A wall in downtown Tooele bears the layered remnants of graffiti cleanup—evidence of the city’s ongoing effort to reclaim public space before murals began to take hold.
Tooele has had a graffiti problem. Walk through the town’s center and you’ll see signs of it—brick walls patched over with mismatched paint, ghostly traces of tags. The marks are subtle now, but they tell the story of a city trying to reclaim its surfaces.
The first major graffiti spree was halted in summer 2020, when an officer investigating an unrelated case recognized a tagging style at a suspect’s home. A second wave of vandalism struck in 2022, followed by another in the summer of 2023, when police received nightly reports of new graffiti for more than two months.
Evidence of this past vandalism can be seen all over the town center. But for now, at least, there are few if any signs of new graffiti.
While remnants of past tagging still linger downtown, there are few signs of new graffiti today. What you’ll find instead are murals—public art projects that began as a proactive response to the vandalism. When police encouraged businesses to install security cameras, some chose to fight illegal paint with sanctioned paint.
The first mural went up in 2021 on the side of Another Man’s Treasures on Vine Street. Created by local artist Marcus Medina, the mural depicts Tooele’s mining history and historic Engine #11. It was funded through city partnerships and marked the beginning of a broader revitalization effort through the Tooele Downtown Alliance.
Since then, murals have appeared across town—often modest in scale but rich in local pride—bringing color and identity to Tooele’s public spaces.
And murals are just the start.
Launched in 2022, the Buffalo Art Initiative has installed more than a dozen painted buffalo sculptures along Main Street, inspired by similar programs in other towns. The goal: draw visitors downtown, support local businesses, and raise funds for community events.
You’ll also find more traditional public artworks, including war memorials with realistic statues and a newly installed piece from Utah Arts & Museums at Tooele Technical College.
Still, plenty of blank walls remain—some scarred by the past, others waiting for what’s next. Could a Tooele mural festival be on the horizon? The town’s canvas is ready. The story’s just beginning.
Painted by local artist Marcus Medina, this mural on Vine Street was Tooele’s first major effort to counter graffiti with public art. It honors the city’s mining and railroad history and helped launch a broader revitalization effort led by the Tooele Downtown Alliance.
In this Tooele alleyway, near Virgs Restuarant (29 N Main St, Tooele, UT), sanctioned murals and graffiti cleanup meet face-to-face—one side vibrant with public art, the other marked by the scars of past vandalism.
A trio of murals on the side of the Eben-Ezer Church (30 W 100 South, Tooele) blend personal tribute, symbolism, and surrealism—from illustrated wings to a floral-faced portrait and a set of panels honoring local memories and icons like Kobe Bryant.
This mural on the rear south side of Beacon House Addiction Treatment Center (60 S. Main) was painted in 2023 by the Tooele Arts Guild.
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- “Proud” by Dan Snarr, was erected at Tooele’s Veterans Memorial Park,in November, 2016.
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- Tooele City Pioneer Memorial at the Tooele City Library.
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- “Seek On” by Marvin Hitesman, was installed in 2020 to honor veterans of the Vietnam War.
Avenoir Salon, 116 N 50 W, Tooele.
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- by April Jorgensen
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- by Josh Easling
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- by Karlee Bawden
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- by Maekayla Shirley Artist of the Cherokee Nation
On the corner of Main Street and 100 South, this trompe-l’oeil mural of Swan’s AG Market peels back time to reveal a slice of Tooele’s commercial history, blending nostalgia with artistry in one of the city’s most quietly evocative public artworks.
Modern Nobility, a new sculptural installation by Tiimo Mang at Tooele Technical College, each spire is grounded by a word reflecting the values taught at the school: integrity, gratitude, and resilience. This work is made possible by Utah Arts & Museums.
The worn textures of this Tooele wall frame a crisp logo for Anomaly Hair Co., offering a subtle play between contemporary branding and the raw beauty of the building’s historic facade. It’s one of many downtown walls that blend old surfaces with new life.
Muted panels of pastel paint on this expansive Tooele wall hint at an unfinished canvas—one of many bare surfaces around town that could someday host future murals, if a mural festival or public art expansion takes root.
With our In Plain Site byline we feature publicly viewable art, both official and street art, throughout the state of Utah.
Categories: In Plain Site | Visual Arts
Every so often I spot, off in the distance, a mural that I first saw in 15 Bytes, which gives both the reading and the viewing new perspectives. I like to point out that Banksy never says “My art . . . ” — he always says “My vandalism . . . ” —and he would want us to consider the social cost of defacing a public space. Is this place better for this effort, or worse? Tooele has clearly made the decision to intervene on behalf of the people who live and visit there.
Bravo!