Micah Mullins spent nearly 100 hours painting a mural in the South Bottoms pedestrian tunnel that got a facelift thanks to the Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln. The mural depicts the neighborhood’s identity – a train, Quinn Chapel, the Mexican flag, the Volga German crest and an outline of the African continent.
Volunteers helped scrub and sand the tunnel to prepare it for a new mural.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
The South Salt Creek neighborhood already felt trapped by train tracks.
They ran down Fifth Street. They ran down Fourth Street.
And they ran down Third — where, in the late 1990s, Burlington Northern Santa Fe announced it wanted to make the busy mainline even busier by adding a second set of tracks.
“As you can imagine, the neighborhood was pretty upset about it,” said Wynn Hjermstad, community development manager for the city’s Urban Development Department. “They already felt like they were isolated by the one track, and adding a second would just make it worse.”
Then the railroad proposed putting in a pedestrian tunnel, and the city got worried. It feared the railroad would install the most functional and featureless tunnel, much like the narrow concrete culvert at First and J.
“That was the image the neighborhood had of what a tunnel was going to be,” she said. “And that’s where Urban Development got involved and said, ‘Let’s make this more attractive, a place where you feel safe. It was quite a project.”
In 1998, they designed and delivered a wider tunnel, with ramps and stairs descending on either side. They added retaining walls and landscaping.
Three years later, an artist covered its walls with depictions of the diversity that defined the South Bottoms. Germans from Russia. African American families. People of Asian and Hispanic descent. Contemporary images, too: Neighborhood kids on scooters, cyclists, the man who sold ice cream from a cart.
Train tracks run above a pedestrian tunnel at Third and F streets.
But tunnels can attract trouble. As early as 2005, a neighbor complained about its condition in a letter to the editor: “It floods every time it rains and when the snow melts it becomes a sheet of ice. We have homeless people living in the tunnel and it smells like an outhouse and local gangs have their graffiti sprayed everywhere.”
The problems were reoccurring. This week, the president of the South Salt Creek Community Organization described the tunnel as dirty.
“There were a lot of drainage problems,” said Justina Clark. “It was not very well maintained.”
And Hjermstad, who had pushed for the more inviting underpass, acknowledged it was due for a refresh. “It’s been over 20 years, and it’s tired. It needs some TLC, and that’s what it’s getting.”
In 2019, Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln selected the South Salt Creek area for its Streets Alive! initiative. It’s typically a two-year commitment — with a pair of health and wellness street festivals and a community improvement project — but the pandemic stretched it to three.
The nonprofit targeted the tunnel, one of the neighborhood’s only three legal routes across the tracks, for its improvement efforts.
“It was a good project for the safety of the neighborhood,” said Veronica Cockerill, program coordinator for Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln. “The lighting was insufficient and there was unwanted activity. The landscaping is overgrown; the retaining walls are crumbling.”
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
The railroad patched the cracks and sealed the tunnel’s interior. The city added brighter LED lighting and will soon repair its retaining walls and rehab the landscaping.
And last month, an artist got to work reinventing its walls.
It was time, said Clark, the neighborhood group’s president.
“People like the past, but we want to embrace the future. We felt it was a good time to get an update to the mural.”
In February, they put out a call for artists. A half-dozen responded with proposals, but only one — Micah Mullins — contacted the neighborhood group to ask: What do you want to see on the walls?
They wanted him to incorporate its past, its present, its future and its fabric.
“He gave himself a leg up in the competition by reaching out,” Clark said. “He took the ideas we gave him, but he just took it to the next level.”
The 28-year-old street artist spent nearly 100 hours painting his proposal, trying to incorporate and interpret the neighborhood group’s suggestions.
“I had to figure out how to tell a story along the way and give everyone honor and credit,” Mullins said. “And give ode to the nationalities and cultures that settled the neighborhood, and helped build the neighborhood.”
His submission included depictions of Friedens Lutheran Church and Quinn Chapel. An outline of Africa, and glimpses of the Korean and Mexican flags. A buffalo skull and feather. The Volga German crest. A quote from Abe Lincoln — “I am a slow walker but I never walk back.” A graffiti-tagged train.
