Red Oak Residents Are ‘Studying Their Past and Looking to the Future’

You know the well-worn saying: A picture is worth a thousand words. In Red Oak, Iowa, a mural spanning the entire side of a building downtown is worth myriad more – telling the story of the city’s past while imagining its future.

What residents choose to display and celebrate in their public spaces can say a lot about a place. To locals, public art can convey and reinforce a sense of civic pride – an honoring of a town’s past coupled with an envisioning of a hope in its future. To visitors, public art can make a town feel more inviting while conveying a sense of the community’s identity.

In Red Oak, Iowa, at the corner of North Second and Coolbaugh streets, “Studying Our Past, Looking to the Future” is a kaleidoscopic mural with a story specific to the city. The mural features a hulking locomotive churning to the left while polychromatic calendar pages flutter through the annals of time and into the future to the right. A pavilion, a water tower, along with trees and the prairie rose dot the horizon.

The mural tells the story of a city in southwest Iowa reveling in its past without being trapped there. Red Oak residents’ eyes are focused on its future – one brimming with potential thanks to new civic leadership, a recently released comprehensive plan, and the Red Oak Community Heart & Soul initiative.

Studying the Past, Understanding the Present

Red Oak Junction was founded in 1857 as a stagecoach crossing, and in 1869, nearly two decades after the first settlers arrived in area, the railroad arrived. Connecting Red Oak (the ‘Junction’ was dropped in 1901) to the wider country, the railway led to the rise of commerce and industry, and the population of Montgomery County tripled between 1870 and 1880, with Red Oak becoming a trade center for the region. Red Oak’s turn-of-the-century homes – many of which are still standing today – showcased the growing wealth with marble and granite, stone and wood imported from other parts of the country.

The population of Red Oak follows a relatively straight line – hovering just below 6,000 in 1930, and peaking at just over 6,800 in 1980. The farm crisis of that decade decimated rural communities throughout America’s heartland and stunted potential and anticipated growth. Red Oak, perhaps with its diversified economy, absorbed the blow better than others, reporting 5,596 residents according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

Today, Red Oak, like many other heartland communities, isn’t immune to various challenges. While affluence remains present, poverty rates are higher than state and national averages. Nearly one out of every five residents lives below the poverty line. The problem is more pronounced among residents under the age of 18, as over half the youth population in the Red Oak Community School District qualify for free or reduced lunch.

“Being civically engaged means that people feel comfortable and brave to be able to ask questions, voice their opinions, and advocate for themselves and their community,” said Michelle Franks, a program officer at the Iowa West Foundation, and Certified Community Heart & Soul Coach. “It’s hard to look to the future when you’re just trying to get through the next 24 hours.”

Changing the Present, Looking to the Future

Michelle Wodtke Franks is a classic “boomerang” Iowan, with family seven generations deep in the Loess Hills of western Iowa. She spent most of her childhood in northern Minnesota. Later, after she and husband spent time in Pittsburgh and then Cincinnati, they moved to southwest Iowa to be close to aging family while raising their own. Franks started her employment in Iowa taking on the role of Executive Director of Golden Hills Resource Conservation & Development. It was through this role that the city of Red Oak caught her attention – and the persisting challenge of getting all residents engaged in their community’s present and future.

“This is a community that for many years, the general constituency felt like their voice didn’t really matter,” Franks said. “If they had a grumble or a concern, it didn’t really result in anything. The town, at large, had been conditioned to not advocate for themselves.”

But Franks appreciated Red Oak’s “incredible historic foundation” and “really good bones.” “I could see what Red Oak could be if people were just mobilized,” she said.

In 2020, she embarked upon the journey to become a Certified Community Heart & Soul Coach, learning about the innovative, ongoing community development model that serves as a blueprint for how a community collectively identifies what it sees as its future moving forward.

After coaching several other communities in the region, Franks wanted to introduce the model to Red Oak. She had a series of lunches with Cynthia Bangston, a Red Oak transplant, who’d decided to relocate from Washington state to Iowa with her husband, Erling, after a series of trips to visit an uncle of his who lived there. The Bangstons began investing in properties in Red Oak. When Erl died in 2015, Cynthia Bangston decided to stay, and to get more involved in the community.

“She takes a backseat to getting any notoriety, but she was the heart of getting this going,” said Mayor Shawnna Silvius of Bangston. “I’m not sure that we would have had the same momentum had she not been involved.”

“I just want to help push things, and change, through,” Bangston said. “Having lived in other areas, I really recognize Red Oak has a lot of potential, and the biggest potential is the residents. They just need to give their opinion and speak up – not always positive, yes, but I think all voices need to be heard.”

To formally get the process started, Franks presented the idea of undertaking Community Heart & Soul to Red Oak City Council in January 2022. She outlined the process, offered her services as a Heart & Soul Coach, detailed Community Heart & Soul’s proven track record of success in scores of towns nationwide, and noted the potential of a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant. In February, the council approved a resolution of support for the city’s participation in the Community Heart & Soul program. Bangston led the fundraising efforts to secure the local match. The Red Oak Heritage Foundation served as the fiscal sponsor, and the grant agreement was completed in November.

A core group of some 10 residents began working through the four-phase process, and they approached Samantha Williams in October 2023 to see if she would be interested in serving in the role of project coordinator.

Williams grew up in Des Moines, and studied at Iowa State University, where she earned a degree in biology, and met her significant other – a Red Oak native. Following graduation, they decided to move there.

