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John Colter was born in Augusta County, Virginia, near the town of Stuarts Draft sometime between 1770 and 1775, based off assumptions by his family.. The Colter family patriarch Micajah Coalter is believed to have migrated from Ireland in 1700. There is some debate as too which variation of the family name, Coalter, Coulter, or Colter, is correct and the issue was further convoluted by Captain William Clark utilizing all three spelling variations during his daily journals. It is unknown whether or not Colter was literate and knew how to write. Two signatures possessed by the Missouri State Historical Society assert that the proper spelling of the family name was "Colter" and that Colter was at least able to write his own name.

With Lewis and Clark, Colter was often recognized as one of Lewis and Clark’s most trusted Corps and provided assistance beyond simple woodsman activities. For instance, Colter was handpicked by Clark to deliver a message to Lewis, waylaid at a Shoshone camp, concerning the impracticability of following a route along the Salmon River. In another instance, he was charged with retracing a route in the Bitterroot Mountains to recover lost horses and supplies, and not only returned with some of the recovered resources and horses, but also retrieved deer to gift the hospitable Nez Perce tribes and strengthen sick Corps. Colter was also noted by Lewis for his ability to barter with various tribes, an attribute which may have led to his later role with Manuel Lisa. During the expedition, Colter never appeared on sick lists, suggesting very advantageous health. He was often one of the few hunters allowed to leave the camp during points of illness and recuperation, proving Lewis and Clark’s trust in him.

A major contribution Colter made to the Corps of Discovery was providing the expedition with a route to swiftly descend the Bitterroot Mountains, which allowed access to the Snake River, Columbia River and subsequently, the Pacific Ocean. While hunting far ahead of the main party, Colter encountered three Tushepawe Flatheads. Through non-verbal peace symbols and communication, Colter was able to dissuade the Flatheads to abandon their search for two Shoshones who had stolen twenty three head of horses, and accompany him to the expedition’s camp. One of the young Flatheads agreed to act as the party’s guide down the mountains and through Flathead country, a great advantage in challenging and unfamiliar terrain plagued by food scarcity.

While crossing back over the Bitterroot Mountains, Colter and his horse fell into a rushing river. In an act that utterly true to Colter’s character, he was noted keeping a grip on his rifle while letting his blanket be washed away. This story is proof of his ample frontiersman logic, as a gun was a necessity in the high country while a blanket was a luxury.

Colter, Hancock, and Dickson ventured into the wilderness with 20 beaver traps, a two-year supply of ammunition, and numerous other small tools gifted to them by the expedition such as knives, rope, hatchets, and personal utensils. The exact route of the trapping party is not known. However, it is speculated that unfriendly Blackfeet in the region of the Lower Missouri and a lack of horses forced the company to seek their fortunes in the tributaries of the less-prosperous Yellowstone Valley, a region inhabited by the friendlier Crows. However, the dangers of the narrow and rapid Yellowstone River, and the absence of game may explain the quick dissolution of the trapping party. (40-41) There is much speculation as to where the party, at that point only consisting of Colter and Hancock following a falling out with Dixon, spent the winter of 1806-1807. However, Wyoming historian J.K. Rollinson asserted in a personal letter that he had met the stepson of one of Colter’s companions, mostly likely Hancock’s as Dixon is known to have left the region for Wisconsin in 1827. This stepson, Dave Fleming, accompanied his stepfather on a hunting trip to Clark’s Fork Canyon as a boy, and was informed that his stepfather had made camp in this exact spot while trapping with Colter many years earlier. Fleming reportedly remembered and passed on this detail as his stepfather asserted that during winter of 1806-1807, Colter had grown restless with taking shelter and ascended the canyon into the Sunlight Basin of modern day Wyoming, which would make him the first known white man to have ever entered this region.

Upon his discharge, Colter had earned payment for 35 months and 26 days, totaling $179.33 1/3rd dollars. However, a discrepancy in the books provided Colter with payment for two months he had skipped to accompany Hancock and Dickson trapping. However, this over-payment may have been justified by Colter’s significant work ethic and personal praise by Thomas Jefferson himself. (38) However, in 1807, Colter’s settlement was retracted after Congress passed a mandate supplying all members of the Corps of Discovery with doubled wages and land grants of 320 acres. Lewis personally took responsibility for Colter’s reparations, and following Lewis’ death and Colter’s subsequent return to St. Louis, a court decided Colter was owed an amount of $377.60.

“Manuel Lisa, a founder of the Missouri Fur Trading Company of St. Louis, and three fellow Corps of Discovery: George Drouillard, John Potts, and Peter Wiser. Colter’s consecutive years of had climbed to six when he encountered Lisa and agreed to accompany the party. (59)

Colter’s Route Map: It is not known if Colter produced his own crude map that informed Clark’s version or simply dictated the details that would inform Colter’s Route. (75) Colter’s Route was included in a version of Clark’s map, titled “A Map of Lewis and Clark’s Track Across the Western Portion of North America from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean,” which was published in 1814. However, Clark’s original field sketches, which were drawn on numerous separate sheets that traced the flows of principle rivers as opposed to traditional rectangular or square map, were shown to President Jefferson in 1807 and did not include Colter’s Route. (76) A version of these original field maps with some corrections of latitude and longitude were produced in 1810 by Clark and Nicholas Biddle for use by astronomer and mathematician Dr. Ferdinand Hassler. This 1810 manuscript provided the details of Colter’s Route that were published in 1814. Several unexplained geographical discrepancies were printed on the 1814 map, including the Big Horn Mountains and Basin being drawn about two times too large, an error believed to be Clark’s. The nature behind these discrepancies eludes historians, as Clark had not only his own personal information of the region but information from George Drouillard and John Colter as well. (80) It is likely that Colter never saw Clark’s full field maps, as another major discrepancy places Colter’s starting point at the midsection of Pryor Creek, as opposed to only geographically likely departing point at the mouth of the Big Horn River. The inaccuracies that plague the 1814 map’s details of the area between Manuel’s Fort on the Yellowstone and the likely location of Colter’s Hell have fueled much of scholarly disagreements of Colter’s Route, as it is this region that creates the full circle. (105.) Colter departed with a pack of weighing roughly thirty five pounds (not including his rifle and ammunition) and traveled over five hundred miles to establish trade with the Crow nation. In 1808, Colter set out from Fort Raymond once more to negotiate trade agreements with local nations. While leading a group of eight hundred Flatheads and Crows back to the trading fort, Colter's party was attacked by a mass of Blackfeet numbering over fifteen-hundred. The Flatheads and Crows managed to force the Blackfeet into retreat, but Colter suffered a leg wound from either a bullet or arrow. However, this wound was non-serious as Colter quickly recuperated and left Fort Raymond with Potts once more the following year.

Colter’s Hell The exact location of Colter’s Hell is hotly contested, as it could’ve referred to several different areas prone to geothermic activity. It is commonly believed that Colter’s Hell referred to the region of the Stinking Water, now known as the Shoshone River, near present day Cody, WY. The river’s original title was thanks to presence of Sulphur in the water. (91)

The Colter Stone: Another possible artifact of Colter's was discovered within Yellowstone National Park. In the 1880s, a log with the carved initials "J C" underneath a large X was discovered by Philip Ashton Rollins near Coulter Creek, an ironically named stream (it was not, in fact, named after Colter.) Rollins and his party determined that the carving was roughly eighty years old. However, the authenticity of has never been identified as it was lost by Yellowstone employees in 1890 while being transferred to a museum.

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