Wyoming Photographs
This Page: Hayden Expedition, William Henry Jackson, Chief Washakie, Treaty of Ft. Laramie, P. T. Sheridan

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Hayden Expedition between Yellowstone and East Fork Rivers, 1871

Note odometer, cart like device, used by mappers to estimate distances traveled. Ferdinand Hayden, director of the U.S. Geological Survey, led an expedition to Yellowstone at the urgings of Nathaniel P Langford. Although Yellowstone had earlier been explored by John Coulter in 1808 and in the 1820's by Jim Bridger their tales were generally not believed because of their reputations for exageration. Two years before the Hayden Expedition, a party led by Henry Washburn, Surveyor General of Montana Territory, after whom Mt. Washburn is named, explored Yellowstone and named many of the geysers.

Thomas Moran with fish, Hayden Expedition, 1871, Photo by Wm. H. Jackson

Notwithstanding the Washburn Expedition, Hayden's photographer, William Henry Jackson, was the first to photograph Old Faithful in eruption. Click here for the Eastman collection of 448 Jackson photos. Others in the expedition included Clinton Hart Merriam who, at the time, was only 16 years old and photographer Thomas Moran, after whom Mt. Moran, pictured on Photos III, is named, who also did a number of watercolors. Moran volunteered to be included in the expedition at his own expense, notwithstanding that he had never ridden horseback before and was so scrawny that he often had to use a pillow on his saddle. In his expedition of 1873-1874, Hayden was the first Anglo-American to observe the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in Western Colorado. He pronounced it inaccessible. For more on F. V. Hayden and Wm. H. Jackson see Photos IV.

Marsh Expedition of 1870

Other expeditions into Wyoming about the same time included four expeditions under the leadership of Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale University between 1868 and 1873 to gather fossils. The 1870 expedition, see picture left, received the cooperation of Wm. T. Sherman, who assigned several scouts to the party including for the first leg, Wm. F. Cody. Pictured, left to right, George Bird Grinnell, Bill the cook, Charles Wyllys Betts, O.C. Marsh (standing), Alexander Hamilton Ewing, Henry Bradford Sargent, Eli Whitney (grandson of the inventor), Harry D. Ziegler, Charles T. Ballard, John Reed Nickolson, Charles McC. Reeve(? possibly John Wool Griswold), Charles Matson Russell. Grinnell later became the senior editor and publisher of Forest and Stream which was influential in the American conservation movement. Grinnell was invited by George Armstong Custer to accompany his 1876 expedition into the Black Hills as the expedition's naturalist. Fortuitously, Grinnell had another engagement and declined. He also was the founder of the original Audubon Society (discontinued in Jan. 1889) and is regarded as the "Father of Glacier National Park".

Chief Washakie (left, with hand extended) 1892 at Ft. Washakie

Ft. Washakie was the only U.S. miltary installation named after an American Indian Chief. Chief Washakie, the last principal chief of the Shoshone, became chief in 1840. He served with 150 other Shoshone men under General Crook in the 1870's. Sacagawea, who served as guide and interpreter for the Lewis and Clark expedition and featured on the one dollar coin, served as his translator. Sacagawea died on April 9, 1884 and is buried along with her son, Brazil, at Ft. Washakie. Chief Washakie died in 1900 at over the age of 100 and was given full military honors because of his service with the military. During World War II liberty ship No. 0613 was named after him.

Reception for Pres. Arthur, Ft. Washakie, 1883.

In 1883 President Arthur toured Ft. Washakie, The Tetons and Yellowstone. The party of 12, riding entirely by horseback, included a Lt. General, the Secretary of War and one United States senator. Couriers were stationed every 20 miles with fresh horses to provide communication for the presidential party to the "outside world". The official photographer, F.Jay Haynes (1853-1921), maintained a successful business operating out of a palace car on the Northern Pacific, later became an official photographer for the Canadian Pacific taking pictures primarily in the area of Lake Winnipeg, and eventually became the official photographer for Yellowstone Park in which position he was succeeded by son, Jack Ellis Haynes (1884-1967). Jack and his wife had hoped that the family business would continued to be carried out by their only child, Lida Haynes. Unfortunately, she died in an automobile accident in 1952 at the age of 20. More than 24,000 glass and film negatives from the Haynes collection are now on deposit with the Montana Historical Society.


