Gustavus Cheyney Doane (May 29, 1840 – May 5, 1892) was a U.S. Army Cavalry Captain, explorer, inventor and Civil War soldier who played a prominent role in the exploration of Yellowstone as a member of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition. Doane was a participant in the Marias Massacre of approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet people (mostly women, children, and old men).
Early life Gustavus Cheyney Doane was born in Galesburg, Illinois, the oldest of six children of Solomon Doane and Nancy Davis Doane. After a move to St. Louis, Missouri in 1844, the Doanes, with their one son Cheyney traveled west to Oregon Territory settling in Oak Grove, Oregon south of Portland in 1846. In May 1849 the Doanes, now with two sons, moved to Santa Clara, California to take up farming there. As a young boy growing up in California during the 1850s, Doane was heavily influenced by the exploits and writings of General John C. Fremont, explorer, Mexican-American War hero and California statesman. Gustavus C. Doane entered college at the newly created California Wesleyan College (now known as University of the Pacific) in Santa Clara in 1857, graduating first in his class in Latin, Greek and mathematics on June 13, 1861.
Civil War and Reconstruction experiences Desiring to participate in the American Civil War, in October 1862 after unsuccessful attempts at gaining an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a 22-year-old Doane volunteered at San Francisco for the 2nd Regiment of Cavalry, Massachusetts Volunteers known as the California 100. This group of volunteers, after paying their own way to Boston by ship from California, were inducted into the U.S. Army in January 1863. A month after his enlistment, Doane was made a sergeant and began seeing combat in actions around Washington, D.C. against forces of Confederate Colonel John S. Mosby, also known as the Gray Ghost.
In March 1864, Doane was transferred to the Mississippi Marine Brigade, Vicksburg, Mississippi as a first lieutenant. Although Doane's unit did see action with the enemy, he did not distinguish himself during this assignment. When it was dissolved in August 1864, Doane was transferred to an infantry regiment. Doane was honorably discharged from the Army in January 1865.
After a brief post-war stint in Illinois, Doane and some of his wartime associates returned to Yazoo City, Mississippi to establish a merchandising business. Initially successful because of the post-war boom, by late 1866 the sour post-war economy and poor business decisions resulted in bankruptcy. It was during this period that Doane met and married Amelia Link, the daughter of a wealthy southern landowner. Although Doane tried to make a living from Amelia's father's land, that too failed. In 1867, Doane tried his hand at politics in Mississippi, becoming Justice of the Peace and Mayor of Yazoo City for a short period of time. However, local politics and Reconstruction policies proved too much for Doane and he left Mississippi in May 1868 for Illinois, abandoning his business and political ambitions in Mississippi.
Assignment to Fort Ellis and married life
After his business and political failures in Mississippi, Doane again became a military officer. In the summer of 1868, through the good offices of a California senator, John Conness, Doane earned a commission in the U.S. Army 2nd Cavalry Regiment as a second lieutenant. After a year of uneventful training and scouting assignments at Fort McPherson, Nebraska and Fort Russell, Wyoming, Doane's cavalry unit was transferred to the newly created Fort Ellis, Montana Territory, near Bozeman, Montana. On July 1, 1869, Doane and his wife Amelia arrived at Fort Ellis. By the fall of 1869, Doane was given command of Company F, 2nd Cavalry at Fort Ellis.
In January 1870, Doane's company, along with others under the overall command of Major Eugene M. Baker, led an attack on a non-hostile Blackfoot Indian encampment on the Marias River in response to the alleged murder of a white fur trader. This engagement became known as the Marias Massacre.
In reality, Doane spent little time at Fort Ellis with his wife Amelia. By 1877 the frontier life at Fort Ellis and Doane's constant absence had severely strained their relationship. Gustavus and Amelia divorced in September 1878.
Doane wasted little time in remarrying. On December 16, 1878, Gustavus and 19-year-old Mary Lee Hunter of Hunter Hot Springs, Montana, were married in Helena, Montana, in a well-attended ceremony including the Territorial Governor, Benjamin F. Potts. She traveled with Doane widely to military posts in Montana, Arizona and California prior to his death. Mary Lee was the daughter of Dr. Andrew Jackson Hunter, formerly the camp physician at Fort Ellis. They remained married and together until Doane's death in 1892. Following Doane's death, Mary Lee Hunter Doane became an active member in many historical organizations including the Society of Montana Pioneers and the Daughters of the American Revolution, and was frequently referred to as an "encyclopedia of Montana history." She also formed a close friendship with Merrill G. Burlingame, a professor of history at Montana State College (now known as Montana State University). Hunter Doane died in 1952 in Bozeman, Montana never having remarried. Her collection of letters, notes, reminiscences, and photographs are housed at Montana State University's Archives and Special Collections.
