The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 explored the region of northwestern Wyoming that later became Yellowstone National Park in 1872. It was led by geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden. The 1871 geological survey was not Hayden's first, but it was the first federally funded geological survey to explore and further document features in the region soon to become Yellowstone National Park, and played a prominent role in convincing the U.S. Congress to pass the legislation creating the park. In 1894, Nathaniel P. Langford, the first park superintendent and a member of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition which explored the park in 1870, wrote this about the Hayden expedition:
— Nathaniel P. Langford
Origins
The 1871 Hayden survey had its roots in the Pacific Railroad Survey bill passed by Congress in 1853 to find the best routes for railroads from the Mississippi to the Pacific coast. The bill spawned an era of federally funded Great Surveys undertaken by the Department of the Interior after the Civil War that brought together explorers, engineers, scientists and topographers in a common effort to chart the western U.S. Hayden along with John Wesley Powell, Clarence King and George Wheeler were the leaders of these great surveys.
In March 1871, a sum of $40,000 was appropriated by Congress to finance Hayden's fifth survey to explore mostly the territories of Idaho and Montana. Hayden was very familiar with Jay Cooke's desire to promote the Yellowstone region for the Northern Pacific Railroad and had attended Nathaniel P. Langford's January 1871 lecture in Washington, D.C., on the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition to Yellowstone of the previous year. The $40,000 that was granted for Hayden's expedition was not available until July 1, the beginning of the fiscal year; however, the determined Hayden was still able to organize and equip his expedition with the help of the US Army, Fort Bridger and the railroads. After the passage of the Sundry Civil bill, Hayden immediately applied to the Secretary of War for permission to draw on equipment, stores, and transportation at frontier army posts. This was authorized, together with a small escort "when deemed necessary and the public service will permit." Likewise, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads agreed to carry Hayden's men and equipment without cost.
Hayden had an experienced assistant, James Stevenson. In 1866, Stevenson accompanied Hayden into the badlands of Dakota Territory in a search for minerals and fossils, and from that time on he was Hayden's assistant in every venture until the Hayden Survey was merged with those of King and Powell to form the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879.
The two were now able to outfit and equip members of Hayden's survey at Fort D. A. Russell in Wyoming and transport the equipment, subsistence, wagons, and animals he would need by rail to Ogden, Utah, where a base camp had been set up in May on an old lake terrace a mile east of the city. During the weeks leading up to the expedition the scientists and other men were to make up the party that would venture into the Yellowstone region.
In the spring of 1871, Hayden selected the members of the survey team, 32 in all, from among friends and colleagues, seven previous survey participants, and a few political patrons. Included in the party was William Henry Jackson, his photographer from his 1870 survey and Thomas Moran, a guest artist arranged by Jay Cooke. Two of the members, the young mineralogist Albert Peale and the botanist George Allen, were respectively a student of Hayden's at the University of Pennsylvania and Hayden's Natural History professor at Oberlin College. Both Allen and Peale kept private journals of the expedition which when discovered in later years have brought great insight to the daily operations of the survey team.
Survey route
The survey officially began on June 8, 1871, when it departed Ogden, Utah 41°13′40″N 111°57′40″W / 41.227744°N 111.961193°W, although many survey members were already making observations and collecting specimens while the team was assembling in Salt Lake City and then Ogden. The party traveled north, reaching Taylor's Bridge 43°29′30″N 112°01′57″W / 43.491775°N 112.032509°W (now Idaho Falls) on the Snake River on June 25, 1871. On June 30, 1871, the survey party had reached into Montana, camping just over the Continental Divide near Monida Pass 44°33′31″N 112°18′20″W / 44.55861°N 112.30556°W. Hayden and his survey party reached Virginia City, Montana 45°17′39″N 111°56′28″W / 45.294107°N 111.94123°W on July 4, 1871, and Fort Ellis near Bozeman, Montana, on July 10, 1871. By this time, Thomas Moran, the guest artist had joined the survey. At Fort Ellis, both George Allen, the botanist and Cyrus Thomas, the agricultural statistician and entomologist, then left the party for health reasons, while José, the guide, joined the team. After resupplying and coordinating with the U.S. Army at Fort Ellis, the survey departed south along the Yellowstone River on July 15, 1871. For the next 45 days, the Hayden Survey would coordinate efforts with the Barlow-Heap expedition under the command of Colonel John W. Barlow, Chief Engineer for General Philip Sheridan that the U.S. Army was sending into Yellowstone at the same time.
As the survey team traveled up the Yellowstone River in what is now called Paradise Valley, they confirmed what Hayden already knew, that the trail was unsuitable for their wagons. Near Bottler's Ranch 45°19′30″N 110°47′33″W / 45.32500°N 110.79250°W, the last outpost in the valley near Emigrant Gulch, the survey team set up a base camp that would be used to assist in any communications or support needed while the team was in the Yellowstone region with Fort Ellis. Abandoning their wagons at the base camp, the survey headed into Yankee Jim Canyon 45°11′43″N 110°54′05″W / 45.19528°N 110.90139°W late on July 20, 1871.
