Productive hot spring
Runoff discharge
Firehole river
In the first federally funded government research survey ever conducted in North American, the prominent trailblazer and geologist Dr. Ferdinand V. Hayden led an expedition specifically to explore the Yellowstone geothermal area. Although primarily a scientific and economic campaign, the artist Thomas Moran was significantly a consequential member on the mission. Hayden believed in the power of the visual illustrative image to augment any written-word descriptive passage.
“The results of this season’s exploration attracted the widest interest, and Congress readily complied with Dr. Hayden’s recommendation that the region he had last explored be set apart as a National Park.” – Charles A. White