by Ron Cowan • Statesman Journal October 26, 2008

The history of the industrial age may not be altogether pleasant, but it still makes for a fascinating story at Salem's Mission Mill Museum. Another segment of the mill story — how the industrial age played out at a 19th-20th century woolen mill — is unfolding with the refurbishment of the Scouring Room at the museum, a complex of historic buildings at 12th and Mill streets SE.

"Salem has these industrial roots," said Peter Booth, who took over earlier this year, the mill's executive director. "We were a labor town, a working town." Incorporated in 1889 and closed in 1962, the mill is a living symbol of that history. Redesigned and renovated at a cost of $10,000, funded by the City of Salem's Transient Occupancy Tax, the Scouring Room represents the beginning of the fleece to wool process. When the raw wool arrived at the mill, it was full of grime, dust, burrs, paint, grease and dung. A duster first knocked off the heaviest material and the lightest (dust). The wool was then washed in a series of bowls with mechanized racks, called a scouring train, that used water, soap and alkali. In the most unusual part of the process, the wool was soaked in sulfuric acid, which carbonized any material found in the fleece. Once dried, any foreign objects turned to dust, although the wool was unaffected. After going through large dryers, also on view in the scouring room, the wool went on to workers who dyed it in vats, creating hot, steamy, wet and smelly conditions.

Local artist Cheryl Clark, who also does publicity for the mill, has created a 16-foot-long mural on one side of the Scouring Room, depicting some of the workers — some names known and some unknown — who worked at the mill in the 1920s through the 1940s. Clark based her work on historic photos. Although most of the original equipment is still on view, visitors will now see a hole in the floor with the Mill Race rushing underneath.

West Salem resident Cheryl Clark wanted to be an artist since she was a 3-year-old drawing Disney characters. However, it was the challenge of creating something on a grand scale that led her to paint the life-sized mural of men at work in the Mission Mill 1920 to 1940-era dye house. Her fourth and largest work to date, the 15-foot, 10-inch long by 8-foot high mural that now covers one wall of the Mill's Scouring Room took Clark 200 hours and more than one year to complete.

"I was already working with the museum on a marketing project when the mural idea came up and I jumped at the chance to do it," said Clark, who works from her home- office. "The scouring room had poor light and high humidity from the creek running through the building so I couldn't do the work on site. I went home, cleared everything out of our bonus room over the garage, set up the wooden panels, a stepladder and a halogen light and started in. Between going up and down the ladder and waiting for paint layers to dry, it took me more than a year," she said.

Clark started out as an art major at UCLA, but when the expenses became too great she put art on the back burner and graduated instead with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and English. In the 1970s, after she and her husband, Tom, moved to Colorado and the pair went to grad school together at the University of Colorado - all while raising three children.. Clark received an MBA in marketing. In 1995, the Clarks moved to Oregon so Tom could take a job with Hewlett Packard and take advantage of the area's central West Coast location. They settled in West Salem.

Over the past 13 years, Cheryl Clark has served as communications manager/ editor for SEDCOR of the Willamette Valley, outreach program manager for Willamette Restoration Initiative under then-Gov. John Kitzhaber, and director of public programs and marketing for Mission Mill Museum. For several years, she also worked for Sunset Magazine as an account manager in both Oregon and Colorado. Today, Clark owns Aura Marketing, a consulting and graphic design service company, and Bella Diva Design, which specializes in murals, trompe-l'oiel and stenciling for residential and commercial projects.

One of her trompe-l'oiel projects, drawn from photos from Monet's Garden in Givenchy, France, adorns her office wall. The art technique involves realistic imagery that creates the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three-dimensions.

