‘This is Home’: Mailbox sculpture to be unveiled on 5th anniversary of Oso slide

Friday will mark five years since the one of the deadliest landslides in US history tore down a hillside in the small town of Oso, devastating a community and the state.

RELATED: Oso memorial planned at site of tragic landslide

Forty-three lives, between the ages of 4 months and 91 years old, were lost on March 22, 2014. Most of them were people enjoying that beautiful Saturday morning in their Steelhead Haven neighborhood just north of Arlington.

The slide swallowed the neighborhood, leaving mounds of debris and a broken hillside that, to this day, looks like a moonscape in its wake.

When the nearly 50 homes that once made up the neighborhood were still standing, those living in the close knit community enjoyed what survivors describe as paradise. There was one piece of the neighborhood they all shared: A cluster of mailboxes just off SR 530 that, on top of receiving mail, served as a marker.

It was a point of reference that locals would use when giving directions, like the many barbecues that were hosted every summer. Balloons would be tied there to mark special events, such as a child’s birthday.

It was home.

That sentiment is what Seattle sculptor Louise McDowell was tasked with capturing when she was selected to craft a sculpture. That mailbox sculpture will be unveiled at the five year remembrance ceremony of the Oso slide on Friday.

“That was such a powerful symbol of what was there and the memories people still had of that place, which was home for them,” McDowell said.

While she had no direct connection to the slide or those impacted by it, McDowell remembers it like it was yesterday.

“It was just a horrific thing that happened. It was so close to home, it just really touched me,” she said.

“Just knowing how much the survivors and the friends were going to be dealing with with the loss of all those people — I couldn’t get away from how awful it was,” she added.

An Oso Slide Memorial team has included family members of those lost in the slide, survivors, and representatives from Snohomish County Parks. Last year it launched a search for an artist to create the mailbox sculpture. It is part of the larger memorial. McDowell felt compelled to apply for the task.

McDowell read about the search for an artist in the newspaper. She was one five artists to submit a proposal, and was selected because of her prior work with brass, much of which can be seen in Snohomish County.

RELATED: Help the Oso community

McDowell was honored to be selected, but says it was no easy task. All she had to work from was a single photo of the mailboxes — the only one left.

“That was the only picture that they had with those mailboxes covered with snow and looking very, very dark. What they wanted (was) to recreate it somehow from that one picture,” McDowell said.

McDowell was given the photo and creative license to recreate the mailboxes as best she could. She had ideas, such as including something personal to represent the victims, like photos or some of their favorite things to make it more personalized.

But she says the families preferred just the sculpture of the mailboxes.

“It just needed to be the mailboxes, and the title that they came with says, ‘This was Home,’” McDowell said. “And it’s perfect. The mailboxes themselves represented home.”

The mailbox sculpture will be the first part of a much larger, permanent memorial that the families are still raising money for. You can find out how to donate here.

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