Saloon Murals
Big Valley Round Up Saloon Murals…
He may have been the mid-century Michelangelo of Lassen County or, more likely, an itinerant artist with a taste for whiskey who didn’t feel the need to sign his work. If his name was known, it has been lost to the passage of time, but thankfully his art survives on the walls of the Big Valley Roundup in Bieber.
The art in question consists of about 20 murals, each measuring about 5 feet wide and 20 inches high, that line the interior of the saloon. Depicted are regional landmarks like Mt. Shasta, Lassen Peak, Burney Falls and Crater Lake as well as frontier scenes and bucolic landscapes in Utah, Arizona, Alaska and Oregon.
Chris DeHart, an author and history buff who lives in nearby Adin, says local legend holds that the artist was a bit of a drifter who would trade the paintings for lodging in an upstairs apartment.
Scott Johnson, who bought the Roundup in 2017, concurs: “He’d come through, stay a few days, have a bottle, do one or two paintings and go on his way. He’d be back again two or three months later and do some more. Nobody can remember the guy’s name. It’s been too long.”
Johnson does know some of the paintings date back to at least the early 1940s. When he acquired the historic bar, the paintings and the rest of the interior were in dire need of some TLC. While taking the paintings down as part of the restoration, Johnson discovered vintage cartons of Lucky Strike and Chesterfield cigarettes tucked away inside the tavern wall. The Luckies carton was in green and red, a color combination the cigarette maker discontinued in 1942.
DeHart says the murals were in rough shape with holes, tears and faded paint. When the first one was removed, it was discovered it was an oil painting on canvas. With help from an art restoration company in Martinez, the murals were cleaned, repaired, patched and refreshed. “It was fun to see what the murals revealed as they got cleaned,” DeHart says.
The murals add to the Roundup’s rich history, DeHart says, noting the saloon has been a popular gathering spot for ranchers, loggers, cattlemen and miners for decades. “It’s a place of importance, at least for this valley,” DeHart says, referring to the Big Valley in the high desert of Lassen County.
Johnson says the business was established in 1928 as a candy shop. In keeping with the rough-and-tumble times, it also served as a speakeasy where regulars would imbibe in the shop’s basement during Prohibition. The Roundup was licensed as a bar in 1941.
Bill Miesse, an art historian in Mount Shasta, says the North State has several examples of murals and paintings like those displayed in the Roundup. “It seems to have been pretty common,” Miesse says, noting the large murals dating to 1910 in the Miner St. Meat Market in Yreka. The same artist, A. Cedro, also produced works hanging in the Redmen’s Hall in Jacksonville, Ore.
Cedro also painted murals on the ceiling and a wall of the Vet’s Club in Mount Shasta as well as a nude painting on display at the Elks Lodge in Yreka. “There’s a rumor that A. Cedro became an alcoholic after his wife left him, so for retribution he painted his wife’s face on all his nudes,” Miesse says.
Miesse, who co-authored “Sudden and Solitary: Mount Shasta and Its Artistic Legacy,” says another artist in 1960 painted a number of murals in the Wagon Wheel Bar & Grill in Mount Shasta that are now on view at the Mount Shasta Brewing Co. in Weed.
“These paintings are real tangible pieces of history. The oils remain fresh and record that moment in time, unlike a photograph. It carries that historical weight for me,” Miesse says.•
Big Valley Roundup • 109 Bridge St., Bieber
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