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The ''End of the Trail'' is a sculpture by James Earle Fraser located in
Fraser first modeled the subject in 1894. He based it on his experience as a boy in the Dakota Territory. His memoirs state, "as a boy, I remembered an old Dakota trapper saying, 'The Indians will someday be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.'" Later he stated "the idea occurred to me of making an Indian which represented his race reaching the end of the trail, at the edge of the Pacific."
A large plaster version of the work was displayed at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and was awarded a gold medal. Soon prints and photographs of the statue became popular. When the Exposition closed, bronze was not available for casting statues because of World War I and the plaster sculpture was thrown into a mud pit in
Waupun, Wisconsin
Waupun is a city in Dodge County, Wisconsin, Dodge and Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Fond du Lac counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 11,344 at the 2020 census. Of this, 7,795 were in Dodge County, and 3,549 were in Fond du ...
, United States. It depicts a weary Native American man hanging limp as his weary horse comes to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. The statue is a commentary on the damage Euro-American settlement inflicted upon Native Americans. The main figure embodies the suffering and exhaustion of people driven from their native lands.
History
Fraser first modeled the subject in 1894. He based it on his experience as a boy in the Dakota Territory. His memoirs state, "as a boy, I remembered an old Dakota trapper saying, 'The Indians will someday be pushed into the Pacific Ocean.'" Later he stated "the idea occurred to me of making an Indian which represented his race reaching the end of the trail, at the edge of the Pacific."
A large plaster version of the work was displayed at the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and was awarded a gold medal. Soon prints and photographs of the statue became popular. When the Exposition closed, bronze was not available for casting statues because of World War I and the plaster sculpture was thrown into a mud pit in Marina Park
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or ...
near the site of the Exhibition. Fraser sold two sizes of bronze copies starting in 1918. The plaster version was rescued in 1919 and moved to Mooney Grove Park, in Visalia, California.
The Waupun statue is a copy of the plaster statue cast in bronze. The bronze version was commissioned by Clarence Shaler in 1926, and was dedicated on June 23, 1929, as a tribute to the Native Americans.
The original was moved from Visalia to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1968, where it was restored and is now on display at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 American West, Western and Native Americans in the United States, American Indian art works and Artifact (archaeology), ar ...
. The City of Visalia received a bronze replica as a replacement.
The Waupun statue was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Today
Many copies of the 1915 statue are on display, including one at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, another in the library at Winona State University in Fraser's hometown of Winona, Minnesota, and a 1929 monument at the Riverside Cemetery inOshkosh, Wisconsin
Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh.
History
Oshkosh was ...
. A painting of the statue's image appeared on the original cover of the 1971 album '' Surf's Up'' by the Beach Boys.
References
External links
* {{James Earle Fraser 1894 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Wisconsin Equestrian statues in Wisconsin Monuments and memorials on the National Register of Historic Places in Wisconsin National Register of Historic Places in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin Native American history of Wisconsin Outdoor sculptures in Wisconsin Sculptures of men in Wisconsin Sculptures of Native Americans Works by James Earle Fraser (sculptor)