About Ferdinand Hayden
Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden Expedition 
Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden, after whom our TU chapter is named, was an explorer who led one of four special surveys of the American West. Wheeler, King, and John Wesley Powell led the others. These surveys became the US Geological Survey and Hayden became its first director. Hayden's survey covered the whole northern mountain area of Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. William Henry Jackson, his photographer, was the first to picture the Mount of The Holy Cross and make its fame worldwide.
It was also around a campfire during Hayden's survey, at the headwaters of the Madison, Gallatin, Snake and Yellowstone Rivers that the idea of setting aside a part of the west from open exploitation first was brought up. Yellowstone, the National Park system and a great deal of conservation are the results. The fight to establish Yellowstone was hard. It was a beginning from which we all owe a debt of gratitude. The fight to keep the idea alive isn't over. We are the heirs of Hayden's most significant contribution.