Targhee Pass. But the passes are gentle and using this route was easier than building a road up the rugged Madison Canyon. Besides, the sojourn at Henry’s Lake could be one of the most pleasant aspects of a Yellowstone trip. The Virginia City businessman called their route “The Yellowstone Free Road” to distinguish it from the Bozeman Toll Road, but there was no benevolence involved. There simply was no place on the Free Road to set up a tollgate that travelers couldn’t detour around. It was the main route to the geyser basins before a road was built up the Madison Canyon.