Price:  $6,000

    As it turns out, Henriette came by her pioneering spirit quite honestly.  Her father, N.C. Wyeth, had traveled to the American west in 1904, living the life of a mail carrier, a range rider and a stage driver, all the while filling his notebooks with sketches that would later become his action-packed western illustrations.  

    But those adventurous roots go even deeper, all the way back to N.C. Wyeth's grandfather, Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth.   Leaving behind a successful business, wealth, family and friends, he departed from Boston in 1832 to head an expedition to the Oregon Territory.  The venture was intended to make a fortune for all 23 men in his small party, but by the time he reached Ft. Vancouver, he had already lost 15 of his men to indian attacks, disease, accidents, starvation or desertion.  After the death of another of his men while at the Fort, those who remained were released from their contracts.

    By this time, Wyeth had realized that the Hudson Bay Company's dominance in the fur trade made his original plan for the venture an impossibility.  But despite the setbacks, Wyeth still saw opportunity in the west, particularly in agriculture and salmon fishing.  He spent several months in Oregon studying the soil, topography, flora and fauna and making careful notes of all the streams and lakes encountered on the long journey home.

    That journey, proved to be even more perilous than the first half, with the unpredictable Rocky Mountain weather, fatigue, hostile indian tribes, leaking boats, lack of food and straying horses.  Every day had one goal - staying alive.

    It was upon his return to Massachusettes that Wyeth learned what had happened to his supply ship, the Sultana.  She had foundered off the coast of South America.  Wyeth had spent the entire winter at Vancouver waiting for supplies that would never arrive.

   Although this journey might have been considered a failure, Wyeth strongly believed that the Oregon territory and the west should and would become a part of this great land.  Perhaps more than any other American, Nathaniel Wyeth stimulated interest in the unknown territory at the outer reaches of the country.  Through his efforts, the US Government rushed to acquire the Oregon Territory in 1846.  His willingness to go from the ease and comforts of life in New England, to an unpredictable wilderness full of beautiful danger, is a contribution to our nation's history that may never be fully recognized.  But aren't we glad that he made it home?  Otherwise the world might never have known the art of generations of Wyeth artists.