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Murals of the KOA and the Spirit of the Pioneers

“Rattlesnake Station”

“The Oregon Trail at Rattlesnake Creek”

Article by Deborah Mashburn

April 2008

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The Idea While flying back home from a business trip to Grants Pass Oregon, KOA owner John Stubblefield was looking at land and thinking about the opportunities for new projects. He made a fateful decision to land in Baker City, OR. While there, he discovered the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center, and, for no other reason than he simply likes history, decided to spend some time there. What he found impacted him deeply. John was, “. . . completely mesmerized as I began to put myself in the shoes of those pioneers. I was literally thunderstruck by the magnitude of what they did. All of my life I had heard of the Oregon Trail...but in one fell swoop it suddenly hit me how these people picked up and changed their lives forever. Saying good-bye to family and friends forever... walking across the United States, some of them barefoot, and for what? For opportunity. For a new start...for land.” In fact, his experiences there moved him so deeply that when he made the decision to remodel the existing Mountain Home KOA, he chose the Oregon Trail and the Spirit of the Pioneers as a theme. After working for a painter and muralist when he was very young, John developed a love and appreciation for art. Then, after seeing the beautifully done works of art hanging in the KOA Corporate Headquarters in Billings, Montana, John knew the blank walls of his own KOA Clubhouse would need to tell a story as well. He asked Judi Kelsey to do some research into the murals in Mountain Home, Idaho, and through that met the muralist and artist Marcus Mashburn. Marcus shares a love of history with John and brought to the partnership a lifelong love of the area. Having already completed several paintings of “Old Mountain Home,” Marcus was ready to branch off into the older history of the area, and had already been planning to bring Rattlesnake Station to life. To understand the challenges of this undertaking, it is important to understand the history itself. The History and Research The Oregon Trail, as we all know, was extremely dangerous. However, what many don’t take into consideration is that the river crossings were among the most dangerous moments on the trail. The most harrowing of these was the Three Island Crossing near what is now Glenns Ferry, Idaho. Even in summer the river flow was unpredictable and dangerous. And yet, it was generally just shallow enough to wade across. The Pioneers crossed there to avoid the Owyhee Desert and, by crossing there, they were able to follow the mountains. The thawing snow packs on the mountains provided a rich ecosystem needed for grazing, and the

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streams were vital for survival. The next notable spot on their trail, Teapot Dome, was visible thirty miles away, thanks to the pillars of steam rising into the sky. A product of the Boiling Springs that pioneers looked forward to reaching because that meant a warm bath. Many diaries from the days of the Oregon Trail mention the Springs and the beautiful creek they would camp by; Rattlesnake Creek. Later, in 1864, on this spot along Rattlesnake Creek, Commodore Jackson built one of only a handful of stage stops in the area. Around Rattlesnake Station, people began to build their homes and their lives. Then, in 1878, during the Shoshone-Bannock War, Fort Rattlesnake was built. There are varying accounts as to the actual height of the fort. Accounts range from about five feet up to fifteen feet. Due to lack of supplies at the time, some consider the higher wall height impossible, and disregard those accounts. Since there are no photographs from that era, it is likely that we will never know for sure. The completed painting “Rattlesnake Station” is as close as any will likely get to actually seeing what the original settlement was like. Sadly, in 1878, the same year the fort was built, a fire swept through destroying much of the small community. After the town was rebuilt the townspeople began referring to their town as “Mountain Home.” Then, the railroad began to make its way through the area. About 1883, the railroad opened for business in Tutville. This was, in essence, the death of the mountain side community. The post office moved to Tutville and little by little, the people and businesses moved down into the valley. The new town site of Mountain Home was laid out in the fall of 1883. There are very few written records pertaining to that time frame, so actual details are difficult to come by. Accuracy is an extremely important aspect of any historical undertaking such as these murals. The amount of research necessary is staggering. Meeting the deadline to complete the murals in time for the Grand Opening was only possible because several key pieces were already in place. Marcus Mashburn had already spent several days digging through old archives. John Hiler had already done a great deal of research into the original settlement. And John Stubblefield had already visited Baker City’s Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. These three pieces helped to narrow the amount of work to still be done. John Stubblefield and Marcus Mashburn flew along the Oregon Trail and visited the Interpretive Center in Baker City. Marcus saw, as John did, the grandness of what had actually been done by these early pioneers and from the flight itself, the difficulty of the terrain.

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From Marcus’s own diary: Sunday March 2, 2008. At 10:30 John Stubblefield flew to Mountain Home to meet up with me for our Baker City Adventure. Destination: Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Our flight followed the Oregon Trail going west. We covered in an hour what it would have taken the Pioneers weeks to navigate. We crossed where the Boise River intersects the Snake River. This is the location of the original Fort Boise; quite a ways from Boise. John is extremely knowledgeable about history, so it was a nice conversation on the way. You can still see the trail ruts of the Oregon Trail in remote areas, but for how long? The Interpretive Center is all that I’d heard it was. There was a life-sized diorama with taxidermied oxen, mule, horses, sheep and all assortments of stock and wildlife. Seeing the ragged clothes, bedraggled walkers and barefoot children really hit home with me. As John Hiler said, “They didn’t ride the trail like Hollywood depicts, they WALKED the trail.” I grew up in this land and I just can’t imagine children walking barefoot a hundred feet, let alone two thousand miles. Stay close to the wagon ruts and risk getting trampled, walk in the sagebrush and get stickers. In the diaries, death was an everyday thing. The deaths are listed like shopping lists, with even family members scarcely getting more than a line to homage to their memories. No permanent markers to be remembered and visited later. Thirty thousand emigrants died this way of disease, weariness, or accident. The conditions were way worse than 21st century minds could comprehend. I’d like to paint something to illustrate the misery they endured in order to have land and freedom. In the 1840’s this was a different country, owned by Indians or Foreign Governments. This wasn’t even part of the United States yet. I really appreciate John Stubblefield taking me out there, because now I have more of an inkling of what The Oregon Trail was about. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do more paintings getting at the pathos of their courage and strength.

