The World's Wonderland is not in Europe, not in Egypt, not in Asia, but in the West of our own United States.
-Charles Lummis, Journalist
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
In the dim morning light we stepped out into a city of mud. This was the gate that opened upon the West. This was the shining frontier.
-William Henry Jackson, Photographer
HORACE GREELEY:
Go West young man, go West, and grow up with the country.
-Horace Greeley, Editor, New York Tribune
NARRATOR:
AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, THE NATION AGAIN LOOKED WEST. THE FRONTIER WAS SEEN AS A PLACE OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM. THOUSANDS WERE DRAWN WESTWARD WHERE A GREAT ADVENTURE WAS UNFOLDING - THE SETTLEMENT OF A VAST AND CHANGING LANDSCAPE. AMONG THOSE ADVENTURERS WHO HEADED WEST WERE WRITERS, PHOTOGRAPHERS, AND PAINTERS DRIVEN TO CHRONICLE THEIR EXPERIENCE IN WORDS AND PICTURES; DRIVEN TO CAPTURE THE WILD WEST BEFORE IT CHANGED FOREVER.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON, HAD BEEN BOTH AN ARTIST AND APPRENTICE PHOTOGRAPHER BEFORE SERVING IN THE UNION ARMY. AFTER THE WAR, HE TRAVELED WEST FROM VERMONT, BUT NOT AT THE CALL OF A MUSE, IN RESPONSE TO A BROKEN HEART. HIS FIANCEE, CADDIE EASTMAN, HAD UNCEREMONIOUSLY DUMPED HIM.
ANOTHER YOUNG ADVENTURER, CHARLES LUMMIS, SET OUT FOR THE FRONTIER WITH SOMETHING JACKSON LACKED WHEN HE WENT WEST-A JOB. LUMMIS HEADED WEST ON SEPTEMBER 15TH, 1884. THE UNDERTAKING WAS MAINLY AN ADVENTURE, BUT LUMMIS HAD FIGURED OUT A WAY TO MAKE IT PAY THE HANDSOME SUM OF FIVE DOLLARS A LETTER.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
My choice of California as a goal was due largely to Colonel Harrison Gray Otis, editor of the "Los Angeles Times," who had promised to print a weekly letter as 'I Walked Across' and to give me a position on the local staff.
-Charles Lummis
NARRATOR:
THE FIRST INSTALLMENT OF HIS JOURNEY READ: "SIXTY-THREE MILES ALREADY TRAVERSED AND ONLY THREE THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVEN YET TO WALK." HIS LETTERS WERE EVENTUALLY PRINTED IN MANY NEWSPAPERS CREATING A QUITE A STIR. ONE EDITOR WROTE:
NEWSPAPER EDITOR:
Somehow the articles have a strange, indescribable interest and people have got to talking about Lum all over the country. He is the most noted man in the West just now and carries in his shoes a pretty fair-sized circus.
NARRATOR:
BY DECEMBER, LUMMIS REACHED NEW MEXICO. THE UNEXPECTED FRIENDLINESS OF THE HISPANIC AND INDIAN INHABITANTS MADE A LASTING IMPRESSION ON HIM.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
I love New England in all its hardness and all its humanity. Then I came to Santa Fe. And once I had reached Spanish America and the hearts of its people, I realized that this was where I belonged.
NARRATOR:
HE STAYED FOR NEARLY TWO MONTHS BEFORE RELUCTANTLY CONTINUING HIS JOURNEY. FINALLY ON THE 143rd DAY OF HIS TREK, LUMMIS ARRIVED IN CALIFORNIA. A JOB AS CITY EDITOR ON THE LOS ANGELES TIMES AWAITED CHARLIE AT THE END OF HIS LONG JOURNEY. HE HAD CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION OF THE COUNTRY WITH HIS LETTERS AND NOW WOULD CONTINUE TO FEED A GROWING POPULATION HUNGRY FOR DAILY NEWS ABOUT THE WILD WEST.
THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES HAD CREATED A NEED, THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY, FOR NEWS AND INFORMATION. EVERY DAY AMERICANS WANTED TO KNOW THE STATE OF THE CONFLICT. AND AT WAR'S END, THE DEMAND WAS EVEN GREATER AS THE NATION BEGAN TO REBUILD. AS A RESULT, NEWSPAPERS GREW IN POPULARITY THROUGH OUT AMERICA, AND PARTICULARLY, IN THE FRONTIER.
ROBERT UTLEY:
Westerners treasured their newspapers simply because they were distant from the East, which they had come from, and wanted to know what was happening in the East, and so newspapers were read voraciously.
