Description

The mural “Ranchers of the Panhandle Fighting Prairie Fire with Skinned Steer,” painted by Frank Mechau in 1940, was created for what was then the post office in Brownfield, Texas. The building now (2014) serves as the Brownfield Police Station.

Mechau described his mural as follows: “The prairie fire was a demon of the Panhandle. Sixty square miles of range could be destroyed in a day’s time. Once the flame began to spread there were few efficient ways to combat it.  Plowing a line was too slow. Backfiring too dangerous. Cowboys would fight the fire with wet sacks or kill a steer and partly skin it leaving the wet skin to drag behind them in an effort to rub out the edge of the fire” (Texasescapes).