Long-awaited Mendota mural depicts city’s rich railroad history

The Mendota Union Depot mural is more than a painting on a wall.

It is a masterpiece years in the making, one that brings to life the historic connection between the solid community today, the railroads that helped make that city’s legacy possible and the decades of rich history in between.

One of the highlights of Mendota’s Railroad Crossing and Heritage Days was the unveiling of a large mural, the vision of NCI ARTworks, the creativity of Westclox Studios partners Ray Paseka and John Stackos and the artistic talents of a quartet of young artists Morgan Phillips, Emily Mays, Maddie Anke and Sandra Velasquez.

“We’re very happy that we did this project and we hope everyone enjoys it.”

—  Ray Paseka, artist

Depicting the station built in 1888 and demolished in 1942, the work shows the station in its entirety, more than 250 feet long and over 50 feet at its pinnacle, where a replica of a turn-of-the-century locomotive caps the spire.

It consists of nearly 100 sheets of aluminum, assembled and welded to the south side of the Triple Service building on the 800 block of Monroe Street.

“My partner and I really like to do projects like this because it’s so challenging, something this scale and this large,” said Paseka, who has been responsible for several murals inn the area, including the large ear of corn attached to a grain silo in Mendota. “There are many many problems that you have to solve, how to make this or that work structurally but we were able to overcome them.

“And the girls, for them to paint something on this scale and keep it accurate, so many things have to come into play … But without these talented girls here, this would have dragged on forever. They were challenged by this and they came through.

“We’re very happy that we did this project and we hope everyone enjoys it.”

According to NCI ARTworks Executive Director Julia Messina, the project began back in 2019 with a casual conversation between Messina’s predecessor, Christine Coughlin, and Triple Service co-owner Michelle Wade, in which they discussed creating “something beautiful” for Mendota.

Coughlin said she was envisioning “something like a billboard, but clearly this was way, way, way beyond that.”

They contacted the Westclox Studio and Paseka, and with the research assistance of Mendota history enthusiast Wade, they came up with the railroad station concept.

In addition to securing contributions of a myriad of sponsors and public donations, mural organizers asked for and received the endorsement of the Mendota Museum and Historical Society and the Mendota City Council, and received the blessing from First State Bank of Mendota to take up the edge of its parking lot.

Working at Paseka’s studio and a church in Rutland, the panels were painted on sheets of steel and assembled first in diagram form, then taken to the site for installation.

Under Paseka’s guidance, the team not only painted the better portion of the piece but also welded it together.

The original target date was to have the work completed by the 2020 Sweet Corn Festival, but the pandemic, weather and a variety of other circumstances cause that debut to be delayed until 2023.

However, the entire project still is not complete. There are plans for a fenced-in promenade in front of the mural, complete with antique light poles, benches and flowers for visitors to the piece and would be available for special events, such as reunions and birthday celebrations.

To further dramatize the historical aspect, skits of life in the 1940s were performed later that afternoon.