T.B. Moffat traveled through Yellowstone National Park on a bicycle tour from September 11-16, 1894. Information on where his trip originated or his occupation is unknown. The location of the original diary is unknown and his "Trip through the West" is not dated.
T.B. Moffat arrived in Livingston, Montana on September 11, 1894 and began his trip through Yellowstone on September 12. Throughout the diary, his accounts of the natural features, wildlife and weather conditions as they existed in 1894 are vivid and detailed. He starts his narrative describing his stage ride to Cinnabar, then proceeds to Mammoth Hot Springs on his bicycle. On September 13 he continued on to the Norris Geyser Basin. He stayed the night at Norris and continued the next day to the Grand Canyon. He explored the Canyon sights and then started back, arriving at Cinnabar after lunch on September 16 where he took the train back to Livingston.
The script for the slide show includes thumbnail sketches for 23 slides which included Oregon's Multnomah Falls and Columbia River; Yosemite Falls and El Capitan in California; sites in Salt Lake City (this includes editorial comments about Mormon lifestyles, Brigham Young and the Ute Indians), the Great Salt Lake and surrounding mountains of Utah. It finishes in Colorado featuring the Union Pacific's Alpine Pass, Royal Gorge, Pike's Peak and the Mount of the Holy Cross.
This collection is open for research.
A typed transcription of a diary by T. B. Moffat about a trip to Yellowstone National Park in 1894 and a typed script entitled "A Trip Through the West" for use with a lantern slide show which features Salt Lake City and natural attractions in Oregon, California, Utah and Colorado were donated to Special Collections by Lesley Heathcote in 1962. T. B. Moffat was Miss Heathcote's brother-in-law.
This collection was processed 2009 May 22