What Should Happen to this California Folk-Art Landmark?

The women appeared to be waiting. They had paint peeling from their knees, elbows, and cheeks. The bodies of the dolls were too big and there was no angle to mark the bend of the joints. It was obvious that they were about to start a conversation.

Marsha said that her mom is lovely Louise. It was out of my grandfather's imagination that they were dressed like dancehall girls.

On a hot day in September of 2022, the cousins traveled to a remote corner of the college to look at what was left of John Ehn's legacy. The Los Angeles Community College District gave the family 60 days to take the rest of the collection out of the property.

We have less than a month to come up with a plan.

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The fight statue was the center of the dust-up. The giant concrete figures of two grimacing, bare-chested men are locked in violent conflict and tower over the assortment of cowboys, goodtime girls, and stoic pioneer mothers. Students and faculty at Pierce College see disturbing remnants of frontier mythology when they look at this weather-beaten part of the family.

John Ehn had tall stories. He dropped out of school in 7th grade to care for his sick father, who was born in 1897. Ehn opened a motel in Sun Valley in 1941 because of his back pain. He decorated his office with an assortment of old-time items and wore turquoise jewelry.

The statue commemorates her grandfather's transformation into "Trapper John." Commissioned by Ehn from Claude Bell, the statue in front of the motel sparked Ehn's own surge of expression.

She was not an artist. He was able to create the rest of the statues.

Rebar was used to support layers of concrete embedded with found materials such as costume jewelry, polished stones, and a set of real teeth. The ebullient Ehn used life casts of his family members as inspiration to create many statues.

While the plaster was still wet, she removed her mask and admitted that she had become overwhelmed and removed her face mask.

Ehn may have felt that he was preserving his wife's jaw and his brother's forehead for the rest of his life. Change is inescapable in Los Angeles. Ehn did not know his work would be named a historic landmark. The work was designated an example of "remarkable 20th century folk art" by the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation, but it didn't offer much protection when the family sold the land.

The Lodge buildings were slated for demolition but Ehn's daughter wanted to preserve her father's artwork. She enlisted the help of a California preservationist who helped save Watt's Towers. There are reams of archival materia l. The collection was embraced by then-Pierce College president David Wolf due to concerns that depictions of "Wild West" characters such as murderers, drunkards, and ladies of the evening may cause offense.

There are more than twenty statues and aboot hill on the family's dime, and they were put around a few picnic tables in a part of campus known as Cleveland park. Fairish used to pull weeds and paint herself a different color. She moved to an assisted living facility. The statues became a mystery with no signs and the college administration changing and changing again.

In the summer of 2020, protests following the murder of George Floyd led to the removal of statues depicting the Civil War and racism. The faculty guild of the college system voted to remove the Old Trapper's Lodge figures from the grounds of the college.

Brian Walsh is the president of the faculty union. This back-to-John-Wayne mode isn't something we want to emphasize

In an appraisal commissioned by the district, Escher ASSOCIATES valued the artwork at $62,650, detailed the options for continued display or removal, and provided an estimate of relocation costs. The Los Angeles Community College District can let go of items that are no longer needed for educational purposes.

The Escher ASSOCIATES report and other internal labor costs were shouldered by the LACCD. Walsh pointed out that community colleges have become more and more involved in providing social services. He said that there have been issues of housing insecurity, food scarcity, and basic needs inequity. If anyone thinks we won't spend a penny on anything other than supporting students, they have something else coming.

The Los Angeles Police Department's missing persons unit was contacted to help find the Ehn heirs.

Linda Causey was shocked to hear that her grandfather's statues were in danger. Causey said they thought it would be forever. We didn't think we'd ever hear about it again.

The next two years were a reunion of many family members, including Causey, her cousin Marsha, and Ehn's great-granddaughter. The district tried to find a new home for the items in many local museums. The Ehn family released their collection to Tommy Gelinas for inclusion in Valley Relics, a trove of San Fernando Valley history located at the Van Nuys airport. The donation was approved at the public meeting of the board of trustees.

Causey traveled south from Santa Cruz in March of 2022. She hadn't seen the statues in a long time. They were making calls to me. It turned out to be an emotional experience. She said she was trying to say goodbye to her grandparents statues. I thought it sounded like a child, but I broke down a bit.

Plans for relocating the artwork had crumbled six months later, and Causey gave future negotiation to her cousins. The two stepped over freshly turned earth and around spikes of rebar and concrete rubble to investigate the remains of Ehn's "Boot Hill." A skeleton of what was here was displayed. It is difficult to know what was taken away and where it is.

The answers to these questions were given by Tommy Gelinas of Valley Relics. The cousins joined forces with two preservationists and proprietors of a tour company. Cooper and Schave had been advocating for greater transparency around the deaccession of the landmark, even though they were aware of the agreement between the college and Gelinas. They criticized the lack of access to the collection, the lack of public dialogue, and the lack of press coverage.

After seeing an early spring Facebook post featuring several concrete slabs being loaded by Valley Relics volunteers into the bed of a pickup truck, Cooper and Schave reached out to offer support to the two people. The Gelinas crew's efforts were deemed disturbing by the Ehn family.

The first step in the process was the removal of the headstones. WithBoot Hill out of the way, they would be able to clear trees and build crates around the statues before using a crane to move them. Gelinas said that all of the headstones are in good shape. I am going to curse on my parents' graves.

The Ehn heirs met with an attorney and sent a cease-and-desist request. They asked for more time to find a new home for the artwork.

Tommy Gelinas backed out of his agreement with the college because he was frustrated by the delays. The Ehn heirs were given 60 days to move the collection from the grounds of Pierce College.

On that hot September day, a week into the stipulated time frame with no new plan in sight, the two men looked into the sun. There are permanent snarls on the faces of the shirtless men.

The clash between Big Bear and Peg Leg Smith was a cautionary tale according to RoseMarie Fairish. Two families were left bereft after two men fought to the death over the ownership of a cow. It's an imagined scenario that leaves little room for all the facts.

The sad part is that my family is gone, my mom is gone, my aunt is gone... gone.

Desert Tower is one of only a few folk art sites that are still intact. Some have vanished completely. The Office of Historic Preservation doesn't have the power to protect landmark sites. The fate of these unique environments is usually left to a few dedicated souls who don't always see eye to eye.

Tommy Gelinas focused on the installation of The Ellen H. Weis Museum of Modern Mythology as the days got shorter and the nights got colder. They use their social media accounts to highlight the damaged and overlooked. There will always be money to be saved.

While the lawyers continue their restrained attempts at resolution, back behind the stables, the concrete statues remain. Rosemary Fairish had to move tons of concrete for her father. Two people hold out hope that it can be done again.