Sign In

Dramatic Rock Formations in Yellowstone River Canyon, Wyoming

An original photograph by the renowned American photographer William Henry Jackson, capturing the striking columnar basalt formations at the brink of Yellowstone Canyon near Tower Falls in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. As the official photographer for the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey under the direction of F. V. Hayden, Jackson gained fame for his pioneering images of the American West. This photograph exemplifies his mastery of composition and detail, emphasizing the geometric patterns of the basalt columns. Jackson’s work is distinguished by its blend of scientific documentation and artistic sensibility, offering both an accurate geological record and an evocative portrayal of the region’s natural beauty.

Taken during F. V. Hayden's 1878 U.S. Geological Survey of the Territories for the Department of the Interior, the image depicts the dramatic columnar rock formations of the Yellowstone River Canyon. It was originally issued on the official Hayden Survey printed mount.

This photograph is also known by the title Columnar Basalts Capping the Brink of Yellowstone Canyon, Tower Falls.

The Hayden Survey -- The Greatest of the Four Great Surveys

The late 1860s and early 1870s saw four great surveys of the American West: the King Survey, which mapped the region around the 40th parallel; the Wheeler Survey, which attempted (unsuccessfully) to map the whole of the territories and western states at a moderate scale; the Powell Survey, which focused on the southwest and the Grand Canyon region; and finally the Hayden survey, which surveyed the territory of Colorado as well as the last great unmapped region of the Lower Forty-Eight: the Yellowstone Basin.

Each year, Hayden would subdivide his team into four groups, each consisting of a number of geologists, cartographic experts, and scientists, with each group assigned to a specific area. Hayden would always reserve the most interesting of the regions for himself, but the groups would be spread out across the Rocky Mountains and western Plains. The Hayden Surveys achieved a number of geological breakthroughs in 1869, when they discovered that the Rockies' main range is anticlinal, that the tertiary system from New Mexico to Canada is all from the same system, that the Rockies formed after the Cretaceous, and that the lower ranges are monoclinal.

Through his early research, Hayden had already traveled extensively in the west, but these discoveries led to his increased focus on the region. In 1870, the US Geological and Geographical Survey was formed under Hayden, and he was given liberal allowance to conduct a survey of the region. 

The first two full years of the Hayden Survey, 1871-72 were dedicated to northwestern Wyoming and were some of the most productive. Up until then, the Yellowstone had been briefly explored by two previous surveys, including the Folsom-Cook and the Washburn-Langford-Doane expeditions of 1869 and 1870 respectively. However, these surveys lacked the resources of the Hayden Surveys: full government support, tens of thousands of dollars, and over sixty men. The Hayden Survey relentlessly worked on the territory, and its reports -- most notably through the stunning photographs by William H. Jackson -- were the reason why the senate approved Yellowstone as the nation's first national park in 1871.

In 1873, the War department prevented further geological work from being undertaken in Wyoming, so Hayden moved on to Colorado.  Hayden expected Colorado to soon become an important region because of the arrival of the railroads, and thus decided to expend enormous resources in order to create what would be one of the most extensive regional surveys anywhere in the world. The survey for that state would be completed by 1877 and published in its own atlas. After finishing the Colorado survey, Hayden returned to the Wyoming region to wrap up that survey, for which the maps and charts were made available in 1878.