A St. Paul photographer captured the country’s Wild West era.

Born in 1853 in Michigan, Frank Jay Haynes fell in love with photography as a young man and moved to Morehead

“That’s where he established his first studio,”  Jennifer Huebscher with the Minnesota Historical Society said.

It was in Minnesota where Haynes started his long and prosperous relationship with the Northern Pacific Railway. Haynes had a major role in documenting the settlement and early history of the northwestern United States.

“He was able to promote himself to be the official photographer for the Northern Pacific,” Huebscher said. “He took a lot of photographs of the railroad being built. The area it was being in. Really documenting the history of that railroad expanding west.”

Haynes opened a studio in St. Paul and also became the official photographer of Yellowstone National Park.

“He did capture a lot of what everyone thinks of when they think of Yellowstone Park,” Huebscher said. “The geysers, the hot springs, the Grand Canyon at Yellowstone, that waterfall.”

In 1921, Haynes passed away at the age of 67.  Upon his death, a peak in Yellowstone was renamed Mount Haynes. A granite boulder from Yellowstone is on Haynes’ grave as a final and lasting honor.