Massive Toppenish murals color city's past

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Massive Toppenish murals color city's past

By JILL SANDBERG
Herald Valley bureau

TOPPENISH - Once just a small town in Eastern Washington, Toppenish has painted itself a bright spot on the state map.

Strangers to downtown Toppenish will find a gallery of sorts sprawled across city buildings. Here, 35 massive murals tell the history and legends of a proud agricultural community.

The Toppenish Mural Society, a private organization, has vowed to paint every available wall in the city. At least four more are expected to be finished by year's end.

Started in 1989 as a way to clean up Toppenish streets, the project has quickly gained statewide attention. In 1991, the mural society was awarded the Georgie Tourism Award for having the best tourism idea in the last five years in Washington.

Each summer, at least 12 artists are hired to paint the murals. Latex paints are used on large tiles that later are assembled into the mural. The murals are protected by a special coating.

Because most of the murals are easy to spot from city streets, the artwork can be seen through a self-guided tour. Obviously, this type of tour is open all day every day, at no cost. However, for those who would enjoy some background about the murals and Toppenish, Conestoga Tours and Toppenish Trolley Tours will take viewers to each one, riding in style in wagons.

The Conestoga rides take about an hour and run daily, leaving every two hours beginning at 10 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. There's no charge for children younger than 7. For those 7-16, the cost is $5, for seniors $7 and for adults the cost is $7.50. The Trolley tours are charter-only. There's a $100 minimum, and groups of 20-25 usually are accommodated. The tour takes a little more than an hour. To arrange a charter, call 509-865-4515.

If you don't want to be caught in a tourist crush, don't visit on Labor Day, advises Conestoga tour guide D.J. Rice. He adds the morning or late afternoon tours are less crowded.

Most of the murals are in downtown Toppenish. Across from the mural society and Conestoga Tours on South Toppenish Avenue is Old Timers Plaza. Here are Crossroads to Market and When Hops were Picked by Hand, two larger-than-life murals that tell the story of Toppenish.

Crossroads to Market mirrors 1868, when potatoes, hops, hay, wheat, melons and row crops were moved to market by mule, boat or train. Twenty-four 7-by-7 tiles were pieced together to tell the story.

When Hops were Picked by Hand represents one of the major contributors to Toppenish history - the Northwest tribes. Indians once gathered each harvest time to pick the hops for about $1.25 a day. They set up small villages at the hop fields, staying there with their families until the harvest was complete.

In some murals, a viewer will find Toppenish's forebears. There's Lou Shattuck, a farmer and rancher who was an expert in six-horse-hitch events. He was one of the original organizers of the Toppenish rodeo.

And there's Maud Bolin, a daredevil who not only was a rodeo rider but a pilot and one of the first female parachutists.

Her mother, Josephine Lillie Bolin, was considered the "mother of Toppenish." A mural of her stands at the site of her prized mansion, which burned down in 1900.

The murals The Liberty Theatre and The Palace Hotel of Toppenish also feature some of Toppenish's most historic buildings.The Yakama Indian culture is celebrated through such murals as The Indian Stick Game, Winter Encampment and The Rhythms of Celilo, a former ceremonial fishing site on the Columbia River.

Among the most memorable and popular murals, Rice said, are those on the American Hops Museum, 22 S. B St. The three murals show how the hops harvest was turned into a family event. The middle and largest scene pictures a young woman standing with her children. The woman, whose eyes follow her viewers, was painted from a 1904 photo and later identified as Sarah Hill of Zillah.

Viewers should look closely at the architecture around the hops museum murals. What appears to be brick work is actually more paintings.

Rice likes to suggest viewers step up close to the murals to check out such details. "I go by four times a day and I notice something new every day," he said.

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