PaintIng the Past
​The Tripp Murals

Picture
Photos by Pamela Ziegler Photography.
zieglerphotographystudio.com
In the fall of 1977, the Prairie du Sac village board commissioned artist Michael Connors to paint a mural depicting the history of the village.  The commission was made possible by grant from the U.S. Department of Labor through the Comprehensive Employment Training Act. The two murals which hang on the north wall of the Tripp Heritage Museum may be viewed as a historical narrative from 1740 to 1853, beginning with the bottom left panel and ending on the top right panel

The Story

CHapter 1.​

The first panel on the bottom left depicts a meeting of the elders of the Sac Indian tribe, who had a large and well-organized village on the west bank of the Wisconsin River at the current site of Sauk City.  Explorer Jonathan Carver (1710-1780) visited the Native Sauk village in 1767 noting a very organized layout which  he recorded in his "Travels through America".

Second panel​

​The wheel in the center of the left mural symbolizes the transition between the two civilizations. The 1838 treaty with the Ho-Chunk Nation (Winnebago) who were the dominant Native American culture in what would become Sauk County, opened the door for settlement west of the river. 

TOP TWO PANELS​

The top two panels on the left portray the clearing of the land and the construction of the settler's first houses, which were literally shelters dug into the earth: the laying out of the village of Prairie du Sac by David Crocker in 1839 and the Raising and Harvest dance symbolic of the early settlement of the area.​

Chapter 2.

The second half of the story begins on the bottom right panel with the first mail delivery from Madison by Prairie du Sac blacksmith Calvin Frink. ​
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As the village grew, skilled tradesmen settled in the community stimulating its early development.  The first and second panels of the right grouping picture showing various craftsman, the butcher, the blacksmith, the cobbler, the carpenter, the stone cutter, and the watchmaker who contributed to village life.
The clock in the center of the second mural is a symbol of the change in lifestyle which accompanied the transition from a rural to a town culture.  Prior to the extensive coming of the railroads in the 1850s -1880s every small town had its own brewery as the beer kegs surrounding the clock indicate.

​3rd panel ​

The quilting party pictured on the third panel represents the patchwork pattern of the growth of the village. The quilting bee also is representative of the social life which was centered around the home and the church. A portrait of the itinerant Reverend Fullerton at the top of the third panel emphasizes the importance of the traveling clergyman in the early life of the residents of Prairie du Sac.

​Top right panel

Count Agoston Haraszthy (1812-1869) unsuccessfully attempted to establish a vineyard on the east side of the river, added a colorful chapter to the history of the community.  The count is shown on the right side of the top panel grieving over his frozen grapevines.
The closing chapter of the mural story tells of the first local bridge built across the river at Prairie du Sac in 1851. The picture on the left of the top panel is of a northern Wisconsin fur trader traveling downriver with a new bridge in the background.
Michael Connors' Website
In 2007 the murals were in need of restoration, which was accomplished by the artist Michael Connors. 
In 2025 the original Plexiglass sheets were replaced with improved Lexan polycarbonate sheets.