Painting, Fording the South Platte River near Julesburg; Jackson, W.H. 481P-1

Painting, Fording the South Platte River Near Julesburg by William Henry Jackson

Image: Tepees on proper right, covered wagons on proper left. Wagons and horses are in line to ford the river. Bluffs, blue sky, and clouds in the background.

There is a discrepancy whether it was based on a Jackson sketch of 1866 or a painting from a 1850s etching with minor foreground changes. The etching appeared in Geo. Willis Read's "A Pioneer of 1850", Boston Little & Brown, 1927. No credit is given to the etching in the book but Jackson could have copied it. Jackson's son is said to have seen this painting and believed that it was done early in his father's career, while he was still residing in Denver.