“When we saw that, we were like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ We voted on that as our favorite one,” Clark said.
Mullins paints in a graffiti-type style, and that helped his chances, too, Cockerill said. Future taggers should be reluctant to paint over it.
“We heard graffiti art is less likely to be vandalized than other kinds of art, because it’s more respected,” she said.
He got to work in August, after AmeriCorps volunteers helped him scrub and sand the walls, preparing them for primer. He spray painted for more than 115 hours, often 10 to 12 hours at a time.
The mural will be formally revealed Sunday during the Streets Alive! festival, though it’s been on display for a few weeks now. And those who have since taken the tunnel have been impressed, Clark said.
“People were really excited to see that beautiful design he gave us on paper really come to life.”
* 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday
* South Salt Creek neighborhood and Cooper Park
* Free outdoor event promoting physical activity, healthy eating and neighborhood vitality
* 1.5-mile stretch of streets south and west of Cooper Park will be closed to motorized vehicles
* Includes art walk, fitness classes, dance and performance artists, music, local produce for sale, free health and wellness resources
* Details: www.healthylincoln.org
“Torn Notebook,” by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen, at the corner of 12th and Q streets, is one of the public art masterworks in Lincoln.
The sculpture “Reflection,” by Albert Paley, is located at Ninth Street and Salt Creek Parkway. The sculpture previously was on display in New York as part of the “Paley on Park Avenue” exhibition.
Artist Mark di Suvero used red beams to create Old Glory, located at Cather Garden on UNL campus, to represent the flag when seen against a blue sky with clouds.
Pitch, Roll & Yaw, a new sculpture by Lincoln artist Shannon Hansen, is lifted into place at the entrance to the Lincoln Airport in July 2015. The piece, in the shape of a giant paper airplane, was made of formed and fabricated steel by Rivers Metal Products of Lincoln from Hansen’s design. The $100,000 sculpture was commissioned by the city of Lincoln and paid for by Duncan Aviation. Another of Hansen’s pieces, Discover, is at Union Plaza.
Watchful Citizen was first produced as a small, desk-size casting called “Couch Potato” and later recreated life-size and renamed. It sits in the Haymarket at Seventh and P streets.
The sculpture Mbera, at the center of the roundabout at 33rd Street and Sheridan Boulevard, was a gift from the Marc LeBaron family to the city of Lincoln several years ago.
The Gettysburg Lincoln, by Daniel Chester French, is at the Nebraska State Capitol, west entrance.
Union College’s Clocktower is undoubtedly the tallest artwork in Lincoln.
Artist David Young tests the stream of water flowing from his bronze sculpture “Rebekah at the Well” during a private ceremony unveiling the sculpture at Sunken Gardens in 2005.
Sculpture of child is at the Lincoln Children’s Museum, 1420 P St.
“Groundwater Colossus” is a focal point at the Union Plaza in Antelope Valley. The sculpture is a personification of the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the largest aquifers and most important natural resources in the nation. Designed by James Tyler of New York, the sculpture sits near the Jayne Snyder Trail Center near 21st and P streets.
Artist Jun Kaneko’s glass tower, Ascent, is illuminated on Dec. 21, 2014, at the Lincoln Community Foundation Tower Square at 13th and P streets.
Jene Highstein’s Tem, will again be displayed on Centennial Mall along with its companion piece, Ptah.
“Acklie Fountain” was a gift in honor of Duane and Phyllis Acklie by their children in 2006. It combines corn maiden faces from the original Cornhusker hotel and some flower-like ornaments from the old City Hall.
Iron Horse Legacy (pictured in 2002) by Lincoln artist Jay Tschetter is located at Lincoln Station.
Floating Figure, by Gaston Lachaise, is at Sheldon Sculpture Garden, UNL campus.
James Surls’ “Vase with Five Flowers,” a bronze and stainless steel sculpture owned by local art collectors Karen and Robert Duncan, could be used in the center of the 14th and Superior streets roundabout. It is among artwork the Duncans will loan to the city for use in a public space.
