The Yellowstone National Park: Historical and Descriptive

by Hiram Martin Chittenden

MISCELLANEOUS FEATURES.

[Numbers in parentheses indicate altitudes.]

Craig Pass (8,300)—L: 6—1891—From the maiden name of Mrs. Ida Craig Wilcox, the first tourist to cross the pass.

FERDINAND VANDIVEER HAYDEN

Hayden Valley (7,800)—H-J: 8-10-1878—U.S.G.S. For the eminent American geologist, Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, M.D., LL. D., whose important part in the history of the Yellowstone National Park has been fully set forth in previous pages. The following condensed sketch of his life is from the pen of Dr. A. C. Peale: [CR]

[CR] Bulletin Philosophical Society of Washington, Vol. VI, pp. 476-478.

… "He was born at Westfield, Mass., September 7, 1829…. His father died when he was about ten years of age, and about two years later he went to live with an uncle at Rochester, in Lorain County, Ohio, where he remained for six years. He taught in the country district schools of the neighborhood during his sixteenth and seventeenth years, and at the age of eighteen went to Oberlin College, where he was graduated in 1850….

"He studied medicine with Dr. J. S. Newberry, at Cleveland, and at Albany was graduated Doctor of Medicine in the early part of 1853. After his graduation, he was sent by Prof. James Hall, of New York, to the Bad Lands of White River, in Dakota. The years 1854 and 1855 he spent exploring and collecting fossils in the Upper Missouri country, mainly at his own expense. From 1856 until 1859, he was connected as geologist with the expeditious of Lieutenant Warren, engaged in explorations in Nebraska and Dakota. From 1859 until 1862, he was surgeon, naturalist, and geologist with Captain W. F. Raynolds, in the exploration of the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. In October, 1862, he was appointed acting assistant surgeon and assistant medical inspector until June, 1865, when he resigned, and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for meritorious services during the war. He then resumed his scientific work, and in 1866 made another trip to the Bad Lands of Dakota, this time in the interest of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. In 1865, he was elected professor of mineralogy and geology in the University of Pennsylvania, which position he resigned in 1872. From 1867 to 1879, his history is that of the organization of which he had charge, which began as a geological survey of Nebraska, and became finally the Geological Survey of the Territories…. From 1879 until December, 1886, he was connected with the United States Geological Survey as geologist. His health began to fail soon after his connection with this organization, and gradually became worse, and he lived only a year after his resignation.

"In 1876, the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by the University of Rochester, and in June, 1886, he received the same degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a member of seventeen scientific societies in the United States, among them the National Academy of Sciences, and was honorary and corresponding member of some seventy foreign societies. A bibliography of his writings includes 158 titles.