From 1982 to 2005, the Rainier High School athletics teams knew they were home when they saw the 22-foot-tall cowgirl sign in town while on the bus ride back from a long road trip.
Nearly 20 years later, the next generation of Mountaineers athletes will experience the same joy of witnessing the iconic landmark that was synonymous with the town’s downtown street.
The cowgirl sign was reintroduced with a sleeker, 16-foot-tall design on the old Rainier Hotel building that now houses Design N Signs, which designed and built the sign at 112 Binghampton St. The original sign, which went through multiple iterations, stood in front of the Marquis Company store from 1982 to 2005 and was an advertising gimmick to sell jeans and T-shirts at the store, owned by Don and Teena Marquis. Jack Krause was the artist who built the original sign.
The sign depicts a woman with wavy light brown hair, a cowgirl hat, red T-shirt, blue jeans and boots. Her rear end stuck out toward the street on either side as the sign was double-sided, and she leaned over the awning of the store, details that some residents believed were too provocative to represent the town.
The Rainier Cowgirl, as she was officially known in town, became much more than a gimmick. Her image was printed on playing cards, match box covers and coffee cups, and she even had her own entry in the Washington State tourism guide.
But in 2005, the sign was hit by a car and fell into disrepair, and it was never rebuilt. Rumors spread that the suspect crashed into the sign purposely because of their negative thoughts about the cowgirl.
The cowgirl’s remains were damaged beyond repair, but her face was kept and used by Design N Signs co-owners Monique Fisher and Jon Fisher during the reproduction. The couple recalled seeing the cowgirl when they were younger and said they were honored to be a part of her rebirth.
“She was like a major point of direction for people who weren’t from around here. It was like, ‘Just take a left at the cowgirl. Once you pass the cowgirl, you went too far,’” Monique Fisher said. “Everybody loves it. We’re getting a lot of really positive feedback. I used to hang out in Rainier, and it reminds me of how cool Rainier was. They liked to step outside the box of what was normal.”
Jon Fisher said the idea to bring the Rainier Cowgirl back came from the building’s owner, Michael Emmons. Fisher worked on orchestrating the design and illustrating her, working with Emmons and Glen Maultsby, who worked on the original sign a couple of times decades ago, for historical accuracy. Besides the size difference, the new-look cowgirl also faces the opposite direction so her face is facing the street, and the sign is no longer double-sided.
“I spent probably a month on the production because I had to print it and create the vinyls first and then use the vinyls as a template to draw my line on the material,” Fisher said. “I used my jigsaw for the line all the way around, and from that point I installed the vinyl. It was challenging because of the contour edges and the little tiny hair curls.”
Emmons said he and local groups had raised the idea of recreating the Rainier Cowgirl over the years but no progress had been made until he approached Design N Signs with the idea. He provided the materials and the spot to place the sign while the Fishers donated their time and efforts.
“It’s been years that a lot of the townspeople wanted her back. They missed her. Residents would go somewhere and mention the town of Rainier, and they would always say, ‘Oh, the one with the cowgirl,” Emmons said. “She just put us on the map. She dresses up the town.”
Lisa Marquis Ryan, Don and Teena Marquis’ daughter, described her late father as a businessman who always tried to think of creative ways to make a living and to help his neighbors.
“My dad loved Rainier and the people in it. He genuinely wanted to make contributions to the community that would be helpful to the people in our small town, whether it be offering the convenience of auto licensing services or volunteering for many years on the Rainier School Board,” she said. “I’m sure he couldn’t have imagined that his Marquis Company cowgirl sign to sell jeans and T-shirts would become an important part of Rainier’s history. He would be so proud to see the cowgirl being appreciated and resurrected many years later.”
Diana Hitchings, Ryan’s childhood best friend, said the cowgirl sign was recognized by people she encountered throughout the state and made Rainier “a destination.”
“I think it’s just the nostalgia factor because there’s still a lot of people around that remember the sign. If it brings a little bit of attention back to the town of Rainier, I think that’s awesome,” Hitchings said.
When Maultsby saw the new Rainier Cowgirl while driving through town, it put a smile on his face as memories of growing up down the road from the Marquis family and working on the sign from a too-short ladder and a homemade sling made with straps around the top of the cowgirl’s hat to repaint her.
“It brought back a lot of nostalgia for all the years that I grew up in Rainier. I was a young teenager when the Marquis family came into town and brought their ideas and creativity into Rainier,” Maultsby said. “It’s such a good moniker of what Rainier has had for all these years.”
Ryan and Hitchings said the sign brings them back to when the Marquis store was a hub for them and their friends to hang out after school.
“Honestly, I feel like I spent probably as much time, if not more time, there than I did at my actual home in my teen years,” Ryan said of her family’s store. “It’s nice to know that people are still remembering him and the cowgirl.”
