Rawlins Walkabout
Rawlins Walkabout, "What Makes Rawlins Unique?". Designed by Paul Taylor, Kathy Neuman,
Marge Mcrae, Jamie Chapman, Pam Thayer, DDA/Main Street. Painted by Rawlins community,
Rawlins Middle School, Boys & Girls Club. 8'x8', plywood. Dec 2020
Rawlins Walkabout Story
“What makes Rawlins Unique”
The mural celebrates our stunning landscape and the stories that come from this land. We celebrate our sweeping high desert geology, the Continental Divide and our town of many crossroads and arteries; our American Indian culture and settler sheep ranching histories; our abundant wildlife; our brutal wind and winters: our industry, our prison and amazing stories of outlaws; and finally we celebrate our world class water and its story.
In our mural you can see the centered township of Rawlins in green built around the famous geologic Rawlins uplift in red; the decorative iron gateway to the State Penitentiary; the hangman’s noose representing the unbelievable story of Big Nose George and all our outlaw stories; the bright blue droplet of Rawlins Springs next to the Railroad telling the story of Rawlins beginnings; the red droplet for the Rawlins red paint mine that was used to cover the Brooklyn Bridge in 1847; the pink and blue markers of the Lincoln Highway that follows the Railway and goes right through our Downtown.
You can see the horses hoof Stagecoach trails from White River Agency to Rawlins and then onto Ft. Washakie; the latter followed the arrows of the prehistoric American Indian trail NW; so too does the Overland Trail in the SE, follow the ancient trail of our First Peoples. This SE region is the historic home of great Bison herds, kills sites, stone circles or tipi rings; and the spiral symbol for a fasting or spirit quest site. To the SW you see a anthropomorph figure symbolizing rock art in that region.
In the NE you see the first sheep ranching Vivion Ranch Brand alongside the North Platte River with the iconic Sheep Wagon invented in Rawlins. In the N you see Pronghorn for Rawlins treasured symbol. In the NW see the wild horses close to the Red Desert where they are abundant; alongside is the symbol for the crippling Blizzard of ’49 that hit the region on 6 fronts over 45 days!!!
Finally we celebrate our pristine Water Story that comes to us from 3 sources; in the South, the 14 springs from the Sage Creek Watershed and the 3 Miller Wells from the Nugget Formation; these merge into one pipeline that follows the path of the Old Wood Pipeline to the water treatment plant. The third source is pipelined from our North Platte River.
This community mural was dreamed and designed by artist in residence Paul Taylor together with local artists, Marge McCrea, Kathy Neuman, and Jamie Chapman. It was painted by the Rawlins community, featuring the Boys and Girls Club kids, RMS Middle School students and Rawlins Rec Center staff. Our mural is inspired by Aboriginal “Caring For Country” culture and dot painting traditions.
We paint our land and tell its story to teach our children to care; to care for our land, our mother; and in turn we learn to care for each other.
Special Thanks to our Story Consultants:
Design Group: Kathy Neuman, B&G Club, Marge McRae, Jamie Chapman, RMS Art.
Pam Thayer, Director Rawlins DDA/Main Street
Ashlee James, Registrar, Carbon County Museum
Bonnie Bruce, Supervisory Archaeologist, BLM
Danielle Gross, City of Rawlins Public Works Operations Manager
Chris Moody, Hydro-geologist Consultant,
Leo Chapman, local historian.
Rawlins Senior Center members
Mural Legend
