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Back to Art of the Old West   LEE CREEK TONIGHT!


Original 30"x40" Acrylic/Canvas Painting found in the Collection of Dr. Clark Leavitt, Calgary, Canada.

Historical Background:
In the summer of 1886 British born John Taylor, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, instructed Charles Ora Card to make preparations for leading a colony of Saints into Canada. A large tract of land east of the Alberta Rocky Mountains had recently been opened for homesteading. Charles Ora Card, president of the Cache Valley Stake, had been planning to move to Mexico because Federal persecution was rife against all polygamist families in the Utah Territory. President John Taylor was sure they would get more consideration and better justice on British soil.

In September 1886 President Card led a scouting party into Canada to find a new home for himself and his friends. They traveled northwest into British Columbia and then via Calgary, south to the foothills of the Alberta Rockies, inhabited by the ³Blood² or Blackfeet Indians. Here they found tall, waving grass, ideal grazing and farm land, clear running streams of water (from brooks to creeks to rivers) and the hills were covered by wild flowers. They were greatly impressed and decided on a location near the banks of Lee Creek. The next step was to return and report to President Taylor then begin preparations for the exodus to Canada.

*Please note*: Artist Frank Thomas' studio lithographic art print sales are discontinued from 10 March 2007 until 1 October of 2008. He and his wife are serving for eighteen months in the Ohio-Cleveland Mission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons), at the Kirtland Historic Sites, Kirtland, Ohio. He has set up his art studio and is producing additional LDS historical paintings at that location. Rolled canvas art prints (only) are available and may be purchased by calling Frank at (435) 406-9526 or contact by email wildgoose@crystalpeaks.com.
On the 6th of April 1887, twelve families with their covered wagons left Wellsville, Cache Valley, Utah Territory, bound for Alberta, Canada. Among the families who shared these hardships in pioneering this new land was Thomas Rowell Leavitt and his third wife Harriet Martha Dowdle, along with their two small children, and the two eldest children of his second wife Antoinette Davenport (deceased). Tom's wife, Ann Eliza Jenkins, remained temporarily on the Wellsville farm to keep their large family of 21 children together. Tom Leavitt, farmer and former sheriff of Wellsville, brought cattle from his Utah farm. After a six week, eight-hundred-mile trek in early spring weather they arrived at Lee Creek on 25 May 1887 and drove their covered wagons and precious livestock into the snow-covered valley. (In this scene, Thomas R. Leavitt is portrayed announcing the joyous news back along the line of wagons, "LEE CREEK TONIGHT!") This journey was to become recognized as the last recorded pioneer wagon train in the history of the Old West.

Note: The artist Frank M. Thomas, Holden, Utah, is married to Patreecia Leavitt, daughter of Clyne Leavitt, granddaughter of John Leavitt, and great granddaughter of Thomas Rowell Leavitt and his second wife Antoinette Davenport.