While sculpting the “Temple Stones”, I became fascinated with the role that draft animals, particularly oxen, played in the pioneer effort in the United States. I thought I would do a piece simply featuring a man’s yoke of oxen. The oxen pretty much became “family” members. They were yoked together at a young age and as the oxen grew larger, larger yokes were used. Oxen were usually controlled by voice commands to go, to stop, to turn right or left or to back up.A great deal of interdependence grew between neighbors and fellow travelers because when the burden was too great for one yoke of oxen, your neighbor brought his and chained them to the load. Many of the long grades coming west were achieved by helping each other over the rough stretches. |
