A Vision Carved from Idaho History 

In the Central Idaho town of Lewiston, seasoned muralist Jeff Karlin recently brought a chapter of Idaho’s logging history to life on a large mural in the center of town. The public artwork depicts Idaho loggers from the 19th and 20th centuries alongside a rumbling wanigan boat, set against the rushing waters of the Clearwater River.

For Karlin, the mural offered an opportunity to preserve a piece of local history that is increasingly distant from everyday life in Lewiston. SPARC recently caught up with Karlin to learn more about the intention behind the mural and what this history means to the community today.

Completed “Wanigan Mural,” in Lewiston, Idaho by Jeff Karlin.
Image courtesy of Jeff Karlin.

“The owner of the building… for years, wanted a mural, but the right idea never surfaced in almost 15 years,” Karlin explains. “He wanted the story of the loggers and the wanigan to be represented, and he turned it over to me.”

The subject carries particular significance in a community shaped by the rivers, forests, and industries of north-central Idaho. Lewiston sits at the confluence of the Clearwater and Snake Rivers, making the area an important transportation and commercial hub for generations. Long before modern roads and industrial infrastructure transformed the region, rivers provided a vital route for moving timber and connecting Idaho's forest resources to communities downstream.

The mural was painted on a south-facing building in the center of Lewiston, an especially demanding location in a region known for some of the Inland Northwest's hottest summer temperatures. For Karlin, the physical challenge of painting the wall mirrors the endurance represented in the scene itself.

This wasn’t simply a mural project. It was an effort to bring attention to a difficult and often overlooked chapter of Idaho’s history: the men who worked the rivers and forests, the communities that depended on the timber industry, and the dangerous conditions that defined river logging.

Surviving the Clearwater on a Wanigan

“Wanigans,” says Karlin, “were massive tents placed onto rubber rafts that would serve as cook houses and bunkhouses for loggers.”

These floating structures were an essential part of river-based logging operations. Wanigans functioned as mobile camps, providing workers with places to eat, sleep, and take refuge while moving alongside enormous log drives. On the North Fork of the Clearwater River, they became part of a demanding system in which timber was moved downstream by water before the development of modern transportation made other methods more practical.

Original preparatory sketch by Jeff Karlin.
Image courtesy of Jeff Karlin.

The work was both physically demanding and dangerous. Loggers had to navigate unpredictable currents, rocky waterways, and massive accumulations of timber. When logs became jammed, workers were expected to break apart the jams and keep the river moving, a task that could put their lives at risk.

“These [loggers] were as tough as can be, running around with spiked boots trying to unstuck log jams,” Karlin explains. “They would be traveling 100 miles, trailing these logs down the river.”

The mural captures more than a scene from the past. It commemorates a way of life built around Idaho’s rivers and forests, and the labor of the people who made the timber economy possible. By bringing the wanigan and its crew into the heart of Lewiston, Karlin gives a largely forgotten piece of regional history a visible place within the community once again.

The Modern Challenge: Capturing the Grit

Karlin brought the Wanigan mural to life on the wall of a former munitions factory in the center of Lewiston. Working with acrylic paints, rollers, brushes, and a few spray cans, the team completed the mural in time for the city’s annual “August Nights” summer celebration.

“Wanigan Mural” in progress.
Image courtesy of Jeff Karlin.

But the mural’s impact extended beyond its physical creation. Painted in the heart of the community, the artwork quickly became a point of connection between Lewiston’s past and present. As residents stopped to watch the mural take shape, Karlin found opportunities to hear personal stories from community members whose families were connected to Idaho’s logging history.

Those encounters became an important part of the project for Karlin. The mural was not simply an interpretation of history. It became a way for people to recognize their own experiences and memories in the artwork.

“When an elderly gentleman cries about remembering his youth when looking at my mural,” Karlin shares, “that’s a sense of pride.”

That emotional connection is part of what gives public art its lasting significance. A mural can transform a familiar wall into a place where history is remembered, shared, and passed on to future generations. For Karlin, preserving that connection meant thinking beyond the completion of the painting itself.

To ensure the mural could continue to serve and uplift his hometown, Karlin turned to MuralShield and World’s Best Graffiti Coating as a final step in protecting both the artwork and the history it represents.

Why MuralShield Was the Right Tool for the Job

For an artist, hours of meticulous work depicting complex history can be undone by a single bad storm, prolonged sun exposure, or an act of vandalism. But for a mural like Karlin’s, protecting the finished artwork means protecting more than paint. It means preserving a visual record of the people, labor, and history that helped shape the community of Lewiston.

The mural’s location in the center of town makes it part of the public landscape. A mural, over time, part of how the community encounters and remembers its own history. With the artwork facing intense summer heat and sunlight, as well as the everyday environmental wear that comes with being a public-facing mural, applying a durable protective coating was an important final step in ensuring the story would remain visible for years to come.

Muralist Jeff Karlin needed a finishing system that could enhance the paint’s natural depth while providing protection against UV exposure, weather, and potential tagging. He found his answer in MuralShield. Karlin credits MuralShield’s clear, UV-resistant formula with giving him peace of mind throughout the process, particularly while working in Lewiston’s extreme summer temperatures.

“When I'm sitting on scaffolding at 107 degrees, I don't want to think about the little things, like if my clear coat works,” Karlin says. “I've done two murals this summer and coated both of them with MuralShield. And I've gone back up to both of them and it wears like iron.”

For a mural dedicated to a disappearing chapter of Idaho’s history, that protection matters. MuralShield helps provide the added durability needed for the artwork to withstand the elements and remain accessible to the public, allowing Karlin’s tribute to Lewiston’s logging heritage to continue telling its story long after the paint has dried.

Keeping the Spirit of the River Alive

Jeff Karlin in front of his completed “Wanigan Mural.”
Image courtesy of Jeff Karlin.

With the completion of the Wanigan mural, Karlin transformed a central Lewiston wall into a tribute to the people, labor, and riverways that helped shape the region. By bringing the story of Idaho’s loggers and wanigans into a contemporary public space, the mural gives a largely overlooked chapter of local history a new life, and a new audience.

Preserving that story was just as important as painting it. For Karlin, MuralShield and World’s Best Graffiti Coating provided an added layer of protection while enhancing the mural’s vibrancy.

“When I started doing my online research, MuralShield came up several times as one that actually seems to protect and actually brighten the colors,” Karlin shares.

For public artists, the life of a mural extends far beyond the day the final brushstroke is applied. These works become part of the communities they inhabit, gathering meaning as people encounter them, remember them, and share the stories behind them. Protecting them helps ensure those stories remain visible.

Developed with artists and public art in mind, MuralShield and the Social and Public Art Resource Center share a commitment to supporting murals that honor the histories and communities they are embedded in. In Lewiston, Karlin’s Wanigan mural stands as one example of how public art can keep those histories moving forward much like the river that once carried the log drives through Idaho.

To learn more about artist Jeff Karlin and his work, visit his portfolio.

Written by Isa Moreno

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