The Life of Yellowstone Kelly

Luther Sage "Yellowstone" Kelly (1849-1928) was neither flamboyant nor a braggart; he felt no need to embellish stories of his accomplishments. It was this modesty that has allowed Kelly to almost disappear from the pages of history. Until now, that is. Thanks to Jerry Keenan's dogged research we now have the first full-length biography of this extraordinary man, who knew the frontier of the American West and recorded his impressions of that time and place with a fluid, literary pen.

Kelly was born in Geneva, in the Finger Lakes region of western New York. He joined the army at the close of the Civil War, spending three years at lonely outposts in Minnesota and Dakota. At the conclusion of his enlistment, he headed west to begin life as a frontiersman, explorer, and army scout and came to know the Upper Missouri and Yellowstone River valleys as well as any white man of his era.

In mid-life, he explored Alaska, fought in the Philippines, and served as agent at the San Carlos Apache reservation in Arizona. Later, he prospected in Nevada before finally retiring to the quiet life of a California orchardist.

In preparing this biography, Jerry Keenan used Kelly's memoirs and personal correspondence, along with a variety of primary and secondary sources, to produce a comprehensive look at this remarkable man who knew many prominent figures of his era, including George Bird Grinnell, Col. Nelson A. Miles, William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, and President Theodore Roosevelt.