[National Geographic]

Eugene Kingman loved the spirit of the National Parks. During 1936 he was invited to use his combined scientific and artistic background to illustrate 7 paintings of Yosemite and 6 paintings of Crater Lake National Park in an intriguing geographical article by Dr. Wallace W. Atwood, featuring these 13 paintings in the March 1937 issue of National Geographic Magazine. The title of this article is "Crater Lake and Yosemite Through the Ages" and the full article can be accessed via this link.

Yosemite

This painting of Yosemite National Park is the seventh in a series of paintings that were featured in the National Geographic Magazine in 1937.

DETAILS
  • Title: Yosemite
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks
  • Medium: Oil on canvas

Mt. Mazama is Born

A mighty volcano once seethed with fire where mysterious Crater Lake glistens today. Many thousands of years ago molten rock from deep within the earth poured forth to build in the Cascade Range of southern Oregon lusty Mount Mazama, which the artist has re-created from geologic records. Its frequent explosions buried the surrounding landscape beneath pumice and ash, to be turned by the alchemy of millenniums into soil of remarkable fertility.

DETAILS
  • Title: Mt. Mazama is Born
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Glaciers on Mt. Mazama

Glaciers were born on the slopes of the volcano. Continued outpourings of lava raised the mountain to at least 10,000 feet. Snows fell, massive layers of ice formed during periods when the subterranean fires were banked. But the record of these glacial caps is now buried under a thousand feet of rock, later poured in molten state from the crater.

DETAILS
  • Title: Glaciers on Mt. Mazama
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Mt. Mazama Continues to Grow

Fire-breathing Mazama grew to magnificent stature. Slow but persistent volcano building gradually lifted the mountain higher and higher. A secondary cone developed on its western slope. Whenever the giant was dormant, glaciers cooled its head, and forests mantled its slopes, only to be destroyed at the next eruption.

DETAILS
  • Title: Mt. Mazama Continues to Grow
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Ice Covers Mt. Mazama

The volcano smolders beneath its icy cover. When the lava cooled, vast rivers of ice formed on top and moved in resistless majesty down the slopes. Broad valleys that remain today are verdure-clad reminders of the last glacial stage in the history of Mount Mazama.

DETAILS
  • Title: Ice Covers Mt. Mazama
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Caldera on the Site of Mt. Mazama

All that now remains of the majestic mountain. Relentless forces leveled the towering peak. The top of Mount Mazama disappeared by explosion or gradual sinking, leaving a giant caldera six miles across and four thousand feet deep. Rains and snows have filled this huge depression with the waters of Crater Lake.

DETAILS
  • Title: Caldera on the Site of Mt. Mazama
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Crater Lake

Incredibly blue, Crater Lake sparkles in its rocky setting. Sheer walls rise in some places 2000 feet above the water. Clouds that drift above the water send shadows racing across the mirrorlike surface.

DETAILS
  • Title: Crater Lake
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Phantom Ship in Crater Lake

Wind and light are forever altering the color of Crater Lake. Like rival artists seeking an impossible shade, they change their palettes with whimsical suddenness. One moment the gold of the sun may lie unbroken on the still water, the next a brush of breeze erases it and leaves a patch of dancing blue ripples. The small, rocky island close to the shore is Phantom Ship.

DETAILS
  • Title: Phantom Ship in Crater Lake
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Early Sierra Nevada

The artist illustrates the first chapter in the ten-million-year-old rock story of Yosemite. Originally the Sierra Nevada were low mountains, and the Merced River wound sluggishly through a wide valley flanked by rolling hills. The ancestor of Half Dome, in center of the horizon, rose only 1,500 feet above the stream, and none of the picturesque features that now attract thousands of visitors to Yosemite Park had come into Existence.

DETAILS
  • Title: Early Sierra Nevada
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

The Merced River Cuts a Valley

Several million years later the entire region was raise and tilted. In response to this increased elevation the Merced River cut a broad V-shaped valley below its former plain. Such landmarks as El Capitan and Half Dome then became prominent features.

DETAILS
  • Title: The Merced River Cuts a Valley
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

The Valley Deepens

The final uplift caused the Merced to cut still deeper. Thus more than a million years ago, just before the Great Ice Age, was produced the canyon shown in this painting. The higher peaks of the Sierra Nevada became snow-capped, and the lower slopes cover with dense stands of evergreens.

DETAILS
  • Title: The Valley Deepens
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Glaciers Bury Yosemite Canyon

Then a frozen sea hid the Merced River and Yosemite Valley. Cold, snowy winters and cool summers favored accumulation of snow an ice in the high mountain valleys. Glaciers formed and gradually pushed into Yosemite, burying the canyon. Half Dome, Sentinel Dome, and El Capitan rose only slightly above the frigid mantle.

DETAILS
  • Title: Glaciers Bury Yosemite Canyon
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Final Glaciation in Yosemite

The Yosemite glaciers made a last advance. When the frozen sea had melted away, a smooth-walled U-shaped valley remained. Many centuries later ice came again, further deepened the valley, and polished the steep cliffs. Half Dome and El Capitan stood up boldly.

DETAILS
  • Title: Final Glaciation in Yosemite
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks

Lake Yosemite

Lake Yosemite reflected the grandeur of its walls. The debris left by the glacier impounded a large lake which remained for several centuries to grace the valley. But silt gradually filled the shallow basin and produced a broad lowland, now the site of National Park headquarters and of hundreds of tents and cabins that visitors enjoy.

DETAILS
  • Title: Lake Yosemite
  • Group Title: [National Geographic]
  • Category: Paintings
  • Sub-Category: National Parks