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Marcus Mashburn, left and John Stubblefield, right.

Marcus doing research at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

John and Janice at The Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

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Here is an excerpt of Marcus’s diary from the day he spent at Rattlesnake Creek: February 29, 2008. Local historian John Hiler gave me a tour of the base of Bennett Mountain today. Although I have been studying the history of Mountain Home for years, and I have been to this location many times, this was a “eureka” trip that connected many of the dots. The most amazing moment was when we drove up to a mound of rocks, and before leaving the car, I realized that this was the remains of Fort Rattlesnake.

Mound of Rocks, Remains of Fort Rattlesnake.

Until now, I have been completely disappointed with the study of Rattlesnake Station. It’s like the exploration of Mars. Imagination gets interrupted by reality, which ends up being sterile and uninteresting. There are no existing photos of Rattlesnake Station. John Hiler has been searching for 50 years. My wife and I have been to the Research Center in Boise. I’ve been through local archives at Elmore County Museum, Mountain Home News, the M.H. Public Library and at Guarantee Title. When Josh was the Curator of our local museum, he visited the nearby museums for me. Nothing. The two published books about Elmore County also have nothing. There are actually enough remains of Fort Rattlesnake to imagine the texture, color, size and location of Rattlesnake Station. In fact, there are the remains of a cellar and a mound of dirt about twenty-five feet northeast of the fort, and logic would say that this was Rattlesnake Station. (logistics from Commodores house-vs.-Red Cinder Road-vs.-the Fort-vs.-Jackson School House etc.) I got permission

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from the owner of Commodore Jackson’s old property to photograph the local terrain, and will return on a better day. At the foot of Bennett Mountain, the history of Rattlesnake becomes exciting again. Tens of thousands of immigrants came through here on the Oregon Trail starting in the 1840’s. It’s logical; from Three Island crossing to Boise City. It’s a straight bee line through R.S.S. Looking at the old maps, this became obvious. John said the immigrants would not ride wagons (this terrain with no suspension would break your back) but would walk beside the wagons at the base of mountain ranges because streams would flow off the mountains. Where else would you get water for cattle in this arid land? Rattlesnake Creek was a sure location for water, and it was flowing heavy today from our heavy winter snow this year. There are still ancient apple and pear orchards here that were planted by these pioneers. Pulling it All Together With the research part completed, Marcus began the daunting task of trying to take all the information and create accurate and interesting compositions. The first was “Rattlesnake Station.” Marcus comments, “Originally, I had come up with my own composition of the scene after researching the project through books. Here is my original composition…

The original composition of “Rattlesnake Station”.

After talking with John Hiler I can see that there was no way to bring in lumber back in the 1860’s. They had to use local material. I could see from the only picture remaining of a building from Rattlesnake Station, that it had corrugated metal on the ground (for roofing).” Compare that to the finished piece of art and it’s possible to see how many changes were necessary.

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Completed “Rattlesnake Station”

In the finished painting you can see the pioneers’ apple trees. On the right side of the painting is a freight wagon (John Hiler’s uncle worked the freight lines). Barely visible on the top right side is Red Cinder Road. You can see the stage coming in from Boise. A ticket on this stage could cost as much as $25. Commodore Jackson is on horseback talking with a Bannock Brave. The building material for both Fort Rattlesnake and Rattlesnake Station were red rocks. At varying times there would have been other buildings. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to discern from the random piles of rocks what they were, or what their use could have been. As work completed on “Rattlesnake Station” thoughts turned to the composition of the next painting. Gail Brown, John Stubblefield’s assistant and partner in crime, suggested that Marcus paint an action scene of the Oregon Trail. Since Rattlesnakes were a real concern (hence the name of the creek). It made sense to show a bucking horse with a rattlesnake underneath. In the background you can see the wagons in a circle. The circle was used to keep their animals corralled, although in the painting, the animals are being watered before they are corralled for the night. A grieving mother is saying her goodbyes to her child, one of the thirty thousand casualties of the trail during the 1840’s.

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“The Oregon Trail at Rattlesnake Creek”

John Stubblefield and Marcus Mashburn prior to framing and hanging.

The Future Marcus has enjoyed painting these depictions of The Oregon Trail and Rattlesnake Station so much that he has several ideas in mind for future paintings revolving around both the history of Mountain Home’s pioneer days and the Oregon Trail. He and John Stubblefield are already discussing the next project they’d like to add to KOA’s collection. John Stubblefield is a man with vision. So much vision, in fact, that it

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seems almost impossible to put it all into words. When asked about additional changes to the KOA, John replied “My hope and prayer is that our customers have a good enough experience that they come back to find out... because this is a daily work in progress. My passion is my work, and as a result of this I lay awake at night and literally envision and dream about how things can look. So, even though we work very hard to lay out a master plan of improvement, it tends to get changed a lot as we come up with new and better ideas. Definitely we will continue to work on new works of art.”

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Reference Groefsema, Olive. Elmore County, It’s Historical Gleanings. Caxton Printers, 1949 Smith, Bess Foster. The Diary of Jules DeFoe. 1993 Webber, Bert. The Oregon Trail, Diary of Edward Evans Parrish in 1844.Webb Research Group, 1998. We wish to extend a special thank you to John Hiler, Mountain Home historian, for his insights into Fort Rattlesnake and Rattlesnake Station.