“Contents,” Ensign, Dec. 1975, 1
Ensign
December 1975
Volume 5 Number 12
On the cover: Art symbolizing the Lamanites around the world, by Jerry Thompson
Inside back cover: Children Ice-Skating. Painting by Danquart Anthon Weggeland. Winter snows in pioneer times brought their own kind of pleasures. The Saints could rest from their agricultural labors and take time out for fun.
Wagon boxes were placed on runners and filled with warmed bricks or hay and quilts to make one of the common pioneer sleighs. These horse-drawn sleighs provided much of the wintertime amusement. Sleigh racing, snowball fighting, belly busting (sledding), and ice-skating added their measure of good times.
Dan Weggeland captures this spirit of winter frolic in the painting of pioneer children ice-skating. Bundled against the cold, the children are enjoying each other’s company and the challenge of the ice.
Skates consisted of removable blades attached to the soles of the shoes. A spill on the ice often caused the shoe sole to tear loose, and many a pioneer child had to have his shoes resoled a couple of times each winter.
Skating was done on frozen ponds or rivers, or sometimes a meadow or field was flooded to make the necessary ice.
The painter, Danquart Anthon Weggeland, was born in Norway in 1827. He joined the Church there in 1854 and, after serving a mission, came to Utah in 1863. He was a prolific artist, producing many paintings of Utah scenery and pioneer life until his death at the age of 91. Weggeland has been called the “Father of Utah Art.”