A bronze sculpture depicting Billy Coleman and his faithful hunting dogs from the classic children's novel "Where the Red Fern Grows" stands proudly on the northeast side of the Idaho Falls Public Library, serving as a lasting tribute to author Wilson Rawls, who once lived in the area. The artwork was created in the 1990s by local artist Marilyn Hoff Hansen, now 94, as a memorial to honor the beloved author who wrote his famous book while residing in Idaho Falls.
Hansen, a renowned sculptor and painter whose work has been displayed at galleries nationwide including the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., has been creating art since she was old enough to hold clay in her hands. She specializes in sculpting figures of people and animals, with horses featuring prominently in many of her most recognized pieces. "I grew up on a horse," Hansen explains, reflecting on her lifelong passion for capturing the essence of these majestic creatures in her art.
The sculpture project began when the principal at Temple View Elementary approached Hansen with a special request. "The principal asked me if I'd do a memorial for Wilson Rawls. The fifth grade is reading that book, he said, and how many cookies would it take (for me to make a sculpture)," Hansen recalls. Rawls had lived in Idaho Falls when he wrote the book, and the school wanted a fitting memorial to pay tribute to him. Hansen initially created a small model of the sculpture for the school, which toured around town for a year before the city government became involved and commissioned the full-sized version.
For the sculpture, Hansen used a pair of red tick hounds in Blackfoot as models for the dogs, while multiple grandchildren served as models for Billy Coleman, including her granddaughter Amanda Ward, who now works as an Idaho State Police trooper. During the creation process, busloads of students, teachers, and librarians visited Hansen's studio to watch her work. In a gesture that created deep community connection, she gave each visitor "a little wad of clay" to place anywhere they liked on the sculpture, telling them, "You'll know your clay is in this sculpture. I never worried about vandalism because they owned that piece."
Wilson Rawls had arrived in Idaho seeking work with what was then the Atomic Energy Commission on the Arco desert. He lived in Idaho Falls and initially took a bus to Arco for work, but eventually tired of the long commute and found employment with Jimmy Stewart, a sheep rancher in Monteview. Before coming to Idaho, Rawls had faced significant personal challenges, including time spent in prison twice in Oklahoma and once in New Mexico. According to The Bear Grease Podcast, in 1933, Rawls was convicted of stealing chickens and served 18 months in prison, and seven years later in New Mexico, he was sentenced to two to three years for breaking and entering.
Karen Stoddart, daughter of rancher Jimmy Stewart who passed away last year at age 95, shared her family's memories of Rawls during his time on their farm. "He came in the summers with the threshing crew," Stoddart explains. "He lived and worked in Arizona part of the year. He was a carpenter by trade. He helped harvest our second hay crop and grain and built many of our wooden head gates." Rawls worked at the Stewart farm every summer for approximately six years, and the house he lived in during that time still exists today.
The story behind Rawls' literary success involves a remarkable love story and the power of education. After several summers on the farm, Stoddart's mother introduced Rawls to Sophie Styczinski, a family friend and AEC budget analyst who would eventually become his wife. Rawls had previously written the story that became "Where the Red Fern Grows" before coming to Idaho, but he had limited formal education. At 16, Rawls had left home to find work to support his family during the Great Depression, and although it had been his dream to be a writer since reading "Call of the Wild" as a child, he lacked confidence in his abilities.
Rawls had locked his handwritten stories in an old trunk, and when Stoddart's mother heard about his manuscript, which reportedly contained numerous grammatical and other errors, she read it and provided corrections. Rawls and Styczinski were married at the First Presbyterian Church in Idaho Falls, with Jimmy Stewart serving as Rawls' best man. However, embarrassed by his lack of formal education, Rawls had burned his manuscript just days before the wedding, giving up on his writing dream. When he confided in Styczinski about this devastating loss, she helped him rewrite the story, edit it, and eventually get it published.
The story was originally published in 1961 in The Saturday Evening Post, appearing in three installments under the title "The Hounds of Youth" before being released as a complete novel later that year. The book didn't achieve widespread popularity until it was specifically marketed to teachers and schools. Rawls' second and final book, "Summer of the Monkeys," was also written while he lived in Idaho Falls. Rawls lived in the Idaho Falls area from 1958 to 1975, according to the Oklahoma Historical Society, before moving to Wisconsin with his wife, where he remained until his death on December 16, 1984, at age 71.
Stewart Petersen, the actor who portrayed Billy Coleman in the 1974 film adaptation of "Where the Red Fern Grows," developed a close relationship with Rawls during filming. "I was playing his young boyhood life," Petersen reflects. "He took me under his wing and we became friends pretty quickly. I always admired him because of his goodness towards me." Petersen describes Rawls as "a good man who was genuine and down to earth," and Rawls served as both narrator and consultant on the film production.
The bronze sculpture was officially installed in front of the library in 1999, with a dedication ceremony held on August 12, 1999, that was well-attended by community members. According to Chloe Doucette, the Museum of Idaho's managing director, Rawls never had the opportunity to see the sculpture that pays tribute to him and his literary legacy. However, the artwork continues to resonate with new generations of readers and art enthusiasts.
Hansen's sculpture remains a popular and meaningful piece of public art more than two decades after its installation. She recently sent a smaller replica to a woman who is incorporating it into a sculpture garden dedicated to children's books at the University of Oklahoma. The fifth-grade class that originally watched Hansen create the sculpture has since grown up, and Hansen fondly remembers receiving letters from the students after the work was completed. "I got the cutest letters back of what they were going to tell their children one day," Hansen says. "Now time has passed and they're grown up and I've wondered what they did tell their children."
Reflecting on the project that took several months to complete three decades ago, Hansen considers it among her favorite works. "That was definitely one of my favorites and I enjoyed having the kids come out to see it," she says. The sculpture continues to serve not only as a tribute to Wilson Rawls and his enduring literary contribution but also as a testament to the power of community involvement in public art and the lasting impact of stories that capture the imagination of readers across generations.
