Charles Ostner
"Charles Ostner, Burial Date - December 9, 1913, "Idaho's Pioneer Artist" In a glass case on the second floor of the state capitol building, there is a gilded equestrian statue of George Washington. Known as the Charles Ostner statue, it was carved from pine over a four year period by an Austrian immigrant who first modeled the piece in snow while working as a miner in the Florence Basin. To obtain Washington's likeness, Ostner used a U.S. postage stamp. He gave the statue to Idaho Territory in 1869; it stood outside on the capitol grounds for sixty five years before it was restored and brought indoors. The legislature granted the sculptor $2,500 for his effort. He also crafted several unique monuments for Pioneer Cemetery which the Idaho Historical Society now retains for safekeeping." --- Morris Hill Cemetery Walking Tour
Ostner kept the bridge over the Payette River in Garden Valley along the "Old Placerville Trail," before selling and moving to Boise City, in Ada County, in 1869. "Much of the work was done at night after a hard day on the farm. His only light a flickering tallow candle held by one of his children." (Mills)
. . .over 140 years ago an artist by the name of Charles Ostner purchased an interest in what had been a toll bridge spanning the river. Some of his most important works of art were made while living along the South Fork.
Charles Ostner was born in Austria, and studied art in Germany, where he was involved in student uprisings during the German revolution of 1848. When the revolution failed, Ostner fled to America, eventually landing in San Francisco, where the gold bug overtook him. Ostner spent a decade moving northward from one gold rush to another. He was on the Fraser River in Canada when he learned of the gold strikes in Idaho. He finally made his way Garden Valley and his silver toll bridge, where he lived for five years.
Ostner devoted four of those years to carving a statue of George Washington from a ponderosa pine tree felled on Alder Creek, a tributary of the South Fork of the Payette River. He carved mainly at night with an ordinary carpenter’s saw and chisel, the light provided by pine-pitch torches held by his children. In 1869, Mr. Ostner presented the statue as a gift to the Idaho Territorial Legislature. Today, the gilded, equestrian statue of General George Washington, depicted at the Battle of Monmouth, is on permanent exhibit at the Idaho State Capitol. -- "Wildlife Canyon Scenic Byway Corridor Management Plan" November 2002.
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