33 X 18.5 Oil
Fort Hall was trading post of international renowned for fur trappers and then emigrants on the Oregon Trail. The U.S. Army camped there when enforcing the move of the Shoshone and Bannock tribes onto the reservation of the same name in the late 1850’s through 1860’s. In its most famous form, it was an adobe walled structure much like Minerva has painted here. The locals called the ruins of the fort “the ‘Dobes,” which by the time she was a child in the area had long crumbled. On the back of this work, she wrote “Made at Old Fort Hall” and then the title “The ‘Dobes.” She also wrote the date “1924”. Lastly, she put on the price -“$100.00” , not a bad sum at the time . A Model “T” Ford cost $260.00 in 1925. On the front, beneath her signature she painted, ’25, indicating that perhaps she did some additional work on the piece. We do know that Minerva was commissioned to paint a mural in Pocatello high school around 1920 that included the fort. The current replica of Fort Hall built in the 1960’s used plans from historical Hudson Bay Company records that were kept in Pocatello. It makes sense that Minerva would have had access to these to paint the high school mural and why such an accurate version of the structure would have been painted in 1924.
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