Thomas Moran and Me

Moran's paintings were what inspired me to first visit the National Park years ago

My first experience visiting Yellowstone National Park was in a small gallery in Sacramento, California. On the walls, in wild, vivid colors bubbling and splashing was a place so incredibly foreign yet intriguing to me. Could such a place exist? The American public over a hundred years ago asked the same question when rumors of this fiery, hellish wonderland came out of the western wild.

The artist tasked to find out was Thomas Moran. In 1871, as part of the Hayden Geological Survey, Moran spent time documenting and interpreting this geologic wonder. These paintings were the public’s first visual experience of the area and were influential in the creation of the National Park in 1872.