What seems like a herd of wild horses cresting the hill over Storey Boulevard in Cheyenne is turning heads as people drive along one of the city\u2019s major east-west roads. The huge mural on one of a pair of water tanks is nearly done.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Ren\u00e9e Jean<\/p>\n\n\n\n CHEYENNE \u2014 The horses don\u2019t make a sound as they bound over the hillside overlooking Storey Boulevard, seeming to leap off the side of a water tower into the world. Their silence doesn\u2019t stop them from turning heads all day long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The mural, showing a herd of horses galloping over the hilltop, looks finished, but there is still a day or two of work left to do, according to the artist, Jordan Dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He\u2019s been outlining the shapes of his creation late in the evenings on the top of a boom lift that\u2019s up to 80 feet high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe paint team still has a little bit of work to fix in the sky and the birds and some things,\u201d Dean told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. He was on his way to Alabama, where he is working on a different mural project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope when I come back it\u2019s all done. If it doesn\u2019t rain too much, they\u2019ll have a good week, and they will finish it up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those larger-than-life horses cresting the hill are already turning heads, even though they\u2019re not quite finished yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, freaking beautiful,\u201d Martha Kendall Curl wrote on the latest progress update at Cheyenne Water Tower Mural\u2019s Facebook page. \u201cI love driving by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI was skeptical at first, but I love them! Well done!\u201d wrote another Facebook user with the handle Morrison Familywy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is awesome,\u201d Betty Pier Russell wrote. \u201cWe will have to drive over to see it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean has done his last bit on the mural, touching up eyes and hair and some other little details. That was the first time he actually used the epoxy paint himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most of that work is done by a day crew employed by CHP Paint Co, filling in the outlines that Dean has been making for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI found out how difficult it is to work with the epoxy,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s thick and it\u2019s sticky and, to get a clean edge, you really have to work at it. And so, I give a lot of credit to the paint guys who put in the extra effort to make sure that the details were so clean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean\u2019s part of the project, up until then, had been to develop a design for the water tank, then translate that design onto the tank using cans of spray paint that approximate the color of the epoxy paint being used to paint the water tower. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Then a day crew comes along and fleshes out his idea with the real paint. That care is necessary because this paint costs $400 a gallon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean does his work late at night while most of Cheyenne is fast asleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That makes it seem as if the mural is taking shape through some kind of overnight wizardry to those driving by it every day. It\u2019s been fascinating to watch it come to life, one good weather day at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric McDonald, owner of CHP Paint Co., told Cowboy State Daily that good weather is all that\u2019s standing between his company and the final coats of paint. Of late, it\u2019s been too wet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Humidity and rain present special problems for this expensive paint, which is a race against time to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s a part A and a part B,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd when you mix them, it begins a curing process. You then have about two hours depending on humidity before it gets really too sticky and too thick to really work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n After that, the paint becomes quite hard and shiny. It won\u2019t spread at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McDonald has teams of three people working from a single gallon of paint to ensure every drop of the expensive stuff gets on the tank. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe don\u2019t mix more than a gallon at a time, because you certainly don\u2019t want to have any waste,\u201d he said. \u201cYou want to get through that gallon within that timeline, or else you can leave hundreds of dollars in your bucket.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The paint spreads relatively well, particularly in the early stages, McDonald said \u2014 unless there is moisture in the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s projected to be a wet week,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re kind of holding off right now, because if it rains an hour after you get some stuff done, it can have some really adverse effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The team can\u2019t take even the chance of rain on the paint, so they only paint on days that are projected to be nice, hot and dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHigh humidity also has an effect on how this product behaves,\u201d he said. \u201cHumidity actually makes the product cure faster. Which is kind of counterintuitive. But so, you have less working time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n While McDonald gives all credit for the artistry of the water tower mural horses to Dean, McDonald\u2019s paint crew has a difficult job, Dean told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean is impressed with the work they have done to help his vision come to life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is kind of a finicky product on a tank that\u2019s on the tallest hill in a windy area,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cAnd the wind is always a challenge. The humidity is a challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know we have to color inside the lines, but we\u2019re not having to blend anything. So, we\u2019re not actually a part of the artwork. We just have to make sure we communicate with Jordan on what colors go where, and then just get good coverage and do it safely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not all of their brushes are large space-fillers. Some are small, as tiny as 1 inch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe hair is quite thin,\u201d McDonald said of the detail in the horses. