Snake River Heritage Center honors Frank Mortimer and his dream

Sometime back I was contacted by Lisa McKnight asking if I would be willing to speak at an unusual event: the setting of a headstone for a gentleman who died in 1957.  
 I was being asked to speak because Weiser’s Mayor, Frank Gwilliam, gave the eulogy for the funeral at the time.
 My natural inclination is to avoid public speaking, but considering that the individual involved was Frank Mortimer, I felt it was an honor, privilege, and duty to say what I could.  
 So, this past Saturday a group of interested people met at Hillcrest Cemetery to honor a Weiser citizen who had a significant impact on his city.  
 Frank Mortimer came to Weiser when he was 30 years old, traveling with a carnival as a juggler. Prior to Weiser, he had been a professional baseball player in Chicago and toured Old Mexico with a circus. However, he wasn’t just an athletic entertainer.  
 At age 17, Frank had shown his organizational acumen when he worked in a publishing company – reorganizing the distribution system into a format that worked for many years thereafter.
 When the carnival disbanded in Weiser, Frank stayed around … working as a clerk and bartender.  
 Within five years, he had purchased the Weiser Newsstand, a business he operated for the next 30 years. After the purchase, Frank set about building his real dream – Oregon Trail Park, which opened six years later in 1916.  
 I spent my career helping finance people’s goals and dreams, so I have a pretty good idea of what it must have taken for Mr. Mortimer to put together the only entertainment park in SW Idaho. This was a monumental undertaking.  
 There isn’t room in this column to go into detail on all the park had to offer. Just imagine an entertainment enterprise large enough to draw crowds of up to 10,000 people to Weiser on the 4th of July. Special trains would bring people from Boise for the day.  Can you imagine the impact of 10,000 visitors to Weiser in one day now?  Just imagine the impact 100 years ago. Also, it didn’t just draw people for one day a year, but throughout the year!
 The Oregon Trail Park, or Mortimer’s Island as it was called, operated until 1930 when the Great Depression brought an end to people’s spending cash. Mr. Mortimer continued to run his Weiser Newsstand until 1940.  
 In the meantime, he became interested in geology and mining. After his wife Helene’s death, he purchased a mining claim and went looking for lead, silver, copper and radioactive material.  
 At age 81 he was working his mine alone, fell, and was in bed for weeks.  The following winter, in 1957, while visiting his sister in Napa Valley, Calif., Frank passed away.  Frank’s body was then cremated and the ashes sent back to Weiser to be buried next to his beloved Helene.  
 Sadly, there were no funds for a headstone.  
 When this came to the attention of the Snake River Heritage Center Board, a fundraising effort was made to provide a monument for one of Weiser’s most notable citizens.
 One of the things that I love about Weiser is the fact that people care about each other – even long after they have passed.  
 Thank you to the Snake River Heritage Center Board, the Hillcrest Cemetery Board, and ALL of the interested individuals who made this headstone possible.  
 If you would like to know more about Frank Mortimer, his life, and the impact he had on Weiser, just visit the Snake River Heritage Center behind the high school on Paddock Road.  The Center is a wealth of information about Weiser and the wonderful history for this part of Idaho.    
 In City news this week, the swimming pool should be opening up the first week of June.
 The West 9th Street project is nearing completion. And there should be new exercise equipment in City Park before long – thanks to the hospital, its employees, and generous donors.
 Well, that’s it for this week. Next Wednesday there will not be a column. Cathy is taking us to northern Idaho for a little getaway. I hope you have a wonderful week!