Downtown American flag mural project a beautiful reminder to all Americans

By now, many of our readers have probably noticed the enormous, beautiful American flag mural on the south exterior of what many in town remember as the old Corner Pharmacy building.  Starting last week, workers were seen prepping and priming the wall for painting.  Curious onlookers wondered what was going on and the mural quickly became recognizable as the flag.  I reached out to Jake Chamberlain, who is co-owner of the building, to get the story behind the work.  He was gracious to provide me with its background.

Chamberlain said a group of anonymous donors approached him about the possibility of doing a mural on the building, which he co-owns with Dustin Langston.  Chamberlain agreed, but said it had to be a “great big American flag”.  He showed the donors what his thoughts were on how it would fit into that space on the building.  The donors excitedly agreed and put together an action committee to get things moving.  Members of the committee are Chamberlain, Brady Turpin, Judy Turpin, and Connie Jacobsen.  They obtained bids from various artists and eventually chose Cody Miell from La Junta.  Miell had an impressive portfolio of other murals he had done and provided the group with a mock-up that impressed them.

Chamberlain’s vision for the mural was to contribute to the beautification of downtown Lamar.  His group hopes it will inspire other such projects in town.  There is another flag project in the works, a large battalion flag, to be flown at the Colorado Welcome Center, and is the brainchild of the Lamar Lion’s Club.  He said details will soon follow on that project.  He has personally had a dream of making Lamar “The most patriotic town in the U.S”.  He was inspired by Doug Harbour and his 9/11 memorial tribute efforts and how positively the community embraced them.  Chamberlain feels the town has a strong sense of patriotism and dreams of someday putting together a cooperative where every downtown business is flying a U.S. flag.  He would like to have a stockpile of flags for replacement as needed, with someone being in charge of taking care of the flags.  “I believe that would really help Lamar become a destination town and boost tourism.  Lamar has the level of patriotism to make this dream come true and I hope we can someday make that dream a reality”, he said.

Chamberlain wanted to thank several other local folks who helped make this project happen.  They include Kelby Repp with Repp’s Washing Services who prepped the surface; Vic Coberly of Honey Do Handyman Service who boarded up a couple of glass windows on the building; A-1 Rental who supplied the scissor lift the artist used, Vendor’s Gallery and Al’s Boot Shop for donating their electricity to the artist and Frontier Bank for providing a water source for the artist’s needs.

He went on to thank the donors for making the project happen, saying “you are such an inspiration”.  He also extended thanks to Cody Miell for doing such a wonderful job on the mural.

I encourage those who haven’t yet seen it to drive or walk by and witness it in person.  I, too, commend the artist for doing an amazing job.  Our nation’s flag is a symbol that embodies a sense of “oneness” in this country – something that has been sorely lacking recently.  Hopefully this mural will continue to remind us that we all, as citizens, are ONE nation, no matter our political affiliations, ethnicity or religious opinions.  We need this sense of unity now more than ever.  Thank you, Jake for your vision and for making this happen!

By Barbara Crimond