NARRATOR:
PRINTING A NEWSPAPER WAS NO EASY TASK. ALL THE WORK WAS DONE BY HAND ON A PRESS WHICH WEIGHED OVER 2,000 POUNDS AND HAD OFTEN BEEN PASSED FROM PAPER TO PAPER.
HONESTY, TRUTH, AND THE FACTS OFTEN HAD LITTLE TO DO WITH JOURNALISM IN THE WILD WEST. BUT LIKE LUMMIS - THERE WERE SOME EDITORS WHO TRIED TO PRESENT AN ACCURATE PICTURE OF FRONTIER LIFE. JOURNALIST AND EDITOR HORACE GREELEY, WHOSE FAMED INJUNCTION "GO WEST, YOUNG MAN" HAD INSPIRED MANY TO VENTURE BEYOND THE MISSISSIPPI, WAS RENOWNED FOR HIS CHARACTER, AND HIS HONEST, INFORMATIVE COLUMNS. HEADING WEST WAS A SERIOUS UNDERTAKING AND GREELEY WAS AWARE OF THE CRITICAL IMPORTANCE OF TELLING HIS READERS WHAT LAY AHEAD.
HORACE GREELEY:
We cannot conclude this statement without protesting most earnestly against a renewal of the infatuation which impelled thousands to rush to this region. Gold mining is a business which eminently requires of its votaries, capital, experience, energy, endurance, and in which the highest qualities do not always command success. Great disappointment, great suffering , are inevitable.
-Horace Greeley, editor New York Tribune
NARRATOR:
EARLY IN 1886, THERE WAS A FRESH OUTBREAK OF THE APACHE WARS. LUMMIS' BOSS ORDERED HIM TO COVER THE CAMPAIGN WHERE HE BECAME THE FIRST BONAFIDE CORRESPONDENT TO REPORT THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT WAS HAPPENING.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
It only requires presence on the ground to see how awfully we have been imposed upon by the Associated Press dispatches from fevered newspaper offices in Tucson and Tombstone.
-Charles Lummis, Los Angeles Times.
NARRATOR:
LUMMIS STAYED FOR THREE MONTHS LIVING WITH THE SOLDIERS AND THEIR APACHE SCOUTS BEFORE RETURNING TO LOS ANGELES AND THE CITY EDITOR'S DESK.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
It was a wonderful game to help lift this small, young paper to its feet. I had the satisfaction of watching my paper develop from a little sheet of 2,700 daily circulation to a powerful newspaper.
-Charles Lummis
NARRATOR:
BUT THERE WAS A PRICE TO PAY FOR HIS HARD WORK.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
December 5, 1887, I went home for supper and lay down for a few minutes... I couldn't get up. I finally did get up - but only to discover that my left side was helpless. I was paralyzed.
NARRATOR:
THE STRESS AND PHYSICAL STRAIN OF HIS WORKLOAD RESULTED IN A MASSIVE STROKE. LUMMIS WAS ONLY 28. HE ACCEPTED AN INVITATION TO RECUPERATE WITH FRIENDS IN HIS BELOVED NEW MEXICO AND WHILE STAYING IN THE SOUTHWEST, AS PART OF HIS THERAPY, HE TOOK UP SOMETHING AS NEW AS THE WEST ITSELF, PHOTOGRAPHY.
JOHN CARTER:
The American people had heard about the wonders of the American West. And by happy coincidence, photography was invented just in time for people to go out and capture a vision of that West and take it back so they could see it as well.
NARRATOR:
CAPTURING THIS VISION WAS NOT EASY. TAKING A PICTURE IN THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY REQUIRED UP TO FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS OF EQUIPMENT. THIS INCLUDED A CAMERA THE SIZE OF A MICROWAVE OVEN, AND A DARKROOM THAT FILLED AN ENTIRE WAGON. IT TOOK OVER A HALF AN HOUR TO PREPARE, SHOOT, AND DEVELOP A SINGLE EXPOSURE. STILL, THERE WERE MANY WHO WERE WILLING TO BEAR THESE BURDENS IN ORDER TO CHRONICLE THE WILD WEST.
AFTER REACHING CALIFORNIA, AND FINDING NO EASY WAY TO STRIKE IT RICH, WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON TRIED HIS HAND ROUNDING UP WILD HORSES. EVENTUALLY, JACKSON DROVE A HERD OF HORSES EAST, ENDING UP IN OMAHA, NEBRASKA WHERE HE FINALLY FOUND A STEADY JOB IN A PHOTOGRAPHIC GALLERY.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
...My troubles were over. I feel very much elated over the prospects of beginning life over again and just laugh aloud to myself in pure enjoyment.
