James Earle Fraser's End of the Trail became a widely recognized image across the United States, first created as a large wire-and-plaster statue by Fraser and exhibited at the Pan-American Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Fraser, also known for designing the Indian Head (Buffalo) Nickel and other large-scale sculptures including statues of President Lincoln and Benjamin Franklin, based the work on what he witnessed while growing up in Mitchell, South Dakota, where encounters with pioneers, hunters, fur trappers, and Plains Natives, along with stories of the Native people's "doomed fate," shaped his sympathy for their suffering as westward expansion threatened their lands. Fraser's original statue is now housed at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, after being restored following exposure to the elements in a California park. In 1938, Ambrose Gruenke carved a redwood End of the Trail at Trees of Mystery from a single log in 30 days, except for the horse's head, using a jack knife, a saw, and an axe. Gruenke, a traveling artist from Minnesota who also carved works in Crescent City, California, created it after Carl Lewan commissioned the piece to symbolize the end of many trails. The statue also came to hold layered meaning for Trees of Mystery and the Thompson family, who have owned and operated the park since 1946, as it stands near the end of the walking trail through the redwoods, marks the place they made their home, and serves as a copy of Fraser's iconic work.