Topic: Mural - post office in Riverton WY

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

A friend has sent me a picture of a mural form a post office in Riverton WY, featuring cowboys with sheep and mountains, painted apparently in 1947.

He found it somewhere on this forum but I cannot find it myself.

Can you please direct me to the appropriate thread?

Thanks.

[Jennis]

A friend has sent me a picture of a mural form a post office in Riverton WY, featuring cowboys with sheep and mountains, painted apparently in 1947.

He found it somewhere on this forum but I cannot find it myself.

Can you please direct me to the appropriate thread?

Thanks.

Saul,the only thread i know of was when it was posted in July.Italian thread.Go here...

http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=2582.msg195263#msg195263

J.x

[tpe]

Thanks Jennis. 

Saul, I do remember seeing the post of that mural.   frances sent it to me as a PM and I ssueme she got it from the Italian thread.

[welshwitch]

How bizarre that the colors exactly mirror those of the movie - the hats, the coats - and that there are jagged peaks like Brokeback in the background. I wonder if anyone from the movie company, or the location scout, saw this, or a reproduction of it, anywhere?

[Jennis]

How bizarre that the colors exactly mirror those of the movie - the hats, the coats - and that there are jagged peaks like Brokeback in the background. I wonder if anyone from the movie company, or the location scout, saw this, or a reproduction of it, anywhere?

Apparently nobody saw it.Be hard to miss it though wouldn't it.
J.x

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

How bizarre that the colors exactly mirror those of the movie - the hats, the coats - and that there are jagged peaks like Brokeback in the background. I wonder if anyone from the movie company, or the location scout, saw this, or a reproduction of it, anywhere?

Yes. It is spooky. The sheep too. The thing is that the story apparently fits as much as the film. So did Annie Proux ever see it? Or are we just reding something into a coincidence. Or were the spirits of Ennis and Jack spooking about even in the 40's?

Francesca from the Italian thread found it on the Dave Cullen forum posted with a poem, but knows nothing more.

I'll do some surfing!

[jackster]

A friend has sent me a picture of a mural form a post office in Riverton WY, featuring cowboys with sheep and mountains, painted apparently in 1947.

He found it somewhere on this forum but I cannot find it myself.

Can you please direct me to the appropriate thread?

Thanks.

Saul,the only thread i know of was when it was posted in July.Italian thread.Go here...

http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=2582.msg195263#msg195263

J.x

I was in Riverton in October, went to the PO and took some shots of the George Vander Sluis mural which I can post here if I can figure out how (I'm new here). It's a great mural, unfortunately kinda cramped into the PO lobby. The actual Riverton PO is a very prominent WPA era building on Riverton's Main Street, two stories high with offices upstairs for other Gov't agencies like the Selective Service, etc. Countyside around Riverton is beautiful with the snow capped Wind River mountains visible in the distance. Looked all over, didn't see Ennis though!

[Jennis]

I was in Riverton in October, went to the PO and took some shots of the George Vander Sluis mural which I can post here if I can figure out how (I'm new here). It's a great mural, unfortunately kinda cramped into the PO lobby. The actual Riverton PO is a very prominent WPA era building on Riverton's Main Street, two stories high with offices upstairs for other Gov't agencies like the Selective Service, etc. Countyside around Riverton is beautiful with the snow capped Wind River mountains visible in the distance. Looked all over, didn't see Ennis though!

Hi Jackster and welcome.How wonderful the trip must of been for you.Would love to hear about it,as i suspect would many others here.If you could upload the photographs even better.I/we will help and tell you how to do it.Thanks so much for posting this info.It's always great to hear of ones travels in connection with Brokeback.Look forward to more.

Jennis.x

[greenfrog]

How bizarre that the colors exactly mirror those of the movie - the hats, the coats - and that there are jagged peaks like Brokeback in the background. I wonder if anyone from the movie company, or the location scout, saw this, or a reproduction of it, anywhere?

Their outfits are an exact mirror of Jack and Ennis's clothes. And one has blonde hair while the other has brown hair.

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

I was in Riverton in October, went to the PO and took some shots of the George Vander Sluis mural which I can post here if I can figure out how (I'm new here). It's a great mural, unfortunately kinda cramped into the PO lobby. The actual Riverton PO is a very prominent WPA era building on Riverton's Main Street, two stories high with offices upstairs for other Gov't agencies like the Selective Service, etc. Countyside around Riverton is beautiful with the snow capped Wind River mountains visible in the distance. Looked all over, didn't see Ennis though!

Once you know how to post pictures its easy.

Go to an external website where you can upload pictures, such as photobucket.com. Join (its free) and upload your immages there. Each photo than has its own web address. You then post a message here and quote the web address of the immage(s) between these two commands which you get by clicking on the inset immage icon on the left above all the smilies.

You can test out before you post on the main treads at:

http://www.ennisjack.com/index.php?topic=162.0

So have a go. And welcome!

[tpe]

How bizarre that the colors exactly mirror those of the movie - the hats, the coats - and that there are jagged peaks like Brokeback in the background. I wonder if anyone from the movie company, or the location scout, saw this, or a reproduction of it, anywhere?

I know that they looked around various sites around Wyoming and Texas in order to find the right look for prospective sites in Alberta.  Could it be possible that this mural was one of the things they took note of and used it to establish the characters' clothing?

[welshwitch]

If it's a coincidence, it's a weird one - I can accept that most people in their period/occupation would wear jeans, but the rest, plus the background, is stretching it.