-William Henry Jackson
NARRATOR:
OMAHA WAS IN A STATE OF EXCITEMENT AND SO WAS JACKSON. THE RAILROAD HAD COME TO TOWN.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
The thing that really got me was the railroad. Here was something truly earth-shaking, and whether or not there had been a dime in it for me, sooner or later I would have been out on the grade with my cameras.
-William Henry Jackson
NARRATOR:
AND INDEED HE WAS. THAT SUMMER JACKSON TOOK IT UPON HIMSELF TO PHOTOGRAPH THE UNION PACIFIC'S PROGRESS. HIS WORK CAME TO THE ATTENTION OF DR. VANDEVEER HAYDEN, THE LEADER OF ONE OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT'S GEOLOGIC SURVEYS.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
Dr. Hayden, on his way to Wyoming, called at my place of business in Omaha. He spent a long time studying my Union Pacific pictures and the Indian groups I had photographed.
NARRATOR:
HAYDEN ASKED JACKSON TO JOIN THE SURVEY. THE US GOVERNMENT NEEDED PHOTOGRAPHERS LIKE JACKSON TO DOCUMENT THE VAST NATURAL RESOURCES OF THE UNCHARTED WEST.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
This, my first survey trip, began with our departure from Camp Carlin on August 7. For Dr. Hayden and the veterans it was more or less routine. But for me the expedition was priceless. It gave me a career.
NARRATOR:
IN TIME, ACCOMPANIED BY HIS MULE, HYPO, JACKSON AND THE SURVEY FOUND THE YELLOWSTONE, A LAND THAT HAD BEEN THOUGHT BY MANY TO BE PURELY MYTHICAL.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
Late the next afternoon we had our first close view of the enchanted land, when our party came upon the Mammoth Hot Springs. We were, so far as records show, the first white men to ever see those bubbling cauldrons of nature, and I found myself excited by the knowledge that the next day I was to photograph them for the first time.
-William Henry Jackson
NARRATOR:
IT WAS, IN FACT, AN ENORMOUS RESPONSIBILITY. JACKSON WAS THE FIRST MAN TO PHOTOGRAPH ANY OF YELLOWSTONE'S MARVELS.
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
In the Middle Ages there was the legend of the Holy Grail. In Colorado was the legend of a snowy cross upon a mountain. No man we talked with had ever seen the Mountain of the Holy Cross. But everyone knew that such a wonder might exist.
NARRATOR:
FOR MONTHS, JACKSON SEARCHED TO NO AVAIL AND THEN...
WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON:
On this day, as usual, I pushed on ahead, and thus it was that I came to be the first member of the survey to sight the cross. Near the top of the ridge I emerged above timber line, I discovered the great shining cross dead before me, It was worth all the labor of the past three months just to see it for a moment.
NARRATOR:
IN THAT MOMENT, JACKSON THE PHOTOGRAPHER, ACHIEVED WHAT MANY PAINTERS HAD ATTEMPTED: CAPTURING THE WEST AS HEAVEN ON EARTH IN A SOLITARY FRAME. WITH HIS HEAVY EQUIPMENT AND CHEMICAL MIXTURES, WILLIAM HENRY JACKSON HAD PERFORMED MAGIC. "THE MOUNT OF THE HOLY CROSS" BROUGHT JACKSON RECOGNITION FROM EVERY QUARTER OF SOCIETY AND IT BECAME THE MOST WIDELY REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPH IN AMERICA.
JOHN CARTER:
The magic of Western photography is that it, in fact, cheats reality. You can stop a moment in time and save it forever. You can also take the immovable and make it portable. You can make landscapes so real that you can experience them without being there.
NARRATOR:
BUT WHAT IF YOU WERE THERE? PEOPLE IN THE WEST NEEDED PHOTOGRAPHS, TOO, AND NEBRASKA SETTLER, SOLOMON BUTCHER, WAS ANXIOUS TO TAKE THEM. FOR SEVEN YEARS SOLOMON BUTCHER BECAME THE SELF-APPOINTED PICTORIAL HISTORIAN OF THE SETTLERS' EXPERIENCE. HE BARELY MADE A LIVING FROM HIS PHOTOGRAPHY AND WAS OFTEN PAID FOR HIS PICTURES WITH A HOT MEAL OR A LIVE CHICKEN.
THE INFLUENCE OF THESE NEW WESTERN IMAGES MADE AN INDELIBLE IMPRESSION ON ALL THOSE WHO SAW THEM. CURIOSITY ABOUT THE WEST BECAME FEVERED. MANY COULDN'T WAIT TO EXPERIENCE IT FOR THEMSELVES. PIONEERS NOW MADE WAY FOR TOURISTS IN THE WILD WEST.
