The Oldest Known Biography of John Colter – the historic account, now back in print! Long before John Dutton helped re-invigorate the Yellowstone name, it was a different John who helped change the trajectory of the American West. The area now known as Yellowstone – full of wondrous foliage, geysers, and waterfalls - had certainly been known by Native American tribes for centuries. However, John Colter – a fur trapper by trade - was the "first white man” to behold the marvels of the Yellowstone and the first to tell them to the world. Though he originally accompanied Lewis and Clark on their Expedition from 1803 to 1806, in 1807 he joined Manuel Lisa’s trapping party, and it was Lisa who sent him on a mission to the Crow and other Indian tribes that led Colter to travel alone to the Yellowstone area (present-day northwestern Wyoming). In three expeditions to the Three Forks area (head of the Missouri River) from 1808–10, he narrowly escaped with his life in battles involving warring Indian tribes. Clark's 1810 manuscript map shows a dashed line marked "Colter's Route” – the only direct reference to Colter’s travels. Yet this work delves deeper into the legend and facts gathered about Colter, shedding further light on a man who has had a significant impact on American History for his cartographic contributions – and covers the life of Colter as hunter, trapper, pathfinder and member of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. About the Author: Stallo Vinton was lawyer based in New York City who researched western exploration and published several volumes including biographies of John Colter, Kit Carson, and Joseph Meek – among others. Vinton earned a liberal arts degree from Columbia University in 1898, a Master’s of arts in 1899, and a law degree in 1900. He died in 1946.