Small Town, Big Mural, Bigger Community Pride!
Linn, Kansas, a town of just 387 residents, sits along Highway 15 in southern Washington County. Don’t let Linn’s population numbers fool you; this town packs a big punch when it comes to community pride. In 2025, the Paint the Town Mural Project started a fundraising effort to paint a mural on a silo owned by the Herrs family. In just one year, the committee raised just over $73,000. A $5,000 starting donation from the City of Linn kicked off the effort, followed by a flood of donations from individuals and businesses in Linn and across the region.
In August 2026, Mindy with Mindy’s Murals got to work on the massive 36-by-60-foot mural. Mindy worked closely with organizers of the Paint the Town Mural Project to ensure the mural reflected the town’s heritage. The mural features recognizable imagery from the area, including an iconic Washington County Creamery truck.
We talked with Teresa Penning of Washington, who sits on the Paint the Town committee and serves as the City Clerk for Linn. She shared why it was important to the community to showcase the history of the Washington County Creamery.
“The Washington County Creamery was based in Linn, but the trucks would drive to rural farms across the area to collect the cream and eggs,” said Penning.
The Washington County Creamery opened in June of 1921. By June of 1955 the creamery was at its peak and produced 340,000 pounds of butter, a stat attributed to Firman Brandt during a radio interview on KCLY. It’s an impressive statistic that shows just how much of an impact the creamery had on the region. Though the creamery closed in 1969, its legacy and impact on the area live on at the Washington County Creamery Museum, located in Linn, Kansas.
The creamery and the area’s local dairy industry heritage now also live on through Mindy’s mural. Though it had only been completed a week earlier, the mural already stands as a testament to what public art can do for a community. Penning said others in the community have been inspired to continue the sense of pride the mural has brought, and a number of other projects have already been sparked throughout the community. Photos by Tanner Colvin and Mindy's Murals
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