Minerva Terrace and Mount Evarts before 1887

This is Frank Jay Haynes' photograph, "Minerva Terrace and Mount Evarts." Though undated, it captures a moment in the late 19th century when the American West was being both mythologized and methodically surveyed. Haynes was the official photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad. His work was instrumental in promoting tourism to Yellowstone National Park. This image presents a serene view of the natural landscape. However, we can also read this image as a document of cultural erasure and environmental transformation. These landscapes were, of course, not empty. They were the ancestral homelands of numerous Indigenous peoples. Photographers like Haynes participated in the visual rhetoric of Manifest Destiny, often obscuring or altogether omitting the presence and history of Native Americans. Moreover, the promotion of tourism led to the commercialization and transformation of these once-sacred lands. In viewing this photograph, we might reflect on the complex layers of history it embodies. Consider the intertwined narratives of exploration, exploitation, and the ongoing struggle for Indigenous sovereignty.