The life and history of John Colter is one of the great legends of the American West. Colter started out as a hunter with the Lewis and Clark expedition, then stayed out West as an explorer, mountain man, and trapper, becoming a legend of his time.

      The Lewis and Clark expedition was homeward bound in 1806--and in a hurry after nearly three years in the wilderness. Expedition members were eager to get back to civilization. But John Colter didn't make it back to St. Louis. The expedition met two trappers headed upriver, who convinced Colter to come with them. Lewis and Clark approved Colter's discharge, and the three trappers spent the winter working the Yellowstone River.

      Colter left in the spring, following a quarrel with his partners, and headed downriver again, only to encounter a large party of trappers working for the newly formed Missouri Fur Company. Included in the company were Lewis and Clark expedition members John Potts, George Droulliard, and Peter Wiser. Colter joined the company and headed back up the Yellowstone. They built a fort at the mouth of the Bighorn River in the fall of 1807.

      John Colter was sent out to meet the Indians, to invite them back to the fort to trade. In his wanderings, Colter discovered the geothermal features in and around today's Yellowstone National Park. His stories seemed so far-fetched that the area became known as Colter's Hell, and Colter became the butt of many mountain man jokes.

      In the fall of 1808, Colter traveled with a band of Crow and Flathead Indians towards the Missouri Headwaters near today's Three Forks, Montana, but they were attacked by the Blackfeet just before they got there. Colter survived a wound to the leg, but his presence with the enemies of the Blackfeet led to hostilities towards whites in the headwaters area for years to come.

      Colter was captured by the Blackfeet on a subsequent trapping excursion on the Jefferson River. Being in hostile territory, he and John Potts hid during the day and set out their traps at night, but they were discovered anyway by a band of about "five hundred Blackfeet Indians," according to Colter's story. Seeing no alternative, Colter stepped out of the canoe. An Indian took Potts' rifle, but Colter grabbed it and handed it back. Potts pushed out from shore in the canoe and was shot with an arrow. He fired back, killing the Indian, but was immediately riddled with arrows.

      Colter was stripped naked, and the Indians debated how best to use him for target practice. The chief asked Colter if he could run fast. Colter coyly indicated that he was a bad runner, and the chief gave him a short head start in front of the warriors.

      Colter ran like he had never run before, traversing five or six miles across dry rocky plains overgrown with prickly pear cactus, towards the Madison River (or back to the Jefferson by some accounts). One warrior closed the gap behind Colter and was just about to throw his spear, when Colter suddenly stopped and turned around. The startled Indian tripped and missed with the spear. Colter took it and killed him, then ran again. The other warriors stopped briefly where their comrade fell, allowing Colter the opportunity to disappear into the water.

      He swam under a pile of driftwood and found a space to put his head above water but still under the wood. He stayed there the rest of the day while the Indians searched the area until they finally gave up. In the dark of night Colter swam downstream, then headed out overland back to the fort on the Bighorn, subsisting entirely on roots for the eleven- day, 220-mile journey.

      The event didn't discourage him from coming back. Colter returned in 1810 with a company of eighty trappers and built a fortified fur trading post at the headwaters. They survived an attack by the Blackfeet, but George Drouillard was later killed, probably upstream from Whitehall. The fur post was abandoned after only five months and was burnt to the ground.

      Finally having enough of it, Colter and two other men returned to Saint Louis, surviving yet another encounter with the Blackfeet along the way. After all the close-calls, it wasn't Colter's adventurous lifestyle that finally killed him. Instead he married and settled down to life of farming in Missouri, but caught yellow fever and died in 1812 or 1813.

References:
"Trapper Makes Miraculous Escape." The Headwaters Herald. Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
Colter-Frick, L.R. Courageous Colter and Companions. 1997.
Ambrose, Stephen E. Undaunted Courage. Touchstone: New York, NY. 1996.
"The Legend of John Colter." Montana Afloat: The Jefferson River. Missoula, MT. 1999 Edition.

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