黑料福利社

On a June day in 1989, Toppenish residents gathered to watch paint dry.

Literally.

They were there to watch the first-ever 鈥淢ural in a Day鈥� in Toppenish, part of the newly formed Toppenish Mural Society鈥檚 efforts to promote tourism in the Lower Valley city.

It鈥檚 a program that took a hiatus in 2017 but resumed Saturday with artists doing touch-up work on that first mural.

It鈥檚 not uncommon for cities in the Lower Valley to use public art as part of a tourist attraction. Granger erected dinosaurs, first in Hisey Park and later throughout the city, while Tieton is best known for mosaic work, including classic fruit labels.

Toppenish鈥檚 Mural Society was born at a time when the city was in a rough spot. The U&I Sugar Plant, which had been the largest employer in the city, closed 10 years earlier due to cheaper imported sugar, putting the city鈥檚 economy into a tailspin.

Murals depicting the city鈥檚 history and its theme of 鈥淲here the West Still Lives,鈥� were seen as a way to bring tourists 鈥� and their wallets 鈥� into the city.

The first mural was created on June 3, 1989, and was painted by artists in a single day as an audience watched. To add to the mystery, artist Phil Kooser鈥檚 subject was not divulged publicly, so people had to watch and wait to see what the project was going to be.

Dozens of people showed up at the Western Auto Parts store with lawn chairs to watch the work unfold, almost like watching a live, large-scale version of Bob Ross鈥� 鈥淛oy of Painting.鈥�

As the artists painted, musicians and Native dancers performed to keep the audience entertained.

The artists first started with the background of the mural, and as they progressed, the final image began to emerge.

Titled 鈥淏reaking Ground,鈥� it depicted a man with a horse pulling vegetation from the ground, with tipis in the background.

Other murals followed, with the next done in October by Fred Oldfield, one of the artists who helped paint 鈥淏reaking Ground.鈥� His work, 鈥淗aller鈥檚 Defeat鈥� was painted on the side of the Les Schwab tire store, with the design personally approved by Schwab.

The mural depicts Yakama warriors doing battle with federal troops under the command of Maj. Granville Haller at Toppenish Creek. The Yakama successfully routed Haller鈥檚 force, which had come to the Valley to demand the Yakama turn over the man accused of killing Indian Agent Andrew J. Bolon.

The rules for the murals were that they had to depict Toppenish history or the culture of the area. The murals around the city depict cattle drives, Yakama fishing with dip nets at Celilo Falls, the Toppenish Rodeo, and the Treaty of 1855.

Some depict famous people,聽such as Maud Bolin, a Toppenish philanthropist and the first Native woman to be a licensed pilot in Washington; Ruth Parton Webster, considered the 鈥淢other of Thoroughbred Racing;" and Estelle Reel Meyer, a benefactor of the Toppenish Museum and national superintendent of Native American boarding schools.

鈥淢ural in a Day鈥� continued as a tradition in Toppenish every June until 2018, when it was cancelled due to declining board participation. The number of murals was around 80.

The murals in town, without regular maintenance, were weathering, but in 2022 efforts were launched to revitalize the society and to take steps to preserve the murals. This year, the Mural in a Day will retouch the first mural, now referred to as "Clearing the Land.鈥�

It Happened here is a weekly history column by 黑料福利社 reporter Donald W. Meyers. Reach him at dmeyers@yakimaherald.com. Sources for this week’s column include and the archives of the 黑料福利社.