J. Hattas painted the murals in the Great Basin Room. These murals depict daily native Shoshone and Paiute life as well as the impacts of pioneer emigration.

In 2022 J. Hattas was commissioned again to add The End of the Trail mural at the end of the CTIC exhibits which displays the scene that depicts the “death of the California Trail”. With the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, fewer and fewer travelers opted for the journey to California by wagon. Instead, many chose a far shorter trip by train to reach California.

The workers depicted are Chinese immigrants who were recruited from China to work on the most difficult stretch of railroad through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. They chipped, blasted, and dug their way to connect the rails that eventually met at Promontory Point in Utah. Despite their hard work and determination to complete the railroad, they faced constant discrimination, terrible working conditions, and continued persecution upon its completion. The mural commemorates these hard-working Chinese laborers who helped move our nation forward as the country accomplished its goal of expansion.