No doubt Miller read of the exploits of Lt. John Charles Frémont, who followed him into the Wind River Mountains in 1842. Frémont described in his journal, which was serialized in newspapers and reprinted several times, the
lofty snow peak… glittering in the first rays of the sun [opposite his camp]. The scenery becomes hourly more interesting and grand, and the view here is truly magnificent. The sun has just shot above the wall, and makes a magical change. The whole valley is glowing and bright, and all the mountain peaks are gleaming like silver.” (Frémont, 1988, p. 61)
Frémont did not have an artist with him (only his cartographer Charles Preuss, who produced a few cramped sketches that were lithographed for Frémont’s book, and his experiments with daguerreotypes failed), which probably led him to conclude that, “Though these snow mountains are not the Alps, they have their own character of grandeur and magnificence, and will doubtless find pens and pencils to do them justice,” a statement that surely inspired Miller as he continued to create landscapes such as this from his sketches.
Ron Tyler
