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Phelps, had purchased Wyoming’s Pitchfork Ranch in 1903 following the death of Otto Franc. One of the friends on the tour was Eugene Phelps, whose father, Montana land magnate L.G. He recorded sights in England, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Russia, just eight years before the end of the reign of the czars.

It could withstand rough conditions and, with its fast shutter speed, take action shots.

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”įor the trip, Charles purchased a Zeiss Minimum Palmos camera which used 4 x 5 inch glass plates, but, for its time, was considered a portable camera. Their 1908 Packard touring car, supposedly the first car driven for pleasure through Russia, caused a sensation and they “were feted and honored in all of the larger cities. In the summer of 1909, he and a couple of college friends traveled throughout Europe and Russia, logging more than 3,000 miles in “the empire of the Czar,” he wrote in the letter years later. “We invariably had two and three pack mules loaded down with cameras, plates and equipment and I doubt if more pains have even been taken to photograph that region,” he wrote in a 1927 letter to his friend Mary Jester Allen.īelden finished high school in Ross, Calif., and then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied mechanical engineering.

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An uncle showed him how to take photographs in those days of glass plates. Charles later recalled taking pack trips in the Kings and Kern river areas after he turned 10 years old. He was the grandson of Josiah Belden, who traveled west with the 1841 Bidwell-Bartelson party, first wagon train of settlers to use what would become the Oregon Trail. 26, 1887, Charles Belden, who would come to that ranch as an adult, was born in San Francisco. In 1879, a German royal named Otto Franc von Lichtenstein founded the Pitchfork Ranch along the Greybull River in Wyoming Territory’s Bighorn Basin. He’s holding what may be the same large-format (4x5) but portable Zeiss Minimum Palmos camera he used on his 1909 tour of Europe and Russia. Stimson in Wyoming.” Jackson is well-known for his work with the Hayden expedition in the latter 1800s, and Stimson for his detailed photographs of the early 1900s, which included scenic views and towns as well as farm and ranch life.Ĭowboy photographer Charlie Belden, shown here in what amounts to a self portrait probably from the 1930s, had a keen sense of drama and design.

Scholar Vanita Van Fleet Fowden calls him “a true historian/photographer in the tradition of William H. But he also created photographs that show the romance of the West, the vision the public wanted to see. The bridge collapsed and his camera was ruined, but Belden survived the crossing. The reality of the work-herding 800 cattle across a river on a “pretty rickety” bridge, for example-often contrasts sharply with the stereotypical and more glamorous image of the West-cowboys round a campfire perhaps or famous dudes on horseback. Most of Belden’s commercial photographs show ranching’s daily routines, achieving his twin goals of preserving the historical record and selling his work. But on a deeper level, the images also reveal the impressive artistry and complexity of the man who created them.īelden’s granddaughter, Lili Turnell, in a 2018 television documentary for Wyoming PBS, said that he “really had a vision for photography that was very unique for the time.” Her late husband, Jack Turnell, also featured in the program, elaborated, explaining that Belden “saw things others couldn’t see.” His pictures of cowboys and sheepherders on the Pitchfork doing chores, gathering cattle, branding calves and sorting sheep are easily recognizable and became something of a trademark for the photographer. But there is much more to Belden’s story than meets the eye.Īt first glance, Belden’s photographs show the romantic, rough-riding, tough-spirited West. “If a picture doesn’t tell a story,” photographer Charles Belden told his granddaughter, “it’s not worth taking.” His three decades of images told the story of Wyoming ranching in national magazines from about 1914 to 1940, making both him and Wyoming’s massive Pitchfork Ranch famous.

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