The House considered the same bill on February 27. Again, the question was raised as to whether the region should be left open for agricultural development. However, as in the Senate, the obvious value of the region as a scenic preserve made the task of the park’s advocates an easy one. The bill was readily passed with 115 yeas to 65 nays, and 60 not voting.
On March 1, 1872, President Grant signed the bill into law establishing the Yellowstone region as a public park, thus setting a major conservation precedent. The Nation had its first National Park; an area of unique beauty was set aside for the enjoyment of generations to come, and a tradition of preserving other such areas was established.
ABOUT THE FOLLOWING PHOTOGRAPHS....
The photographs in this section of the booklet were selected from those taken by William Henry Jackson during Hayden’s second Yellowstone Expedition in 1872, and reproduced from U. S. Corps of Engineers negatives maintained by the National Archives. Jackson, considered one of the foremost photographers of the early West, was the first man to photograph and publish many of these scenes of the Yellowstone. Jackson’s own captions describe the photographs on the following pages.
Photography in the field was an arduous affair one hundred years ago. On the Yellowstone Expedition, Jackson had to pack by mule both his large, cumbersome cameras and his darkroom—for exposed negatives had to be developed immediately.
Hayden was well aware of the artistic and practical worth of Jackson’s photographs. A series of Jackson photos served to illustrate his report on the Yellowstone Country which sparked the interest of government officials and the Public. The two men continued their association for many years, covering many expeditions.
Perhaps the most fitting testimonial of Jackson’s contributions to the 1871 Yellowstone Expedition was offered by a former Director of the National Park Service, who said:
“It was a singular stroke of fortune that the Hayden Expedition took with it to the Yellowstone land of miracles, the miracle of photography. The camera, in the hands of William H. Jackson, recorded for the first time the phenomena of the Yellowstone in a form that the most skeptical human eye could not dispute. These photographs helped as much as anything to convince Congress that the Yellowstone region should be set aside as a National Park.”
Title page for “Photographs of the Yellowstone National Park, etc.” by W. H. Jackson.