Also in Wright Plaza are 4 smaller murals on what appear to be arched windows on history in a brick and stone building. The perspective work on these murals is well done. It appears that this is an actual scene you might see out of the window.
This particular mural features local Indian fighter, Texas legislator, surveyor, and frontiersman George B. Erath on horseback. Erath surveyed in Johnson County, and laid out the towns of Waco and Stephenville (the seat of Erath County, which was named for him). More on Maj. George Erath can be found here: (
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(Blasterz determined his idenity in this mural from the brochure published by the Cleburne Chamber of Commerce. It is not available online yet.)
In the mural, Erath is dressed in buckskin, with lots of fringe. He carries what looks like an old flintlock rifle across the saddle of his beautifully-rendered brown horse. He holds the reins. His horse is facing outward, and looks about to step out of the mural as it heads down the trail.
But Erath is turned away, looking over his left shoulder at a Barnett Shale gas well drilling rig behind him.
The rig is backlit by the rays of the rising sun. Blasterz admit that the rig could be backlit by the setting sun, but Blasterz are hopeful by nature, so we think the sun is rising. We also think the sun symbolizes the dawn of a new day for Johnson County -- one as a big producer of natural gas in the Barnett Shale formation.
Read through all these waymarked murals covering 500 years of Johnson County history:
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What they all have in common is that none of them show any oil or gas industry history here, despite Texas being a center of the petroleum industry. That's because there's no oil in Johnson County. No oil, no energy industry. At least, (as we say in Texas) that's how it used to was.
Thanks to new drilling methods and new oil and gas exploration technolgies, the Barnett Shale formation was discovered under Tarrant and Johnson Counties. Some experts believe that the Barnett holds largest reserves of any on-shore natural gas field in the United States.
The discovery of the gas riches of the Barnett Shale touched off a gas drilling boom in nearby Fort Worth TX that every landowner got a share of. The production from shale gas will change the economy of any place drilling is active. Thousands of landowners receive royalty checks from gas production, and thousands more people have jobs created by the shale-gas-extraction industry.
Now it is Johnson County's turn to see these tall rigs dotting the sky, and experience the economic boom the profits from gas wells on Johnson County lands will inevitably fuel.
Which brings us back to the frontiersman George Erath -- he is heading away from the gas well. Is he heading into the past, as Cleburne becomes more urban and industrialized, dependent on modern technology and modern industry for its economic survival, instead of cattle and water? Or is he taking a look into the future lit by the rising sun as he makes his way forward?
Blasterz like to think (once again, being hopefully-disposed) that instead of turning his back on this new Johnson County, that Erath is going his way to find a way to coexist with the new reality here. It it clear that Johnson Countians and Cleburnites value their frontier heritage and history. Therefore, there is room here for him, and for those who will come for the Barnett Shale. Enjoy the new, but keep the old in mind.
Blaster girls are all former Girl Scouts. We sing the song "Make New Friends" at each meeting. The words are:
"Make new friends, but keep the old
One is silver and the other's gold.
A circle is round; it has no end.
That's how long I want to be your friend.
Here's my hand, and here's the other
Put them together and we have each other."
The writer of the song is not known, but Girl Scouts have been singing it for generations. We think its message fits well with this mural. The old frontier and the new frontier can coexist -- and will here in Johnson County. The nod on this mural to Erath and the Barnett Shale proves it.
(Secret tidbit -- the initials "H. D." on the drilling rig salute Howard Dudley, the local Cleburne businessman who financed these murals.)