The Bicycle Corps riding around the top of an inactive portion of Minerva Terrace.This photo is believed to have been taken on August 30 or 31, 1896. F. Jay Haynes, photographer, Haynes Foundation Collection, MHS Photograph Archives, Helena, H-3616.

Editor's note: The following story by Wes Hardin was taken from the current edition of Yellowstone Science. You can find the entire edition at this site. Copyright Yellowstone Association, used with permission.

For many visitors to Yellowstone National Park, and especially those at Mammoth Hot Springs, the photograph of soldiers in old-fashioned uniforms standing with their heavily loaded bicycles on the white travertine formations of Minerva Terrace has become an iconic image. This photograph can be found on the walls of restaurants and general stores throughout the park, and gracing the pages of several publications on bookstore shelves. Given the fact that the U.S. Army administered Yellowstone National Park for 32 years and constructed Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs to serve as its base of operations, it would be logical to assume the cyclists in the photograph were soldiers stationed at the fort. One could also conclude the photo proves the army routinely used bicycles to patrol the park during the 1890s. However, both conclusions would be incorrect. The cyclists in the photograph were indeed soldiers, but not from Fort Yellowstone. They were members of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps and they rode their bicycles nearly 300 miles from their home base in Missoula, Montana, to get to the park. These military cyclists had not come to Yellowstone merely to enjoy the scenery and marvel at geysers and hot springs;the primary purpose of the trip was to test the effectiveness of bicycles for transporting men and equipment over mountainous terrain (Dollar 1985, Moss 1896). Yellowstone Park seemed a perfect location for this challenge.

The Bicycle Corps that visited Yellowstone was the brainchild of Second Lieutenant James A. Moss. A native of Louisiana, Moss had graduated from West Point in 1894 and was assigned to the Twenty-fifth Infantry Regiment, an all-black unit with white officers, based at Fort Missoula, Montana. Within a month of Moss' arrival at Fort Missoula in 1895, he received permission from army headquarters to establish the first unit of its kind to test the bicycle as a means of transportation (Dollar 1985). Between July 20 and August 6, 1896, Moss had selected eight men for his Corps and put them through a rigorous training program consisting of 15 to 40-mile bike rides a day. "It would have been hardly possible," Moss observed, "to find a better spot [for the thorough testing of the bicycle for military purposes] than in this . . . region of western Montana where nature places so many obstacles in the way of the cyclist" (Moss 1896, Moss 1897a).

The Trip to Fort Yellowstone

After making a three-day, 60-some-mile practice ride to Lake McDonald near St. Ignatius, Montana, Lieutenant Moss and the eight other members of the Bicycle Corps set out for Yellowstone on August 15, 1896. Moss planned to ride first to Fort Harrison near Helena, Montana, where supplies would be replenished, and then on to Fort Yellowstone at the north end of the park. Often the roads were so rutted and dusty that the only solution was to find the nearest railroad tracks, dismount, and push the bicycles on top of the wooden ties. To understand just what conditions the soldiers faced, one has only to read a sample entry from Moss's official report:

"Left camp 6:18 A.M., Struck a mountain ¾ mi. from camp. Grade quite steep. At 7 o'clock delayed 30 mins. fixing Sgt. Green's gun and knapsack. Reached Avon 9 a.m. At 10 a.m. delayed 5 mins. fixing puncture. 10:10 Forman broke his seat spring. Delayed 10 minutes. 10:55 a.m. delayed 25 mins. fixing puncture. Reached Elliston 11:30 a.m. Stopped here until 1 o'clock, when we left for Helena.

The grade was so steep that we could not ride down—had to roll our wheels the whole way down—had to use brakes until we had cramps in our fingers, to prevent wheels from getting away from us—was, without doubt, hardest work so far on the trip.

At 5:15 stopped 10 mins. to fix puncture. A few minutes later, delayed from 6:30 to 7 p.m. fixing three punctures. Reached Fort Harrison 7:30 p.m. Distance travelled, 44 miles (Moss 1896)."

After eight days contending with stiff headwinds, blazing heat, drenching rains, steep grades, terrible roads, and numerous mechanical breakdowns—as well as a harrowing ride at night over the old wagon road through Yankee Jim Canyon—Moss and his men reached Fort Yellowstone on Sunday, August 23. Moss and his men spent the next two days resting, drawing supplies from the quartermaster, and installing eight new pairs of "puncture-proof" tires on their bicycles. On the morning of August 25, the men began their tour of the park, leaving Mammoth Hot Springs and cycling past Liberty Cap. Moss planned his journey through the park so each day would end at a soldier station—small cabins located at most major junctions along the Grand Loop Road—where there was adequate space for the cyclists to pitch their tents and prepare meals. The first evening was spent in the Lower Geyser Basin at Captain Scott's Camp, a large tent encampment established near the Fountain Hotel and Great Fountain Geyser, that enabled the army to better patrol the park during the summer months.

