Old Trapper's Lodge, Folk art park at Pierce College, Los Angeles, US
The Old Trapper's Lodge is a folk art collection on Pierce College's campus featuring life-size cement sculptures depicting characters from the American West. The figures are arranged around pathways and grass areas, forming an outdoor gallery you can walk through.
John Ehn (1897-1981), a self-taught artist, built the sculptures at his Old Trapper's Lodge motel in Sun Valley from 1951 to 1981, using his family as models. The site became a California Historical Landmark in 1981. After the airport authority bought the land in 1987, the works were moved in 1988 to Pierce College's Alvin Cleveland Park.
The sculptures show cowboys, Native Americans, and settlers that reflect a specific perspective on American Western history. They are arranged in groups along the pathways and tell stories of how people imagined frontier life.
The collection is located on Pierce College's campus and is free to visit during the college's regular hours without requiring any admission fee. It sits near the Animal Sciences Building and is easy to find once you are on campus.
The site's California Historical Landmark plaque, No. 939-5, is part of a thematic listing of Twentieth Century Folk Art Environments. It records that John Ehn worked from 1951 to 1981, using his family as models and incorporating memorabilia into the Lodge and its Boot Hill.
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