Day after day, the heavy, shadowed forest passed slowly by, broken only now and then by an open meadow or tiny settlement where a few lone figures stood waving from among the tree stumps. Some trees towering over the river banks measured six feet through. On summer mornings the early filtered light on the water could be magical. These were the years of the great Missouri River paintings by George Caleb Bingham. The river Bingham portrayed was the settlers’ path.
