History
The valley was the natural route to Yellowstone Lake as trappers, explorers and natives made their way up the Yellowstone River. On August 29, 1870 when Henry D. Washburn and Gustavus Cheyney Doane ascended Mount Washburn during the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition, they saw the great expanse of the Hayden Valley between Yellowstone Falls and the lake.
In Doane's journal he described the valley as seen from Mount Washburn thus:
A grassy valley, branching between low ridges, running from the river toward the center of the basin. A small stream rose in this valley, breaking through the ridges to the west in a deep cañon, and falling into the channel of the Yellowstone, which here bears in a northeast course, flowing in view as far as the confluence of the small stream, thence plunged into the Grand Cañon, and hidden from sight. No falls can be seen, but their location is readily detected by the sudden disappearance of the river; beyond this open valley the basin appears to be filled with a succession of low, converging ridges, heavily timbered, and all of about an equal altitude. To the south appears a broad sheet of water -- the Yellowstone Lake.
Although its clear that the valley is named in honor of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden and his geological surveys of the Yellowstone region (his 1871 survey led to the creation of the park), there is little definitive evidence as to who actually named the valley. Some credit the Earl of Dunraven, during his visit in 1872, but the name first appeared on maps in 1880 in an annual report from superintendent Philetus Norris.
Read more about this topic: Hayden Valley
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