John 'Olde Trapper' Ehn- Woodland Hills, California
Posted by: 
calgriz
N 34° 11.111 W 118° 35.016
11S E 354069 N 3783822
John Ehn was a famous trapper before retiring to California in 1941 to open a motel. He spent the last 30 years building these folk art statues, using family life masks. The main statues, signs and tombstones were relocated to Pierce College.
Waymark Code: WMKB4F
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/13/2014
Views: 4
John Ehn had been a trapper before moving to California and opening a motel in 1941. It was located on San Fernando Road near the northern end of the Bob Hope Burbank North/South runway. He hired a sculptor to make a huge statue of a trapper to publicize the Lodge. Seeing the sculptor at work was training enough for him, and he set to work in the mid-1950s transforming the front yard into an Old West history with cowboys, cowgirls, gunslingers, Indians and a Boot Hill graveyard. He spent the last 30 years of his life building the statues, using life masks of himself and family members for the faces. The motel office was filled with Western memorabilia, weaponry and pelts. The front of the building was covered with tools. After Ehn’s death in 1981 (at age 84), the family sold the property to make way for airport expansion.
Although his creations were declared a California state cultural landmark in 1984, bulldozers leveled the Lodge in the late 1980s and the statues were endangered. The main sculptures, signs and tombstones were relocated to Pierce College in Woodland Hills, CA by the SPACES organization. The Los Angeles Community College Board of Trustees voted unanimously to accept the Ehn family's gift.
The statues are assembled in grassy Cleveland Park, a small hillside area, said Richard Moyer, assistant dean of academic affairs. Moyer said the park is visited by hundreds of children each year. "He liked kids," Moyer said of Ehn. "He wanted the statues to be protected, but he wanted them to be enjoyed." The college formally dedicated the statues in the fall, Moyer said.
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The statues are made of concrete over wire frames. The statues are at least life size or slightly larger. The figures are posed in Western heroic poses holding muskets and dressed in Western pioneer wear. There is a combative war scene between a pioneer and an American Indian.