Reverend Steamboat Frank

"Reverend Steamboat Frank" by Thom Ross, 1986. Acrylic on canvas, 78" by 51". Ross has had a lifelong interest in American History and the “folk hero” who is a product of that history and has long been the motivating force behind his work. Favorite subjects include: Cowboys, Indians and historical battles in the American Indian Wars.

Steamboat Frank, along with Hooker Jim, Bogus Charley, and Shacknasty Jim, agreed to capture Kintpuash for the United States Army. Kintpuash was a chief of the Modoc tribe of California and Oregon. He led a band from the Klamath Reservation to return to their lands in California, where they resisted return. From 1872 to 1873, their small force made use of the lava beds, holding off more numerous United States Army forces for months in the Modoc War.