Fausett Mural Cycle – Price UT

Description

The Price UT Municipal Building contains an exceptional cycle of New Deal murals in the foyer of the public auditorium. The murals are four feet high and circle around the upper wall for about 200 feet  (800 square feet of painting).  

Lynn Fausett, a well-known Utah artist and native of Price, was commissioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Arts Project (FAP) to paint the murals, starting in 1938. It took him three years to complete the work. Fausett painted other New Deal murals around Utah, including those in the State Capitol.

The murals depict the history and industry of Carbon County, of which Price is the county seat, beginning with the first trappers and settlers who came to the valley in 1877.   There are 82 principal figures in the mural, all done from photographs or personal memories of the artist, and depictions of early buildings of the area in the background. The murals are, as one would expect, the self-representation of the Anglo, Mormon settlers of the area.

The full circuit of murals are shown in the photographs below. The artist painted labels with names, dates and subject on the scrim beneath the mural. These do not indicate separate panels, as in many long murals.   (NB: the numbering on the photos are ours).