The Murals in Bonifay Florida

Last weekend we took a spur of the moment drive down to Pensacola and across the coastline to get some sea air in our lungs. We went a different way than we normally go, off the freeway. This took us through Eufaula and little towns like Bonifay Florida. We will have a full post with photos of that drive on our travel blog in the future, but I wanted to pull out these murals we found in Bonifay along the way.

Murals, mostly commissioned by small towns and cities, are just fascinating. We have several in this little town nearby, in Crawford Alabama, which I have always wanted to stop at and take photos, but it's always "too close" when you're on your way somewhere.

Our Local Murals

We have several nearby. There is a really cool mural in Opelika at the Museum of East Alabama that I did get photos of a while back, or the beautiful Welcome to Opelika Library Mural with the train. Back in the day, the Toomer’s Corner National Championship Mural was an awesome sight. Not sure why that one was removed, or when. In fact I think I have enough mural photos now to create a mural portfolio on my list of portfolios. Until then, I have a tag list of murals on my site.

The interesting thing about murals is that they almost force you to stop and take notice. We have probably driven through Bonifay dozens of times before, and I can't recall even knowing it was called Bonifay. And now I'm going to have to go back (because of the boots at the end of this post).

Community and History

All the various murals seem to literally paint a picture of history and community, but also create recognition for the town, local artists, and businesses. I had no idea Bonifay had anything to do with the Rodeo, or that it was even in Holmes County. It was just a little town you pass through.

I love these small little towns, I live in one, but I rarely stop in them. When you take away the murals, it's a little more nondescript and you just don't really take much notice. Everyone is so busy, and always in a hurry, and a mural makes you stop and take notice.

The Rodeo Mural was the first one we came across, on Mane Street (cute), but once we stopped we saw another, and then Deborah started looking them up to see if there were others. We were short on time, so we stopped and took photos of these three below. I believe the first two were were painted by Kate Steele and Brandi D. Jordan (according to news sources I could find). The detail even up close is amazing!

Bonifay Murals

Boots Around Town

The "Boots Around Town" became the cool surprise. I took this photo of the boot statue(?) sculpture, which was right behind the Homles County Map Mural. I had no idea there was a whole set of them called the Boots Around Town. And actually, who knew this was a thing. Auburn does have several Tigers around town, but I never really thought about it before, because, well, it's Auburn, we have Heisman and Mascot statues everywhere, why not tigers.

But Dothan has Peanuts Around Town, and Pensacola has Pelicans, which we knew about but always forget about until we see them again. They even have a Pelican Passport to find them. Apparently there are towns all over the country that have these cool little treasure hunt finds. Now that we know Bonifay has these Boots Around Town we'll have to go back someday and drive around and get photos of each one of them.

Kudos to the city planners who think of these things and make them happen. I have a cousin who has done city planning for a long time, and I'm sure they all know the value of things like this for little towns.

Murals and sculptures like this may be small gestures to some, or an unnecessary expense to others, but they make your town stand out. They showcase the town history, and create at least some publicity for your town they may not otherwise enjoy.

Now I'm going to have to start a series of Murals, Sculptures, and maybe even Statues on my site. I love collecting stuff like this, in photos.

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