At the age of fourteen, fascinated by the American West, Harry Jackson left his hometown of Chicago and headed to Wyoming. He worked as a ranch hand, and during the winter, returned to Chicago, where he pursued an education at the Art Institute. At eighteen, Jackson enlisted in the Marines, and used his artistic skills to document gruesome scenes of World War II. The overall theme of The Stampede calls on Jackson's youthful fascination with and hands-on experience in the American West, while the frantic and violent nature of the young cowboys caught up and entangled in the rush of stampeding cattle carries a sense of urgency and danger made familiar to Jackson through his experiences of WWII.