The Alpine Downtown Association has created a walking tour of Alpine’s downtown murals (above). Click here to download a printable PDF file.
Take a stroll downtown and look around. Works of art adorn the walls of many local businesses around Alpine, revealing glimpses of local history and folklore, because after all, a picture, or in this case, an image, is worth a thousand words.
There’s a historic map of the Big Bend region inside the Museum of the Big Bend painted by Enrique Espinoza in 1940.
“View of Alpine” was painted by Jose Moya del Pine in 1940 inside the then-post office (it’s now the Brewster County Tax Appraisal’s office. Local artist Deborah Allison painted a tropical paradise in the Chihuahuan Desert on two sides of the Alpine Medical Center.
At the stoplight on Holland Avenue and 5th Street, two murals are perpendicular to each other. Facing west, on the wall of Kiowa Gallery, is “Big Brewster,” which welcomes visitors with an introduction of Brewster County. Images of defining faces and places such as the CF Ranch (a nod to the ranching heritage), Big Bend National Park that sits south of the county along the Mexico border and a steamroller train to signify the first laid tracks in 1882.
TV actor Dan Blocker smiles in his portrait as he dons a white cowboy hat in the mural. Most known for his role as Hoss Cartwright on Bonzana, Blocker graduated from Sul Ross State Teacher’s College in 1950 where he also played football. Another notable local sports figure, Herbert Kokernot, stands with a member of the Alpine Cowboys baseball team he founded in 1947. Kokernot, an 06 Ranch owner, also built the Kokernot Field on E. Hendryx Dr and Fighting Buck Ave.
Also on the mural, a Sul Ross State University banner hangs above a picturesque postcard that reads “Greetings from Alpine, Texas.” It’s a favorite spot for that Instagram photo.
“I love it,” said Kiowa Gallery’s owner, Keri Blackman. “You come out on a Sunday and there is a group standing there taking pictures of their families.”
The other mural facing south, is one of the three murals Blackman gifted to the city for the 20th anniversary of Artwalk, an annual art festival in downtown Alpine. In 2013, Blackman had an idea to paint a mural in a weekend to give back to the town. The mural, called “Poco a Poquito,” used a traditional Mexican calendar top with a man serenading a woman. Muralist Stylle Read redesigned it to include Our Lady of Peace Catholic Church in the background. The church stands directly south of the mural.
Blackman enlisted the help of Read and local volunteers to paint what would be the first of the six murals. The Mercado Mural came next in 2014 at the Big Bend Wool and Mohair on Murphy Street. Located in the revitalized neighborhood with old and new businesses, four calendar tops were combined to create a market scene.
The Cattle Drive Mural was completed in 2015 and reflects the region’s ranching heritage on the current KishMish Plaza, but the calendar image came from an actual calendar Alpine Lumberyard used to produce when it was there in the 1950s.
Read also worked on previous projects for others in the past. The first thing Read painted in Alpine was the West Texas themed mural near the Crystal Bar entrance. It was then owned by Larry McAllister in the spring of 1989.
Read is also the artist behind “Ode to Reata” at Reata Restaurant that features the house from the West Texas epic “Giant” and actor James Dean on a horse.
More recently, a group of businesses and building owners have partnered together for “Alpine Alley Art”. An alley runs east-west through downtown Alpine between Holland Avenue and Avenue E. The block between 5th and 6th Streets is quickly being filled with multiple murals, including a desert nature scene by Pauline Hernandez with ceramic details, a celebration of Big Bend’s Dark Skies by Carolyn Macartney and Liz Sibley, a mountain landscape by Juliana Johnson and more!
At Kokernot Park, Alpine’s premier municipal park, the Sul Ross Art Club produced a pop-inspired design by Alpine artist Amanda Calhoun on a water tank at the park’s southeast corner.
Guests at the Quality Inn are greeted with images of Alpine and the origin of the “murder steer” legend in the hotel’s lobby, also painted by Read in 1995.
The goal for future murals is to celebrate Texas-born musicians at Printco with the design as a spinoff of The Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album cover. Meaning, there will be a lot of musicians to paint.
Another mural is to honor the Texas Rangers, specifically the late Joaquin Jackson, who was a native of Alpine, at Prescription Shop.
As for Read, he would like to do more historic murals in general.
“I would love to do one of Herbert Kokernot and the story of the old Cowboys and the Kokernot Field,” said Read. “You know, there’s always something. Name the subjects and it’s a possibility.”
Article by Sarah Vasquez