End of the Trail

The image of this heroic bronze, even its silhouette, has become an icon representing the plight of Native Americans who were displaced across this country.

The original model of “The End of the Trail” was created by James Earl Fraser in 1894 when he was 17 years old. Its completed size was only 18 inches tall. Fraser replicated his masterpiece in plaster for the 1914 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco which was where Shaler first beheld the work of art. The child of pioneer farmers, Shaler witnessed the plight of Native Americans and was saddened by their disappearance. As a tribute, he commissioned James Earl Fraser to cast the statue in bronze at a cost of $50,000 and gifted it to the City of Waupun. The sculpture was unveiled at its present site on June 23, 1929. In 1975, the statue became a Wisconsin landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Sites.