Yellowstone exploration
In early August 1870, Henry D. Washburn in preparing for his Yellowstone exploration formally requested General Winfield Scott Hancock, Commander, Department of Dakota, provide a military escort from Fort Ellis. The request was granted on August 14, 1870, and Doane with five other soldiers were selected to provide the escort. As the leader of the U.S. Army escort of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition into Yellowstone in August–September 1870, Lt. Gustavus C. Doane became a significant contributor to the process that ultimately resulted in the creation of Yellowstone National Park on March 1, 1872. Although he was skillful and resourceful throughout the expedition, it was his thorough and detailed report to the Secretary of War in February 1871 of the natural phenomena in Yellowstone that played a convincing role in the efforts to convince the U.S. Congress to create the National Park. The following excerpt is typical of Doane's detailed descriptions contained in his report:
General Washburn named a mountain peak in the Absaroka Range for Lt. Doane that later became known as Colter Peak. However, in 1871 Hayden named another peak in Yellowstone as Mount Doane in his honor. In 2018, Native American leaders called for it to be renamed First Peoples Mountain, because Doane "led a massacre that killed around 175 Blackfeet people, and he continued to brag about the incident throughout his life". In June 2022 the U.S. Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously to change the name to First Peoples Mountain, as part of a Department of the Interior initiative to remove "derogatory names" from federal lands.
In his The Yellowstone National Park—Historical and Descriptive (1895), Hiram M. Chittenden praised Doane's expedition report:
Other explorations Doane was an explorer at heart and participated in or led several explorations while assigned to Fort Ellis and other posts. In September 1874, Doane the explorer, inspired by the reports of David Livingstone and Henry M. Stanley's adventures in Africa, proposed a Nile Survey to the Smithsonian. Of course Doane would lead this expedition. Throughout the winter of 1874–75, Doane sought support in Washington from both private and government entities. However, in February 1875, when the proposal reached Secretary of War William W. Belknap, it was turned down. Doane was deeply disappointed, but Belknap had been impressed by Doane the man and explorer. In July 1875 Belknap and a party of dignitaries visited Yellowstone for a two-week tour of the park. Belknap chose Doane from Fort Ellis to make the arrangements and guide the party through Yellowstone. They followed a course very similar to the Washburn expedition. This was Doane's third foray into the Yellowstone region.
Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 During the summer of 1871, Doane participated in the military escort supporting the Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 of Yellowstone under the leadership of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. This was Doane's second major foray into the Yellowstone region. Although Doane's pathfinding skills were praised by Hayden, the fact that the Hayden explorations, not the Washburn–Doane explorations of Yellowstone got most of the credit for the creation of the park caused a long lasting resentment by Doane. This resentment clouded Doane's judgment for years and was a direct contributor to the failed 1876 Snake River Expedition.
1876 Snake River Expedition In the fall of 1876, after a tedious summer dealing with the aftermath of the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Doane returned to Fort Ellis, restless for more exploration. All summer he had been planning an exploration of the Snake River regions south of Yellowstone. Doane believed this exploration would gain him the same type recognition that had been bestowed on Hayden for Yellowstone and on John Wesley Powell for the Grand Canyon explorations. Although he had permission to make the exploration from his superiors Colonel John Gibbon and General Alfred Terry whom he had courted during the summer campaign, Doane did this over the head of his immediate commander, Major James Brisbin, the post commander at Fort Ellis.
By all accounts, Doane's 1876 Snake River Expedition was ill-advised and an aborted failure. Doane planned to take his troop of soldiers over the Yellowstone plateau in early winter to begin the trip down the Snake River. With an ingeniously disassembled wooden boat on pack mules, Doane and his party traveled up the Yellowstone River from Fort Ellis eventually reaching Yellowstone Lake on October 24, well behind schedule because of deep snows and brutal cold. The boat proved difficult on Yellowstone Lake because of high winds and was partially wrecked and supplies were lost. The party did not get the boat to Heart Lake until November 7. The weather and cold were brutal and Doane's party did not make the next 20 miles down the Snake to Jackson Lake until December 7, 1876. By this time, they were critically short of supplies and began killing their stock for food. The boat proved unworthy in the Snake's whitewater and was eventually completely wrecked and abandoned. On December 15, 1876, Doane and his troop were near starvation and death when they arrived at a trapper's cabin on the Snake River. Eventually, they made Keenan City, Idaho and then Fort Hall, Idaho by January 4, 1877. By this time however, word of their condition had reached Major Brisbin at Fort Ellis and with permission from General Terry, Brisbin recalled Doane and his troops to Fort Ellis against Doane's wishes. They finally arrived there on February 2, 1877. Doane had put his troops in harm's way for his own ambition and almost created a tragedy. This was Doane's last foray into the Yellowstone plateau.
1880 Howgate Arctic Expedition