80444/xv950813 Guide to the Wallace Family records 1926-1959 Wallace Family records Finding aid created by Amy Thompson University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives 2020 This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2020-11-11. Finding aid written in English Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition. English University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Wallace Family records MG 494 0.50 cubic feet 1926-1959 Correspondence, legal documents, photographs, and newspaper clippings created by the Wallace Family from their time at Cabin Creek and Big Creek, Idaho.

From the 1920s, Merl R. Wallace operated the United States Forest Service Cabin Creek ranger station, 6 miles upstream of Taylor Ranch, now the Taylor Wilderness Research Station, located in the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Merl married Jeannette (Jean) Orr in May 1927 and shortly after Merl and Jean developed the Flying W cattle ranch in nearby Big Creek Idaho. While living there, they had a son named William Borah (Bill) Wallace. The Wallaces eventually left the area and divorced. Jean raised Bill in Boise and Merl moved to Alaska and remarried. Bill Wallace attended the University of Idaho, graduating with a degree in Forestry in 1951, going on to deliver mail along Big Creek by horseback in 1952.

In 2005, Taylor Ranch managers Jim and Holly Akenson met Bill Wallace and his wife Mary Acker at a College of Natural Resources alumni event and invited them to visit Taylor Ranch. It was Bill's first time on Big Creek in 30 years. They flew in and were taken up on a pack trip to Cabin Creek and saw the old cabin where Bill was born. As this new relationship developed, Bill Wallace and Mary Acker decided to donate money to the Unviersity of Idaho to renovate Taylor's historic Lewis Cabin, constructed by homesteader Dave Lewis between 1911 and 1921, and who had been a friend of Bill's mother, Jean.

Unfortunately, neither Bill nor Mary lived to see the cabin renovation completed in summer 2008. However, Bill's daughter Barbara, flew out to Taylor to see the completion of her father's work. It was about this time that Barbara entrusted her family's historical material to the Taylor Ranch.

The material was collected and preserved by Barbara "Babs" Johnson (Wallace), granddaughter of Merl and Jean Wallace. The material was originally saved in two large blue binders and comprises of original Wallace family documents. There are legal documents (including a marriage certificate), photos, maps, and clippings, but the bulk of the content is correspondence from Merl to Jean, covering much of the time that Merl Wallace lived on Cabin Creek and Big Creek. Envelopes if present are inlcuded after each letter. Letters from Jean to Merl were not included and presumed to have been lost. Also included is a short autobiography written by Jean later in life.

The original order of the contents was preserved, and the series numbers denote the original binders.

Barbara Johnson (Wallace) donated the collection to the Taylor Ranch Wilderness Station in 2009. Amie-June Brumble, station manager at Taylor Wilderness Research Station deposited the binders at Special Collections in 2011 for preservation and safe keeping (MA 2011-03).

Collection is open for research.

[DESCRIPTION OF ITEM], Wallace Family records, MG 494, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, ID.

Related materials may be found in Manuscript Group 190 David (Cougar Dave) Lewis Papers.

 Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (Idaho) Cabin Creek Big Creek Taylor Wilderness Research Station Correspondence Idaho Series 1: Wallace Family Records, Binder 1 1926-1934 Clippings, Idaho Highway Map, Flying W Ranch pamphlet 8 items undated 1 1 Marriage License and Certificate 1 item 25-26 May 1927 1 2 Idaho Folklore, written for Idaho Writer's Project, Works Progress Administration, contributed by Mrs. Jean O. Wallace 5 items 20 July 1937, undated 1 3 Idaho Primitive Area, Points for Consideration 1 item 25 November 1930 1 4 Autobiography - Jean Orr Curtis 1 item undated 1 5 Correspondence 4 items 1926, undated 1 6 Correspondence 9 items January-April 1927 1 7 Correspondence 12 items May 1927 1 8 Correspondence 6 items Note on letter dated 30 March 1928 saying date must be wrong - Billie was born in 1933 1928-1930 1 9 Correspondence 5 items 1931 1 10 Correspondence 16 items 1932 1 11 Correspondence 27 items 1933 1 12 Correspondence 12 items 1934 1 13 Series 2: Wallace Family Records, Binder 2 1934-1959 Alaska Steamship Tickets, Alaska Map 4 items undated 1 14 Photographs 17 photographic prints 4 July 1932, undated 1 15 Photographs 10 photographic prints undated 1 16 Photographs 21 photographic prints undated 1 17 "Building a Log Cabin" by Chilson D. Aldrich 1 item 1930 1 18 Correspondence 6 items Note on letter dated Tuesday the 28th states "I think the was written after Merle went to Alaska and he and Jean divorced" GWM 9-15-2010 1934 1 19 Correspondence 11 items 1935 1 20 Correspondence 5 items 1936 1 21 Correspondence 16 items 1937 1 22 Correspondence, Taxes 17 items 1938 1 23 Correspondence 6 items 1939-1941 1 24 Correspondence 17 items 1942-1943 1 25 Correspondence 6 items 1944 1 26 The Frontiersman 1 item Volume 1, number 49 7 May 1947 1 27 Affidavit, License, Correnspondence, Story 8 items August 1947-November 1959, undated 1 28