New mural on the south wall of the Saint Jo square — and who painted it.

A new mural on the south wall of the Vera Hutchins Antiques building on the Saint Jo courthouse square was completed last week. The piece is 18 by 24 feet and depicts the Red River at flood stage — specifically the crossing at the head of what was the Western Chisholm Trail. The artist is Claudia Reyes, a Marfa-based muralist who grew up in Saint Jo.

Reyes said the Red River crossing was her first choice for the subject. "I wanted something that happened here that most people don't know happened here," she said. "That crossing was one of the biggest cattle-drive crossings in the state, but there's almost nothing marking it now." The mural took eleven days of exterior painting and several more weeks of preliminary work.

The commission came from the Saint Jo Historic Preservation Society, which raised $8,400 for the project over two years through a combination of private donations and a small grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts. Vera Hutchins donated the wall space. The mural is lit at night by two fixtures installed by the city.