By Chad Koenen

Publisher

Bathrooms may not be the first thing that comes to mind when someone brings up the town of Henning, but a second mural project is bringing toilets to the forefront in the town of 850 people.

A mural project was completed last week on the new bathroom at Amundson Park. The mural project is the second such project to take place on the outside of a bathroom facility in town over the past few years with the other being an expansive mural painted on the sign of the bathroom in the city park.

This most recent project was a partnership between Lake Region Electric Coop Operation Round Up and the City of Henning. Diane Thorson helped to secure a $1,500 grant from LREC with the City of Henning picking up the remainder of the approximately $3,400 cost to have artist Lana Beck return to Henning to paint on the new bathroom. Beck was the artist credited with the city park project as well.

Over the course of several days last week, Beck and a number of local volunteers painted four different sides of the new Amundson Park bathroom with a picture of a lake, state parks in the area, community organizations and Henning/Otter Tail Central sports information. 

Thorson said she gave Beck a general idea of some things that could be included on the mural and the artist took the project and created the custom design.

“I had given her some of the concepts of what to put on the wall and I took pictures of the signs at Maplewood and Glendalough,” she said.

The scene of the lake is based on the view from Lloyd Amundson’s house on West Leaf Lake and the state park signs were taken by Thorson.

The artist created the lake scene herself, and outlined the remaining parts of the mural for a number of volunteers to complete over the course of the week. 

The original mural at city park, which features a Greetings From Henning sign for selfies, was painted by Beck and a number of volunteers in 2021.