Cuba, Missouri

History no longer is confined to the books in Cuba, Missouri, but rather spills across the side of a shoe store, the local eye doctor’s office, traffic control boxes and a series of half-walls constructed around town.

Residents of Cuba, a town of about 3,500 people located about 85 miles south of St. Louis on historic Route 66 and I-44, began painting their history on various buildings and re-created structures around town in 2001 as a way to beautify the city. What began as a single mural that celebrated the centennial of the local bank has mushroomed into 12 full-size murals depicting historical events — some little known and some widely noted — that make the town a prime tourist destination for people traveling Route 66.

The project was started by Viva Cuba, a city improvement group created in 1984. Jill Barnett, a member of Viva Cuba who also helps direct bus tours of the murals, said the improvement effort began as community leaders were looking for ways to draw industry into the area. She said Cuba saw a number of different efforts over the years and was the first city in the state to have an adopt-a-highway program in 1987.

“Representatives from the companies would come to look [at Cuba], and we were like, ‘Don’t take them there, oh don’t take them there,’” she said.

Barnett described the mural project as starting by accident in 2001. The artist who painted the first mural, which featured Barnett’s husband’s grandfather, A.J. Barnett, suggested to Viva Cuba that the town could feature more than one mural.

“It’s been a fun journey, really,” Barnett said of the last seven years.

The subjects of the murals all relate to Cuba in some way. The front of the building housing the city’s newspaper, the Cuba Free Press, features an image of Bette Davis (who visited the town one night only to be chased by a newspaper reporter and have her picture printed on the front page the next day), while Amelia Earhart (whose plane unexpectedly landed near Cuba in 1928) and Harry Truman (who made a Senate campaign stop here) occupy building-sides down the street.

Jane Reed, another mural tour guide, related the stories of these paintings and why they are significant to Cuba locals.

“We try to make them historically accurate when we can,” Reed said, pointing out details such as a snippet of the Muskogee Times Democrat article telling of Earhart’s landing, which is painted into the bottom corner of her mural.

Reed also can relate many hidden aspects of the murals that she said most locals wouldn’t be able to tell a visitor, but she warned that the stories may vary from tour to tour.

“It’s not something we do every day — we’re not professional at this,” Reed said. “Sometimes you remember some things and sometimes you don’t.”

It’s Reed, however, who can point out such things as Pillsbury, the local lumber yard owner’s dog that was painted into the bottom corner of the apple orchard mural after the artist borrowed some of his owner’s scaffolding. Reed can vouch for how true to life another mural featuring the millworks building really is.

“I walked in there one day, … [and] the sun was coming through the window and there was sawdust there on the bench where somebody had been cutting,” she said, describing how the scene matched the mural on the outside of the building. “Just very eerie to walk in there.”

Other murals around town are centered around such subjects as the memory of local young men who lost their lives in World War II, a past mayor of Cuba named Al West and days spent on the nearby Meramac, Courtois and Huzzah rivers between 1920 and 1940.

The 12 murals were done by a mix of local and out of state — even out of country — artists, and Reed said the majority of the money was raised from local groups and businesses. She said the murals ranged in cost from $6,000 to $36,000.

Chip Lang, a Cuba native who now attends Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, is one citizen who offered more than the normal level of support for the Viva Cuba mural project. At the age of 14, Lang took on the job of fundraising and researching local history for a five-panel mural — the largest of the 12 murals — to complete his Eagle Scout project. This mural featured scenes from the Civil War battle near Pilot Knob, Missouri, where an outnumbered group of Union troops defended Fort Davidson from Confederate forces who had cut a destructive path through Cuba and surrounding areas.

With the help of a Civil War re-enactment group he belongs to, private donations and a local match from Viva Cuba, Lang helped to fund the mural. He also put about 1,000 hours of research into its content and helped choose the artist.

“We sent out little packets of information to each of these mural artists and said if they could draw us a sketch and send that back to us, and if they wanted to do this … they would let us know,” Lang said of the selection process. “… The first mural, the Battle of Pilot Knob, was [Don Gray’s] artist sketch almost exactly.”

Viva Cuba backed his selection of California-based artist Don Gray, and Gray painted Lang into the fifth panel of the mural as a surprise.

Lang said he has been interested in learning about the Civil War since he was about 9 years old and was excited to help with the mural.

“All these little details affected history — totally changed its course,” Lang said of the mural’s subject. “… This was the only time the war ever had a direct effect on Cuba.”

In addition to the 12 Viva Cuba-sponsored murals, other smaller paintings have popped up around town in places like the grocery store, assisted living facility, bakery, Catholic church and some offices and restaurants. Though the last mural was painted in 2007, Jill Barnett said the project isn’t necessarily over.

“One thing at the top of our list is that we’re the Route 66 Mural City, butwe don’t have a Route 66 mural,” she said.

Photos by Mike Snodderley

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