Another "Welcome to Menomonie" mural update from Menomonie native and artist Dale Manor:
We have decided to tentatively set up the painting of the mural from August 15th through August 21st. If the weather is decent (not rainy or overly hot) we'll be there.
I just wanted to mention once again that my wife and I are donating this mural to the City of Menomonie. Which includes about $800 in artist's acrylic and latex paint. We are also using our vacation time from our "Real" jobs while we complete this project. The mural has an estimated value of $34,000.
I also thought I would drop a couple more letters from the mural. Today's Letters are: O and M...
History information provided by The Rassbach Museum.
O --- MAIN STREET
Main Street in most towns serves as the heart of the community, and that is true of Menomonie as well. From the time it was first platted until the present day, Main Street has served as the cultural and economic hub of the city. Through dirt, brick and concrete surfaces, it's been home to banks and bakeries, saloons, drug stores, cafes and restaurants, an opera house and theaters, and oh so much more.
It has seen parades of every type from circus and wild west shows to high school and college homecomings, and from Fourth of July to Winter Daze. It has welcomed soldiers home from war and sent local athletes to state competition. It has witnessed the 1931 Kraft State Bank robbery, an escaped circus elephant, and a presidential bus caravan.
Today the heart of Menomonie still beats strong.
M ---- LAMB’S CREEK FALLS
The beautiful waterfall where Lamb’s Creek flowed into the Red Cedar River, was historically important. In 1825, the U.S. government convinced the Ojibwe people who claimed the land north of the falls, and the rival Dakota people to the south, to sign the Treaty of Prairie du Chien, establishing a boundary line between the two bands. The line in this area started at the confluence of the Eau Claire and Chippewa Rivers in Eau Claire (where the Pablo Center stands), extended to Lamb’s Creek Falls, a well-known landmark to both natives and whites in the area, then took about a six degree tilt to the south, extending to the “standing cedar” on the bank of the St. Croix River.
A beautiful cascade of water flowed over a 25-foot ledge of sandstone (just southwest of Jake’s Supper Club) that is now beneath the waters of Tainter Lake, created in 1910 with the completion of a hydroelectric dam at Cedar Falls. The falls were a popular spot for the “river pigs” guiding logs downstream to the mills at Cedar Falls and Menomonie, and citizens of the area that would enjoy a day’s relaxation fishing and picnicking at the site.
Dale Manor owns Studio in the Sky in Minneapolis. Check out his artwork on the Studio in the Sky website and on Dale's Facebook page.
