Montana rancher and water wagon.

Elwood Hofer, an amateur photographer shown in this self-portrait, was employed on a ranch at Cinnabar when he made this photograph around 1886. Cinnabar was a hamlet built around a railroad terminal near present-day Gardiner, which is the gateway to the north entrance to Yellowstone Park. The town sprang up a year earlier when the rail line from Livingston to Yellowstone Park was built. They suceeded in laying thier tracks to within six miles of Yellowstone, at which point they were unexpectedly refused the right of way to build further. The end of the tracks became known as Cinnabar and served as a transfer point for passengers to board stagecoaches for the final ride into the park. Hofer later became a guide in nearby Yellowstone Park, and was Theodore Roosevelt's personal guide during the president's 1903 vacation there.

Source: 5 x 7" glass plate negative

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