Columbia Falls students spruce up retaining wall with mural

Members of the Columbia Falls High School art club graciously spruced up the concrete wall in front of the Hungry Horse News last week.

The newspaper approached art teacher Shelby Johnson about possibly painting a mural on the 90-foot plus long wall earlier this year and Johnson and the club members agreed to help.

Johnson drew a scene of Glacier National Park with the sun rising over the high peaks. The newspaper then had the mural design approved by the city and donated the paint toward the project.

The club and Johnson then painted the scene over a two-day period. The mural is painted with weather-resistant paint.

The idea is to paint new murals every few years on the wall, which sees a lot of abuse by passing traffic and the occasional head-on wreck. Vines planted on the top of the wall will also eventually frame the scene.

The newspaper also made a donation to the art club as thanks for their service and Backslope Brewing donated lunch.

Painting the mural were Johnson, Katie Triplett, Genevieve DeLorme, Emily Ingbertsen, Payton Fisher and Camron Akers.

The intersection of Nucleus and U.S. 2 will see further improvements this summer. Two monuments are planned for either side of Nucleus Avenue as part of a Columbia Falls Community Foundation project.