While there aren’t many similarities between a salamander, Doc Watson and the word “Boone,” there are some that can be found on the streets of downtown Boone.
At the corner of 641 W. King Street and Depot Street, painted in green, the town logo colors the brick with the tagline, “Elevation 3,333.”
The mural features an outline of a sunrise over the mountains with the phrase “Live It Up.” Designed by local business Designation by Design and sponsored by the Downtown Boone Development Association, the mural was announced in August 2019, and was revealed as part of the First Friday event the following month.
The 16-by-16 foot mural stands on the side of the Boone Mini Mall and provides a warm welcome and photo opportunity to anyone meandering throughout downtown.
The Downtown Boone Development Association helped bring another mural to life, this time highlighting a local amphibian.
Across from Little Wing Ice Cream, just one street further from the logo mural, stands the Hellbender mural designed by Josh Johnston. Unveiled in September 2024, the image puts the spotlight on a hellbender, the largest species of salamander, which reside throughout the Appalachian waterways.
Describing them as the High Country’s resident endangered species, professor of freshwater conservation biology Michael Gangloff said that hellbenders are a central part of our aquatic ecosystems that everyone should be aware of.
“I think it’s important for people who don’t know hellbenders and who are visiting Boone from the other parts of North Carolina or other parts of the world to see that though because it really gives them the sense of what the rivers used to look like,” Gangloff said.
Gangloff, who was present for the revealing of the mural last September, said the intersection of the arts and sciences is crucial to a town like Boone, and he is happy to aid it in any way possible.
“I love to see science and art coming together,” Gangloff said. “I think one of the coolest things about being a scientist is being able to help contribute to those kinds of efforts.”
Chloe Swanger, a senior art education major, has seen the combination of art and science manifest in her own work.
“The Hellbender mural shows creative ways to represent the salamanders in their native ecosystem,” Swanger said. “In one of my gen-ed art classes, I was directly inspired by the Hellbender mural to the extent of creating my own hellbender scratch drawing.”
Through contrasting colors, Johnston displays an array of organisms in the mural, representing the diverse ecosystem that surrounds hellbenders. The mural depicts crawdads, brook trout, an eastern belted kingfisher and green floater mussels — all of which are native to the Appalachian region.
However, hellbenders are not the only Appalachian native to be showcased at large in downtown Boone.
Just a few paces away, at the intersection of South Depot Street and Howard Street, rests a portrait mural of Doc and Merle Watson.
The grayscale mural of two local legends was created by artist Scott Nurkin and was drawn up in just a little over a week in 2023. This mural is an addition to the North Carolina Musician Murals project, which aims to feature impactful North Carolina musicians in their hometowns.
According to the downtown Boone website, Nurkin’s mural honors Doc and Merle Watson’s “indelible mark” on the musical scene in North Carolina.
“Humans of all walks of life enjoy viewing and interacting with public art, especially murals that they can pose in front of,” Swanger said. “I can’t count how many times I’ve seen pictures of any of the murals in town on social media with someone posing in front of it to prove they’ve been to Boone.”