Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Ely murals

From the description of the murals.  This one is called the Ghost Signage Mural: "The advertisements of the years were whitewashed over, then eroded into a collage of long-ago business logos."  Artist: Paul Ygartua
 I promised to post a few pictures of the murals in Ely, Nevada.  These pictures were all taken by my daughter using our camera, using the few pictures allowed by the internal memory in our camera since, as I mentioned earlier, we forgot the memory card at home and the replacement we got didn't work.  I will just add a few comments describing each mural.
Communications Then and Beyond: includes sketches of Alexander Graham Bell and the technology that has exploded since his work.  Artists: Don and Jared Gray

Ward Charcoal Ovens -- Italian immigrants built these ovens to make charcoal for smelting ore in the late 1880s.  Artist: Chris Krieder. 

Italian Railroad Workers -- a second wave of Italians was recruited to build a railroad to take the ore to the smelter and then on to market.  Artist: Chris Krieder
Liberty Pit -- see details below.  The miners depicted below "carved out the mountain to retrieve copper and other metals as shown by the rock display in front of the mural."
Liberty Pit -- depicts workers who toiled in the mine, coming from Asia, Greece. Italy, Yugoslavia and Great Britain to realize the American dream.  Artist: Wei Luan


Cattle Drive -- depicts how cattle got to market by rail.  "This wonderful mural was done in 1999 and captures the flavor of the real west here in eastern Nevada."   Artist: Larry Bute






Pony Express -- see below for the three parts of this gorgeous mural.  "Illustrates the story of the Pony Express and the telegraph lines crossing Nevada's landscape."  Artist: Don Gray




4th of July Celebration -- tells "the story of the significance of Ely's 4th of July celebration as the one holiday all ethnic groups celebrated together.  The businesses depicted were all authentic shops in Ely at one time."  Artist: Colin Williams
Hope you have enjoyed this small glimpse of the Ely Art Trail.  There is much more to it, but this gives you a good flavor of the area's fascinating history.

4 comments:

  1. Very interesting!! I have never been to that part of the west but would like to go one day!!

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  2. Fascinating, isn't it, Arlene? I'm always surprised by how relatively new everything is in the West. We have so much older history here on the East Coast. I hope we can visit the Ely area again because there is a lot to see there.

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  3. I'm so glad that you are sharing pictures with us. It is very interesting! And oh! I say to the train trip! I would LOVE that! Looks like you had an enjoyable trip and a good visit! Take care, Mrs. T! Hope to visit with you more soon!

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  4. Mrs. Smith! So happy to see you here! I'm glad you are enjoying the pictures. My computer seems to be freezing up with regularity these days, so I am a bit timid about uploading any pictures from that jump drive. But I will post more pics as soon as I can.

    Yes, the whole visit was good, and the road trip to Ely and Great Basin National Park was one of the highlights. We would love to return to that area again sometime as there is so much to see. The West is so vast ... for us on the East coast, it's hard to comprehend the immensity and all the wide-open space that is out there still.

    Looking forward to your cyber visit whenever you can manage it!

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