The White Castles on the Missouri

Description

Maximilian expressed great admiration for the variously colored strata and eroded rock formations observed along the Missouri embankments below the mouth of the Musselshell River. He remarked in particular about the visual effect of prominent layers of clay and white sandstone outcroppings topped with crumbling brown strata. These he described as resembling "white mountain castles with brownish roofs.... We came closer to the white mountain castles, as we called them.... As soon as one comes closer, the resemblance naturally vanishes; but from Mr. Bodmer's sketches one will easily see that from a distance a great resemblance exists." Dated July 25, this watercolor rendering of the White Castles was subsequently reproduced as Tableau 37 in the atlas of aquatints.