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:
We trace the creation of the park from the Folsom-Cook expedition of 1869 to the Washburn expedition of 1870, and thence to the Hayden expedition (U. S. Geological Survey) of 1871, Not to one of these expeditions more than to another do we owe the legislation which set apart this "pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people"
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 41.227744°N 111.961193°W / 41.227744; -111.961193 (Ogden, Utah), 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 43.491775°N 112.032509°W / 43.491775; -112.032509 (Taylor's Bridge) (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 44.55861°N 112.30556°W / 44.55861; -112.30556 (Monida Pass). Hayden and his survey party reached Virginia City, Montana 45.294107°N 111.94123°W / 45.294107; -111.94123 (Virginia City, Montana) 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, 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 late on July 20, 1871.
Yellowstone region
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