Ryan Metke
Ryan Mountain, 2014
Acrylic on canvas
40 x 59 3/4 in
101.6 x 151.8 cm
101.6 x 151.8 cm
Signed & dated on verso
Copyright The Artist
I broke out of New York City for a few days last frigid February. Had some work in a group show in Los Angeles, which really just gave me an...
I broke out of New York City for a few days last frigid February. Had some work in a group show in Los Angeles, which really just gave me an excuse to thaw out for a bit while on a trove mission. Spent some time alone out in the Southern California Desert. Not very familiar with the geography, I looked at a map and found a peak called Ryan Mountain. Seemed like an easy decision there. It was a short stay but the desert left a lasting impression. Thought a lot about the early Spanish explorers that came through the region five hundred years before. Francisco Vazquez de Coronado in particular, on his quest for glory, god and gold. Coronado led an expedition of more than two thousand men north from Mexico intending to discover the Seven Cities of Gold. They didn't have much luck finding the physical treasures they had hoped to find, but the convoy was arguably some of the first Europeans to make it that far into the interior of the New World. Their "big dogs" were also some of the first horses introduced to the continent. Can't help putting myself in Coronado's boots at the time, although he regarded his mission to be a failure. With all of the natural beauty of the untouched North American West, it's hard to believe how one could be disappointed.
Fast forward to the late 19th Century, the cattle business is what drove J.D Ryan and Johnny Lang to the Californian Desert. With scarce water sources, and the fact that they woke up one morning to discover their horses had been stolen, the Ryans cattle ranch soon switched gears and became a mining camp. This unforgiving region made simple tasks quite difficult. Steam engines were used to crush the gold ore, powered by water and timber, both of which were in short supply in the desert. The small mining claim did manage to produce around 200 lbs. of gold per week. Hidden in the 16-horse freight wagon, the Ryans transported the gold 130 miles west through outlaw country. J.D. Ryan soon realized that the dayshift was producing an amalgam the size of a baseball while the nightshift, supervised by Lang, recovered a mere golf ball....... Lang's body was found months later on the side of the trail. What ever happened to that guy's stash?
When Coronado learned of the '7 Cities of Gold' he allowed his greed to fuel his pursuit. Maybe if he had slowed down and made some acute observations, he would have realized he had been standing on top of the gold all along.
Fast forward to the late 19th Century, the cattle business is what drove J.D Ryan and Johnny Lang to the Californian Desert. With scarce water sources, and the fact that they woke up one morning to discover their horses had been stolen, the Ryans cattle ranch soon switched gears and became a mining camp. This unforgiving region made simple tasks quite difficult. Steam engines were used to crush the gold ore, powered by water and timber, both of which were in short supply in the desert. The small mining claim did manage to produce around 200 lbs. of gold per week. Hidden in the 16-horse freight wagon, the Ryans transported the gold 130 miles west through outlaw country. J.D. Ryan soon realized that the dayshift was producing an amalgam the size of a baseball while the nightshift, supervised by Lang, recovered a mere golf ball....... Lang's body was found months later on the side of the trail. What ever happened to that guy's stash?
When Coronado learned of the '7 Cities of Gold' he allowed his greed to fuel his pursuit. Maybe if he had slowed down and made some acute observations, he would have realized he had been standing on top of the gold all along.