This Page is under development. Check back soon for more fun tours.
Looking for a true West Texas Experience? Click here.
Lubbock, Texas Day Tours: Click here.
Want your fill of Arts? Click Here.
Follow the Quanah Parker Trail. Click here
PLAINS TRAIL JAIL TRAIL
Photos by Dr. Holle HumphriesIf these places could talk, would there ever be a great story or two! Thanks to the communities that have donated their time, energy, and money to the projects of restoring their county's jails. Visit one of them soon.
Armstrong County Jail- Claude
Hemphill County Jail- Canadian
King County Jail- Guthrie
Motley County Jail-Matador
Old Mobeetie Wheeler County Jail-Mobeetie
Dickens County Jail-Dickens
PLAINS MURALS OF THE NEW DEAL TRAIL
Photo by Rick Vanderpool
These Texas Post office murals were painted from 1934-1943 when the federal government embarked on a unique art patronage program to decorate the walls of public buildings across the USA. Artists from every state competed for commissions. Today some of these can still be seen and appreciated in the lobbies of post offices and federal buildings. The murals represented were created under the Treasurey Department's Section of Fine Arts. Works of Art Project, 1933-1934: Artists were chosen by one of 16 regional committees to serve the artists' geographical area. They were to decorate public buildings with murals, sculptures and easel paintings.
Treasury Department, Section of Painting and Sculpture, 1934-1943: Continued with focus on public buildings begun by the first project. It was for new federal buildings, usually post offices. Murals in Amarillo , Borger , Quanah and Wellington were commissioned under the section.
Treasury Relief Art Project, 1935-1939: A smaller program where artists were chosen to decorate existing federal buildings. Quality of work was usually lower than that of other New Deal art programs. The Canyon post office was commissioned under this program.
WPA/Federal Arts Project, 1935-1943: It was administered through the state's WPA agencies. Murals in the Amarillo federal building were likely under this project.
They were a big deal during President Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s. Four separate federal arts programs established during the Depression provided work for artists and gave landmark buildings a historical character that still exists today. Art murals from the 1930s and early 1940s cover the walls of Amarillo 's J. Marvin Jones Federal Courthouse, at Pioneer Hall at the museum on the West Texas A&M campus, as well as post offices in Canyon, Hereford and Quanah. Most, but not all, were part of Roosevelt 's Works Progress Administration, a federal program that created jobs for millions to try to stimulate the economy during the throes of the Depression. Eventually that included cultural pursuits and out-of-work artists. That first one was the Public Works of Arts Project, a six-month venture from December 1933 to June 1934. Competition was keen to be awarded a wall to paint, and a local committee, based on submitted sketches, would make a decision.
Amarillo artist Ben Mead was selected and painted " Coronado 's Coming" at the museum in 1934. Harold Bugbee followed that same year with "The Cattlemen." The artists were paid a sum of $42 a week until completion. The project helped spawn three other programs during the New Deal: one dubbed The Section, whose focus from 1934-1943 was on federal buildings, especially post offices; the Treasury Relief Art Project (TRAP), work awarded to lesser known artists; and the WPA's Federal Art Project from 1935-43. The work, by design, reflected the area in which the murals appeared. It was also supposed to lift the spirits of the many struggling in the Depression. These were painted during a time when many were hopeless and the murals were meant to ignite hope and push on to better things. When the last of the federal arts programs ended in 1943 during the middle of World War II, many murals across the country that were in progress were left unfinished.
Note: all murals listed are located in post offices except when noted in italics below the city name. See some of these in the Plains Trail Region soon.
1. Amarillo- Julius Woeltz 1941 "Cattle Loading, " "Oil," "Cattle Branding," "Gang Plow & Disk Harow," "Coronado's Exploration Party in the Palo Duro Canyon"
2. Big Spring-Peter Hurd 1938 "Old Pioneers" Howard County Library
3. Borger-Jose' Aceves 1939 "Big City News" Hutchinson County Museum
4. Brownfield-Frank Mechau 1940 "Ranchers of the Panhandle Fighting Prairie Fire with Skinned Steer" Police Headquarters
5. Canyon-Ben Mead 1934 "Coronado's Entry into Palo Duro" Harold Bugbee 1934 "Charles Goodnight Entering Palo Duro Canyon" Gustaf Sunstrom 1934 "Title Unknown" Panhandle Plains Historical Museum Francis Ankrom 1938 "Strays"
6. Hereford- Enid Bell 1941 "On the Range"
7. Lamesa-Fletcher Martin 1940 "The Horse Breakers"
8. Quanah-Jerry Bywaters 1938 "The Naming of Quanah"
9. Wellington-Bernard Arnest 1940 "Settlers in Collingsworth County"
Towns with lost, painted-over, missing, removed, or destroyed murals include: Childress and Lubbock.