Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

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.

Gallery

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.


Mural artist helps Eyota remember its past

Go Deeper.

Like this?