Truman Everts

Born in 1816, Truman C. Everts was an American lawyer, editor, and government official who later became closely tied to the early exploration of Yellowstone. He is most famous for joining the 1870 Washburn expedition, an important journey through the Yellowstone region before it became a national park.

During that trip, Everts became separated from the rest of the party and wandered alone for 37 days, surviving hunger, exposure, and injuries before he was found alive. He later wrote about the experience in Thirty-Seven Days of Peril, a dramatic account that became one of the best-known survival narratives connected with Yellowstone.

Everts died in 1901, but his name remains part of Yellowstone history. His ordeal and the account he published helped shape popular interest in the landscape at a time when Americans were still learning what an extraordinary place Yellowstone was.