Perched Rock, Rocker Creek, Arizona

As the distant landscape peeks around in an almost vain attempt to assert its presence within the photograph, the Perched Rock, located at Rocker Creek, Arizona, dominates the frame. Perfectly balanced upon its natural pedestal, the rock's massive bulk poses no threat to the dark, crouched figure of a man below, who has been inserted as a barely noticeable scale marker at the lower right. In 1872 William H. Bell joined the United States War Department's Arizona expedition and survey, under the command of Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. This mounted print was part of an album titled Photographs. Explorations and Survey West of the Hundredth Meridian 1871, 1872 and 1873.