PORTFOLIO THE LONG DRAW On the trail of an artistic mystery in the American West By Jeremy Miller Photography by Lena Herzog led the first American expedition into the Grand Canyon. Unlike John Wesley Powell’ famous 1869 voyage, Ives’s jour- ney was barely publicized. Under the aegis of the Army Corps of Topo- graphical Engineers, the party— geologists, engineers, deckhands, Yuma interpreters, natural histori- ans, mapmakers, and artists— took a steamboat up the Colorado River to see whether it could serve as a military supply route into Utah Territory, where Mormon insurgents had killed travelers and harassed army convoys. According to historian William Goetmann, the only throngs that saw the crew off were groups of “sige eling Indians" who stood along the banks. The reaction was similarly muted when Ivess -400-page Report Upon the Colorado River ofthe West was finally published by Congress in 1861. The Civil War had begun, and few were clamoring for reports from the distant West. It was only decades I 1857, Lieutenant Joseph Christmas Ives lates after the Grand Canyon had become fied in the public’ imagination, thar the importance of the Ines report was recognized: it contained not only the first written description of the inte rior of the canyon but che first images of it as well, by expedition artist Friedrich von Eglofiein. In Eglofftein’s engraving Black Ca- ‘ton, said to depict the Colorado River near where the Hoover Dam. stands today, the sheer black walls of the canyon appear scored into the page with a blunt, burn stick. At the bottom of the frame, tuo tiny figures wrestle a rowboat from a raging, foam white river: Icisa stunning image, buci looks noch- ing like the Grand Canyon. Indeed, in all of Ezlofisreins drawings of what the Ives report called the “Big Cafion” of the Colorado—three engrav- ings and three panoramic line drawings—the landscape is unrecognizable. Instead ofa spravling ‘gorge with distinctive stata, the images are crow eed with towering spires and sharp pinnacles. Jevomy Milas aril fn Harpers Magacine, “Tyranny ofthe Text" apred inthe Setomber 2008s eis ama low athe Bl Lane Comer or the American Wes Stanford Univer Lena Heras Boks ine Tauromagut, amen, iris gu Lose Souls Her exiton Los Sous ttason ew are iemaomal Centro Potagaphy 2010 Photographer's notes: Friedrich von Egloffstein was not only a military man, an explorer, a mapmaker, and an accomplished landscape artist, he also invented halftone printing on steel, perfected photogravure techt andin 1865 was granced ‘a parent ( “Aa jnproved tod of obeaining Printing sures by Photograph” bined an arise senibilcy with an atonishing technical competence. Blac Cao by Fesnich von Elfen, fom hac hy} C; les Cuurtsy DeGalpe Library, Sothern AIGHSGte any Ball Won Fuh Mids hgjasa © anual Seve seeYer Eglofistein was no incompetent: the Ives report ako inclu his meticulous, almese phoco- realistic shaded relief map of the Grand Canyon. How could he have gocten the map sa right and the lanadscapesso wrong’ Once Egofstein’ images were studied by those who had seen the canyon, they were ridiculed, Frederick Dellenbaugb, 2 member ‘of Powell’ expedition, wrote in 1934 that: Almost all che landscapes, full page and in the text, are childish exaggerations without charac- ters», OF ecu sation had a lot o do with, leading them astray. Everything was so gigantic and extraordinary that the real record of lines on paper seemed insufficient to convey the wonders. Egloffsrein died in 1885, so he couldn't answer Dellenbaugh’s criticism, which was only che ‘opening salvo to decades of disparagement. Write ing in 1953, Wallace Stegner called Eglofistein’s images “markedly inaccurate,” and said the “exag erated verticality and narrowness” are “a piccure of the artist's dismay.” He, like Dellenbaugh, suggested that Egloffswein simply could not com- prehend the arid, incised anyon country he saw. In his 1966 book, Exploration and Empire, Goetzmann said the pictures look like the alle- gorical works of French painter Gustave Doré “The Grand Canyon is firted into a European, stereotype of Gothic verticality .. fit] reached to the heavens and dropped to the depths like ‘gorges out of Doré’s underworld.” Historian Ste- phen J. Pyne asserted in Dutton’s Point: An Intel- leeaual Fiscory of the Grand Canyon. (1982) that Egloffscein's art was “divorced from the rigors of cartography,” and he “permitted his romanticism to luxuriate into topographic fancasies” Although much of Egloffstein’ past is unknown, his critics embroidered their analysis with a few details. The haron’s youth was spent in Egloffstein Castle, a sprawling estate situated atop a cliff His father, Wilhelm, held the ticle Master of the Royal Bavarian Forests. Why the young, militaryrained nobleman came wo the American Wes isnot clear, but several historians have pointed to the coincie lence of his arrival in the kate 1840s with a series of working class uprisings in Western Europe. It is a seductive storyline: the European aristocratin-exile in the Wild West. At canjon’s ‘edge, the homesick baron begins to draw. He strives for accuracy but