Frank Mortimer

Owner of Mortimer’s Island (Oregon Trail Park) from 1916 until its closure in 1933.

Frank Mortimer came to Weiser when he was 30 years old, traveling with a carnival as a juggler. Prior to Weiser, he had been a professional baseball player in Chicago and toured Old Mexico with a circus. However, he wasn’t just an athletic entertainer. At age 17, Frank had shown his organizational acumen when he worked in a publishing company—reorganizing the distribution system into a format that worked for many years thereafter.

When the carnival disbanded in Weiser, Frank stayed around… working as a clerk and bartender. Within five years, he had purchased the Weiser Newsstand, a business he operated for the next 30 years. After the purchase, Frank set about building his real dream—Oregon Trail Park, which opened six years later in 1916.

This was a monumental undertaking, and became the only entertainment park in SW Idaho.

Just imagine an entertainment enterprise large enough to draw crowds of up to 10,000 people to Weiser on the 4th of July. Special trains would bring people from Boise for the day. Can you imagine the impact of 10,000 visitors to Weiser in one day now? Just imagine the impact 100 years ago. Also, it didn’t just draw people for one day a year, but throughout the year!

The Oregon Trail Park, or Mortimer’s Island as it was called, operated until 1933 when the Great Depression brought an end to people’s spending cash. Mr. Mortimer continued to run his Weiser Newsstand until 1940.

In the meantime, he became interested in geology and mining. After his wife Helene’s death, he purchased a mining claim and went looking for lead, silver, copper and radioactive material.

At age 81 he was working his mine alone, fell, and was in bed for weeks. The following winter, in 1957, while visiting his sister in Napa Valley, CA, Frank passed away. Frank’s body was then cremated and the ashes sent back to Weiser to be buried next to his beloved Helene in Hillcrest Cemetery.

From Mayor’s Corner