Note 49 — Chapter II · JOHN COLTER’S DISCOVERY OF YELLOWSTONE
Reading edition
In E. Willard Smith’s journal entry for December 20, 1839, there is an item that suggests a possible clue to mystery of Colter’s petrified fish story: “There is a story told by an Arapahoe Chief of a petrified buffalo standing in the lake ... in a perfect state of preservation, and they worship it as a great medicine charm.... Nothing would induce this Indian to tell where this sacred buffalo is to be found. Great presents were offered him in vain.” It is possible that Colter saw something he was not free to divulge. See “An Excerpt From the Journal of Willard E. Smith,” Annals of Wyoming, XV, 3 (July, 1943), 287-97.