Mt. Moran and Stream

Mt. Moran is the peak just north of what is often referred to as "the Teton Group" in Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

Colter's Hell

It all started out as "Colter's Hell." A member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, John Colter, quit to become a trapper in the Rockies. On one of his journeys into the wilderness he came across towering peaks, and huge colorful gorges; what is now Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. His bizarre description of the area (and thus the at-the-time known name of his story: "Colter's Hell") came out right as the westward expansion and the world's fascination with America's new frontier was peaking. The stories of marvelous fountains and steaming mud cauldrons tempted Ferdinand Hayden, head of the U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, so much that in 1871 he personally led an expedition into this mythical place.

Knowing that congress would want visual proof of this "Colter's Hell," Hayden brought three artists along to reveal the expeditions findings: Henry W. Elliot as the official artist of the expedition, William H. Jackson, a photographer, and Thomas Moran, a painter. After the expedition it was Moran's paintings such as his 7 foot by 12 foot, The Grand Cañon of the Yellowstone, (now hanging in the Capitol building) and Jackson's photographs that led congress to create the world's first National Park, Yellowstone.

Because his paintings directly led congress to the creation of Yellowstone and the beginnings of the National Park Service, Grand Teton National Park named this peak after Thomas Moran.