Deb Bridges created this bench on the northeast corner of 12th and P Streets as part of the Slave Free Nebraska Public Heart Project.
“Garden of Faith, Hope, and Love” by Cathy Harrington is seen at Marcus Lincoln Grand Cinema as part of the Hildegard Center for the Arts’ Doorways to Hope public art project in 2014.
Artist Gina Egenberger’s work, Incandescent Flight, is on display in front of the Lied Center for Performing Arts in November 2014. The public art project celebrated the 25th anniversary of Lighthouse.
Kenny Smetter (left) and Tanner Russell of Chet’s Transfer nudge the 2003 Tour de Lincoln piece, “Balancing the Books,” into place outside the Gere Branch Library in 2014.
Liz Shea-McCoy, project director for Star Art — The Star City Art Project 2006, hangs out with her sculpture “Reach for the Stars.”
Ellen Wright, an environmental health educator with Public Works and Utilities, Miki Esposito, Public Works and Utilities director, promote the artistic snowplow project in December 2012.
Look Ma, No Hands, by Kendrik, Helms, Helms & Raddatz, at Normal and A streets.
Dan Peragine’s Noos stands in Beau Richmond Park at 27th and Holdrege streets.
A mural by Jay Tschetter flanks the main entrance to the F Street Community Center.
An improvised mural by Lincoln artist Spencer Pacheco is making its way around the Kiechel Fine Art Building, 1208 O St. The mural eventually covered two sides of the four-story building.
Solar Semaphore by Jerome Kirk stands at 12th and O streets.
Lyman Whitaker’s Double Spinner creates an optical illusion of perpetual expansion when it is blown by the wind at the Pioneers Park Nature Center.
The War and Victory sculpture by Ellis Burman in Antelope Park.
Hundreds of people file past the “Candy Box,” an art piece in the concourse at Pinnacle Bank Arena after the arena’s ribbon cutting on Aug. 29, 2013.
Mountain Monarch, by Rich Haines, stands at the Pioneers Park north entrance, off West Van Dorn Street. The sculpture is one of two at Pioneers Park that make the top 10 most valuable list of public art in Lincoln.
27th Street Hearth by Michael Morgan at Elaine Hammer Bridge Plaza.
If I Had My Child To Raise Over Again sculpture in Witherbee Park.
Rarin’ to Ride by George W. Lundeen in Woods Park.
Frog Baby by Edith Barretto Stevens Parsons in Hamann Rose Garden.
Daydreams by Sondra L. Johnson in Cooper Park.
Sculptor Ben Victor (behind) watches as descendants of Chief Standing Bear help to unveil his sculpture on Centennial Mall. The sculpture is valued at $150,000.
Harvest, a sculpture in front of Pinnacle Bank Arena at Canopy and R streets, was dedicated in 2016. The $972,000 piece by Ed Carpenter was paid for using money set aside for artwork during the arena’s original planning.
One of the Four Seasons Terminals sculptures at Kontras Park.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7254 or [email protected].
On Twitter @LJSPeterSalter
* 1-4:30 p.m. Sunday
* South Salt Creek neighborhood and Cooper Park
* Free outdoor event promoting physical activity, healthy eating and neighborhood vitality
* 1.5-mile stretch of streets south and west of Cooper Park will be closed to motorized vehicles
* Includes art walk, fitness classes, dance and performance artists, music, local produce for sale, free health and wellness resources
* Details: healthylincoln.org
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General assignment reporter
Peter Salter is a general assignment reporter who has worked at the Lincoln Journal Star since 1998.
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Micah Mullins spent nearly 100 hours painting a mural in the South Bottoms pedestrian tunnel that got a facelift thanks to the Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln. The mural depicts the neighborhood’s identity – a train, Quinn Chapel, the Mexican flag, the Volga German crest and an outline of the African continent.
Train tracks run above a pedestrian tunnel at Third and F streets.
Volunteers helped scrub and sand the tunnel to prepare it for a new mural.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
Graffiti artist Micah Mullins was commissioned to create a new mural in a little-known tunnel beneath the train tracks at Third and F streets.
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