Buckhannon City Seal mural celebrated
BUCKHANNON — Officials Friday rededicated the mural of the City Seal, located at Main and Locust streets, 10 years after it was created by artist Deborah Dorland, who attended the ceremony to be reunited with her work.
Local artist Ross Straight designed Buckhannon’s City Seal in 1998, and smaller versions adorn Council Chambers at City Hall and the community and training room at the Public Safety Complex.
In 2000, Straight unveiled a life-sized statue of Chief Buckongahelas and his dying son, Mahonegon, dedicated at Jawbone Park. Native American representatives from three tribes, including the Delaware Nation, participated in the ceremony.
In 2006, Dorland was commissioned to paint the City Seal mural just three blocks away. Those commissioning the work were the Buckhannon-Upshur Chamber of Commerce, the Upshur County Development Authority, Chase Bank, Upshur Arts Alliance and West Virginia Wesleyan College, with the support of the building’s owners, Steve Nanners and Dennis Willett.
During the fall of 2016, local artist and WVWC alumna Courtney Chidester was commissioned by the city to touch up the mural, repairs that were necessitated by a decade of exposure to the elements. City employees undertook installation of lighting and other improvements to the top flashing of the building and base of the wall. Landscape enhancements were scheduled to follow soon after.
Mayor David McCauley said there was something special about bringing Dorland back to Buckhannon for the rededication ceremony. Dorland is a resident of Roane County and lived in Richwood when she was commissioned to paint the mural.
“To reconnect Deborah Dorland to the community after 10 1/2 years was just the right thing to do,” he said.
McCauley said Dorland is a unique individual with the kind of drive that is rare.
“In 2014, she had a stroke. She couldn’t draw. But she learned to draw with her left hand,” he said. “That’s amazing.”
Dorland said she has painted many murals in many locations, but she is most proud of the Buckhannon work.
“Another thing that’s really important about the mural, that was important to me, was that the whole community got involved,” she said. “I decided to paint a patch of grass in the middle with some of the local children. I wanted to show them all the different colors that go into even a single blade of grass.”
Buckhannon’s Seal features the legendary Buckongahelas allegedly greeting Samuel Pringle sometime during 1764-1767, when Samuel resided with his brother John in the hollow of a giant sycamore tree located about three miles north of the mural, at what is now Pringle Tree Park along the Buckhannon River.