The Ely Murals

Like many Western towns, Ely, Nevada, has experienced major highs and lows thanks to the mining industry. Mining, primarily for copper, founded the town in the late 1800s andhas long been its largets employer. But the whims of geoogy and commodities markets have also been its undoing on several occasions.

But rather than pack up an drift away, Ely citizens instead chose to express pride in th town in an unusual way: They painted the town with colorful murals.

The project began in 1999 during yet another mining downturn. The town's leading copper mine shut down - again - putting hundreds of employees out of work. Downtown shops closed and went dark, creating a depressing visage along Aultman Street, the main drag.

"When this happened, a thousand people left the community, and we were all devastated, just devastated," said Virginia Terry, a lifelong Ely resident.

At the time it was unusal for a tiny, remote town to dive deep into public art, said Terry, president of the Ely Renaissance Society, a nonprofit founded around the mural project. But it proved vital to unite the town around its rich, shared history. And it helped citizens see the value in preserving what they had and hoping for a better future.

"Every year, we would do two or three murals, and we'd have to have fundraisers to do that," Terry said. "At first, visitors were really more excited about it than the people living here. But after a couple summers, then the business people saw the advantage, and either did their own murals or gave money to get theirs done."

For the past few years, White Pine County Tourism and Recreation has dedicated money to refresh many of the murals with new paint after decades in the high-desert weather. It also plans at least one new mural downtown a year.

A catalyst for the project 20 years ago was Margaret Bath, Terry's sister-in-law and then owner of Economy Drug, the downtown pharmacy. She had recently traveled in British Columbia and saw a mural project in the town of Chemainus, launched by Karl Schutz, a German immigrant who launched a mural project in his adopted hometown, which was struggling as the logging industry declined.

When the idea of murals for Ely began to flower, Bath put up $5,000 to launch the effort and bring Schutz to Ely as an advisor on the local project.

Margaret Bath died in 2016.

"She was a forward thinker and loved art and really did so much for the community," Terry said.

The Renaissance Society settled on a theme that would celebrate Ely's history has a melting pot for immigrants drawn from around the world to labor for the mining industry.

"We wanted to honor the people who came from different ethnic groups," Terry said. "One of the things it did is that it made people excited that they were a community of these different ethnicities that were being honored."

Schutz helped recruit noteworthy artists to paint Ely's murals. He also advised Terry's group to do as many murals as possible, spread thorughout town, instead of putting all their effort and money into a single project. Willing property owners were recruited to make building walls available for murals. In time, more would follow.

Today there are over 30 murals in total, with many more on the way, painted by a variety of artists in dfiferent styles. All are focused on the history of the town - mining, ranching, railroading and scenic beauty - with the cultural diversity of the community as a central theme.

"We hope they still honor the different ethnic groups that came into our community and learned to live peacefully together." Terry said. "It tells you this community cares about who they are."

For more Info

Ely Art Walk: elynevada.net/project/public-art

Ely Mural Project, Great Basin Heritage Area: greatbasinheritage.org/ely-historic-mural-project