Finely executed view of the junction of the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers, from Maximilian, Prince of Wied's Travels in the Interior of North America, during the years 1832-1834.
The view provides a fine image of the confluence of the Missouri River and the Yellowstone River near Williston, North Dakota. Prince Maximilian and his party traveled aboard the steamer Assiniboine up the Missouri River to Fort Union, near the junction of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers, arriving on June 24, 1833, after a 75-mile trip up the Missouri River from St. Louis. They remained for two weeks before proceeding by keelboat to Fort McKenzie. Fort Union was the northernmost point of steamer traffic and was located on a low open prairie large enough for the encampments of the Indian trading partners who would arrive each trading season.
Karl Bodmer was engaged by Prince Maximilian zu Wied-Neuwied to provide a record of his travels in North America, with his final destination being time spent among the Plains Indians. Along with Davide Dreidoppel (Prince Maximilian's servant and hunting companion), the trio travelled 1832 to 1834. They arrived in Boston in July 1832 and traveled on to Philadelphia, where they stayed with Napoleon Bonaparte's elder brother Joseph. From there they headed west across Pennsylvania across the Alleghenies to Pittsburgh and the Ohio country, visiting all the important German settlements en route.
The most important stop on their route west was at the utopian colony of New Harmony in Indiana. The Prince spent five months there in the company of some of the country's leading scientific men, and studying all the relevant literature on backcountry America. The trip into the Plains region commenced in March 1833.