PLANNING TO RETURN

The painting depicts a party of French and Osage Indians packing their gear up the bank of a river as two of the hunters cache a dugout canoe by partially submerging it, then weighting it down with rocks. On this autumn day they will begin their fall hunt by land, continuing to travel by water after they have secured a supply of meat for their families . Packing light and moving with the herds through the dark timber of the flood plain they will they will enjoy a freedom and a hunters paradise few have ever experienced.

Note: In July of 1965 an 18 foot dugout canoe was discovered in the Thompson river in north central Missouri. That canoe, the inspiration for this painting ,is preserved and on display in the Grundy County Museum, Trenton, Missouri.