Native American Design Fleece Blanket - End of the Trail by Missouri River

Inspiration and Origin of the End of the Trail Design

The End of the Trail is the best-known sculpture by James Earle Fraser. It depicts a weary Native American man hanging limp as his weary horse comes to the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Fraser first modeled the subject in 1894, basing 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 because of World War I and the plaster sculpture was thrown into a mud pit in Marina Park 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, near Visalia, California.

Among Fraser's earliest works were sculptural pieces at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 and, for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, one of his most famous pieces, End of the Trail. While meant to be cast in bronze, material shortages due to World War I prevented this. After the Exposition, the original plaster statues were moved to Mooney's Grove Park in Visalia, CA. Exposed to the elements, they slowly deteriorated. "End of the Trail" was ultimately obtained by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in 1968 and restored. It can be viewed there today. The restored statue is currently on display in the entryway of the Oklahoma City museum, and the original that sat in Visalia, CA, was replaced with a bronze replica. The original bronze replica statue of the End of the Trail Statue is located in Shaler Park, in Waupun, Wisconsin.