April 24, 2023
In an alliterative account of a late-19th-century event, Idaho workers relocate a Victorian-style mansion, rolling it four miles on logs while its inhabitants live their lives uninterrupted. Eggers (We Became Jaguars) sets the stage with exuberant editorializing (“Like all of the best stories, this takes place in Idaho”), detailing how a dog’s finding silver in Idaho led to the establishment of the Minnie Moore Mine, later bought by Henry Miller of England (“We can assume that the mine was then known as Miller’s Minnie Moore Mine”). Bringing “a bit of Old World civility to the Old West,” Miller then built his wife, Annie, a house—the Millers’ Minnie Moore Mine Mansion. After Miller died and Annie lost her fortune, the town would not allow her to raise pigs, leading to the move. Working digitally in shades of charcoal, orange, and sienna, Sardà (The Queen in the Cave) captures a stark, angular landscape alongside stylized individuals whose skin reflects the white of the page. Without contextualizing colonial settlement, this moniker-centric celebration of a locale’s personalities and projects is at its best when explaining the move’s logistical details. Ages 4–8.