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By Edith Decker Grants Pass Daily Courier October 10. 2014 3:20PM Fifth Rogue River mural project is getting underway ROGUE RIVER — Every year or two since 2009, a new mural showing the history of the Rogue River area springs to life on the wall of a building in the city. Four are done, the fifth is now being funded and planned for the spring. But the goal is 15. Here's the charming thing: They're primarily paid for using the profits from bake sales, yard sales and can and bottle recycling — along with donations from businesses and occasional grants. The project is spearheaded by Wanda Nesbit, 91, who was inspired by a mural created by high schoolers in town in 2008. "I thought it would be nice if we had some historical murals. The more I thought about it, I thought, 'Why don't I form a society.' I'm 85, but I don't think I'm too old," she recalls thinking at the time. She formed the Rogue River Mural Society of eight members, most of whom are still on the board. They started the paperwork for tax-exempt status for the society, so donations would be deductible. And they started baking. "I'm the chief cookie maker," she says. "We've baked thousands of cookies. We even have people placing orders now." Favorites include double chocolate chip walnut, cranberry coconut chewies and mocha chocolate chip, as well as the classic snickerdoodles, peanut butter and oatmeal raisin. They have regular sales in the lobby of Umpqua Bank, the recipient of the third mural. The next cookie sale is Dec. 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The yard sales, held in Nesbit's own front yard at Third and Cedar streets in Rogue River, also started right away. "Many people donate a lot of stuff, and when we get enough, we have a sale," she says. The next is scheduled for Nov. 7 and 8 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. — a close-out sale for the season so items don't have to be stored over the winter. Nesbit, a retired real estate agent and administrative assistant, moved to Oregon in 1982 after she retired. "I wanted out of the rat race" of Southern California, she says. Friends lived in Rogue River and raved about small-town life, so she found a house, joined the Rogue River Garden Club and started going to the community center. But the mural idea was something to really get behind. They contacted well known artist Bob Eding and got permission to put his take on a circa 1908 mail delivery by horse and wagon on the outside wall of the post office. Eding put Nesbit into the painting as a pioneer lady near the flagpole. Next was the Umpqua Bank mural, taken from a photograph from the 1900s of First National Bank. One of the ladies waiting for a teller is the then-manager of the Umpqua branch, Ruth Bailey, who is also the society's treasurer. The third Eding mural marked the city's centennial year and is on the Dove Center building, facing the town plaza, and showing a family picnic by the historic city bridge (now gone). The fourth mural was Eding's largest project, showing the logging industry history of the town over 107 feet on the side of the local hardware store. The fifth mural will be on the Homestead lounge, one of the oldest businesses in town. Eding, the society and the building owner are still discussing the subject. "Something historical. That's one thing I'm absolutely insistent upon," she says. Nesbit says the society recently received the largest single donation they've ever been given: $2,000 from Evergreen Federal Bank toward the next project. "So, we're getting ready to do that fifth one in the spring." Eding will work on it in between panels of the large Gateway Mural he's started on Ringuette Street in Grants Pass, a huge undertaking that follows the Rogue River's path from Boundary Springs to the Pacific. To support the Rogue River mural project, attend the Nov. 7-8 yard sale or the Dec. 3 cookie sale or send a cash donation to the Rogue River Mural Society, P.O. Box 546, Rogue River, OR 97537. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141010/NEWS/141019936 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->