150 Years Young

From Native Americans to early artist-explorers to contemporary painters, Yellowstone is a beacon in the West

By John O’Hern

John Colter (ca. 1775-1813) was a member of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the West from 1803 to 1806, when he left the returning expedition to join up with fur traders, eventually becoming the first of what would be called “mountain men.” In 1807 to 1808 he took off on his own on a trek that would take him to the wonders of Yellowstone, the first non-Indian thought to have seen them. His descriptions of erupting geysers and hot springs caused people to refer to the area as “Colter’s Hell.”Jim Wilcox, Golden Canyon—50th Anniversary Painting, oil, 50 x 50”. Courtesy Wilcox Gallery, Jackson, WY.

In 1871, Ferdinand V. Hayden led a government-sponsored survey of Yellowstone that produced reports complete with professional sketches by Thomas Moran (1837-1926) and photographs by William Henry Jackson (1843-1942). Based on that report, President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Yellowstone Act of 1872, which set aside America’s first landscape to be “reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale…and dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

“The people” did not include the Shoshone, Bannock and other Indigenous people who had occupied and used the resources of the Yellowstone region for 11,000 years. The early marketing of Yellowstone praised it as pristine and untouched by human hands. Douglas H. MacDonald, author of Before Yellowstone, observes, “Pretty much anywhere you’d want to pitch a tent, there are artifacts. Like us, Native Americans liked to camp on flat ground, close to water, with a beautiful view.” The tribes understood when they were removed beyond the park boundaries that they would still have hunting rights as guaranteed in an 1868 treaty. The government reneged on that guarantee.Thomas Moran (1837-1926), Above Tower Falls, Yellowstone, 1872, watercolor and gouache on paper sheet, 15 x 10½”. Smithsonian American Art Museum. Gift of Mrs. Armistead Peter III, 1958.5.3.

Shoshone land stretched from the Salt Lake region in Utah to the Tetons South of Yellowstone and included land that is now part of the park. The tribe’s original 44 million acres are now just over 2 million comprising the Wind River Indian Reservation established in 1868. The location was chosen by Chief Washakie, a savvy negotiator and leader who later wrote, “The white man kills our game, captures our furs, and sometimes feeds his herds upon our meadows. And your great and mighty government-oh sir, I hesitate, for I cannot tell the half! It does not protect our rights…I say again, the government does not keep its word!”Dave McGary (1958-2013), Chief Washakie, 2000, bronze, 11’. Courtesy Architect of the Capitol, Washington, D.C.William Henry Jackson was the official photographer for the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories from 1870 to 1878. The photograph of Washakie’s Camp in South Pass Photograph by W.H. Jackson. Southern foothills of Wind River Mountain, Wyo. 1870 depicts the camp south of the park.

The U.S. Capitol’s sculpture collection was established to invite each state to contribute two sculptures of deceased people “illustrious for their historic renown.” In 2000, the State of Wyoming commissioned Dave McGary to create an 11-foot sculpture of Chief Washakie to represent their state.

Recognition of Chief Washakie is being echoed this year in the preparations for the 150th anniversary celebration of Yellowstone. The National Park Service noted, “To honor Indigenous ways of life practiced in the area long before 1872 and explore how we can work together to create a brighter future, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho Tribes of the Wind River Reservation welcomed all Tribal Nations and people to gather online March 1 to commemorate the park’s anniversary while elevating the Tribal community’s voice in conserving and managing Yellowstone.Virginia Bradley, Yellowstone 2, 2019, oil on canvas, 58 x 50”. Courtesy the artist.Yellowstone is working with numerous Tribes to establish a temporary teepee village at the park’s North Entrance from August 23 to 28. Visitors will have the opportunity to interact with tribal members to learn about their heritage and culture. Event partners include Mountain Time Arts, Greater Yellowstone Coalition, National Parks Conservation Association, Park County Environmental Council, and Yellowstone Forever.”

Thomas Moran made pencil sketches and small watercolors wherever he went, developing them into full-scale works back in his studio in Newark, New Jersey. Jackson attested to the “wonderful coloring” of Moran’s watercolors being the primary influence on Congress’ preserving Yellowstone. The watercolor Above Tower Falls, Yellowstone, 1872, is both dramatic and suggestive.

Jim Wilcox’s Golden Canyon—50th Anniversary Painting, is of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. His son Jeff relates, “This was painted for Wilcox Gallery’s 50th anniversary, so ‘golden’ has two meanings. He wanted this to be a significant painting, and he has always loved the power of that waterfall and all of the fun colors in the canyon walls contrasting against the blues and greens in the water.”William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Washakie’s Camp in South Pass Photograph by W. H. Jackson. Southern foothills of Wind River Mountain, Wyo. 1870. Courtesy American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY.Wilcox lives in the scenes he paints with his home, studio and gallery facing a national elk refuge near Jackson Hole. He often paints in the field and returns to the studio with his small sketches and photographs to make a finished painting. He says, “I think it’s the duty of the artist to try to give somebody a feeling like the artist had when he was there.”William Henry Jackson (1843-1942), Chief Washakie’s Shoshone Camp in the foothills of the Wind Mountains near South Pass on September 3, 1870.Virginia Bradley explored the colors of Yellowstone up close in abstract renderings of the Fountain Paint Pots in the Gibbon Geyser Basin. She says, “Shades of blue, red, yellow, orange, gray and brown are present in the water and mud creating varying combinations of textures and color. The differing colors are derived from oxidation of the iron in the mud. Rising gases and heat cause the bubbling action in the Paint Pots…The very cold nights were contrasted with warm days which created a rich, steamy and colorful world to investigate.” Yellowstone 2 is from her award-winning Yellowstone Series.

She explains, “Water and environmental issues have been an underlying theme in my painting research…Alchemy and the performative process of painting are the foundation of my painting process. The alchemical process in the work is activated by the physical activity of pouring, sanding, drawing, building and subtracting into and onto the painting surfaces in many layers. Transparent film and silk are used as a foundation for the works and their natures correlate to the underlying theme of water in the research.” —