The Rocky Mountains, Lander’s Peak

1. 1

   What is written

   Painted in New York and finished early in 1863, from sketches made in the Wind River country with Lander’s road survey in the summer of 1859.

   • Sky, atmosphere, and foliage, are all, in hue and character, minutely authentic.Henry T. Tuckerman, Book of the Artists (1867), p. 396
   • their jagged summits, covered with snow and mingling with the clouds, present a scene which every lover of landscape would gaze upon with unqualified delight.Letter signed “B.”, dated Rocky Mountains, July 10, 1859, The Crayon (September 1859), p. 287
   • The season has been an unusual one; the mountain streams swollen by constant rains, and Green river higher than ever known before in the memory of the oldest mountaineers.F. W. Lander, report to Congress, 1 March 1860, p. 3
2. 2

   Records of those days

   • Fort Bridger post surgeon’s registerRain and three thermometer readings a day, 1858 to 1890, keyed by NOAA and checked against the Army’s printed 1860 tables. 184 to 211 km from the candidate peaks, about 6,000 feet below them.
   • The Army’s printed register, July 1859Fort Bridger: 14 fair days, 17 cloudy, 13 days of rain, 1.96 inches.
   • Mountain View, Wyoming, 1991–2020The modern July normal, 7 km from the old fort: 1.10 inches.

   Not found or not yet searched

   • No instrument stood in the Wind River Range or at the camp on the Green River in 1859.
   • No sketch from the trip is dated to the day. A second Bierstadt letter, in the New Bedford Daily Mercury of 14 September 1859, has not been read.
   • Bierstadt’s printed leaflet for visitors, which claimed firsthand observation, is known here only through a later catalogue’s summary.
3. 3

   Each claim tested

   • “minutely authentic”: the painting’s fair sky, which Tuckerman describes as “a pure, blue sky”. At Fort Bridger, June 1859 was the warmest June on its record and nearly rainless, so fair days were common when the party reached South Pass on 24 June. July was the wettest July on its record: 1.96 inches on 13 days, with 17 cloudy days.
   • “mingling with the clouds”, Bierstadt’s own description of the summits, written on 10 July. Rain fell at Fort Bridger on every day from 7 to 12 July, 0.92 inches in all, including the day the letter is dated. The summits themselves were never observed.
   • “constant rains”, and the Green River “higher than ever known before”, in Lander’s report. The fort’s July rain is the highest of 26 complete Julys, 1858 to 1890, and nearly twice the modern normal. The river’s height was not measured.
   • The day and the place painted. The canvas was composed in New York three and a half years later; even the peak is disputed (Frémont Peak or Temple Peak).
4. 4

   Verdict

   The fort’s record bears out the reports of a wet summer and also shows fair days; it cannot test an undated sky composed in the studio.

   • Unknown“minutely authentic” sky The register includes 14 fair days in July, but a remote gauge cannot test the authenticity of an undated, studio-composed sky.
   • Partially agrees“constant rains” The nearest gauge had its wettest July on record, but it stood more than 180 km from the peaks, and the river’s height was not measured.
   • UnknownThe day painted A studio composition from undated sketches; no day can be picked.

What this cannot tell you. Fort Bridger is 184 to 211 km from the candidate peaks and about 6,000 feet below them; mountain storms are local. The 1859 temperatures are readings at 7, 14 and 21 hours, not daily highs and lows, and cannot be set against modern averages. A clear morning between storms is entirely possible, so no single painted sky can be called false.