Donation decorates Wade Creek House for Christmas
Woodworking masterpiece still carries holiday spirit 50 years later
Michelle Emery / Estacada News
Last month, Peggy Piersall donated the Christmas woodcuts her father made more than 50 years ago to the Wade Creek House. Her father kept detailed notes about the year he made the woodcuts and problems he encountered, such as Rudolph's red nose being stolen multiple times.
Peggy Piersall, an Estacada resident, feels that treasures are best displayed so they can be loved by many people. This Christmas season, Peggy came upon a treasure long-hidden: painted wood figures of Santa Claus and his reindeer with a red light-up bulb nose for Rudolph. They were handcrafted by her father, Robert Charles McConaughy, back in the early 1950s.
Since Peggy and her husband, Grady, live a mile off the highway, not many people would get to enjoy Santa there. Peggy contacted Becky McFarland, proprietor of Wade Creek House, a gift shop with antiques and other unique items, to see if McFarland would be interested in displaying the piece.
“I have given Wade Creek House many items,” says Peggy. She enjoys the store and wants to help the shop succeed. It seemed a natural place for this piece to give a lot of joy this Christmas. “As I unwrapped the pieces,” Becky says, “they were stored in newspaper dated December 1956.” It had been a long time since Santa and his reindeer had seen a Christmas outside of the box.
And so, with some help from friends, Santa found a place on the white picket fence in front of Wade Creek House, located at 664 N.W. Wade Street. Peggy remembers the Santa being in their Cheyenne, Wyo., yard when she was growing up. There was also a Ponderosa pine that was decked out with lights to bring a holiday look. The piece was made “in the early fifties,” says Peggy. Santa only decked the yard for a few years at Christmas time. When so much work went into it, why did it only see a few holiday seasons?
Maybe part of the answer lies with the most famous reindeer of all. Rudolph’s shiny nose proved too much of a temptation for local thieves. It seems that his shiny nose disappeared so many times that Peggy’s dad had to keep a stash of red bulbs on hand. “Dad got real frustrated with that,” Peggy says. Rudolph wasn’t the only one left dim. The lights on the Ponderosa pine tree also lost bulbs frequently.
Peggy brings out her father’s daily logs from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here is undeniable proof. Written in her father’s shaky handwriting, there are at least three days’ entries each December when he records missing lights off the tree. On Dec. 10, 1968, the entry says, “Someone stole 8 bulbs off the tree.” On Dec. 27, 1971, he records simply, “Lost 27 bulbs off the tree.” Maybe after years of stolen lights, it became part of the Christmas season for him.
Describing her father, Peggy says, “He was a very gentle soul.” She says he had a sense of humor and that her mom told her that her dad was a “wild child” in his early youth. “Although in those days, it was really innocent,” says Peggy. “He raced cars,” she says. But maybe the “wild” side of him gave him a little sympathy for the thieves looking for excitement on a Wyoming winter night. “Sounds like kids, doesn’t it?” says Peggy, as she recognizes the pattern of missing light on Friday nights. “Off school and looking for something to do,” she adds.
Peggy describes her father’s gift with woodworking as “one of those gifts God gives us” and says that her brother, Robert Charles McConaughy, has inherited this gift as well. Peggy’s home is filled with the treasures crafted by her father and her brother. “He made many things for Mom,” Peggy says, while showing off a beautiful cedar chest and several wood boxes. The cedar chest was used for her mother’s gift-wrapping supplies. In Peggy’s home, it holds the same honor.
Peggy shows off a unique box with a false bottom. When one side is pulled open, there is a small section at the bottom for holding hidden treasure. Peggy’s father would probably be happy to see that another of his hidden treasures is lighting up the holiday season for Estacada residents and visitors alike.
Maybe the intrigue of hidden treasure explains part of Peggy’s love for Wade Creek House. The store is filled to the brim with old and new treasures alike. An old-time children’s toy waits in one corner, while in another sits some newly handcrafted bracelets and yet another boasts furniture and collectibles galore. Visit thewadecreekhouse.com for hours, directions and other information.