On September 29 [1869], the three explorers started for home.... Like earlier Yellowstone visitors ..., the three men were reluctant to tell others what they had seen, not wanting to be branded as liars. When the word got out, they were branded anyway, at least by some. When an account of their journey was submitted to the New York Times and either Scribner's Monthly or Harper's, all publications rejected the manuscript because 'they had a reputation that they could not risk with such unreliable material.'
Bozeman and the Gallatin Valley: A History