Lee Benson recently pointed out the Utah connection with the famed Silver Dollar Bar in Jackson Hole, Wyo. Located in the Wort Hotel, it was designed and constructed and manufactured by the Fetzer folks. A lesser-known fact (which until recently was unknown to the owners of the Wort), was the other Utah connection. It was the talented Utah artist Paul Clowes who, in 1949-50, was commissioned to design the 13 leather murals displayed above the bar. The murals drawn by Clowes are each inspired by an actual event in Jackson's colorful history.
Clowes died in 1959. At the time of his passing, both of Salt Lake's daily newspapers recognized him as "one of the nation's outstanding painters of Western scenes." He must have been quite a guy, owning one of Utah's leading advertising firms. During World War II, he was a captain in the Air Force, eventually rising to the rank of major and becoming a member of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's Supreme Command Headquarters in England.
By the way, it was Clowes who painted the rather large oil painting on display in the Deseret News offices illustrating the first copy of the news coming off the press, with Willard Richards standing by.
Gary C. Swensen
Taylorsville