Joshua Hits The Trail!

Every once in a great while we a lucky enough to produce something that that seems to be a step above our normal output.  “Joshua Deets” is just such a carving.  Maybe it was the love I have for the saga of Lonesome Dove and the fantastic and colorful characters that inhabit it. Maybe it was caused by that Black that came up to my table in Dayton and ask if I had any “respectful” carvings of Blacks. Whatever it was, probably a combination of a number of things, it all seemed to “click” with this carving.
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In doing this piece, I spent a bit longer than normal when applying the colors as I wanted it to look “trail worn”. I added lots of tans, light greys and browns into each color to give it a dusty appearance. Personally I think I hit it pretty close.
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I found this really interesting bit of Texas history on the www.blackcowboys.com website:
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“In writing Lonesome Dove,  Larry McMurtry based the character Joshua Deets on a real figure from the old west; Bose Ikard. Bose was born into slavery in Tennessee. When Bose was a young boy, the slave holder took him to Texas still in bondage to work on a cattle Ranch. It was in Texas where Bose learned to ride and rope. Bose got his freedom from slavery and became his own man, He hired out his service to Oliver Loving, Loving was killed fighting against the Comanches. Bose then hired out his service to Charles Goodnight.
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Goodnight said, “Bose surpassed any man I had in endurance and stamina. There was a dignity, a cleanliness and reliability about him that was wonderful. His behavior was very good in a fight and he was probably the most devoted man to me that I ever knew. I have trusted him farther than any man. He was my banker, my detective, and everything else in Colorado, New Mexico and the other wild country. The nearest and only bank was in Denver, and when we carried money, I gave it to Bose, for a thief would never think of robbing him.”
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Following his work in the cattle drives, Ikard settled in Weatherford (TX). He and his wife Angeline were the parents of six children when he died in 1929 at age 85. Goodnight had a granite marker erected at his grave in Weatherford. On it is inscribed:
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“Bose Ikard served with me four years on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, never shirked a duty or disobeyed an order, rode with me in many stampedes, participated in three engagements with Comanches, splendid behavior.”
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What a character! Hope you enjoy looking at him as much as I did carving him.

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