After years of restoration work, two panels from what was once the longest mural in the world have found their home at the Hays County Government Center.
Wimberley artist Buck Winn was commissioned to paint “A History of Ranching” in 1950.
“It was 280 feet long,” said Linda Coker of the Hays County Historical Commission, “and it was painted for the Pearl Brewery for their saloon.”
When the brewery decided to change up their saloon, Coker said, the mural was cut into pieces and thrown into a storeroom.
“We’re actually making a documentary about the finding of the murals,” Coker said.
Dorey Schmidt with the Wimberley Institute of Cultures dug into the whereabouts of the lost mural and discovered that someone at the Pearl Brewery had put the sections in storage. The brewery let Schmidt pick them up from the shed where they were “stacked neatly on the asphalt floor,” according to Schmidt’s own account on the Wimberley Institute of Cultures website.
William Winters and Schuyler Miller carry a section of the outer frame through the lobby as they get ready to finish mounting one of the two mural sections scheduled for installation.
Coker said that some pieces are on display in Wimberley, some are on display at Texas State University and others have been sold off.
“Other pieces are just scattered to the winds,” she said.
In recent years, two panels showed up at an art dealer in Dallas, and the Hays County Historical Commission used money given by Burdine Johnson to purchase the panels, Coker said. Now that the two panels of the lost mural have been restored, they are being installed at the Hays County Government Center.
Coker noted that there is already art on the walls on the second and third floors of the government center; those displays are switched out every four months.
James Buchanan “Buck” Winn was known as an artist, sculptor, inventor and more. His home in Wimberley on the Four Winns Ranch is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
