MONUMENTAL MURAL: Buck Winn's 'The History of the Southwest' displayed at Texas State

James Buchanan (Buck) Winn has left an indelible mark on Central Texas, especially Wimberley with his ranch off of Ranch Road 12 on the National Register of Historic Places.  Not a cowboy or politician, Buck was an artist in every sense of the word.

He was also a sculptor, inventor, architect, professor at the University of Texas and a pilot with his own landing pasture.

His most noted work is a 280-foot long, 2,000-square foot, and 360-degree mural called “The History of the Southwest.” The Pearl Brewery, for display in their hospitality room called the Corral, commissioned the mural in the 1950s. 

It was oval in length and when the brewery went through a renovation in the early 70s, it was cut up into panels and stored on the premises and forgotten. Rediscovered by Dr. Dorey Schmidt in the 90s, the  search found 82 feet of the mural. Some of the original panels were damaged, but a good portion remains. They are spectacular in their display. Some of it has now been reassembled at Texas State University.

When you walk into the Albert B. Alkek Library, it sits displayed above the front doors. Keeping it within the Wimberley connection, architect Guy Rollins, who designed the display, is also local.

To say it was a challenge is an understatement. The project was an 82 foot curved part of history. Architectural friends Rollins knew in Houston contacted him about the project because for larger firms it was just too small of a project. 

Guy Rollins has been in Wimberley since 2002 and knew of the mural from the panel that hung by stairway at Wimberley High School and the walls at the Community Center. Rollins, being right down the road, wanted the Texas State job, and he got the commission.

He started in 2010 and in 2011 and got the design. But as comes with all endeavors, the big part had to be done first – fundraising. It took almost 10 years. The physical inside of the library had to be redone, also with the addition of the mural. The information desk was relocated directly underneath the mural adding an air of importance to Winn’s masterpiece.

During that time the forgotten, abandoned huge mural had to undergo preparation for display. “The mural was restored by a conservator in California,” Rollins said. “He didn’t mount it with a glue. He mounted it on plastic fiber, as it was stiff and would iron out, changing the design somewhat. Trim plates were placed around the pieces to make it more stable adding to the delicate trim of thickness.

“It took a lot of effort. It was hard to determine if the existing structure could support the new mural ... There was a concrete structure above it and an attachment was needed, something vertical.” 

Steel tubes were used, but when they tested and lifted the attached structure without the mural, they found the rods selected were six inches too short. The trim added six inches to the edges.

“We got new rods, took it down and raised it. We were delayed about a month," Rollins said. "It turned out fortunate without students all around it,” due to the COVID-19 shutdown. One wish Rollins had about the mural, a part that might be added in the future: the back of the panels are just plain black, accented by the front of the mural’s LED lighting, exhibiting the brilliance of the canvases. Perhaps it is space for information about the artist or the lost then found mural history.

“It was a lot of fun to do. It’s difficult when so many things go wrong… but it was a fun, unique project, a part of history …  when you do something like this, you’ll never do another one,” Rollins said.