he could lead the two trappers back to the region they had explored. 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 the two months he had skipped to accompany Hancock and Dickson trapping. This over-payment may have been justified by Colter's significant work ethic and personal praise by Thomas Jefferson himself. In 1807, Colter's settlement was retracted after Congress passed a mandate supplying all members of the Corps of Discovery with doubled wages and land grants of 320 acres.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. Mountain man beginnings Colter, Hancock, and Dixon 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 route of the trapping party is not known. 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. The dangers of the narrow and rapid Yellowstone River and the absence of game may explain the quick dissolution of the trapping party. After reaching a point where the Gallatin, Jefferson and Madison Rivers meet, known today as Three Forks, Montana, the trio managed to maintain their partnership for only about two months. 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 1806-07. However, Wyoming historian J.K. Rollinson asserts 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 1806-07, Colter had grown restless with taking shelter and ascended the canyon