Pioneers, Wagons and Oxen Crossing the Arkansas River at Great Bend, KS.
This is a hot image. Look for hotspots to click on.
From: Don Shorock <shorock@midusa.net>
Date: Mon Nov 25, 12:32pm -0600
To: bbott
Cc:
Subject: Comments on picture of Arkansas River crossing
http://www.ausbcomp.com/~bbott/winrr/wrcwot.htm
I do have a comment on your picture: Pioneers, Wagons and Oxen Crossing the Arkansas River at Great Bend. I brought a copy of the picture to a local history buff who works at the Great Bend Tribune in the hopes he could shed more light on it.
Instead of giving me the answer, he chose to answer my question in yesterday's Tribune, along with his negative feelings about the Internet, technology (and the 20th century in general).
He identified the picture as a movie publicity photo for a movie made
in 1930. The scene purported to show Westport, Missouri and the banks of
the Missouri (hence the steamboats). He said the actual scene was a movie
set on the banks of the Colorado River, 15 miles
from Yuma. He went on to great lengths to point out other "obvious"
inconsistencies in the picture. If you wish, I can mail you a hard copy
of his article. Just give me a snail-mail address.
While I didn't particularly appreciate his method of dealing with it (since it made both me and the Internet look bad), I now have every reason to believe that his explanation of the picture is correct.
It does raise the question: how did you come by the picture?--
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Don Shorock, P O Box 501, Great Bend, KS 67530-0501 USA |
| e-mail: shorock@midusa.net |
| http://homepage.midusa.net/~shorock |
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| Legalize Freedom! |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
Answer from bbott: the picture came from the collection at the Cowley County Museum.
Bill,
If I'm not mistaken, the picture of wagons, oxen, etc., is from the John
Wayne movie "The Big Trail", filmed around 1930-1931 in
Arizona. I'm almost sure the wagon pulled by 3 yoke of oxen in the front
center was my uncle's setup, and he was the driver on
foot. Three of my uncles took their ox teams from Teton Valley, Idaho on
train car to Arizona to help film the movie and then
back to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to finish it. Our family has a tradition
of training and working oxen and have been in several
movies starting with this one. We still have oxen today.
Hopefully this will help.
Randy Beard
(208) 356-4891
beardr@ricks.edu
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If you have comments or can describe or shed light on details of this
picture please email me.
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