Pages, some stolen, some original

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Wild, Wild, West


Junction of Green and Yampah Canyons, Utah, 1872

Last night I was looking through a collection of old photos taken by Timothy O'Sullivan. He took these photos while he was on an expedition exploring the Western portion of the United States shortly after the American Civil War (140 years ago). I noticed this one, and I said to myself "that looks familiar". I don't know if the caption triggered my memory, or whether it was just the image. I like to think it was just the image. In any case, it reminded me of this:


View from Echo Park Overlook in Dinosaur National Monument, Colorado

I took this photo last May on my way back from Denver. Turns out we are in exactly the same place! Never mind the different state names, we are right on the modern border. Back when O'Sullivan made his picture I'm pretty sure there was no well defined border.


View Denver Trip in a larger map

The shading looks all backwards because the light is coming from the Southeast instead of from the top of the picture. The road with the placemark is on top of a ridge. The gray green snake is the river.

Art Blart has a collection of some O'Sullivan photos.
O'Sullivan page on Flickr
Daily Mail story with a bunch of O'Sullivan photos.

Update January 2021 replaced missing map and dead map link.

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