(Lander, WY) – A new mural is taking shape on Main Street. Lander artist Aiyana Perez began work this week on the west wall of Gambles, where a coat of white primer marks the start of a project that will show the town’s history across six giant letters spelling ‘LANDER.’
“Finally getting to start, it’s a big relief,” Perez said. “Even just having white on the wall. There’s a lot more to come.”
Perez, a member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe who went to high school in Lander, has become familiar with this kind of work in recent years. She previously completed a similar letters mural in Thermopolis, and the experience left a mark with her.
“I fell in love with historical context murals,” she said. “I really like bringing that cultural recognition, especially to Indigenous communities, and Lander is one of the biggest ones here in the Western region. I wanted to bring that same beautification to Lander. Same kind of project, but it’s my hometown, you know?”
The design features a timeline that moves from daytime scenes to ones at night inside the letters, beginning with the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty that shaped the Wind River region and carrying through the fur trade, South Pass, and the founding of the town, all the way to present-day scenes of rock climbing and the local arts community. The mural will also include a 3D effect that makes the artwork appear to break out of the concrete wall.
“It’s going to display the beginning of Lander, essentially, to present times,” Perez said. “It’ll still have things that we do today. Rock climbing, the Lander Art Center, all of the art appreciation.”
The project is funded by the Bossert Collective, the Lander nonprofit responsible for the Power, Life, Healing mural on the Lander Bake Shop building, along with support from the LOR Foundation. The Bossert Collective was cofounded in 2021 by Sophie Barksdale, a Heartland Emmy-winning filmmaker whose documentary work includes Who She Is, a film about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women from the Wind River Reservation. Perez said she and Barksdale first crossed paths at an artist business workshop in Rock Springs, and the connection eventually brought the Bossert Collective on board.
“I basically was like, I want to do this project. I need to find a wall, I need to find funding, and I need to find a team,” Perez said. “After I met Sophie, this seemed like a great opportunity. It perfectly aligns with what they stand for.”
The mural also marks a bittersweet note as one of the LOR Foundation’s final projects in Lander. After six years and around 500 community projects, the foundation wrapped up its work in town earlier this summer, and community officer Ami Vincent helped make possible the mural’s grant funding as part of that closing chapter.
Perez said the wall itself came together quickly. Gambles owner Shane Meyer had reached out to the high school years ago hoping to find a muralist, but nothing ever came of it.
“I sent him just an email that was like: ‘I’d love to paint on your wall,’” Perez said. “Literally ten minutes later, he calls me and he’s like, yes, I absolutely want to do this. So then it was green light, let’s go.”
Though Perez is leading the design, she’s planning to make the mural into a community project. Lander painter Noelle Weimann will join her to help with background work, along with fellow artists including Autumn Hnilicka and Anatolia Skinner. Perez also plans to invite public input once the mural reaches its halfway point.
“Once it’s at its halfway mark, I’ll be like, hey, this is what we’re doing. What am I missing? Are you from Lander? What’s your favorite part about Lander?” she said. “There’ll be plenty of Easter eggs. It takes a community, especially a small town like this.”
Perez expects to paint mostly in the mornings to beat the heat, projecting her digital designs onto the wall in the evenings. She has until the end of October to finish.
“We have till the end of October, and it really is just a race against weather,” she said.
County 10 will follow the mural’s progress over the coming months.