Gil Reynolds ventured up to Mount Hood on numerous occasions throughout his life, but never once visited Timberline Lodge’s Blue Ox Bar, a small saloon tucked away near the bottom of the historic building.

But now, after helping restore the large Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox
glass mosaic opposite the bar’s entrance, he’s intimately familiar with the
quaint spot and the folk art that provided its name.

Three Bunyan-themed mosaics decorate the bar, all created by Virginia Darce
in 1937 as part of a Works Progress Administration program to add original
art to the historic lodge.

Reynolds, who started work on the project earlier this year, had a strong first
impression from the large mural.

“It was an interesting use of glass; I hadn’t seen this particular type of
installation before where she’s creating a stained-glass window without any
lead lines and treating it like a mosaic,” he said of the mural, which had
undergone some previous restoration attempts.

“She was pushing new material. I think it was an artistic statement.”

Unfortunately, a leaky wall damaged the mosaic throughout the years,
causing stains and working pieces of glass loose, while other pieces were lost
altogether.

“It was in pretty sad shape,” Reynolds said.

The restoration team, including Carmen Reynolds, Hal Bond, Lynn Adamo and
Betsy Valian, first made a texture rubbing of the mosaic to preserve the
pattern. Then, they meticulously removed, numbered and filmed 463 pieces of
glass, noting the condition of each, before boxing them up and hauling them
to Reynolds’ studio in Newburg.

At his studio, Reynolds cleaned off the tar Darce used to adhere the glass to
the wall and then used an ultrasonic cleaner (a machine that uses high
frequency oscillators in a warm water solution to remove tiny particles of dirt)
to clean even deeper.

Reynolds’ challenge at that point was to perfectly match the 14 different
colors Darce used to fully restore the mosaic. Some were straight forward, as
he found a glass company in West Virginia that had some old inventory of the
glass originally used for the work.

Others were more difficult. Reynolds, who started creating glass art in 1972
and wrote a book on glass fusing (using a kiln to fuse stained glass), saw that
Darce put glass enamel on pieces before firing them in a kiln to create new
colors.

“(Glass fusing) was a good skill to have on this project, because she did a lot
of kiln-fired pieces in here to create some of the colors,” said Reynolds.
One color was particularly challenging, the burgundy in the checkerboard shirt
on Bunyan, as Reynolds first tried to match the water damaged look with
more than 60 different tests.

When he couldn’t quite make it work, he noticed the glossy surface of the
burgundy pieces on the other two undamaged murals, fired all the water
damaged pieces and was able to break the code: red glass with blue enamel.

In the end, half of the burgundy pieces needed to be replaced, while
approximately 30 percent of the entire mosaic consists of new glass.

Reynolds wanted to make sure that the conservator’s hand remains unseen in
the work, and replicated the unusual glass cuttings, different sized seams
between glass and tainted the putty used for the seams in order to fully
restore Darce’s work.

“It’s really hard to tell now which ones are old and which ones are new,” said
Reynolds of the glass pieces.

With the wall repaired and sealed, the mosaic has now been returned to its
former glory for future visitors and bar patrons.

“I’m really honored to have been able to work on this job; it was a very
insightful project for me,” Reynolds said. “It’s part of Oregon history and it’s
part of America’s history.”

“I think it came out so beautifully,” said Christy Covington of the Zig Zag
Ranger District, adding that she was pleased the project could be done during
Timberline’s “shoulder season.”