(The following story by Clara Kilbourn appeared on The Hutchinson News website on August 31.)
KINGMAN, Kan. — Head south on Main Street, cross the river bridge, pass by the 4-H fairgrounds and watch out for the train.
A new attraction this summer, the mural painted on an outside wall of the Don Dye storage building features Missouri Pacific steam engine No. 5326 rounding a curve and veering straight into downtown Kingman.
The circa-1940s scene – featuring the train, a girl and a boy on a bicycle, two dogs and a farmer plowing in a nearby field – depicts her own childhood, artist Marilyn “Lyn” Harper Barnes said.
“That’s the way it was,” she said. “I wanted it plain and simple so you feel like you’re way back in time.”
In a project supported by the Kingman County Historical Society, Barnes re-created the life-sized coal-burning black engine puffing along the track with its huge plume of smoke and pulling a long line of grain cars.
The mural serves as a prelude to the ongoing restoration project of the nearby former Missouri Pacific depot into a museum and restaurant, historical society President Ted Geisert said.
“We’re all very pleased with it,” he said of the mural. “The painting’s very realistic.”
When Barnes was approached a year ago by historical society members with their request to paint the 16-by-65-foot wall, she answered, “Sure.”
“And then I wondered, ‘How am I going to do that?'” she said.
Barnes, an artist with no formal training, drew the train to scale and sketched it on the wall. She then added the farm fields, barbed wire fences, a panorama of distant storm clouds and a Kansas meadowlark.
She put herself in the mural as the young girl with blond pigtails. A distant grain elevator copies the outline from the nearby town of Cleveland. Finally, a pair of vultures circling overhead above the train showed up one day as Barnes was painting the sky.
“I thought that we’ll just make them permanent,” she said.
Summer heat has halted the project temporarily. When the weather cools, she’ll add a Missouri Pacific Railroad sign and a clear overcoat to preserve the colors.
The mural draws attention from townspeople and visitors, said historical society board member and Savannah House Bed and Breakfast owner Carol Francis.
The board’s original plan called for signage on the building that would draw attention to the depot. However, Barnes was able to develop the mural into a genuine replica of that time in the town’s history, Francis said.
“We’re ecstatic, so pleased,” she said.