Original Artists Return 17 Years Later To Restore Murray Mural

MURRAY, Utah — Two artists were putting the finishing touches Wednesday on a restoration project involving the large city mural they designed 17 years ago.

The mural at the corner of 5300 South and State Street had stood proudly as a symbol of the city’s industrial past, but in recent years, it had fallen into disrepair.

“It’s our job to make it new again and to restore this back to its former beauty,” said Brian Scott, one of the artists. “We’ve taken great measures to make sure that it will last for many years to come.”

Scott and fellow muralist Tim Davis said the work of art depicts scenes representative of Murray’s industrial past.

Settlers constructed the first smelter there in 1870.

The city, according to the official history on its website, subsequently became home to several of the largest smelters in the region over the next three decades.

Scott still had the mural’s original design, which was pasted to a cardboard cutout.

“Since then, some water and whatnot spilled on it, but it kind of plots out for us the details of where to paint everything,” Scott said.

Scott said he and Davis, who had known each other for 20 years, were specifically brought back to breathe life into their original work.

Davis, who flew in from Tennessee for the roughly 10-day project, said he had “kind of hazy memories of doing the same brush strokes.”

“We just kind of picked up where we left off,” Davis said.

The men said they were grateful for the opportunity to work together on the project.

“Our lives had moved on — he moved to Florida and into Tennessee and I remained here,” Scott said. “To be here and to paint with a friend again is something special.”

They hoped others would appreciate the mural as much as they do.

“It gives them a chance to remember what used to be here and how important this part of history was,” Scott said.