The concept for the Mission Mill Museum mural came in 2007 from Keni Sturgeon, curator for the museum. During a tour connected with her new employment interview, Sturgeon took one look at the scuffed blank wall between the Scouring Room and the Dye House and envisioned creating something for the space that would bring the story of the Mill to life. Then-executive director Maureen Thomas contacted Clark and the project developed from there. Clark's mural, depicts wool polers (those who remove wool from the sheep pelts) and dyers who worked in the dye house next to the scouring room. For inspiration, she modeled her workers after old photos of actual men who worked there. Clothing details, such as the Stetson hats and work overalls stained with dye and damaged by sulfuric acid, are authentic down to the fabric and color. She also captured the look of pride these men had about their working-world of long ago.

"The character and involvement she's put in her figures, helps us bring the story of an average Mission Mill worker alive," said Peter Booth, new executive director of Mission Mill. "The mural will help not only tell the story of the workers here, but throughout the Willamette Valley, Oregon and the West and it will be there for all to see." Jan Jackson is a freelance writer and photographer and can be reached at (503) 391-8070 or e-mailed at janjjackson@comcast.net.

When Cheryl Clark of Salem, Ore., saw the 1906 photo of a canoe moored in the Little Sioux River, she knew her search was over. Clark ran across the Sioux Rapids picture while trolling the Internet, looking for ideas for a river-themed mural she planned to paint on the wall of a café in West Salem, Ore. Not only did the century-old sepia-toned photo have the nostalgic feel she was looking for, Clark says, but it had been taken in the home town of her parents, Arville and Ruth (Schweitzer) Walstrom.

The Walstroms, now 83 and 85 respectively, had left Sioux Rapids after WW II, but they have deep roots in the Sioux Rapids area. Her mother’s dad had owned a butcher shop in Sioux Rapids with his brother in the late 1900s, Clark says. Both parents have family and friends in BV (Buena Vista, Iowa) County.

Clark spent about four months of Sundays painting a 6 ½ foot by 22 foot mural at West Salem’s Edgewater Café. Focal point of the Oregon mural, painted in acrylics, is a canoe resting on the shore of Oregon’s Willamette River. Though the setting is different, the mural would give anyone who’s seen the historic Sioux Rapids photo a sense of deja vu. "All of the details are the same," Clark says.. Delving into her subject, Clark learned that the boat is a cedar strip canoe with canvas on the outside. "They're still making them today," she says.

The newest layer of paint covering the back wall of the Edgewater Cafe is designed to look old.In sepia tones, a lonely canoe rests on the shore of a peaceful Willamette River. Tall oak trees shade the banks. The bumps and cracked paint under the new glaze add nuance.

For nearly 100 hours spread across many Sundays, Cheryl Clark of Salem has been bringing the 6 1/2- by 22-foot wall to life with a river-themed mural that commemorates the cafe's steady stream of regulars as much as it does its namesake, the Willamette River.

The mural came about after owner Susan Eichler mentioned wanting one in a newspaper story that was published when she and a co-owner bought the restaurant in August. Clark, a longtime artist, decided it was time to put her passion for painting murals to the test. She offered to create one for Eichler in the hope that it would spark her career as a mural artist. "I'm really excited I had the opportunity to do it," Clark said this week as she took a break from touching up some final details. "Murals are more of a challenge than an eight-by-ten oil painting." Clark said that she sometimes eats at the Edgewater Cafe, and customers have been receptive to the mural. "They really like to see the changes week to week," Clark said.

Melody Cox spends a lot of time pouring coffee, jotting down orders on a notepad and otherwise interacting with regulars and newcomers alike. "I do like to come in here in the morning and see what's new," Cox said. "Sometimes you have to look for it a bit."

Bob Burke, a regular customer, said he enjoys the mural. "There's a difference between art and fine art," Burke said. "With fine art you can see the quality from far away, and it's still there when you get up close. "There's always a new detail when you look at it," Burke said. "You always see something new." Cheryl Clark specializes in murals, trompe l'oeil and stenciling for residential and commercial projects. She is the owner of Bella Diva Design and Aura Marketing in Salem. For more information about her mural and graphic design work, call her at (503) 371-1279.