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Ezra Meeker Miner's Stick and Archive, WA - Puyallup,King County

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 - 40,000.00 USD
Ezra Meeker Miner's Stick and Archive, WA - Puyallup,King County
IMPORTANT NOTE ON BUYERS PREMIUMS:

Lot 100 to 343 have a premium of 15%.

The rest of the sale is 19.5% as noted in the listing.

Lot Pick Up: Holabird-Kagin Americana,
3555 Airway Drive Ste #309,
Reno NV 89511,
Sunday - December 9, 10am-4pm
1893 - A beautiful and rare one of a kind miner’s candlestick made for one of the early pioneers of the Oregon Trail, by his son-in-law, a blacksmith in Washington State. FH considers this one of the finest miner`s candlesticks known.

This artistic piece measures 11.75” and includes such clever design features as a drop bucket candle holder, a pick and a ladder for a hanging hook. The pioneer this stick was created for was Ezra Meeker a northwest Renaissance man, who made a fortune in hop farming, went bust but later engaged in food processing, the dairy industry and mining in the Klondike (on four separate occasions). His main claim to fame came as a champion for the cause of having the Oregon Trail memorialized by the government and citizens of the country.

The Oregon Trail had served as a passage to the Northwest until shortly after the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad and over the years more than half a million people traversed the emigrant path that ended in what is now Oregon City, Oregon. (Meeker considered the Trail`s end to be where he ended up, Puget Sound. The National Trails System Act of 2004 marked the beginning of the Oregon Trail as Independence, Missouri, and its end as Oregon City, Oregon.) Preserving and honoring the memory of those who made this arduous five-month journey, as well as the physical path, became Ezra Meeker`s most enduring life’s work.

Also included in the lot, is a book full of newspaper clippings chronicling Ezra and the McCoys and society in general in both Washington State and Southern California. There is also a wedding book for the McCoys and a baby book for Meeker’s granddaughter Marjory Alice McCoy. The interesting thing about this particular book is that was designed by Maude Humphrey, a famous commercial artist of the time and the mother of Hollywood icon Humphrey Bogart. There is also an assortment of photos, some showing Meeker’s covered wagon journeys across the country to bring attention to the Oregon Trail. The candlestick is in very fine condition, the archive material is in very nice condition -61590