A portrait by artist Mike Wimmer depicting the Abernathy boys of southwestern Oklahoma has been unveiled in the Oklahoma House.
The portrait, titled "Bud and Me," was unveiled Wednesday. It depicts the Abernathy boys, Bud and Temple, who lived with their father, U.S. Marshall Jack Abernathy, in the town of Frederick. They were famous for taking unaccompanied trips on horseback cross-country.
Their first journey was in 1909 when Bud was nine and Temple only five. The duo rode more than 1,000 miles from Oklahoma to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and back. The next year, the boys rode for over a month to reach New York.
In 1911, they rode 4,000 miles from New York to San Francisco in 62 days — an equestrian feat that has never been equaled.
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