The Other Side of the West

 

Post (C) Doris McCraw aka

Angela Raines

Image (C) Doris McCraw

We think of the West, the wagons rolling westward, the cowboys on trail drives, and the outlaws and lawmen. But there was another side to this West we know and love.

The vast vistas called to people like Charles Russell, Frederic Remington, and Albert Bierstadt, who drew and painted what they saw. Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, and later Enos Mills were proponents of conservation.

Valley of the Yosemite, 1863
Albert Bierstadt

Anyone who has studied a Russell or Remington work can almost feel and smell the dust, sweat, and tears of their subject. Bierstadt, with his almost mystical representation of the West, helped contribute to the myth. 

Devils Slide, 1871, Montana
William Henry Jackson

The photographers, such as William Henry Jackson, documented on film what the artists did with paint.

At the same time, Roosevelt, Muir, and Mills, as time passed, helped to preserve what those early settlers and adventurers to the West saw.

The trappers, pathfinders, gold seekers, and dreamers all helped to create what we know as the West, and the artists and photographers documented that era. The conservationists made sure we could, in some small way, experience what our predecessors did.

So, when we think of the West, let us also think of the others who documented the area and helped preserve it for future generations.

Of course, there were women who contributed, but that is for another post.

Until Next Time,

Doris

Angela Raines - Amazon

Doris A. McCraw - Amazon