Construction workers near Ft. Washakie, Wyo., 1898

This scene is of road workers on the military road from Ft. Washakie to Buffalo Fork (near present Moran) in the Northeastern part of Jackson Hole. The picture was taken near the summit of To-Gwo-Tee Pass. The Pass was named by Capt. Wm. A. Jones, a topographic engineer who conducted an exploratory expedition in the summer of 1873. The Pass was named after Jones' Indian guide. Jones later became noted for landscaping the Presidio in San Francisco.


Man Afraid of His Horses

Ceremonial smoking of pipe by Oglala Chief, Man Afraid of his Horses, at Ft. Laramie as part of treaty negoiations. The name "Man Afraid of His Horses" was a family name born by several generations in the same family. The photograph is most likely that of Man Afraid of His Horses, the Elder, who was reported to have been at the treaty negotiations. The Treaty of Ft. Laramie was concluded in 1868. The same year, Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, and presidental candidate U.S. Grant toured parts of Colorado as well as Ft. Sanders and Cheyenne, Wyo. Stage transportation was provided without charge by Wells Fargo & Company. One leg of the journey, Cheyenne Wells to Denver (170 miles), was accomplished in one day.

Ft. Sanders was located two miles south of the present City of Laramie. Congress voted to repeal the Treaty in 1877.

Noon Meal,
Powell Expedition, Green River, 1871

Powell's first expedition which put in from Green River City, Wyoming on May 24, 1869 is the most famous, being the one which constituted the first trip through the Grand Canyon. The Second Expedition was, however, more scientific and better funded with Congress appropriating $10,000. It included a geologist and photographers. The first photographer E.O. Beaman quit the expedition at Lee's Crossing and was succeeded by Jack Hillers, a teamster from Salt Lake City.


"Waiting"-Frank Jay Haynes, 1890

Wm. T. Sherman in council, Ft. Laramie, 1867, A. Gardner

Seated in the center is Gen. Wm. S. Harney (with the white beard), one of the lesser known Union Civil War commanders. To the right is Sherman. Harney's military encounters included the Battle of Blue Water Creek discussed in Photos IV and the "Pig War" with Great Britain in 1859 in which a shooting war almost broke out between Royal Marines and U.S. forces under Harney's command over the killing of a British pig rooting in an American garden on San Juan Island. For his involvement he was officially rebuked. By 1861 Harney was commander of the Union Army of the West. Suspected of being a Southern sympathizer he was relieved of command. While attempting to report to Washington he was captured by the Confederates, held for a time and released. In 1863, he was brevetted brigadier general and retired. Harney's involvement in the negotiations did not go without criticism. Col. William Bullock, manager of the Ward and Bullock store at Fort Laramie, wrote in July 1868:

I very much fear the treaty made here with the Indian will amount to nothing more than a renewal of hostilities on the part of the Indians and a peace never accomplished as long as Government sends such imbecils out to treat with them as Genl. Harney and his like."

The photographer, Alexander Gardner, 1821-1882, during the Civil War was a part of the Brady studios and is most famous for his photos of Antietam and the "cracked plate" photo of Lincoln taken Feb. 5, 1865. Following the war he was the photographer for the 1867-1868 survey party laying out a proposed route for the Union Pacific. 127 photos were taken but no complete portfolio is now known to exist.


P.H.Sheridan, C.D.Mosher, 1876

Sherman was succeeded in 1869 as commander of the Army's Division of the Missouri by Philip H. Sheridan, "Little Phil" (because of his stature, 5 Ft. 5 in., wt. 115 lbs.), who conducted a ruthless war against the Cheyenne. Although he was adament in his denial of the expression often attributed to him that "The only good Indian is a dead Indian", he publicly expressed that he had no remorse over the killing of woman and children when it became necessary to attack a village. As a part of his campaign, he appointed Wm. F. Cody as chief scout of the Fifth Cavalry. Cody was awarded, for gallantry, the Congressional Medal of Honor, revoked shortly after Cody's death. See Photos V

C.D.Mosher, the photographer, modestly referring to himself as the "National Historical Photographer to Posterity" presented the above photo, with others, to the City of Chicago to be opened at America's bicentennial in 1976. Meanwhile, Mosher made the photos available to the public at $3.00 per dozen.

Leaving Ft. Washakie in August 1882, Sheridan led a unit of over 120 men on an inspection of western Wyoming and southern Montana. Guided by a hunter named Geer, they became the first white Americans to traverse the Beartooth Mountains blocking the direct route to Billings. The Beartooth Highway, opened in 1936, follows Sheridan's route.