Shannon Stirnweis (B. 1931) "Covered Wagon Caught in Snow Storm" Signed lower right. Original First Day Cover illustration painting on Illustration Board.

Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation.

This painting appeared in the Fleetwood Trails West Collection of Fine Art Prints as "Wagon in Snowstorm" published in 1983.

As members of a huge wagon train of emigrants, the Donner party in 1846 traveled the main Oregon Trail across the Great Plains with comparative ease. But misfortunes began when the eighty-seven member party separated from the main group to take the Hastings Route by way of Fort Bridger, Wyoming. They thought that this route would reduce the distance to California by several hundred miles. But by then it was late October, and snow on the Sierra Mountain range was portending an early winter. Undaunted by the unfavorable circumstances, the Donner party continued on their journey, crossing icy streams and climbing more than fifty miles to the granite-walled pass that was destined to take the Donner name. It was at this point that deep snow stopped them. Near a lake below the pass, the stranded group -- over half of them children -- took shelter in hastily thrown-up cabins, tents, lean-tos, and even a flimsy brush wigwam. Snowed in, huddling in the bitter cold, they anxiously awaited the storm's end. But it seemed to never come. Six times, small groups tried to escape from the snowbound pass. But dissension and bitter fatigue forced them to turn back to their camp and to a nightmare that ended in robbery, murder, and starvation. Of the original eighty-seven people that took the short-cut to California, only forty-seven survived.

Image Size: 17.5 x 20.5 in.
Overall Size: 24 x 26.25 in.
Unframed.
(B07765)

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