Restoring the Mobridge Murals: The Road to Mobridge

Photo : Loewenstein

It’s a ten hour trek to reach Mobridge, SD. We start out heading north from our current home in Lawrence, Kansas. As we pull out of town the tomatoes are ripe and dense; some of the heirloom types are now turning dark with color, surely following the code of some old family program.

Five hours in, we spend the night in Canton South Dakota; a small town just a stones throw from I-29 in South Eastern South Dakota. Getting back on the road the next morning I stop to read a historical roadside marker that I have driven past many times.-

I didn’t grow up in Canton and never lived there, nor do I know to any significant degree the history of its early days. Looking to the right of this road sign and taking in the adjacent golf course I get the sense that this small town's quiet, sub-urban skin is only a few decades thick. I sense that there are chapters of this place's history that would not lull a child to sleep. The tomatoes here are days away from ripe.

Further North

Coming over a small hill, on South Dakota’s asphalt artery (I-90) we chance to see the silhouette of a bull, sharp against the overexposed mid-day sky. Getting closer we realize that this bull is gargantuan in scale and closer still we spot other, more colorful sculptures. Of course, we must stop.

Welcome to Porter's Sculpture Park

Artist: Wayne Porter and his dashing green apparel Photo : Ward

Upon arrival we were surprised to find the artist present. We notice something peculiar about his eyes. From within a small shed at the entrance of the park, Wayne Porter (the creator of the parks attraction's) greets us along with his companion; a friendly albino dog.

The Albino "Bambino" Photo : Ward

Danger lurks as we near the parks entrance Nicholas (pictured here), shrieks in terror as he meets one of Buzzard row's inhabitants; a reincarnated politician ready to pick the bones of its constituents
Photo : Hansen

Walking us through the two acre menagerie, Wayne shares with us the secrets of his fantastic collection. Many of the sculptures are accompanied by signs that contain poems, parables or boast messages of warning that Wayne enthusiastically explains in riddled and thoughtful ways.

"Ballerina"
"She scrubs the front rows of the theatre late at night, while the
ballerinas practice. When the ballerinas leave, she gets up and
dances. She wants to be a ballerina. It is all about how we
assemble our lives by the decisions we make. Every choice we
make becomes a piece of our lives as well as casts away other
choices. Everything is random" Photo : Ward

"The Red Hammer"

"Anything worth building may break a few hammers."

"Wise Man"

Like the three wise monkeys he hears no evil, speaks no evil and sees no evil. In order to be wise one first must be mangled."

Spending far too long (really just long enough) walking around this park we are now set to arrive in Mobridge two hours later than anticipated, but it is well worth it. Before departing, Amber turns a tune for Wayne and his Albino compadre on her music box eyeball helmet and we were on the road again. It is in our expert opinion that Wayne Porter is a South Dakota treasure and visionary artist. (Stay tuned folks, as there may be a future video collaboration in the works!)

"Eyeball song" photo : Ward

With a fresh wind in our sails
we push further north! As the light begins to fade we see that the landscape too is changing. Shimmering new grain bins stand out as lonely blips on a long, running, flat-line horizon. John Cage's "4’33"; comes to mind as I think of this landscape. Without the mountains, trees or crescendos of a busy landscape our gaze is quieted and we begin to see the details of the prairie, the waiving grass, the subtle shifts in the color as the horizon meets the sky.

"Blips on the Map" Photo : Hansen

The Yield is Up

We notice in each town we pass the presence of new grain storage bins that accompany the old existing bins. along with these many more hyphenate the spaces in between towns. Newly laid tracks support the trains that come to disperse the bounty of this land. In contrast to the agricultural surplus, that will literally pile up beside these bins during harvest season, the population of this area is blighted. Generating more capital per acre than ever before, many of the towns in this area are experiencing shrinking infrastructure and dwindling population.

Newly constructed grain bins. Photo : Hansen

We also notice a gradual increase in the presence of mammoth, round bails of hay that lay scattered in the passing fields. As we travel further north they multiply into an immense heard, and for a moment, I think of them this way. Squinting and imagining a time when, similar in scale and form, millions of buffalo roamed in their place. I wonder what that would have looked like, to see them, so dense in this landscape. Much like you and everyone else now living, I will not know.

"Modern Buffalo" Photo : Hansen

Arrival

Late in the evening we arrive in the small town of Glenham, SD, just six miles east of Mobridge. Our gracious host Brian Liedtke greets us and doesn’t seem to mind that we are a few hours later than expected. The air here is cooler than in Kansas and the tomatoes have 2 weeks to go. Looking out into the night, we listen as the crickets, coyotes and cows commune in what we optimistically imagine is our welcome to this region.