A pair of murals were recently restored for the Port Orford Visitor Center and it provided mural artist Darren Evans an excellent opportunity to provide a design and an informational refresh on the two beautiful artworks. New discoveries had come to light since the artist first created the murals in 2015.

Karen Auborn of Port Orford Main Street with the newly installed murals in 2015.
Kitty Million and Susan Russell of Port Orford Main Street get a sneak peek of the newly restored murals at the Point.B Studio Gallery.
Artist Darren Evans explains his artistic process to Port Orford Main Street.

The nameplate of the first mural was updated to provide more accurate details of the town’s original “founding” date. The wording of the murals went through several iterations with native language experts on the original placenames of landmarks represented on the murals. This was a concept that the artist first introduced in 2015 and he wanted to perfect it on the mural refresh.

Photos by Rebecca Malamud-Evans.
A “thank you” from Port Orford Main Street.
New tees based on the mural are available at the historic sites!

One mural had to be completely recreated. The second was in need of restoration after ten years of exposure to the marine elements. The process of restoration began with the artist recreating details from the first mural as exact as possible. The frame was hand-built and custom routed by the artist to match the original and a gray base was applied to provide a neutral canvas for the overlaying colors. Both murals needed to be viewed side-by-side to ensure the palettes matched across the two paintings as in the original design. Needless to say a large room was needed for this and the first floor of Point.B Studio provided the perfect venue. The building, first constructed in 1925, was originally a garage so it was fun to have it return to its intended functionality.

Reconstructing Mural One
Alan Mitchell visits the Point.B Mural Studio

Several layers of glaze were applied to the mural to provide added protection and it gave the newly restored murals an added illusion of depth which can now be seen at the Port Orford Visitor Center.

Port Orford Visitors Center - Mural One
Mural One
Mural Two

The two murals provide an interesting exercise for learning original placenames for the area:

Native PlacenameEnglish TranslationEnglish Placename
Tr’ee-ghii-‘aa-dvn
Port Orford
K’wvt-daa-me’
People of Port Orford 
Lhuu-k’e mii-pashSalmon Cheek*Humbug Mountain
Maa-naa-xe SeeGood mussels North Side*Battle Rock
T’uu-du-dv-nePeople of this area*
Bvn-yv-k’wvtFingernail Upon*Cape Blanco
Sv-k’we 
Sixes River
Sv-k’wee- che
Mouth of Sixes River
Gus-shu-meCamas inElk River


Garrison Lake Area
Yaa-shuu-che’dv-ne
People of the south side of the mouth of Rogue River
Che-me’-dv-ne
people of the north side of Rogue River
T’uu-du-dv-ne
Name for people of North Curry County and Lower Rogue


Garrison Lake Area


“The Heads” of P.O.


Any other beach names, coves, bay area names, rock names?
Original Tutuni Place, Tribal, River names ~ Work in Progress. Thanks to Rick, Jaeci and Nick.
* English translations provided are uncertain at this time.