Quanah mural to honor the last Comanche chief

QUANAH, Texas (KAUZ) - Downtown Quanah is where an artist is bringing a special mural to life that will honor the last Comanche chief. The best part of it all his connection to it.

News Channel 6 Chief Photojournalist Joseph Saint has more on the story.

“It’s a complete honor, you know, to be in this town, to be an actual named Quanah myself, you couldn’t plan it any better,” Quanah Parker Burgess, the artist, said.

Burgess is a descendent of the last Comanche Chief, Quanah Parker, and right now, he is painting a mural in downtown Quanah, TX in honor of not only the city but the legacy of the Comanche people. He hopes those that see the mural walk away feeling a sense of pride for Quanah.

“I want them to feel a sense of power of our past, the Comanche people,” Burgess said. “This is something that it may have vivid colors but it still has all the traditional values as far as painting style and telling a story.”

“Quanah has a very unique past, especially with unique individuals like Quanah Parker, Captain Bill McDonald and one of the things we looked at was we wanted a cornerstone piece to bring people to the city, to bring them off Highway 287 and bring them to historic downtown Quanah,” Shane Lance, with the Quanah Economic Development Corporation, said.

One of the things that was most important to Quanah was they wanted to mural to be a work of art that would engage people by visually telling a story.

“The teaching opportunity is just the visual of how we were on horseback, the spirituality and I try to tie that all into my paintings,” Burgess said. “Just the simple details from the moccasins to the headdress, just that itself can convey a lot to the viewer.”

If you would like to see the mural in person, a dedication ceremony will be held Saturday, June 11, 2022, at noon.