Walldogs to add 13 Murals to Menomonie

9 hours ago
4 min read

The Walldogs are coming to Menomonie on June 24th to add 13 murals to the Menomonie area. An additional two murals will be going to Boyceville and Ridgeland. In this post, you will see all of the murals going up during the weekend. See this related post for more information on the event.

All photos/graphics of the building were provided at a city council meeting. The remaining graphics were provided by Murals in Menomonie and Downtown Menomonie, Inc.

Mural 1 - Menomonie Blue Caps on the side of Hoss's Pub

Mural 2 - Ludington Guard Band Mural on the side of the Menomonie Theater Guild Building

Mural 3 - Repainting the Coca-Cola ghost mural on the side of the Statz Building

Mural 4 - UW-Stout Mural on the Administration Building at UW-Stout

Mural 5 - Charles Sanna Hot Cocoa on the side of the building where the Fiber Lab is located

Did you know that Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa was invented here in Menomonie and is still produced here today by Conagra? Charles Sanna's family owned Sanna Dairy Engineers, which had been supplying powdered coffee creamer packets to American troops during the Korean War. To meet demand, they produced more than they needed, but ended up with a surplus after the war. From his stove in Menomonie, Charles used the extra coffee creamer to develop what we now know as Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa! This mural will feature eye-catching elements of the original Swiss Miss brand and box design.

Project Lead: Joy Hernandez from Indianapolis, IN

Mural 6 - Lumberjacks on the side of the building where Simple Sports is located.

The lumber boom in Dunn County began in the mid-1800s and peaked in the 1870s with the dominance of Knapp, Stout, & Co Company. They employed over 2,000 people in the Menomonie area, moving through the wilderness, cutting timber to send downstream via the Red Cedar River, and removing stumps so farmers could utilize the newly opened spaces. Over the course of the company's history, they sent about 85 million board feet of lumber down the Red Cedar, Chippewa, and Mississippi Rivers to St. Louis.

Learn more about the history of the local lumber industry at https://www.dunnhistory.org/knapp-stout-company

The project lead for this mural is Joe Diaz of Pontiac, Illinois! Joe has participated in 22 Walldogs festivals and is a second-generation sign maker & graphic designer, having attended his first Walldog event as a kid in 1993.

The height of the crosscut saw is the correct height for the average person so people can take a photo in front of the mural, pretending they are holding either end of the crosscut saw.

Mural 7 - The Bolo Country Inn on the side of Stitched Up (710 4th Street E)

Mural 8 - Kraft State Bank Robbery on the side of 438 Main (west of BMO Bank)

One of the many notable events in our history was the Kraft State Bank Robbery of 1931. While Francis Keating and Tommy Holden got away temporarily in an animated escape from town, they were later caught on a Kansas City golf course and sent back to Leavenworth Prison, from which they had escaped in 1930. Learn more at https://www.dunnhistory.org/kraft-state-bank-robbery.

The Kraft State Bank Robbery mural will be painted at 438 Main Street, the current home of Rising Phoenix martial arts studio.

Project Lead: Kelsey McClellan from Chicago, IL

Mural 9 - Wild Rice, Bricks, and Lumber on the old Lakeside Lounge

Mural 10 - Harry Miller Golden Submarine Race Car on Auto Value

Harry Miller was born in Menomonie, WI, in December of 1875 and would go on to become one of the most revolutionary and influential figures in the early days of American motorsports. This mural will feature one specific invention known as the Golden Submarine. This racing machine was fast, durable, and protected the driver with the first enclosed roll cage. The Golden Submarine was built with aluminum and coated in bronze dust and lacquer to achieve a gold look.

Project lead, Kurt Gaber of Chippewa Falls, WI, has been hand lettering since he was racing bicycles at 11 years old, eventually moving up to lettering racecars at 13, and launching Gaber Signs in 1992. Kurt has participated in 13 Walldogs festivals and is the perfect lead artist for this mural. Stay tuned for the artwork reveal soon!

Mural 11 - Dunn County Fair on the small animal building at the Dunn County Fairgrounds

Mural 12 - Hmong Story Cloth

This mural will be painted in Wilson Park and will likely be displayed temporarily at the Rassbach Museum until it finds a permanent home (it may end up staying there). This was designed by two UW-Stout students, Angelina Yang and Gao (Pretti) Zhong Thao.

Mural 15 - Anderson Cigar Company on the back of Adoray's Treasures from the Heart (this will be painted on a panel in Wilson Park and installed later)

Hand-rolled cigars played a big role in Menomonie's history, with numerous cigar companies operating in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including the Anderson Cigar Company. Otto and Al Anderson were born in Shovde, Sweden, before moving to the United States with their parents in 1872 and settling on 40 acres of railroad land just north of Menomonie. Anderson Cigar Company, established in 1893, would go on to be the largest cigar factory in northern Wisconsin, producing over 2 million cigars annually in its most productive years.

Project Leads: Dan Luckin, High Easter, Essex, England & Phil Schultz, Chicago, IL