Tuesday Tour: don’t dodge the art

While driving through farm country on our road trip last summer it was no surprise to notice plenty of silos like pictured above. 

But on our way back home, we did not expect to find silos in Iowa like those I’m highlighting today on our Tuesday Tour.

On our road trips Papa drives and I scan the surroundings for interesting and unique places to stop and capture photos. And the state of Iowa (who knew?) provided those opportunities for us.

One of those was the Fort Dodge Grain Silo.

This wasn’t just any old, abandoned grain silo. Instead, a 110-foot-tall mural wraps all the way around the silos. Painted by an international artist named Guido Van Helten in 2018, the mural is considered Iowa’s largest.

In 2016, the Fort Dodge Public Art Coalition commissioned the project and Van Helten began painting the mural in 2018 finishing it in three months.

So, what’s so unique about this mural?  

First of all, it’s not brightly colored. Instead, for a particular reason, the artist used earth-tone, brown hues he hand mixed to denote an aspect of Fort Dodge’s past – pottery.

The area was known for stoneware pottery made from a distinct type of clay found there. Today visitors can see examples of the stoneware amid other artifacts in the Fort Dodge Museum and Frontier Village located at a different site. 

Secondly, the mural is painted all around the circumference of the silos. As you walk around the silos, you see the figures painted on it form a continuous story of the people who were part of the community.

Using photographs of real-life people, Van Helten painted figures on the mural representing a farmer, a teacher, a student, a miner, and an African-American community leader.  

A tribute to stoneware is depicted in the murals as well with each figure holding some.

The miner represents a man who was a lifelong Fort Dodge resident and a veteran of World War II who not only was a mineworker but also manager of a gypsum plant.

The African-American woman migrated to Fort Dodge when she was offered a free railroad ticket there during the Civil Rights movement.  

The Fort Dodge Grain Silo murals are located at 727 Hawkeye Avenue, Fort Dodge, Iowa. There is a parking area and concrete sidewalks all around the silos, so it is handicap accessible.

Other murals painted by artist Guido Van Helten can be found in Nashville, Tennessee; Fort Smith, Arkansas; Faulkton, South Dakota, and Mankato, Minnesota.

We never expected to find this type of artwork on a silo in the middle of Iowa, but we’re glad we didn’t decide to dodge this neat sight in Fort Dodge.

“Art is too important not to share.” ~ Romero Britto

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