New mural, sculpture being added in Delia
It’s a warm Saturday morning in the southwest Jackson County community of Delia, where a UTV is busy dragging the ball field near the former Delia school for weeds and the occasional train whistle punctuates the quiet.
It’s also a good day to install a steel sculpture on the south outer wall of the school building, and that’s what Rossville High School art teacher Garrett Larson and his three-person crew are doing — attempting to mount the sculpture using an old Case farm tractor with a loader attachment.
The sculpture — a depiction of a buffalo on the prairie at sunset — is actually one of two art projects that Larson has been working on to enhance the outer appearance of the old school, which now functions as a community building after it the Kaw Valley USD 321 board of education voted to close the school in 2010.
“We’ve been here since about 8 a.m., putting that together and digging some holes,” said Larson, referring to the sculpture, brought to the school in two parts and welded together.
The west side of the school building also sports Larson’s handiwork, a mural that depicts a scene from a Prairie Band Potawatomi powwow with two dancers and a group of young men beating the tribal drum. It’s part of the Jackson County Tourism Council’s ongoing mural project, aimed at giving each of the county’s communities a mural that reflects the community’s history and people.
In this case, the Delia mural is being created to honor Mshewe Hale, a nationally-recognized Potawatomi drummer who still lives in the area, Larson said. Hale was also one of Larson’s art students at Rossville High School.
The design of the buffalo sculpture, Larson said, came about near the end of the 2022-23 school year.
“It took maybe six or 10 hours of design, and then a lot of rehashing it,” he said.
With the help of Dillon Shoffner of Alma, a longtime friend of Larson’s, the sculpture was put together during a two-and-a-half week period in June.
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