Mural artist helps Eyota remember its past

You can see the mural from city hall, a visual reminder that this city of 1,800 may not exist if not for the railroad that runs through it.

But over time, this colorful reminder of Eyota's history has begun to fade, its paint chipped and peeling. Presented with the option of restoring the work or building over it, city officials decided to give the mustachioed train conductor and his chugging locomotive steaming toward the old city depot a makeover.

The 1,350-square-foot mural was painted on the side of the Higgins Custom Cabinetry nearly two decades ago by artist Corky Armstrong with the help of a dozen students. Armstrong is a cartoonist, and his creation partakes of the style, with cartoon-like people gathered at the depot waiting for the train to arrive.

But when health issues prevented Armstrong from being involved with the restoration, city officials hired Steve DeLaitsch, a Waseca artist and muralist, to refurbish the landmark. DeLaitsch has also promised to create an original work of his own before he's done.

Restoring the mural will cost about $3,000, an expense being defrayed by local and city contributions, plus five-and-half gallons of paint donated by Valspar Painting.

Eyota Mayor Wes Bussell said he would have been saddened to see the artwork disappear from the city landscape. But the mural was beginning to show some wear and tear, and the building's owners were concerned about the deteriorating picture increasingly becoming an eyesore.

"It's part of the community. It's been almost 20 years," said Bussell, whose name is painted on one of the train cars.

A trained painter, DeLaitsch, 53, said he has always enjoyed restoring things, from houses to murals. The project also presented him with an opportunity to leave something of himself and his art behind as well.

DeLaitsch's resume includes a handful of mural projects, most recently a work he did for the city of Hartland near Albert Lea that uses a collage of photographs to depict the city's history. He's also working on a mural for Owatonna.

DeLaitsch said murals are basic to human nature, dating back to ancient times. Before there was written language, ancient man told stories through pictures. The pharaohs decorated their pyramids with murals, and pictures on old buildings show that folks were muraling 50,000 years ago

"I think they just make our spaces more interesting. They make our spaces more human," DeLaitsch said.

The Winona & St. Peter railroad is credited with creating Eyota. In the fall of 1864, the line from Winona reached Eyota Township, where the town was plotted near the middle of the township. In the early years, the city was a destination point for business travelers and mail, as well as a shipping point for locally raised grain and cattle.

The downtown mural celebrates and reminds people about that history, how Eyota got its start, officials say.

"It says something about our town - and how we were founded," Bussell said.

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Information from: The Rochester Post-Bulletin

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