all he knows are the mist- shrouded forests and green hillsides of his native northem Bavaria, He exaggerates, substituting verticality for vastness; impenetrable, fortresslike walls for eroding sedimentary layers. Like a tragic, hero, he doesnt see it. Ox, as Stegner wrote with confidence, "He saw the canyons that way.” | fist encountered Eeloffstein’s Black Cafion at the New York Public Library's 2001 exhibition Heading West: Mapping the Territory. My reaction tothe gothic image wasentirely different from that of Egloffstein’ critics, Before reading the caption tailing the artists “failure? Tread the landscape. “The soaring rock faces, the frothing river, the play of light on the narrowly spaced walls—I recog- nized chem immediately. The canyon indeed bore little resemblance to the Grand Canyon, but it looked remarkably similar to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison River—some 500 miles northeast of the Grand Canyon, in presentday Colorado— where I had heen hiking for years. Next to the ‘engraving was Egloffstein’s relief map of the south- -western United States crawn forthe 1859 Macomb expetition. The trace corresponding to the Gun- nison River was marked Grand River. Down the hall at che library's map division 1 asked Alice Hudson, the curator of the exhibition, whethersome grave injustice had been inflicted on the poor German mapmaker. In addition to the similarities between the engraving and the Gun- nison's deep gorge, I pointed out what the Macomb map clearly indicaced: the Gunnison River was ‘once known as the Grand. Hudson in turn brought ‘out another Eglofstein engraving, View Showing the Formation of the Carian of the Grand River, which was published in 1855, after Beloffstein act ‘companied John Charles Frémont on his expedi- tion through che area around the Gunnison. Hudson told me that the quantity of geograph- ical information gathered during the so-called Great Reconnaissance was massive and unpree- edented. It was certainly plausible, she said, that Egloffstein drew the canyon of the Grand (hich is to say, Gunnison) River and that congressional staff wading through this flood misfiled the images—say, in a mascer file tagged “Grand Cafton’—ahich were then selected when the time came to illustrate the Ives report? However they -Caprain Join Gunnison vse the Grand Rivera fw moths ahead of Peon: Edffitein unl lag eke ‘over for Richa Kern the Gunnison expeditions mae ‘male and landscape artist, after Kern, Guemison, and six other members of the patty were hed in western Cea, and ics likely that Elofftein studied Kern's drawings ofthe Black Canyon. 2 Although the final repo ees tothe “Big Can,” a pre- levinry say ofthe les expdion pubis in 159, {igo years bere the release ofthe offi version, ws ied ‘The Colorado Expedition: The Colorado of the West and the Counery Bordering ltThe Grand Carin, Photographer's notes It scems that Egloffstein, when drawing the view in Black Caton (page 50), was behind the rock on t point and making the Narrows appear Sgeture”—rock surfaces, the ope sdiments in the the intaglio provess used by Evlofstein HARPER'S MAGAZINE (JANUARY 2012 nighr, closer to the gap between the co sides of the Narrows, giving him aslightly different vantage ore open. Jn addition co che obvious similariies ‘tc. —both photograph and engraving capture the reflection of light from ‘The pepe dewloper ine the ete nehe general geological ofthese photographs (pra) mimics ing the prints tactile, chree-dituensional, “etched! fe Phonograph © Loma HerPhotographer's notes: The split at the top and form © 1 Eglotisecin’s Big gothic pinns che left of the main geological fracture (seen in the middle of the photog Similar to the central feature drasin by Eylofistcin espectally when seen from the eanyon floor Riga, bs Finch von lta RS MAGAZINE JANUARY F nalHARPER MAGAZINE /JANUARY 212 Na got there, the images certainly matched Lieuten- ant lves’s description of the lower Grand Canyon even if they didi’ match the canyon itself: ‘The sides of the coxtuous became leftier, and before long we avere hemmed in by walls tw thousand feer high ... che cortesponding depth Joom of the gaping chasms into which we ‘were plinging, imparted an unearthly character to that might Rave resembled the portals of the infernal regions began collecting documentary evidence with the aim of restoring Eglofftein’s reputation, but 1 soon realized I would need photographsof the Black Canyon itself to compare with Egbtfstein’s ma- ligned landscapes. So last March and again in June, using the reports, maps, and drawings asa kind of historical field guide, and accompanied by photog rapher Lena Heraog, | traveled tothe Black Canyon ‘of the Gunnison in search of what Eglofistein saw. L its narrowest section, the Black Canyon is mote than twice as deep as it is wide. "No other North American canyon combines the depth, narrowness, sheerness, and somber ‘countenance of the Black Canyon,” wrote Wal lace R. Hansen of the US. Geological Survey ‘Once the eye has adjusted to the surreal view, the ear perceives the Gunnison’s roar, which is ever present even at the