Rock Creek Hollow

11x22 acrylic on canvas, © 2021

Collection of the Artist

In 1856 handcart immigrants from England and Denmark left Iowa City late in the season and were caught in an early storm in Wyoming. A rescue party was sent from Salt Lake City to bring them in from the plains—it was the Willie Handcart Company. They were saved and yet pulled their handcarts to Rock Creek Hollow where the rescue party had camped in the willows against the bitter cold of the storm. That night, of being saved, my great, great grandfather froze to death and was buried the next morning with 12 other fellow travelers in a common grave laid out like spokes of a wagon wheel.

    We had a family reunion in the hollow to commemorate his death and the life of his daughter through whom most of us were descended. It was a peaceful morning, and the beauty of the location was palpable. He still lies in that common grave now marked with a brass plate telling that Ole Lykke Madsen, 41, died here. He didn't get past this place of beauty in October 1856.