GRAND TETON NATURE NOTES

THOMAS MORAN

by Willis Smith
ranger-naturalist

Nineteen thirty seven marks the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of one of America's greatest landscape artists. Western America, and especially the National Parks owe to Thomas Moran a debt of gratitude for it was he who first caught the gorgeous colors of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and placed them on canvas for future generations to enjoy. It was this painting, made while a guest of the Hayden Survey party of 1871, along with the photography of his friend and colleague William H. Jackson, that were so instrumental in the setting aside of the Yellowstone wonderland as a public pleasuring ground "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people". During the next three years Thomas Moran painted in Yosemite Valley, Canyons of southern Utah and Arizona, and in Colorado. Each of these areas in turn has taken its place in our National Park System. In the building of this distinctly American institution, Thomas Moran holds an honorable place.

William H. Jackson gives us an intimate sketch of his character as he knew him as a member of the Hayden Survey party in 1871. "He was 34 years old at this time, of slight and frail physique, and did not seem to be of the kind to endure the strenuous life of the wilderness. But he was wiry and active in getting about, and keenly enthusiastic about his participation in work of the expedition. He had never camped out before except for a single night's bivouc on the shore of Lake Superior ten years previous. This was his first experience in the Rocky Mountain regions, coming out entirely unacquainted with his associates or with the country itself and all that related to it. But he made the adventure with fine courage and quickly adapted himself to the new and unfamiliar conditions, and as it turned out later, none was more untiring on the trail or less mindful of unaccustomed food or hard bed under a little shelter tent than he was. At home, fastidious and careful of his diet, with a strong aversion to fats, he wrote in one of his letters about camp life "you should see me bolt the bacon".

"His personal equipment was simple, like that of everyone else, little attention being given to special outing costumes for the occasion. Flannel shirts and heavy boots, into which the trousers were tucked, were the main stay, with overcoat and blanket roll as a necessary adjunct. Moran had never ridden a horse before, and while getting acustomed to the experience, he was quite unabashed in using his camp pillow to protect his rather spare anatomy from the hard lines of a McClellan saddle. But, despite his lack of horsemanship, he made a picturesque appearance when mounted. The jaunty tilt of his sombrero, long yellowish beard and portfolio under his arm marked the artistic type, with something of local color imparted by a rifle hung from the saddle horn."

In September, 1872, the Stevenson division of the Hayden party came down into Jackson Hole after leaving the Yellowstone country. It was they who named one of the most imposing peaks of the Teton Range after Moran. This peak rises majestically more than a mile above beautiful Jackson Lake and it is fitting that it should carry the name of this great artist.

The Grand Teton National Park Museum has among its exhibits two original paintings, one charcoal drawing, and three pencil sketches of Thomas Moran's. These paintings and sketches were made in 1879 when Moran, with a military escort commanded by his friend Captain A.H. Bainbridge, visited the Teton Range from the west. The following incident of this trip, taken from Moran's diary that is owned by the Grand Teton National Park Museum well shows that Moran had a keen sense of humor that is also reflected in the above character sketch by W. H. Jackson.

"August 25. After camp had been finally disposed of, three men and the Indian were sent out to hunt. They had not been gone more than an hour before we heard several shots and concluded they had found something. Soon after they returned and the Indian had shot three out of five deer they had come upon. One was lost in packing as the mule objected strongly to carry dead animals so but two were brought into camp. They were mule deer which may have had something to do with the objections of the mules to carrying them."

On the same day Moran makes an entry as follows: "We were out of bed this morning at 5:30. It was cold and ice had formed on the tin cups. In an hour we were underway over what appeared to be a smooth rolling country, but as we advanced we found our mistake. Every mile we found a gulch bordered with aspen and in depth from 100 to 200 feet, but we had no difficulty in crossing the divide between Teton Basin and our last camp. The Tetons loomed up grandly against the sky, and from this point it is perhaps the finest pictorial range in the United States if not in North America."

From near this point he made the painting "The Three Tetons" that now hangs in the museum at Jenny Lake.

Thomas Moran had a photographic eye which made it possible to create in his tent at night and even in the studio after leaving the region, pictures of marvelous beauty and accuracy. He delighted in drawing and painting the rocks of his foreground with such accuracy of texture and color that the geologists of the party could identify them. His critics have accused him of being at times too idealistic and pictorial with his mountain canvases, but Moran loved these western scenes, and put into them the beauties that were in his heart.