canyon's rim, some 2,000 feet above the river On our first morning at the Black Canyon, wwe set out to find the vantage point for the panorama Big Cafton from Colorado Plateau. Cur guide, Jeremy Werlin, a volunteer rescue climber at the canyon, led us ro an overlook on the north rim known as Dead Horse Point. Not ‘only do the pinnacles and steep side canyons here conform to Egloffstein’s panorama; s0, too, do the pine trees on the ledges that protrude over the canyon, The plants of the lower Grand Canyon are a prickly cohort of Sonoran desert species—agave, barrel eactus, cholla, iromwood, mesquite, Mormon tea, and ocoti Tlo—all adapted to the heat and aridity of the region. But jutting into the foreground of Big Carion from Colorado Plateaw is what appears to be an Engelmann spruce or Douglas fr, alpine Phaser pees The wc fc of she opprte ofthe canyon in the dawn an be ene ih de features of the background in the photozraph. Formations similar to those in the foreground of Egloffein's panevats cn aly be fou inthe Nag Canon, However areas tdseaver xen xa vane points are complicated by dl fact thar neither drawing nor photography tan objective mimetic practic. ay Fedich on Elfin, Come Rare Bs Dn Thespecies that would wither on the dry benches of the inner Grand Canyon but that are common along the rim of the Black Canyon. We had lictle doubt chat Egloffstein’s pan- corama is situated in this section of the can- yon, but we could nor make the elements match perfectly. We could situate ourselves so that che canyon had the correct profile, hut it lacked the rock outcrop and jutting tree in the foreground. When we moved co the outcrop, the view of the full sweep of the anyon was lost All around are signs of mass erosion. Not the slow, smooth scouring of the Grand Canyon but the explosive tearing away of huge columns of stone. Had a ledge fallen away in the inter- vening 150 years! Had Eglofistein synthesized key botanical and geological features in the foreground, in this case the rocks and trees, along with Dead Horse Point's most encom- passing background sweep—essentially loading the scene to offer an intensified vision of this section of the canyon? The vantage point we found for the next Ege loffstein panorama was a closer match. Paul Zaenger, a ranger at the Black Canyon, said the mitcenlike stone towers in Big Carton Near Dia- mond River strongly resembled the Great Pil lars, spectacular formations visible from the south rim visitor center. When we got there, we climbed down to a stone platiorm on the canyon's edge, The background of Egloffstein's panorama came into alignment, and in the foreground we saw small rock projections that match those in the drawing almost perfectly. Beyond, the eanyon opens in the same configu ration depicted in the drawing, with the na row side canyon and pillar on the left and the tapering V of the Narrows receding into the hazy distance on the right. Buthow did Elofftein ger here from Deacl Horse Point and the north rim’ In a straight line, the Photographer's notes: Strangely, this was one of the most thrilling Grads. How do you show in a drawing that yous are facing not just an ordinary outcrop bur the edge of the canyon’ You have to draw the rocks inthe foreground. Tam certain that Esloffstein use BigCatn nee Diamon Nee ork Pathe Lea notebook rather than an easel co make these drawings. ust as we were, h ve st, oF, more ikel in.on the ground to draw what he saw ) and the few inch-high rocks directly in front ale to those on the opposite side of the mining the location of Eglfistein’s vantage points Rr, hy Erich on Epa, Courtny Rate Books Dian, The Hise, Lents sad ides Rourduisn lsopaph © Lena Hera,distance becween this vista and the pi platforms of Big Caron from Colorado Platea is probably no more than half mil. Tracing the rim, however, would have meant a difficult overland journey oF at least fifty miles. With che party bat- tling the cold and subsisting on horse steaks fried with tallow candles, a likelier explanation is chat they took afar more direct route, dropping into the ‘canyon and climbing to the other side. PPP he next day, we too climbed down into the canyon. In search of the riverside view that Eglofistein drew in Black Cavion, we hiked through a gully called Long Draw. The roure is nor technical, bur it is ex- tremely steep—dropping 1,800 feet over the course of a mile—and requires scrambling over large slabs. At the edge, a cold draft surges from the depths of the canyon. ‘As we descended, weird, impossibly balanced pillars rose above us. Gambel oak, box elder, goose- berry, willow, columbine, and Larkspur grow from the talusin the shadow of the ever deepening cut.’ About halfway down we stopped to rest. Two climbers draped in gear passed by, their quickdraws and cams clinking like wind chimes. "We heard Another of Eelofftcin's engravings, tiled simply Big Cam tpl foie se te sens Poe above the level of che canyon. There ape dozens, erhaps Ket fin iva he Be Caron, though nore actually pryects above the vim, as we de- Scared ino the dp of Lone Draw they appre to do anh eialece of eance det Febfn Cayo bucinbedinole about you at the rim said the lanky, slightly equine cone with alittle laugh tip- toeing over the sharp stones in flimsy climbing shoes. “We thought they were lying. No one ‘hikes down here.” Deeper in the ravine,a light haze lingered from assive wildhires burning in Arizona, but the air was pleasant and cool. Egloffstein would have ade this descent in the middle of winter. | asked Werlin if he thought it possible. “We're soft these days. Ifthe weather is bad wwe dont go out—but they went rain or shine,” he said. “They had a country to cross, L don't question the toughness of people who lived 150 years ago:"* ‘After two hours of careful hiking, we reached the bottom. Copious blooms of poison ivy grow between boulders the size of small houses. We had to shout to be heard over the torrent. Heavy snowpack in the Wese Fk and San Juan moun- tains had necessitaced the release of huge guanti- ties of water from the dams upstream in anticipa~ tion of the mele T scuttled on all fours to the top of a water smoothed stone that projected into the current. The elements appeared to be in place and of a piece. The dark walls in the foreground were in shadow and the wall behind was illuminated. Here at the Narrows the river surges through a gap a mere forty fer wide ‘As | studied the copy of Black Cafion I had brought along, two troubling discrepancies “In September 1869, as rumors spread hat the espdicion of John Wesley Powell had hen lot the Grand Canyon, ‘a iumber of cppontnsts emerged, sacking wo us thei to” "eof ne fo ta on Cr Corsn or suuceping the country. Ameng the procession of fame seck- as tat Salomon Nanes Cots ub Red accompa the Fremont expedition and now presenced is own tine pressions of the Grand Canyon ofthe Celonalo—a face the party never visited, A shore dupatch tn the New York Times dted Seprember 4, 1869, reports on am exhibicion of painang of the Grand Canyon that Carel claimed to have made dusing the 1853 Frémone expedition. Car- ‘lho’ painting (ocked very much ike plsanes Thad seen efi Nero om homo gD one clone wide-angle counterpart to Eglofscn’s narrowly for ‘cust Blade Canyim image. Was Carvalho loking 0 ash ine mires of fe Powd expan Or ashe merely confused —as | believe the congressional report ars were—by the overlapping names ofthe two risers? “When Egloistein drew his fst pictures of the Grand Canyon they reached to the heavens and dropped to the depths like gorges our of Doré’s underworld” — William Goermann, Exploration and Empire ARPES MAGAZINE /JANUARY 2012 The Suicides, fun Dan's Die rey by Gustave Doe ‘Sree var Renateemerged. The first is obvious: we were on the swrong side of the iver. In the image, the v clearly situated on the right bank, whereas we were on the left. The other bank might as well have been another country. Bu according to Paul Zaenger, before upstream dams were builtin the 1960s and 1970s, the mid- winter low ofthe Gunnison at the Narrows would rave been a fraction of what confronts us today. Directly across the river isa steep chute called Echo Canyon, a direct route to the south rim. Did Eg- Iofiitein use Long Draw and Echo Canyon as en trance and exit points, crossing the Gunnison by ‘wading or hopping over boulders now submerged? The second dlscrepancy was subtler. From a discance, the elements seemed to align—the river sweeping from right to lefc across the black face of the cliff. About halfway up the prenlike rock on the right of the Narrows is an inconspicuous notch. The notch is also present in Eglofistein's image—but its on the lft side. Could the drawing have been made on the ‘opposite side of the keyhole before us—upstream from the Nartows? The boat in the image (itself a croubling anomaly because Frémont had no boats on the expedition) may offer an important clue. The man pulling the boat ashore seems to he straining against the current, which means that such a view could have been obtained only ‘on the upstream side. But how did the boat get there in the frst place? I might have been added later by an unknown, hand in Washington to conform to Ives’ narrae tive, which mentions moving upriver by skiff after the loss of the steamboat. Or pechaps Eglofistein, added it himself asa means of showing the direc- tion of the current and, more importantly for our purposes, a way to define his position in relation to the Narrows As the noon sun crested the opposite wall, the Black Canyor’s inner gorge was painted a daz- aling silver. We could not linger, but [was confi- dlent that we had found strong matches for Ex: loffscein’s Big Cafion vantage points and strong correspondences for his “gothic” spires and pine nacles, whieh are not products of a Eurocentric romanticism but defining features of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison Why didn’t Egloffstein speak out about the cooptation of his images’ What happened to his drawings of the Grand Canyen of the Colorado? These ate questions that stil need answers. ime to clear Eglofistein of charges of schi2o- hrenia and artistic fraud, and to place the master mapmaker where he belongs—among the West’ firs rear landscape artists .