GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — As a deadline to move Green Bay's coal piles arrives, a local muralist is showing the city landmark — and an iconic photo of them — in a new way.
- The mural is located at 305 S. Broadway, in the alley to the rear of the building
- Thomas has been painting murals on the building for five years — his work can be found here
- Video shows the story behind the photo straight from the horse's mouth, as we spoke to the man in the orange ski gear
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story, with additional details added for web)
Local leaders have been trying to move the coal piles for decades — but the piles themselves have become a piece of local lore.
Watch Karl Winter's full story here:
Yes, the coal piles along the Fox River are a landmark, standing right there since before the turn of the 20th century. And once, a man climbed up the piles, and skied down them, creating an iconic photo of Green Bay's skyline. And now — new excitement, more than three decades later.
"There was a ton of mystery around it," Beau Thomas said. "Who was it? When was it taken? How did they get it done? And, you know, some of those questions popped up that that made this such a fun image to work with and paint.
In a nondescript alley on South Broadway — there's a new masterpiece.
Artist Beau Thomas was inspired by a photo — and decided to paint it, over the course of a week, working about six hours per day.
"I think it's just such a great image of Green Bay, and Green Bay history, and making the best with what you have around you," Thomas said.
He was not paid for the project, but he does make murals professionally.
"Hopefully I'm creating something beautiful where nothing was," Thomas said.
On Thursday, Thomas met the man in the photo himself — fellow Green Bay native Steve Thoe — for the first time.
Thoe says he and his friends shot the photos for fun — sometime in the late 1980s or early 1990s. He says the photos actually took place on coal piles just north of the Mason Street bridge, which are no longer there. The photographer was on the bridge.
"It wasn't to demean Green Bay at all," he said. "It was, you know, basically to promote it, we thought."
The photo was inspired by a 'Ski Iowa' poster and a video of people trying the same thing in Kentucky, according to Thoe.
"We were sitting around having a little — I used to play a bluegrass band — having a pickin' party," Thoe said. "And my buddy said, 'hey, we should do a poster about that.' And so we did. We got together and climbed up the pile, and rest is history."
He threw on a pair of beat-up skis, and hoped for the best.
"[We] snuck in there," Thoe said. "There was no gate at the time."
The photo took two takes, destroying the skis in the process. The ensuing 'Ski Green Bay' prints were not popular at first, so Thoe and his friends sold them at bars.
"We'd give a poster to the bartender, he would circulate it throughout the bar, and we would maybe sell 20-30 posters in a night," he said. "And that's how we got rid of most of them."
Since then, the posters have become more coveted locally — even in a Green Bay ski shop, Zeller's Ski & Sports.
"I snapped it up as soon as I could get it," Zeller's general manager Ben Vander Zanden said. Vander Zanden shows off the print, which he bought from a customer more than a decade ago.
"There's a few things iconic, that everyone recognizes in Green Bay: Lambeau Field — [and the] coal piles, I guess is one of them," he said.
Whether the piles move soon — from their perch across the river from the ski shop — or not, the photo and accompanying mural will immortalize them.
"I respect the business that's been there for 100 years," Thomas said. "And industry is is important to our area. That's how a lot of people feed their families, so [I've] got to respect that. But a lot of neighborhoods surround these coal piles, and I think the majority of people, want them gone."
"What an artist, and what a talent," Thoe said of Thomas.
Steve says people have asked him recently to make more 'Ski Green Bay' prints, but he says it's not happening. So, the few thousand (2,500, according to Steve) printed originally, are the only ones out there.