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t just slap it on. You are painting some pretty thin lines when you get to the mane of the horse and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week, McDonald had extra crews on site making a run at finishing the mural. But rain on Friday foiled that effort. They will pick back up as soon as the forecast is better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean said he\u2019s had some folks asking if there are any plans to finish the back quarter of the mural, which right now is blank.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That is absolutely a possibility if enough money can be raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think people seeing the artwork go up on the first tank has encouraged a lot more donations,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cIf there\u2019s enough support to buy time and materials to paint the whole thing, I\u2019m all for it. I would love to wrap the first artwork all the way around.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, efforts are moving ahead on raising money for the second large tank on the hill, which is going to feature a mountain scene with bison, as well as a red checkerboard on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean is glad there\u2019s one more tank to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve gotten used to being up high and seeing the city from up there,\u201d Dean said. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss working on it, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With humidity and wet weather in the forecast, Erickson and his team are not likely to do any work on the water tower mural at all this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That means the project might not be finished when Dean returns to Cheyenne sometime next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dean said it\u2019s possible he might go and put more finishing touches on the mural if it\u2019s not finished when he returns. That\u2019s always a temptation whenever he does a mural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would love to continually touch it up,\u201d he said. \u201cI could probably work on it for a lifetime, but eventually, I kind of have to stop and carry on, move on to other things.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For one thing, the expensive paint is available in finite quantities. The project required about 50 gallons of $400 paint, and once that $20,000 is gone, it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The boom lifts, donated by Wyoming Rents, cost thousands to rent for a day. Those must go back soon so the company can rent them out to other customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSo, everything kind of has an end to it,\u201d Dean said. \u201cEventually, as much as I would love to keep working on it, we have to put our brushes down and carry on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn\u2019t mean he wouldn\u2019t take one more trip up in the boom to work on the mural, if it\u2019s still possible when he returns. He\u2019s just not expecting there will be any need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019ve treated this as if I was done, so the I could walk away and be proud of it,\u201d he said. \u201cEven if there is \u2014 and this is telling of all murals, when I look at the first mural I did, and you know a lot of them, there are things that I wish I could tweak or fix or update to try and get it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut at some point, I have to take a deep breath and say that\u2019s how it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That doesn\u2019t preclude people in the community taking a deep breath for a completely different reason when they see the mural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They\u2019re not looking for things to fix. They\u2019re talking about how perfectly Cheyenne this mural is, and how they hope the colors will stay vibrant forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chances are good the colors will outlast the artist. The epoxy paint chosen for this job is rated for a minimum lifespan of 30 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirty years of beautiful horses galloping over the hill with wind tossing their manes and silent thunder in their hooves, as they perpetually bear down on Storey Boulevard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Our first water tank mural is almost done. This is the taller and newer water tank just built, with the old smaller one scheduled to be done next year. https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.com\/2025\/08\/26\/mural-of-wild-horses-on-huge-cheyenne-water-tank-nearly-done-and-turning-heads\/ What seems like a herd of wild horses cresting the hill over Storey Boulevard in Cheyenne is turning heads as people drive along one of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13269,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13268\/revisions\/13269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Paint](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Water-tank-mural-Paint-crew-members-and-their-famlies-pose-in-front-of-Cheyennes-water-tank-murals-as-they-near-ocmpletion.-Courtesy-photo-by-Justin-Schoenborn.-8.26.25.jpeg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
![\"A](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Water-tank-mural-A-tall-boom-lift-carries-paint-crews-and-artists-working-on-Cheyennes-water-tower-mural.-Courtesy-photo-by-Justin-Schoenborn-8.26.25.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
Team Effort<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Race Against Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Water-tank-mural-From-left-Jordan-Dean-Wyoming-Rents-Greg-Martinsen-and-CHP-Paint-Co-owner-Eric-McDonald.-Courtesy-photo-by-Justin-Schoenborn-8.26.25.jpeg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
Fine Details<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Paint Rated For 30 Years<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n