An appropriately named benchmark, "Mullan", has even been monumented near the centre of the front face of the pyramidal concrete base of the "Mullan" statue. The base is about four feet in height, elevating the statue well above street level. The statue is surrounded by a small traffic island in which a memorial garden has been created in honour of Karen Dunnigan.
This is one of the original series of Captain Mullan monuments, of which thirteen were made and placed along the Mullan Road, which stretched 642 miles from Fort Benton, MT to Fort Walla Walla, WA. Mullan surveyed and built the road in the years 1853 to 1860. It was the first road to cross the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Northwest.
Designed by Western frontier artist Edgar S. Paxton and fabricated by Western Montana M & G Company, the original statues of
Captain John Mullan were fourteen feet tall, cut from white Vermont marble and placed on concrete bases. They were initially placed at various points along
The Mullan Road. This monument was erected under the auspices of the Montana Society of Pioneers and was dedicated in 1918. The statue was a gift to the town of Mullan by W.A. Clark Jr., the son of one of the four Butte Copper Kings, W.A. Clark Sr.
It is described by the Smithsonian thus:
Administered by City of Mullan Mullan Idaho 83846
Located Earl and 2nd Street Mullan Idaho
Installed 1918
A standing figure of John Mullan, with his proper right hand holding the top of a gun barrel. The butt of the gun rests on the outside of his proper right foot. His proper left arm is bent at the elbow and his proper left hand rests on his proper left hip. A pistol is tucked in his belt. He has a beard and is wearing a hat. The figure stands on a small base that protrudes from an obelisk-shaped block behind him.
From the Smithsonian