Mathews, Exit of the Yellowstone

Lithograph from
Pencil Sketches of Montana
by A. E. Mathews
Published by the author in New York, in 1868

lfred E. Mathews, a veteran of the 31st Ohio Volunteers in the Civil War, and famous for his on-the-spot drawings of battle scenes, especially "The Siege of Vicksburg" (1863), was one of the first American artists to focus attention strictly on the scenic highlights of the West, with a book of sketches of the Colorado Rockies (1866), and another of views of mountains along the Union Pacific Railroad (1869). The land now called Montana "charming country," and was especially struck by the beauty of the setting depicted in his "Exit of the Yellowstone from the Mountains."

Nothing can exceed the grandeur of the mountain scenery of the upper Yellowstone.

The scene above hasn't changed much since Clark and his contingent saw it in July of 1806 (except the many pronghorns they saw would have real horns instead of imaginary ones).

Allenspur Dam, first conceived in 1902, and nearly built in the 1970s, would have changed it forever. The elevation of the riverbed at this point is about 4,540 feet above mean sea level; the summit of Canyon Mountain, on the right (west) side of the defile, is at 8,038 feet MSL. The proposed earthfill dam would have towered 380 feet above the river.

The view represents its exit from these mountains, as seen from a point three miles below, and thirty miles from Bozeman. At the time the sketch was made (1867) no white inhabitants lived in the valley below the canyon, but several mining camps had been established in the mountains on the river and some of its tributaries.

The Yellowstone is one of the most peculiar rivers on the continent; and is 1,600 miles in length. It is this stream and some of its tributaries that give to the Missouri its turbid appearance. Their waters, however, are all clear until nearing the Bad Lands, a region destitute of vegetation and without springs or small streams.

What all these figures represent--besides the fact that Clark was in a hurry to get home, and we all know what that does to our feeling about distance — is that as of 1867, much remained to be done to consummate the geographic and cartographic work begun by him, and it happened very quickly after the Civil War. The upper Yellowstone River was explored by the Folsom-Cook expedition in 1869², and by the Hayden expedition of 1871; Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872; the United States Geological Survey was established in 1879.

One of Mathews' prefatory comments is especially illuminating with regard to the character and quality of early photographs, and thought-provoking in the context of early 21st century graphic values.

The author has frequently been asked why he did not take a Photographic Instrument along, in order to photograph Mountain scenery; for it is generally supposed that a photograph of Mountain scenery is always perfectly accurate. This, however, is far from being the case. In taking a picture, the lens of an instrument must be adjusted to focus on a certain object or objects; and all others more distant, or nearer, will be more or less indistinct. Another disadvantage of an instrument is that objects near at hand are magnified, while those farther off are reduced in size. So apparent is this defect in large photographs of persons that a small picture is now first taken, and afterwards copied and enlarged. Shadows, too, are apt to be deepened and lights intensified. A good artist can, with ordinary care, produce a more accurate and pleasing picture with the pencil or brush.

--Joseph Mussulman

1. River Mile Index of the Yellowstone River. Water Resources Division, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (September 1976). River measurement today is based on the thalweg, German for "valley way," which is the line defining the lowest points along a river bed. Clark's measurement was based on his estimates of the distance from one landmark to the next, day by day, throughout the course of his journey. Thus Clark's estimates, had they been correct, should have been shorter than the modern thalweg measurement.

2. See William Goetzmann and Glyndwr Williams, The Atlas of North American Exploration From the Norse Voyages to the Race to the Pole (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1992), 176-77.