Covington, KY: Floodwall Murals, with details

[RiverViewer]

I took a walk around Covington's riverfront today with Issue430, and it was the first time I'd seen the Covington Murals up close and personal...they're really phenomenal - it's well worth the time to browse along them, if for no other reason than you can keep turning around and seeing the Roebling backdropped by downtown Cincinnati!

Anyway, I thought I'd post a thread of each of the murals, along with detail shots, so here you go!  These are in order from east to west.  All murals by Robert Dafford.

8000 BC: Great Buffalo Road:



Detail of Native Americans offing one of the buffalo:



Mouth of the Licking:




1782: The Meeting at the Point:



The mouth of the Licking:



George Rodgers Clark, Simon Kenton, Daniel Boone and Colonel Logan:



Detail of a soldier, and I believe he's replacing his flint:




1805: Kennedy's Ferry and Landing:





This blue heron is on the driftwood log between the two boats - probably my favorite little detail (and props to Issue430 for catching this!):




1856: Flight of the Garner Family-Underground Railroad:



I dug the river ice in this one:






1862: The 1862 Pontoon Bridge across the Ohio:



"Ouch, my elbow."



He painted through the cracks:




Jacob Price:








1867: The Roebling Suspension Bridge:



"A suspension bridge across the Ohio River?  Brilliant!"






1890's: Farney and Duveneck:








1921: Latonia Race Track:






"German Heritage" (in progress):






Covington Churches:

This was my favorite mural...it looks like one large stained glass piece, made up of three windows...full picture, then details follow:
























1913: Federal Ball Park:








1914: Madison Avenue, Centennial:








1922: Daniel Carter Beard:



I'm sorry, the scouts in the background look like demon-children from a Japanese horror movie:



Yeah, ice-sailing.  Totally straight.




1937: Flood of 1937:










2008: Fireworks (in progress):

Two tremendously cool things about this one:



First, the kid watching:



...and second, that The Ascent is completed!



Only things missing?  Bootsy Collins, and blankets duct-taped to the Serpentine Wall:

[exurbkid]

Sweet, I'll have to take a look at those myself!

[the pope]

"i should move this to "city photos - world" just to be a jerk

[Robert Pence]

Thanks for posting those! I spent some time looking at them when I was in town for the meet last spring; they're wonderful!

[ColDayMan]

I'm sorry, the scouts in the background look like demon-children from a Japanese horror movie

Or Cincy-Rise.  Either or.

[ink]

Nice job!!!!

[kingfish out of water]

Paducah, KY's got some nice flood wall murals too. Flood wall murals must constitute some sort of subgenre in the world of murals (and the geeks who celebrate them).

[buildingcincinnati]

Those are great!  Thanks for taking the time to be comprehensive!

I saw the artist out there when I was in the area a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him.  I didn't want to bother him while he was working.

The murals are first-class and it's definitely worth the time to go down there and check out all of the little details up close.

[RiverViewer]

Paducah, KY's got some nice flood wall murals too. Flood wall murals must constitute some sort of subgenre in the world of murals (and the geeks who celebrate them).

Yeah, Robert Dafford did the Paducah murals as well - in fact, he started the Portsmouth murals in 1992 (here's Pigboy's thread on those), and the Paducah murals in 1995, so we're coming into the game a little late (he started the Covington murals in 2002)...

The Covington and Portsmouth murals seem to be more about presenting historical scenes, telling a story, where the Paducah murals have more panels with general scenes:



Of course, Paducah's have some fantastic historical scenes as well, like this one: "Lewis and Clark Expedition Passes in the fog":

I saw the artist out there when I was in the area a couple of weeks ago, but I didn't get a chance to talk to him.  I didn't want to bother him while he was working.

Yeah, I was thinking it would be extremely cool to have seen him working, but I never would have interrupted him either, or bothered him on a break, so I guess it wouldn't matter much whether I saw him or not!