28-YEAR OLD OSCAR WILDE WAS A BONAFIDE CELEBRITY IN ENGLAND AND FOUNDER OF AN EXCLUSIVE ARTS AND LITERARY GROUP CALLED "THE AESTHETIC MOVEMENT." WILDE CAME TO THE UNITED STATES AS A GUEST SPEAKER ON A LECTURE TOUR.
OSCAR WILDE:
My audience was entirely miners: they are big-booted, red-shirted, yellow-bearded ruffians. With my usual passion for personality I entertained them, and had a delightful time, though on making some mention of early Florentine art they unanimously declared they could neither "trump nor follow it." Their enthusiasm satisfied me and I ended my lecture there.
NARRATOR:
CURIOUSLY, THE MINERS APPLAUDED WILDE'S PRESENTATION ON ITALIAN ART, FASHION AND INTERIOR DESIGN, AND TOOK HIM OUT FOR A DRINK.
OSCAR WILDE:
The amazement of the miners when they saw that art and appetite could go hand in hand knew no bounds. When I quaffed a cocktail without flinching they unanimously pronounced me in their grand simple way "a bully boy with no glass eye" - artless and spontaneous praise which touched me more than the pompous panegyrics of literary critics ever did or could. I have had a delightful time and am now returning home, twice as affected as ever.
-Oscar Wilde
NARRATOR:
CHARLIE LUMMIS HAD ALREADY TRAVELED THE WEST AS A TOURIST. RECUPERATING FROM HIS STROKE IN NEW MEXICO, AND STILL PARTIALLY PARALYZED, ONE OF HIS MOST IMPRESSIVE PHYSICAL TRIUMPHS WAS LEARNING TO TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS. MANIPULATING A CUMBERSOME FORTY POUND CAMERA WITH ONE HAND WAS NOT EASY.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
It was even harder to do my developing. I cut myself pretty badly several times where there were reef edges on the glass - for which my chief concern was that the blood spoiled the negatives. But of that host of pictures made at that time there are very many that are unique and can never be made again.
-Charles Lummis.
NARRATOR:
FOR THREE YEARS, LUMMIS TRAVELED THOUSANDS OF MILES BY RAIL, HORSEBACK, AND FOOT PHOTOGRAPHING THE FIRST IMAGES OF NEW MEXICO, CAPTURING ALL ITS STRANGE FORMATIONS, SECRET RITUALS, AND HISTORY. HE EVEN COINED THE TERM "THE SOUTHWEST" FOR HIS ADOPTED HOME.
CHARLES LUMMIS:
These true pictures of the wonderful and almost unknown Southwest are not the impressions of a random tourist across its bare, brown wastes but are drawn from intimacy with its quaint peoples, its weird customs, and its dangers. As such I shall be glad if they interest my young countrymen.
-Charles Lummis, photo journalist.
NARRATOR:
BY THE LATE 1800'S, A NEW ORDER WAS MOVING WESTWARD AND ARTISTS LIKE FREDERIC REMINGTON SET OUT TO PRESERVE THE VANISHING IMAGES OF THE WILD WEST. BETWEEN 1886 AND 1909, REMINGTON PAINTED AND DREW NEARLY 3000 CANVASSES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, AND CREATED TWENTY FIVE SCULPTURES. BY THE LATE 1880'S, HIS WORK APPEARED REGULARLY IN NEARLY EVERY NATIONAL MAGAZINE. THE WEST HE PORTRAYED WAS ENORMOUSLY SUCCESSFUL, AND YET ...
BRIAN DIPPIE:
You could not visit Frederic Remington's West by boarding a train or retracing his steps. That West was his. It existed in his mind. He had fabricated it. He had created it. Out of his own experiences and his own observations, Remington had shaped a land better than what he saw, as he saw it, purer than what he saw out there.
NARRATOR:
PERHAPS MORE THAN ANY OTHER ARTIST OF HIS DAY, REMINGTON FASHIONED OUR LASTING VISION OF THE WEST. WHEN WE HEAR THE WORDS "THE WILD WEST," WE SEE IMAGES, AND THOSE IMAGES ARE OFTEN FREDERIC REMINGTON'S.
THE WORK OF THE CHRONICLERS CONTINUES TO ENCHANT US, FOR THEIR SUBJECTS WERE THE VERY STUFF OF DREAMS. DREAMS OF ROMANCE AND RENEWAL, OF IMAGINATION AND POSSIBILITY, OF A BETTER WORLD CALLED THE WEST.
