Idaho Falls honors forgotten pioneers with new statue – East Idaho News

A statue is awarded to Rebecca Brown Mitchell, an early settler of Idaho Falls. For more information, watch our interview with Museum of Idaho Managing Director Chloe Doucette in the video above. |Photo from brochure provided by Rebecca Mitchell Project

IDAHO FALLS – An upcoming sculpture will honor the memory of Idaho Falls’ early settlers.

An 11-member committee is working with the Museum of Idaho to raise funds for a 7-foot-tall bronze statue of Rebecca Brown Mitchell to be installed at the new Heritage Park being developed near Snake River Landing.

Mr. Mitchell arrived in what was then Eagle Rock on June 5, 1882. The 48-year-old Baptist woman stepped off the train with only the clothes on her back and a few belongings to play a key role in the construction of the city’s first church building, schoolhouse, and public library.

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She was active in the women’s suffrage movement, leading Idaho to become the fourth state to allow women the right to vote. In her later years, she served as the first female chaplain in the Idaho State Legislature.

Karen Abondet, co-chair of the Rebecca Mitchell Project, told EastIdahoNews.com that Heritage Park, which has been in the works since 2016, is expected to be completed in November. Mitchell’s statue will be installed when the park is completed.

“This park is intended to commemorate the heritage of Eagle Rock and Idaho Falls. There will be a variety of exhibits to highlight local history,” Abbondet said. “We hope to have the sculpture completed by November, as it will be the 130th anniversary of women’s suffrage in Idaho.”

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The goal of the statue project is to help the community learn a little more about its history and help local people develop a sense of excitement and appreciation for their hometown.

A rendering of the sculpture depicts Mitchell holding a shovel, which Abbondet said highlights her efforts as a “groundbreaking” in Idaho Falls.

“She was a groundbreaker in so many ways, and this represents that. And the reason she’s holding the banner is because she was a supporter of women’s suffrage and the temperance movement,” Abbondet said.

The $150,000 project is being paid for by donations. As of last month, Avondet had raised about a fifth of the total amount, and said it hopes to have the entire amount raised by November. If not, you will have to wait until April 2027 for installation.

Chloe Doucette, executive director of the Museum of Idaho and a member of the Rebecca Mitchell Project Committee, said Mitchell is an important part of the museum’s storytelling because of everything she accomplished in her life. Her dress, hymns, and classroom settings are on display in the museum.

A chapter of Sharon McMahon’s 2024 book, The Small and the Mighty, is devoted to Mitchell’s story, which Doucette says helped bring him to the public’s attention.

“Her story is so important to us, and we’re so grateful that Currie and the rest of the Rebecca Mitchell Project staff decided to do something tangible[in her honor]so everyone can understand that story,” Doucette says.

Abbondet said she first heard about Mitchell in 2021 while listening to an episode of McMahon’s podcast. McMahon spotlighted historical women from each state, and Mitchell was the focus of an episode about Idaho. When she first heard Mitchell’s story, she was “blown away.”

“I grew up in Idaho Falls…and I had never heard of her,” Abondat recalls. “When I finished listening to that podcast, I thought we need to put a statue of this woman in town so people can recognize her.”

The project began in February 2025, shortly after the committee was established. Eileen Juliet Deeley of Eagle was hired to create the statue. Ms. Deeley is the face behind many of Idaho’s sculptures, including the statue commemorating women’s suffrage near the Capitol in Boise. Her sculpture of a seated Abraham Lincoln is placed in front of the Black History Museum in Boise’s Julia Davis Park, and her portrait of William Borah, Idaho’s longest-serving U.S. senator, is placed near the historic Boise Post Office.

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During her research, Abbondet came across Dealey’s sculpture about women’s suffrage. She and other members of the committee felt that she was the perfect person to have Mitchell’s likeness on a statue.

Jeff Carr, the museum’s executive director, said all of Mitchell’s accomplishments are impressive, but the fact that she was the world’s first female pastor resonates because it is a national record.

Mitchell’s humble beginnings in Eagle Rock make her accomplishments even more “incredible,” Kerr said.

“All she saw (when she got off the train at Eagle Rock) was sand and sage bushes. The fact that she had the resources to hold her first service in the cabin within the first week and have the first day of school the next day, it was her motto to do the unprecedented, and she (certainly did it),” says Avondet.

Doucette said Mitchell is her favorite historical figure at the museum and she is proud to be a part of the grassroots fundraiser.

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