Horse mural helps tell the story of making electricity

by Christy Shearer | Dec 01, 2015 Chelan County PUD

Rocky Reach Visitor Center overlooks the flowing Columbia River and the concrete of Rocky Reach Dam, but inside there’s another scenic vista, a large mural of strong horses. The galloping stallions greet each visitor who walks through the door.

Debbie Gallaher, Visitor Services manager, says that the comments about the mural never stop.

Rocky Reach Visitor Center overlooks the flowing Columbia River and the concrete of Rocky Reach Dam, but inside there’s another scenic vista, a large mural of strong horses. The galloping stallions greet each visitor who walks through the door.

Debbie Gallaher, Visitor Services manager, says that the comments about the mural never stop.

“We are constantly taking pictures of the visitors in front of the horse mural,” she said.

She remembers a visitor who returned after years away saying, “Here’s the thing I’ve never forgotten. “  Another visitor told her, “It’s the most beautiful painting I’ve ever seen.”

The mural shows dozens of horses, representing the generation of horsepower at Rocky Reach. It illustrates the energy of falling water, which is transformed into clean, renewable hydropower. The 16-by-35-foot mural, installed in the Visitor Center during its construction in 1963, shows dark horses falling through blue and green water, transforming into a spray of white stallions.

Artist Walter Graham’s art studio was known for many notable works around the Wenatchee Valley. Pangborn Memorial Airport is home to several paintings, one commemorating the 1931 Trans-Pacific flight from Misawa, Japan, to Wenatchee.

Graham was born Nov. 17, 1903, on a small farm in Greenup, Illinois. He began his career as an artist by doodling as a boy. In 1922, he headed to the Art Institute of Chicago to expand his knowledge and skills. He turned to commercial illustration and art when he partnered with Morice Nugent, creating Nugent-Graham Studios and striking a deal with Sears to illustrate its catalog.

Graham often visited his sister, Clair, who lived in Wenatchee. After working many years, Graham decided to “retire for the first time,” in 1950, according to Katherine M. White, who interviewed Graham on several occasions as Central Washington University graduate student. He purchased an orchard outside Wenatchee and moved here to be a full-time painter.

Rocky Reach Visitor Center hosts more than just Graham’s “Horsepower” mural. In the Visitor Center’s theater, his eight portraits of central Washington's early peoples and settlers tell the tale of the region’s multicultural past; and his depiction of the ice age with frigid glaciers and molten volcanoes greets visitors to the Powerhouse Gallery in the dam’s Museum of the Columbia. Also located in the gallery is a large bird’s-eye-view map of Washington state, showing the locations of dams on the Columbia River. Visitors can press a button to illuminate lights that show the name and location of each dam.

On the powerhouse overlook, just around the corner from the state map, is another Graham work -- a set of verdigris metal sculptures that were originally commissioned by Seattle First National Bank.

Graham died May 5, 2000, but by capturing the spirit and energy of the Northwest in his work, he has left behind pieces that remain to tell a story each day.