The Spirit of the American West Frank Tenney Johnson was a master painter of the Old American West, a creator whose brush captured the romantic and moody essence of a frontier that was rapidly fading into memory. Born in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, his early years were shaped by the sights and sounds of the Overland Trail. Growing up on his family's farm near Big Grove, he witnessed the steady stream of travelers and horse-drawn conveyances heading toward the horizon, an experience that planted the seeds for a lifelong fascination with the Western landscape. This early exposure to the moveme…