Golden Gate, Sunset in the Yellowstone Park Poster
Vintage Poster Collection
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Vintage Poster Collection digitally restored and redesigned by local artist, Andrea McDowell.
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Posters are standard size (20 x 28in) and printed on linen paper for a vintage look and feel.
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Printed in the USA by a 3rd generation family print shop
- Note: This image has been adapted from the original painting and extended to fit the scale of a standard size poster.
Golden Gate, Sunset in the Yellowstone Park
This 1897 print was produced by Knapp & Co, a New York City based lithography printing company. Titled “Golden Gate, Sunset in the Yellowstone Park,” the image features a stagecoach riding through what is likely the Golden Gate area outside Mammoth Hot Springs. Historians familiar with the print have suggested that the large stone to the left behind the stagecoach is intended to be the Pillar of Hercules, a boulder which has been continually removed and replaced throughout the various renovations and improvements to the Golden Gate Bridge of Yellowstone. However, the waterfall featured is not Rustic Falls of that same location, but rather the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone Canyon. It was common for early Yellowstone art and advertisements to blend different scenes from the park into one image in order to inspire visitation to the area.
In the foreground, a soldier rests against a bicycle. He wears the standard Army uniform worn in the parks during this era: a dark blue wool shirt, sky-blue trousers, canvas leggings, and shoes. Though unnamed, the man in the image bears a strong resemblance to photographs of Captain Moses Harris, the first military superintendent of Yellowstone National Park. The text on the stone reads: “The recollection of quality remains long after the price has been forgotten.” In the early days of the park, poachers and souvenir hunters posed a serious threat to the natural resources of the area. The US Army established a presence at Camp Sheridan, at the base of the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces, in 1886 to help manage and protect the land. The first buildings of Fort Yellowstone were finished in late 1891. The bicycle in the image could be a nod to the volunteer Bicycle Corps of the 25th Infantry Regiment, who rode more than 300 miles from Fort Missoula to Fort Yellowstone in August of 1896.
Original Artist: N/A. Published by Knapp & Co Litho, c.1897
Andrew McDowell
Yellowstone Love Song
Andrea McDowell is a local artist living in Gardiner, MT.
"Upon stepping foot into Yellowstone, I became filled with the same wonder and excitement that has captivated the hearts of millions before me. The surreal landscape and vivid colors set against a backdrop of primal calls from wolves, elk, bear, and bison gives a shock to the system that never fades. I feel especially influenced by those early artists and explorers whose courage to traverse and passion to preserve this landscape paved the way for our own opportunity to experience its grandeur. My inspiration draws from Life’s invitation to explore both the known and untouched regions of this land, and it’s my honor to keep the legacy of early Yellowstone adventurers alive in my artistic practice as well by uncovering historical maps and works of art, restoring them to their original beauty, reimagining them to fit the scale of a modern day art print, and presenting them on a fine linen paper to preserve the vintage quality of these works."
