The Jacksons Recreate Outdoor Beauty Indoors, Writing With Pens Made From Heirloom Homestead Trees
By Dianna Troyer
Evea Jackson’s family jokes that buying her a Christmas gift is easy.
“I’m happy with a handful of sticks,” says the Rupert resident, who uses a lathe to transform her wooden presents into pens for friends and family.
“Look at the wood grain on these,” she says, displaying her recent gifts of purple heart, zebra wood, and Wenge African hardwood. She also works with deer antlers and local woods often taken for granted, such as cedar, sagebrush, and poplar.
“It’s fun to see the character of the wood come out,” Evea says. “Black walnut is awesome for its durability and beauty.”
With her latest holiday gifts from her children, the retired teacher has plenty of material for the coming year.
1 of her fondest woods is silver birch from trees growing on a homestead west of Gifford Springs. The wood is light tan.
When Evea writes with a silver birch pen she made, she says she connects with her homesteader grandmother and to the outdoors, her favorite place to be—whether practicing archery, mining gold, hunting, or participating in mountain man rendezvous with her husband, Randy.
Transforming Wood
In 2018, Evea discovered her love of woodworking after retiring from teaching at West Minico Junior High School.
“I worked my whole life and didn’t know how to retire, so my son suggested I take a woodworking class he teaches at the Cassia Regional Technical Center,” she says.
Evea accepted his invitation and learned to turn wood on a lathe. Hooked, she sought out and found an inexpensive lathe at a yard sale.
To make a pen, Evea starts the process with pieces of wood a friend saws into manageable sizes, about 3/4-inch square, and secures 2 pieces to her lathe. As it rotates, she holds a turning tool, shaving off layers of wood.
“I never get tired of seeing the wood’s grain and color as layers come off,” she says. Sometimes, the wood fails to cooperate.
“Cedar, sagebrush and saguaro cactus all have natural inclusions,” Evea says. “Sometimes when I’m using the turning tool, the wood just blows to pieces.”
After she is satisfied with the shape of the 2 pieces of wood that will form a pen, she sands them and applies Shellawax cream to make them shine. Evea then inserts a metal pen kit inside the pieces.
Each pen is unique.
“I never know exactly what each 1 will turn out like,” Evea says. “When I give these away, they really are 1-of-a kind. It makes me happy to see people’s expressions when they get 1.”
In 1953, her grandmother, Evea Adams, drew a homestead north of Paul when the North Side Pumping Division of the Minidoka Project opened. She had served in the U.S. Army as a meteorologist.
“Because she was a veteran, she was given preference for drawing,” Evea says. “Then my parents moved here from Southern Oregon and purchased an assignment on a homestead. After proving up on that homestead, they sold it and bought a farm.”
In learning about her heritage, Evea found a homestead property for sale near Gifford Springs. Eager to continue the tradition, she bought the property from Walt Schodde, who had bought it from the original homesteader.
“We loved it so much that we built a cabin there,” she says.
Rendezvous
The inside of the Jacksons’ home feels like a homestead house or a trading post at a rendezvous. They have created a living history museum, preserving the beauty of wildlife with their big game mounts on walls, bear rugs, pelts, and framed pictorial arrangements that Evea’s mother made with pheasant feathers and other objects.
Randy and Evea learned about the pre-1840s lifestyle of traders and trappers as longtime members of the Oregon Trail Muzzle Loaders, a group that reenacts a frontier lifestyle. During a rendezvous at Raft River and Malad Gorge, members embrace the skills of pioneers and shoot black powder weapons, throw knives and tomahawks, practice archery, and tell stories.
“We like the camaraderie and family focus, shooting, camping, hunting, and the people,” Evea says. “There are always games for kids. Our kids and grandkids love going as much as we do. It’s just fun.”
A rendezvous reminds Randy of early explorers who lived off the land and relied on their hunting prowess. A hunter since he was young, he says being an outdoorsman is second nature.
“I really like the challenge of the hunt and the friendly competitions at the rendezvous,” he says. “We love camping and traveling, too. It gets us out of the house and really living. We go for the people, longtime friendships, and the focus on family. It’s interesting to see the crafts and of course the guns, too. I’ve built and repaired many over the years.”
At a rendezvous, participants are given nicknames based on a comical incident. Randy is “Flinchè” for flinching sometimes when he shoots. Evea is a “Firewalker” for slipping and falling while walking in her moccasins down a slope of cheatgrass in a long skirt and getting a red abrasion on her legs and backside.
“Wherever we are outdoors and whenever I’m working with wood, I feel right at home,” Evea says.