Devil's Canyon, Geysers, Looking Down

Carleton E. Watkins

1868–70 · Albumen silver print from glass negative · Photographs

This tortured landscape shows Devil's Canyon, which is cited in William Bentley's Hand-Book of the Pacific Coast (1884) as a "favored resort for pleasure seekers" from nearby San Francisco. Located in Sonoma County, its chief feature was a crevasse six feet in diameter known as the "Steam Pipe," a Dantean inferno from which steam bellowed forth with a blast that often exceeded the scream of a locomotive whistle. The tiny figure on the left, a surrogate for the viewer, is rare in Watkins' work and is thought to be the photographer himself.

Artist

Carleton E. Watkins

Date

1868–70

Medium

Albumen silver print from glass negative

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1989