In the interior of Pierce College in Woodland Hills, California, there is a fascinating collection of statues, fake tombstones and other examples of folk art. These are what remain of Old Trapper’s Lodge. It took Neek and me a long time driving around to find it, but hidden in a more rural section of the college where a rooster was crowing loudly, we finally stumbled onto it.
Entering the display, I noticed an historical plaque for California Registered Historical Landmark #939. This told the story of John Ehn (1897-1981), who was a trapper before moving to California, who opened a motel near the Burbank airport at Arvilla Avenue and San Fernando Road called the Old Trapper’s Lodge in 1941. To attract business, this self-taught artist (according to unverified sources, he learned by watching Knott’s Berry Farm artist Claude Bell, who went on to build the Cabazon dinosaurs featured in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, and supposedly after hiring Bell to build the initial sculpture, Ehn built the rest himself) in 1951 began creating sculptures using family members as models.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydaJG1HrVIw
It definitely evoked the feelings of some of the Old West memorabilia that gives Knott’s Berry Farm its character. One thing Neek and I noticed with it being such a cloudy day is that with it being located in such a secluded area, you can get the sensation that you’ve stumbled across something lost from the past!