“I looked into Community Heart & Soul, and with my analytical and research background, I really like that process of going out into the community, collecting the responses, then going back out and validating the responses,” Williams said. “I thought this was a unique opportunity to actually reach the voices of the community and have them actually be a part of this process, instead of the same-five-people-who-are-always-at-the-table kind of thing – a completely different approach than what this town is used to.”

That included “taking the table to the people,” which meant going into workplaces to meet workers in the cafeteria during lunch breaks; launching a video project with students in the Red Oak Community School District (which widened the effort’s reaches beyond the city’s limits); and hosting a Community Connect Expo where some 30 nonprofits gathered to showcase their work while learning more about the Heart & Soul process.

The Red Oak Community Heart & Soul team started the four-phase process by building awareness and stoking interest among residents. Having built trust, they gathered stories from the residents to develop Red Oak’s Heart & Soul Statements – a reflection of what matters most to the community. Currently in Phase 3, the team is helping residents develop action plans to guide future planning. Thanks to Williams’ lead they are equipped with over 1,200 data points sorted thematically by “Community Roots; Economic Development; Government; Public Safety; Recreational Entertainment; and Schools.”

“This isn’t highly scientific, but they’re approaching it like scientists,” Franks said. “Samantha is validating the process.”

Capitalizing on a Confluence of Change

For Red Oak, the city’s Community Heart & Soul process isn’t operating in a vacuum. In December 2024, the city announced its comprehensive plan. The pillars of the plan – the city’s primary goals – to improve existing infrastructure; to support the current population while expanding where needed to support growth; to enhance recreational opportunities; to improve housing stock; to improve the visual appeal of Red Oak – coincide with what the city is hearing from its residents through the Community Heart & Soul process, according to Mayor Silvius, who is now in the second year of her second two-year term.

“We are at a real transitional time,” Silvius said. “We’re at a tipping point to really help engage the community, and to see progress.”

“Showing” that engagement in Red Oak includes the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council, which helps engage young people in the civic process early. It is also the deployment of local fiber internet communitywide to be ready for the future of work today. And, it includes forming a new nonprofit to advise regional foundations, like the Community Foundation of Western Iowa and the Lakin Foundation with plans to invest some $120 million in southwest Iowa, including close to $20 million in Red Oak and two other communities in Montgomery County.

“Community Heart & Soul is a way of helping more of our residents really realize the assets that our community has,” Mayor Silvius said. “We are building that community pride for what we have so that we can appreciate it, and then we can message it to the outside world.”

‘Studying Their Past and Looking to the Future’

In July 2024, the “Studying Our Past, Looking to the Future” mural was unveiled in Red Oak.

The locomotive honors what led to the rise of Red Oak and the ability to engage in trade and commerce. The calendars celebrate the city being the “Birthplace of the Art Calendar,” exporting art into the world through the Thos. D. Murphy Calendar Company.

In 1888, Thomas D. Murphy and Edmond Osborn formed a publishing company, and the following year began selling their first art calendars. In 1900, Murphy established the Thos D. Murphy Co., which became one of the nation’s largest producers of advertising calendars which had a historic run until the factory closed in 2002.

Jim Hoskinson, part of the Red Oak Arts Destination committee that promotes public art in the community, moved to the Midwest for its lower cost of living and to create his own art. The committee received concepts for the mural, but all were rejected as “neutral, at best, depictions that had nothing to do with Red Oak,” Hoskinson said.

“I shared a rough sketch depicting the history of the area, from the Indigenous peoples, agriculture, the stagecoach, the railroad, and the calendar company,” he said. “My concept showed the idea of past to future, having the calendar pages flying by, highlighting the importance of the Thos. D. Murphy Co. The development and wealth of Red Oak derived from the calendar company set them apart from any other community in the country. I was thrilled when the committee said, ‘that’s what we’re wanting!’

Hoskinson collaborated with Sharon and Edward Manhart and their Arbor Street Studios team, along with Josh Audiss throughout the final design process, working through a scorching Midwest June with temperatures often in the 80s and 90s.

During the month of work, community members embraced the artists.

“The community treated us like we were celebrities, but also stopped to hang out and talk and ask questions and take pictures. We really felt like we were adopted by the town,” the Manharts said. “The best part of the entire project was knowing that this is just the beginning. The community is supporting the creation of many more thoughtful murals around town to inspire joy and creativity and celebrate the history, future and talent from all over the Midwest.”

Midwest Metamorphosis

The final calendar portrays a butterfly’s life cycle. It’s hard not to think of the metaphorical transformation Red Oak residents are undergoing, together.

“The thing I love about Community Heart & Soul is that it teaches everyday people how to do community planning,” Franks said. “It’s not rocket science, it’s not some secret, it’s not magic; it’s just getting people together and being open to talking. I feel like Red Oak residents have really embraced a lot of the tools and the strategies that will serve that community for a long time.”

“If Red Oak can do this, anyone can do this.”

Want to bring Community Heart & Soul to your town? Apply for a $10,000 Community Heart & Soul Seed Grant to get started. Learn more at: www.communityheartandsoul.org/seed-grants

About the Author

Ben Speggen is a learner, writer, editor, interviewer, reporter, connector, researcher, educator, and administrator with one foot in the think tank world, with with the Jefferson Educational Society, and the other in the journalism sector, with the Our Towns Civic Foundation, Erie Reader, Craftsmanship Magazine, among others. You’ll find more about him and his work on his Substack, Ben Here. Saw That.