Murals draw crowds to county parks

OAKLAND MILLS — Local artist Annie Guldberg completed the last of three murals as part of a beautification project at Oakland Mills Park this past Saturday.

“We’re just trying to get people outside,” Henry County Conservation Director Caleb Waters said. “Trying to get them out to our county parks.”

From the moment the project began, Guldberg began to experience the draw of the art for people.

“What was really fun about working out at Oakland Mills is the people,” Guldberg said. “They would stop to visit with me. I even had someone stop and give me some really nice art supplies.”

“People would just stop and chat with me,” she said. “There are a lot of interesting people coming to the dam to fish and I got to learn a little bit about all the crazy fish that are in our river.”

“It actually shocked me a little bit, the amount of people that have been talking about it, especially on social media,” he said. “I’ve talked to two of my campground hosts … and they’re like ‘Caleb, you won’t believe the amount of traffic that is coming through the park.”

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Waters said he has seen an influx of people in the park already, too.

“It was amazing, the amount of people that were cruising through, getting out, and taking pictures,” he said. “That’s what we wanted. We wanted people to come out, utilize it for family pictures of senior pictures or just take a selfie.”

According to Waters, this mural project is just one of many projects he would categorize as part of a beautification initiative he and the conservation board have begun.

“We’ve got a lot of great improvement projects that we’re working on, and that is one of them,” he said. “Some of the fishermen I talked to a couple mornings ago even said it was a huge facelift.”

Waters got the idea when he heard about the City of Mt. Pleasant considering adding murals to town during his time in Leadership Mt. Pleasant through the Chamber of Commerce.

“I just took some of the idea from some of the conversations we had at that Henry County Leadership class,” Waters said.

According to Guldberg, the project took the whole month of May to complete.

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The largest mural entitled “Summer Symphony,” is located in Waterworks Park on the pump house and measures 580 square feet and took Guldberg 41 hours to complete.

“I wanted to keep it kind of natural in theme with the outdoors,” Waters said. “So, the pump house over at Waterworks is kind of a prairie scene.”

Guldberg said that Waters wanted something to draw people to that side of the park.

“So, on the front of the mural is a big butterfly that people can stand at and take their picture in front of like a photo op spot,” Guldberg said. “Throughout I used all flowers that grow in Iowa that are natural wildflowers, and then I added lots of bugs.”

Waters especially appreciated the addition of bees to the mural.

“A lot of people don’t know that pollinators kind of make the world go round,” He said.

Another 360 square foot mural, “By the Pond,” is fittingly located at the basketball court near the pond.

“That one took me about 34 hours of painting time over seven days,” Guldberg said.

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“The basketball court near the pond is more of a wetland theme,” Waters said. “Which, wetlands are great for infiltration, filtering, runoff, and bacteria sort of things.”

The mural displays a pond scene with flowers, butterflies, reeds, a Red-Wing Blackbird, a spider, and a couple of beehives in the meadow.

“A lot of people will view it from far away, but if you get close up to it, there's a lot of little surprises, little bugs and stuff for kids to find if they get close to it,” Guldberg said.

Guests can find the final 176 square foot mural at the dam.

“That one is much smaller than the other two, and it only took me eight hours,” Guldberg said.

“River Sunset,” is a colorful sunset scene complete with a shadowy riverbank and many birds.

These murals will welcome guests to the parks for many seasons to come, and Waters intends for them to be only one of many improvements to come to the parks.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com