Mindy Allen of Mindy’s Murals, who painted the new, vibrant, large-scale mural at the Heritage Center, was pleasantly surprised at what the center operated by the Dickinson County Historical Society has to offer.
“I didn’t realize it was as much as it was,” Allen says, after a tour of the facility prior to painting the mural. “I need to take a moment to really walk through and look at everything a little bit better. It seems like a cool place to stop that was more than what I expected.”
The mural reflects aspects of Dickinson County’s rich history including the C.W. Parker Carousel Company, the Chisholm Trail, cattle town marshal Wild Bill Hickok, a pioneer cabin, agriculture, and the C.L Brown Telephone Company.
“I had heard of the carousel, but I had never been back there to see it, and I didn’t realize it was inside (a structure with openings to outside),” she says. “I was surprised about all of the history about the telephone, I had no idea that was all in there and how large it actually is.”
The mural Allen painted fills the once blank canvass of the Heritage Center’s new Heritage Hall addition and increases the visibility of local history that can be found inside the Heritage Center’s museum and in The Village behind the building, according to Dickinson County Historical Society Director Austin Anders.
“The marketing committee was looking into ways to give Heritage Hall more curb appeal and a mural was the answer,” Anders says. “The front of the building looked very plain, but now is a colorful piece of public art that displays county history.”
Marketing Committee chairman and Dickinson County Historical Society board trustee Rod Riffel says Mindy Allen of Mindy’s Murals was selected as the artist based on her previous work in the Abilene area and her vision for the mural matching that of the committee’s.
“We wanted it to be an educational tool that reveals our county’s story by focusing on the highlights of what we are noted for, the 1901 hand-carved wooden carousel that visitors can ride, our new Farm Toy Museum that represents our agriculture history, and our telephone exhibit,” says Riffel. “We also wanted to honor our cattle town era, with Abilene being the end of the Chisholm Trail and Wild Bill Hickok serving as town marshal, and our pioneer heritage with our log cabin. Of course the Village behind the museum also includes a barn, one-room schoolhouse, early-day telephone office, and Agriculture Building filled with early-day farm machinery, a barbed wire exhibit, and transportation vehicles.”
The new addition to Abilene’s murals would not have been possible without the support of the Community Foundation of Dickinson County and the Dickinson County Historical Society’s board of trustees that “allowed this dream to come true,” adds Riffel.
The newly-completed Heritage Hall is a multi-use area that can be used by the Historical Society and the community for events up to 85 people, according to Anders. To reserve Heritage Hall, please phone 785.263.2681.
An open house for the new Farm Toy Museum, Heritage Hall, and the mural will be on Oct. 5 at the Heritage Center. The Farm Toy Museum is a new building that houses a variety of toy farm equipment sizes 1/64 scale and up.
