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the U.S. Geological & Geographical Survey of the Territories, as
his survey would eventually be known—most commonly referred
to as the Hayden Survey. With each year, Hayden expanded the
survey’s appropriations and geographic scope, and by 1879 it had
scaled up to work large expanses of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah,
Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming.
Following stories and his own curiosity, Hayden’s survey finally
set sights on the upper Yellowstone River in 1871. The roster
included naturalists, scientists, and topographers, as well as pho-
tographer William Henry Jackson and artist Thomas Moran. The
expedition’s maps would be the first to coherently tie that region
together, and the images by Jackson and Moran along with
Hayden’s lobbying efforts and an advanced copy of his survey’s
report proved to be crucial pieces in the 1872 decision to set aside
Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. Hayden (and
Yellowstone) benefited from fame from the 1871 expedition, but
his genuine appreciation of the landscape is writ large. “But no
language can do justice to the wonderful grandeur and beauty”
Figure 2: Hayden and horse at camp in 1870. W.H. Jackson photo, USGS- he remarked of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, and of
jwh01647. Yellowstone Lake, “…one of the most beautiful scenes I have ever
beheld” (Hayden, 1872).
tributaries into Wyoming on a topographical survey in 1856, made
collections in Nebraska in 1857, and worked with Meek in Kansas LASTING CONTRIBUTIONS
in 1858. In 1859–1860 he was on a 15-month military expedition Despite meager beginnings, Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden
that circled what is now known as the Greater Yellowstone persevered to make an illustrious career. Arguably, his contribu-
Ecosystem, but due to difficult terrain the party could not navigate tions have had lasting effects on American institutions. For one,
into the source region of the Yellowstone River. his lobbying for appropriations essentially normalized govern-
Meanwhile, Hayden was becoming a major scientific contender. ment-funded science. Furthermore, although only one of the four
Still in his 20s, in 1856 he was elected to the Academy of Natural “Great Surveys of the West,” some considered his to be the model
Sciences of Philadelphia and with Meek published their first of for the U.S. Geological Survey (Picard, 2010) established in 1879.
many joint publications. His first geologic map was published in He wanted to head that survey too, but it would be two other west-
1857. By 1861, Hayden lived in Washington, D.C., where he sum- ern survey leaders, Clarence King, then John Wesley Powell, who
marized his work to that point in the large volume Geology and took the role before Hayden’s death in 1887. Competition aside,
Natural History of the Upper Missouri. In 1862, he published what however, Hayden’s legacy perseveres, as his 1871 expedition was
might have been the first claim that western North America had not only a turning point for himself and his survey, but also for
uplifted since Cretaceous time. land conservation and the American people.

HAYDEN’S SURVEY AND YELLOWSTONE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Civil War derailed Hayden’s mounting field endeavors. He This article would not have been possible without Dr. Renee Clary. Thacker
joined the Union Army in 1862 and was assigned to several medical wishes to acknowledge the numerous peoples affected by the Western surveys,
posts. Albeit he managed to collect some specimens from his post in the results of which were used intentionally and unintentionally to displace them.
Beaufort, South Carolina (Foster, 1994). In June 1865, he was hon-
orably discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel by brevet. In REFERENCES 3
November 1865, Hayden was appointed auxiliary professor of geol- Foster, M., 1994, Strange Genius: The Life of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden:
ogy and mineralogy at the University of Pennsylvania, with an 464 p., ISBN 978-1570980046.
arrangement that his duties would not interfere with western explo- Fryxell, F.M., 2010, Ferdinand Hayden: A Young Scientist in the Great West
1853–1855: Rock Island, Augustana Historical Society, 281 p.
ration (White, 1894). Hayden kept the position until 1872. Hayden, F.V., 1872, Fifth Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey of the
Nebraska statehood in 1867 granted Hayden his next hard- Territories, Preliminary report of the U.S. Geological Survey of Montana
earned break, when Congress appointed him to direct the and Portions of Adjacent Territories (for 1871), p. 13–165.
Geological Survey of Nebraska with a mere US$5,000 from unex- Picard, M.D., 2010, Revisiting the life and scientific reputation of Ferdinand
Vandeveer Hayden: Rocky Mountain Geology, v. 45, p. 73–81, https://doi
pended legislative funds (White, 1894). Hayden had lobbied to .org/10.2113/gsrocky.45.1.73.
conduct a survey there since the 1850s, and his appointment was White, C.A., 1894, Memoir of Ferdinand Vandiveer [sic] Hayden, 1839–1887:
essentially uncontested (Foster, 1994). This was the virtual start to National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoirs, p. 395–413.

3 Hayden’s 1853 correspondence with Baird and Hall are from Foster (1994) and Fryxell (2010).
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