MEETING THE LAND

OSCAR HOWE 

MURAL RESTORATION PROJECT

Retreat 10'x16' mural from the Scherr Howe Arena.  Oscar Howe 1941

Welcome to the Oscar Howe mural restoration project.  We (Nicholas Ward and Amber Hansen) have created this blog to chronicle the restoration of ten WPA murals housed within the Scherr-Howe arena, located in the heart of Mobridge. In this blog, we will be sharing information about Oscar Howe, the mural restoration process and other discoveries from our explorations into the areas and histories surrounding Mobridge!

 We begin our story in the north central South Dakota town of Mobridge, a lake-side community of roughly 3,500 residents. On the west and southern ends, the land is defined by Lake Oahe, a core of engineers creation c.1948-1962. It is a tamed and compartmentalized remnant of North America's long and meandering leviathan, also known as, the grand Missouri River.

Traveling west to the edge of town on highway US-12 we encounter a great truss bridge spanning the nearly mile-long gap over lake Oahe. In crossing this bridge we are transported to another time (literally we move from central to mountain time) and into Standing Rock Reservation, the land of another nation.

Looking to the east or north from town, one feels swaddled amongst the many woven mounds of rich prairie earth, extending up for hundreds of feet to form the beautiful, bulbous, seemingly endless landscape of this seldom spoken of and under-celebrated north-central, South Dakota region.

landscape 3 miles east of Mobridge facing to the south                                                                           photo: NicholasWard

                                                                                                                    

Today we celebrated the arrival of our project collaborator Dr. Margaret Nowosielska, a seasoned Dr. of Art Conservation from the Conservation Center in Chicago. Tomorrow we begin our work on the Howe murals. Keep your eyes peeled and your ears perked for our next post, The Road to Mobridge!