Park City-native and renowned sculptor Edward James Fraughton, primarily known for his sculpture depicting poignant moments celebrating the American West, died June 2 at the age of 85 of a rare blood cancer in South Jordan. His extensive body of work lives on, memorializing the faith, pain and struggle of the early West.
Fraughton’s first sculpture commission involved creating a series of historical portraits for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In 1968 the Sons of Utah Pioneers and Mormon Battalion associations commissioned him to create a heroic monument commemorating the historic Mormon Battalion trek from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas to San Diego during the 1846-1847 Mexican American War. His heroic, nine-foot monumental Mormon Battalion Soldier stands at the highest point at Presidio Park in San Diego, California.
His more recent sculpture projects include A Man to Match My Mountains at Snowbird Resort, Utah. This towering sculpture depicts Dick Bass, climbing to one of his seven conquered highest summits, and on the other side, Dick Bass, the avid skier. His striking work The Ancient Ones at Mesa Verde National Park in Cortez, Colorado, depicts an Ancestral Puebloan descending a sheer narrow column of sandstone with a basket of corn. The 20-foot-high monument graces the visitor center and museum entrance.
His contribution to a 10-year collaborative effort, commissioned by the First National Bank of Omaha, is displayed in a heroic bronze installation titled Nebraska Wilderness and Pioneer Courage, in downtown Omaha. It depicts a historic pioneer wagon train traveling west through Nebraska’s wilderness. This project is the largest single installation of monumental sculpture in North America: The linear space covers approximately five city blocks.
Fraughton’s magnum opus, Resurrection, yet to be completed, sits waiting in his studio.
National recognition began in 1973 when Fraughton was awarded his first gold medal at the National Academy of Western Art for his sculpture Where Trails End. Awards from the National Sculpture Society, National Academy of Design, and other prestigious art organizations soon followed.
Most recently, Fraughton received a Lifetime Achievement Award in April 2024 by the National Portrait Society of America and in 2023 the National Sculpture Society – National Trust for Historic Preservation awarded Fraughton the National Sculpture Society Affiliated Sculptor in Residency at Chesterwood in Stockbridge Mass., Daniel Chester French’s summer studio.
In 1980, Fraughton was selected to create President Ronald Reagan’s inaugural medal, and Fraughton’s Where Trails End sculpture was kept in Reagan’s private quarters throughout his two terms in office. That same piece is now permanently displayed at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
Edward James Fraughton was born March 22, 1939, in the then-impoverished Utah mining town of Park City. He attended Marsac Elementary School and, in 1957, graduated from Park City High School.
Entering the University of Utah as a civil engineering student, he later changed his major to sculpture and graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. While there, he studied, served as a student teaching assistant, assisted in the gross anatomy lab and completed his postgraduate work under the legendary Dr. Avard T. Fairbanks and his son Justin. He also played baritone horn in the university marching and concert bands. Following his formal education, which he financed mainly by working night shifts at a local steel fabrication plant, he struggled to make ends meet by working in sales, substitute high school teaching, driving a delivery truck and laboring as a foundry worker in a local bronze casting facility.
Fraughton’s greatest source of pride and joy was his family. His love for his wife, his children, and all his posterity was immeasurable. A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he frequently expressed his devotion to the Savior through his words and his work. He chose sculpture as a career, convinced this would make the greatest contribution to humanity in his lifetime.
Fraughton was a true renaissance man and often referred to by his contemporaries as a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci. Following a mid-air collision over the Salt Lake Valley in 1987 that destroyed two airplanes and claimed ten lives, Fraughton, a pilot, invented and patented a new technology for tracking aircraft. This technology, now most popularly known as ADS-B, uses GPS satellite tracking to find and report aircraft positions. Fraughton’s U.S. patent and foreign patents were issued in 1992. Subsequently, he served on several committees associated with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). ADS-B has recently been announced as the FAA’s system of choice to upgrade and replace the outdated radar-based air traffic control technology.