Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Mining Mural Appropriation

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: HB 264 would appropriate funds to memorialize the mining industry:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0264

Mining mural.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Conrad, Berger, Larson, JT and Sommers

A BILL

for

AN ACT relating to the legislature; authorizing the painting of a mural in the state capitol house chamber; providing an appropriation; providing requirements; creating a selection committee; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  

(a)  Five hundred twenty thousand dollars ($520,000.00) is appropriated from the general fund to the legislative service office. These funds shall be used only for the purpose of the planning, design and painting of a mural in the house chamber at the Wyoming state capitol building. The mural shall depict the history of mining in Wyoming and shall match historically and artistically with the Allen True murals that are currently in the house chamber.

(b)  The legislative service office, with assistance from the Wyoming arts council, shall issue a request for qualifications to commission an artist or artists to paint the mural specified in subsection (a) of this section.

(c)  A selection committee consisting of the five (5) members of the management council who belong to the house of representatives and three (3) other non-legislative members as determined by the speaker of the house, with assistance from the legislative service office, shall select an artist or artists to paint the mural using criteria established by the selection committee. Members of the selection committee who are not members of the legislature shall receive the same per diem and mileage as members of the legislature traveling to and from meetings or while in actual attendance of meetings of the selection committee and during the performance of their duties relative thereto. The state building commission shall approve of the process to affix the mural required under subsection (a) of this section to the house chamber wall, pursuant to W.S. 9-5-106(e), before any alteration is made to the house chamber under this section.

(d)  The funds appropriated in subsection (a) of this section shall not be transferred or expended for any purpose other than for the planning, design and painting of the mural required by subsection (a) of this section. Notwithstanding W.S. 9-2-1008, 9-2-1012(e), 9-4-207(a) or any other provision of law, the funds appropriated in subsection (a) of this section shall not lapse or revert until the mural required by subsection (a) of this section is complete.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2023.

Cheyenne Historic District, Cheyenne Wyoming

The Mysterious Monumental Architecture in Cheyenne Wyoming's Historic District

I go to Cheyenne a fair amount but it's only recently that I've noticed some interesting monumental architecture in the town, and some of that would seemingly require some explanation.  A couple of examples are here.

I posted this one on Some Gave All, our blog that's dedicated to heroic monuments.  It's really off topic, but at first I really didn't know where to put it.  Here's the post from that blog (which I regret having used for the post):

Frank Wenger Holliday Memorial, Cheyenne Wyoming.
 

This is an unusual private memorial on a small, traffic island, park in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  I had thought it might be a war memorial, but it is instead a memorial to the thirteen year old son, Frank, of Cal and Rudolphia Holliday.  Cal Holliday was a Cheyenne businessman and mayor in the city's early days. What happened to the Holliday's young son I do not know.

This unusual memorial is just off of the downtown business district of Cheyenne in its historic district.  This post is clearly off topic for the blog its on.

What's its story?  A private memorial to a tragic loss like this is rarely done in the form of such a public monument.

And what's up with this?

A nearby huge monument to Scottish poet Robert Burns.

I know that Burns is regarded as the unofficial poet laureate of Scotland, but of Cheyenne?  I can't think of  a connection between Cheyenne and Burns, other than that the dedicating individual, Mary Gilchrist, must have been a huge Burns fan.  Apparently the city had others, as they accepted the statute, which is sort of hard to imagine occurring now.  Most monumental architecture in Wyoming now has a Western theme, sometimes an oil & gas theme, or no known theme. But a Scottish literature theme would be unlikely.

Epilogue

A post on the Early History of Wyoming Facebook site lead to a reply that indicated that Frank Holliday died by way of an appendectomy.

The Murray Building, Cheyenne Wyoming

Not too  sure what I think about it, but a very large mural on the Murray Building in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The Asher-Wyoming Company building, Cheyenne Wyoming

A building just off the Union Pacific in Cheyenne that at one time was used by a wholesale grocery establishment.