Colter's Hell

The panel's geological oddity on the northern horizon is the stranger story here. Heart Mountain's summit is limestone and dolomite some 350 to 500 million years old, resting on Willwood beds of about 55 million years: old rock on top of young. Around 49 million years ago a sheet of rock about 500 square miles broke from the plateau south of the Beartooths and slid some 25 miles southeast, the largest landslide known on land. Erosion has removed most of it, leaving Heart Mountain as one block, and how it moved so far is still argued.

What the plaque says

Colter's Hell John Colter, veteran of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, notably self-sufficient mountain man and indefatigable explorer, was the first white man known to have reconnoitered this locale. In 1807, possibly traveling alone but probably escorted by Crow guides, he crossed the Stinking Water (Shoshone River) via a major Indian-trail ford located about a mile downstream from this observation point. Here, extending along both sides of the river, he discovered an active geyser district. Steam mixed with sulfur fumes and shooting flames escaped through vents in the valley floor, subterranean rumblings were ominously audible. Although mineralized hot springs continue to flow along the river's edge, the eruptions Colter watched are now marked only by cones of parched stone. This was primarily Shoshone and Crow country but other Indians came to the area. Particularly Bannocks and Nez Percé, journeying eastward over the mountains to hunt the plains buffalo, tarried to test the heralded medicinal values of these "stinking waters" baths. Ranged along bench-lands to the east and north are numerous tepee rings, evidence of former Indian encampments. Heart Mountain, famous landmark and geological oddity, is conspicuous on the northern horizon. Honoring a respected predecessor, mountain men of the 1820's-1830's fur trade heyday named this place Colter's Hell. Later, early-day officials of Yellowstone Park applied that name to the Park's geyser area -- thereby causing a degree of historic confusion. The true Colter's Hell is here in view.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Old Trail Town — 0.7 mi
  Bob Edgar's rescued log buildings, outlaw cabins and an Apsáalooke scout's home among them, rebuilt on the ground where Cody City was first laid out.
• Buffalo Bill Center of the West — 2.3 mi
  A memorial begun the year Buffalo Bill died that grew, wing by stone-walled wing, into five museums and a library under one roof.
• Heart Mountain Interpretive Center — 14 mi
  The incarcerated cleared and watered the land; when the camp closed it went to veterans to homestead, and the barracks sold for a dollar each.

More markers nearby

• Shoshone Canyon — 1.1 mi
• Wyoming Vietnam Veterans Memorial — 3.8 mi
• Castle Rock — 13 mi
• Dead Indian Hill Summit — 21 mi