Incidentally, I also wonder why the subject was chosen at all? Sheep-herding wasn't a high-status occupation, and a lot of the people involved were Basque or Mexican, whereas these two look like standard American westerners.

The whole pic fascinates me.

[aintfoolin]

Wow!! This is feakin bizzarre. 1947? .....The resemblances are so real. Looks like its back to the future could this be proof that they did get their sweet life after all? Nice thought . Amazing.

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

Here is a photo of it for this thread.

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

I was in Riverton in October, went to the PO and took some shots of the George Vander Sluis mural which I can post here if I can figure out how (I'm new here). It's a great mural, unfortunately kinda cramped into the PO lobby. The actual Riverton PO is a very prominent WPA era building on Riverton's Main Street, two stories high with offices upstairs for other Gov't agencies like the Selective Service, etc. Countyside around Riverton is beautiful with the snow capped Wind River mountains visible in the distance. Looked all over, didn't see Ennis though!

Hello Jackster,

If you like you can send the photos to my e-mail address, saulvansoest@yahoo.com. Then I can post them here for you. 

[jackster]

If it's a coincidence, it's a weird one - I can accept that most people in their period/occupation would wear jeans, but the rest, plus the background, is stretching it.

Incidentally, I also wonder why the subject was chosen at all? Sheep-herding wasn't a high-status occupation, and a lot of the people involved were Basque or Mexican, whereas these two look like standard American westerners.

The whole pic fascinates me.

Actually, the whole sheep herding thing is just standard stuff around Riverton which was the center of Wyoming sheep ranching in the 30s and 40s, and hence the logical mural subject by the WPA. Everything in the mural is sort of normal for the place and time, with the local Wind River Mountains in the background. During the depression and up until the 50s most of the sheep ranchers were "standard Americans" according to guides that I've read, the Basques and others came later. Of course what is remarkable is the coincidence of the two men and their outfits, too bad Mr. Black Hat isn't wearing a green coat! I've not read anything by anyone connected with the movie to indicate an actual pre-knowledge of the mural. Art imitates art. Member Jack F.Twist has kindly offered to post some of my pictures of Riverton and surroundings which may shed some light on this mural.

Jackster

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

Thanks for sending them to me Jackster.

So here they are foaks:

[aimi15]

Great pics. Thank you Saul and Jackster x

[Jennis]

Thanks for gorgeous piccies
Jennis.x

[greenfrog]

Great pictures Saul 

[aintfoolin]

These are wonderful pictures J,. But how did the movie makers miss this painting when they were scouting locations in Wyoming? Would have been a great reference tool.Thanks.

[greenfrog]

These are wonderful pictures J,. But how did the movie makers miss this painting when they were scouting locations in Wyoming? Would have been a great reference tool.Thanks.

Judging from the pictures Saultook, they probably wouldn't have seen it unless they went right into the post office.

[ksxks]

This is indeed so fascinating!  The mural is so uncanny, so Ennis and Jack, and Brokeback Mountain.  I like the "eerie" explanation.  The spirits of Ennis and Jack have been around...Annie P. picked up on them...etc.  Anyway, the people scouting locations wanted the dusty-old-nowhere-town look, and probably didn't go into the PO, which would make it look like a bigger and more prosperous town.

kathy

[ksxks]

And thank you for the pictures, Saul!  Wonderful.

kathy

[tpe]

If it's a coincidence, it's a weird one - I can accept that most people in their period/occupation would wear jeans, but the rest, plus the background, is stretching it.

Incidentally, I also wonder why the subject was chosen at all? Sheep-herding wasn't a high-status occupation, and a lot of the people involved were Basque or Mexican, whereas these two look like standard American westerners.

The whole pic fascinates me.

I know that during and around the second great war, artists were employed by the government to paint murals in a lot of post offices and public schools all over the US.  The overall style was the form of realism championed by the great Iowa painter Grant Wood (of 'American Gothic' fame).  Outside the cities, the themes were invariably bucolic and touched on advances in agricultural and animal husbandry.  Some of them are quite haunting.  This one is particularly haunting on account of the correspondence.

 

[tpe]

And thank you for the pictures, Saul!  Wonderful.

kathy

I echo kathy here.  Thank you, Saul. 

[Edmund-Paul, The Baron of Ree]

Its Jackster that took the photos.

He sent them to me so that I could post them here as he has not learned the photobucket thing yet, being a new member.

[jackster]

Its Jackster that took the photos.

He sent them to me so that I could post them here as he has not learned the photobucket thing yet, being a new member.

Thanks very much Saul for posting my pictures from Wyoming, October 2006.
Here’s the captions for them, top to bottom:

1. Ranch scene on east side of Big Horn mountains.

2. Pickups parked at a trail head in Big Horn Mtns. Pickup with horse trailer was from WY other green pickup was from Washington state. I imagined a latter day Ennis and Jack out “riding” on the trail.

3. View near Riverton, WY looking to Wind River Mtns one of the ranges mentioned by Annie Proulx where Ennis & Jack went.

4. Outside Riverton WY. Desolate ranch with mobile home and horse barn, the kind of place Ennis might live. Wind River Mtns. in distance.

5. Main Street, Riverton, WY looking west from PO.

6. PO mural close up.

7. PO mural on end wall of lobby.

8. Riverton, WY Post Office exterior.

[ksxks]

Its Jackster that took the photos.

He sent them to me so that I could post them here as he has not learned the photobucket thing yet, being a new member.

Okay then...thanks for the photos, Jackster!!

kathy

[tpe]

Thanks, Jackster!