Yellowstone region
On July 21, 1871, the Hayden survey entered the park region at the Gardner River proceeding up that river to what is now called Mammoth Hot Springs where they explored and camped for two days. At Mammoth, they found that two men, named J.C. McCartney and H. R. Horr, had laid claim to 320 acres (1.3 km2) and established a ranch and bath house on the Mammoth terraces near Liberty Cap. These entrepreneurs eventually established a primitive hotel at Mammoth and were not evicted from the area until many years after the park was established. On July 24, 1871, the survey team departed Mammoth en route to Tower Fall. They took a route very close to today's Mammoth-Tower road passing both Undine Falls 44°56′39″N 110°38′20″W / 44.94417°N 110.63889°W on Lava Creek and Wraith Falls 44°56′14″N 110°37′25″W / 44.93722°N 110.62361°W on Lupine Creek. They reached and camped at Tower Creek on July 25, 1871.
The survey team spent three days traveling around Mount Washburn and along the western edge of the Yellowstone River in Hayden Valley to reach its source at Yellowstone Lake on July 28, 1871. It was here that Lt. Gustavus C. Doane replaced Captain Tyler as commander of the military escort. En route they camped at Cascade Creek 44°43′00″N 110°29′58″W / 44.71667°N 110.49944°W near Yellowstone Falls where W. H. Jackson took the first known photographs of the falls. On July 28, 1871, some members of the Hayden party assembled a small boat from components they packed in from Fort Ellis and carved oars from nearby trees. The boat, Annie, was the first known boat to sail on the waters of Yellowstone Lake. Annie was used by several members of the party to explore the islands and take soundings of the lake. The first trip was made by James Stevenson and Henry Elliot to an island about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) offshore. Hayden named the island Stevenson Island 44°30′55″N 110°23′07″W / 44.51528°N 110.38528°W.
On July 31, 1871, Hayden and some members of his survey team left Yellowstone Lake (others stayed at the lake to tend the boat and supplies) and ventured back into the Hayden Valley where at the Crater Hills Geyser group they proceeded due west en route the geyser basins of the Madison River drainage. They eventually reached the headwaters of Nez Percé Creek 44°34′40″N 110°37′13″W / 44.57778°N 110.62028°W, traveling down the creek until they camped about 6 miles (9.7 km) from the Firehole River. The party spent several days in the Lower, Midway and Upper Geyser basins finally departing on August 6, 1871.
The survey followed the Firehole River upstream to Madison Lake 44°20′55″N 110°51′58″W / 44.34861°N 110.86611°W and then over the divide to Shoshone Lake eventually camping near Lost Lake about 6 miles (9.7 km) from the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake. On August 7, 1871, they camped and explored at West Thumb for two days. As some of the military escort were to travel back to Fort Ellis, the survey team took the opportunity to send back correspondence and a large amount of specimens collected to the Base Camp at Bottler's Ranch. In that correspondence was Hayden's Report No. 7 to Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Spencer Baird, a bit of which is excerpted below:
Yellowstone Lake, WY August 8th, 1871 – Dear Professor Baird, Your letters of June 6th and July 3rd were brought us from Fort Ellis by Lt. Doane who has just arrived to take command of our escort and accompany my party the remainder of the season. ... We arrived at the banks of the Yellow Stone Lake [sic] July 26th [actually July 28] and pitched our camp near the point where the river leaves the Lake. Hence we brought the first pair of wheels that ever came to the Lake with our Odometer. We launched the first Boat on the Lake, 4.5 feet wide and 11 feet long, with sails and oars. ... A chart of this soundings will be made. Points have been located with a prismatic compass all around the Lake. A man stands on the shore with a compass and takes a bearing to the man in the Boat as he drops the lead, giving a signal at the time. Then a man in the Boat takes a bearing to the fixed point on the shore where the first man is located and thus the soundings will be located on the chart. Henry Elliot and Mr. Carrington have just left in our little boat, the Annie. [They] will make a systematic sketch of the shore with all its indentations, with the banks down, indeed, making a complete topographical as well as pictorial sketch of the shores as seen from the water, for a circuit--of at least 130 miles. ... One of the islands has been explored. We have called it Stevenson's Island as he was undoubtedly the first human that ever set foot upon it. ... We found everything in the Geyser region even more wonderful than it has been represented. ... I send this back to you by James [Stevenson] who returns to our permanent camp for supplies. ... We hope to reach Fort Ellis about the 1st or 5th of September. Schönborn does splendid Topographical work. Write at once. Yours Truly, F. V. Hayden, I will send you some Photographs soon.
Between August 9 and August 19, 1871, the survey party traveled around the southern and eastern sides of Yellowstone Lake, crossing the Continental Divide twice and exploring the headwaters of the Yellowstone River. On August 19 they arrived at the northeast corner of the lake at Steamboat Point 44°31′54″N 110°17′34″W / 44.53167°N 110.29278°W (named by Hayden for steam jets nearby) near Turbid Lake where they camped for a few days in preparation for their return to the Yellowstone River via the East Fork (Lamar River). While camped at Steamboat Point, the party experienced two sizable earthquakes, one that Peale described as:
This morning [August 20] about 1 o'clock we had quite an earthquake. The first schock [sic] lasted about 20 seconds and was followed by five or six shorter ones. Duncan, who was on guard, says that the trees were shaken and that the horses that were lying on the ground sprang to their feet ... We had three shocks during the morning.