Belle Plaine brick wall tells “Legacy”

One brick at a time, unwrapped and laid carefully into place, Belle Plaine of days gone by emerges on the west wall of the Belle Plaine Area Museum.

“Super awesome,” says mason Tom Digman of Vinton as he watches his crew finish the 19-foot tall, 29-foot wide terra cotta-colored mural.

“For a small town to do something like this, it's going to be a tourist attraction,” Tom says. “This is the best piece of masonry work in the state of Iowa.”

With 1,500 bricks weighing a total of 42,000 pounds, put together with 10,000 pounds of mortar, “Legacy” also has to be one of the state's largest brick works of art.

In the making for six years - it was always planned for the $1.2 million museum which opened in 2004 - the mural takes viewers on a historical tour.

Front and center stands a pioneer with sod busting shovel in hand, his wife by his side.

To one side, a newspaper account of the world famous Jumbo Well towers over a Model A Ford on the Lincoln Highway and the Herring Hotel where travelers rested their weary bones.

On the other side, a huge steam locomotive pulling into the depot represents the economic growth that rode the rails.

Designed by Cedar Rapids artist Gary Anderson (he also designed the Tree of Five Seasons in Cedar Rapids), the mural was carved at Specialty Services in Endicott, Neb., by sculptor Sten Eisentrager over a three-month period.

Once completed and cured, the bricks in the wall were individually packed for safe transport.

When the bricks arrived last week, Tom and his crew - Randy Olson, Mike Hunt, Seth Marlin and J.D. Backa all from Cedar Rapids - began assembly on the exterior wall left vacant for it.

After raising money for the museum, the board didn't want to push too hard to raise additional funds for the mural, estimated to cost $120,000, says Bev Winkie, board president. So it accepted donations through the years, $15 here, $100 there, one for $15,000. The mural has come in under budget at $107,000/

“It's awesome, isn't it?” says Bev, gazing through the scaffolding as the detailed mural takes shape.

“When I look at it,” she says, “and you look at the picture Gary did as they put it up ... well, I hate to use the word awesome all the time, but it just becomes more awesome.”

Between now and the dedication May 2, the mural will be illuminated for around the clock viewing.

“It's like any brick work,” Tom says. “It's going to look good and last forever.”