The Bicycle Corps remained in the Lower Geyser Basin all day on August 26. Early the next morning, they set out for the Upper Geyser Basin where they experienced the thrill of seeing "the Giantess, the Castle and Old Faithful [geysers] all playing at the same time." After departing West Thumb for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on August 28, the cyclists spent their fourth night near the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone. The next morning, Moss led his men along the north rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, stopping at Lookout Point, Grand View, Inspiration Point, and other points of interest, including the Lower Falls. Lieutenant Moss made few comments about the return trip to Mammoth Hot Springs, on August 29 except to conclude ultimately the ride through the park had a positive effect on the men: "The soldiers were delighted with the trip . . . [were] treated royally everywhere . . . thought the sights grand . . . and seemed to be in the best of spirits the whole time. I think the moral effect of the seething water, the roaring of the geysers and the sulphuric [sic] fumes was more conducive to good order and military discipline than a dozen general courts."

Moss and his men spent August 30-31 resting up after their tour of the park. Although Moss made no mention of any photo session in his report, it seems most likely the famous photographs of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps posing at various locations on the terraces of Mammoth Hot Springs were taken on one of those two days. For his superiors, Moss prepared a cursory summary of the Bicycle Corps' overall performance in Yellowstone:

"The entire trip through the park, 132 miles, was made in nineteen hours of actual traveling, averaging about 7 miles per hour. Poorest time in the park: 18 miles in 4 hours of actual traveling (between Upper Basin and West Thumb). Best time in the park: 20 miles in 2 hours, riding the first 10 miles in 55 minutes (between Norris Geyser Basin and Fort Yellowstone)."

The Bicycle Corps rode out of Fort Yellowstone on September 1, 1896, and began the trek back to Fort Missoula by way of Fort Harrison in Helena, Montana. During the next three days, the cyclists faced stiff winds, muddy roads, and brutal rain. Moss and his men wheeled back into Fort Missoula at 8:00 p.m. on September 8, 1896, having completed a journey of nearly 800 miles.

The following year, Lieutenant Moss departed from Fort Missoula with an expanded Bicycle Corps of 22 men mounted on improved Spalding bicycles and set out on a trip to St. Louis, Missouri, a journey of 1,900 miles. Moss and his men followed the Northern Pacific Railroad as they made their way east. While they stopped briefly in Livingston, Montana, they did not return to Yellowstone Park. After returning to Fort Missoula by train, Moss made plans to have the Corps ride from Missoula to San Francisco, California, in the spring of 1898 to demonstrate how fast soldiers on bicycles could travel on good roads. That trip never took place. With the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Army Headquarters cancelled all further experiments with bicycles. The men of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Regiment marched out of Missoula and were shipped to the Philippine Islands until 1902. Once the conflict ended, soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry did not return to Fort Missoula, but were redeployed to posts in Nebraska and Oklahoma Territory.

Lieutenant Moss did not accompany the Twenty-fifth Infantry to the Philippines; instead he fought in Cuba, having been transferred to the Twenty-fourth Infantry at the outbreak of hostilities with Spain. Moss was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action and was later promoted to captain. During World War I, Moss, by then a colonel, commanded the 376th Infantry Regiment, nicknamed "the Buffaloes" [sic] because it, like the Twenty-fifth Infantry, was made up of black soldiers. Many of the soldiers who cycled with Moss through Yellowstone Park made the U.S. Army their career. They were paid less than their white counterparts and often suffered from the effects of segregation and racial inequality. Even so, the black soldiers earned high praise wherever they served. For example, after helping prevent violence during a railroad strike in 1894, a Montana newspaper editor described the men of the Twenty-fifth Infantry as follows: "The prejudice against the colored soldiers seems to be without foundation for if the 25th Infantry is an example of the colored regiments there is no exaggeration in the statement that there are no better troops in the service." 

In 1918, the U.S. Army pulled its troops out of Yellowstone, and the National Park Service, newly established two years earlier, assumed responsibility for controlling and protecting the park. As gasoline-powered vehicles became the dominant form of transportation on park roads, fewer and fewer visitors were seen venturing into Yellowstone on bicycles. However, the accomplishments of the Twenty-fifth Infantry Bicycle Corps and its amazing ride through the park during the summer of 1896 have continued to capture the public's imagination to this day.