“built one penny at a time”
It took a little over two years and more than 430 pounds of spare change to make it happen, but Randy Miller's vision finally became a reality.On a sunny Saturday afternoon, he put the finishing touches on what he hopes will be a new tourist destination in the city's downtown area that literally took shape one penny at a time. A local artist, Miller transformed a plain, cinder block wall of Kurly's sports bar and grill into a mural composed of spare pocket change. Known as the Penny Wall, it covers the upper half of the roughly 46-by-16 foot alleyway wall. "I'm glad it's done because there's a lot of meaning behind it," Miller said. In addition to having people come out and view this new display, he hopes it'll also encourage folks to stop by the different shops and businesses in this part of town. "If this helps Mountain Home, then I'm all for that," he said. The Penny Wall project started in August 2010 when Miller started collecting the gallons of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters needed to create the Mountain Home-specific artwork. The all-volunteer project remained on hold for a few months as he also stored up enough of the specialized glue needed to keep the coins permanently attached to the mural.
So I did pretty much zero research on this place when I went, so when I got there to discover the entire alley this mural is in is covered in beautiful artwork I was so pleasantly surprised. I ended up walking around and taking pictures of all the murals all up and down the alley. This is a very beautiful place to stop on your trip.
Great for fun photos and to get out and stretch your legs. Public parking across the street from the mural alley.
We like finding interesting things and stories on our road trips and this seemed like a great spot to check out! It was disappointing how people have pulled parts of the mural off the wall! It didn't look as good as the pictures and I don't think we would have stopped if we'd known it wasn't taken care of and had holes and gaps where people have vandalized.
It is what it is, a mural of pennies. The ally it was in had lots of neat murals though. We happened to stay the night near here for our trip and is the only reason we stopped to look. Wouldn't make a special trip for it.
My kids loved this alley of art. Not only did it have the Mural of Pennies, but there were other great painted murals as well. Sadly, there has been some vandalism to the penny mural and some disgraceful excuse for a human being removed a huge chunk that had "Idaho" on it. It was still fun to see.
It's in an alley filled with art and murals. A bit out of the way from the 84 but Mountain Home was a quaint town.
A little bit of artsy in an otherwise normal town. The added murals were a nice surprise as well. Quick stop to take pictures.
Very nice. Nice to read the plaque about why he did it. Reminds us to "Just do it". Change the world.
According to local news sources, Miller spent over two years planning and painstakingly gluing over 430 pounds of spare change -- mostly pennies -- to create a 300-square-foot mural. He finished on September 15, 2012. A "Wishing Wall" beneath the mural encourages visitors to affix their own pennies. Miller won't say how many pennies he used, but encourages school kids to figure it out.
Looks like it’s been up awhile and been through some rough weather because it’s falling apart.
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Mural of Pennies
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