KINGFISHER — Farming machinery never looked better.

Blue skies, wheat fields and a tire swing in the distance adorn the west wing of Chisholm Trail Museum. The images are part of an 8-foot-by-32-foot mural called “In Other Times,” painted by Kingfisher residents Mary Turner, Sue Miller and Judy Pannell and Loyal resident Alice Wahling.

“The ladies who painted it are heavenly,” said Renee Mitchell, curator for the museum. “I can still remember them, the chatter, the fun they had.”

The mural was part of a project that originally began three years ago.

“This has been something we had wanted to do for a long time,” Mitchell said. The museum’s board members desired to spruce up the west wing of the museum which is home to farming machinery from yesteryear. Mitchell said many people would zoom on through the wing without giving much of a glance to all the antique implements.

Eight particle board panels were mounted and a base coat was applied to the canvas, but it took two years to secure the artists. In March 2005, Miller was approached to do the mural and she invited Turner, Pannell and Wahling to join her.

“We all belong to Kingfisher Brush and Palette Club,” Miller said. “I asked them if they would help. They liked the challenge.”

“When these girls agreed to come in and do it, I was so excited to see some color and depth to the west wing,” Mitchell said.

In April 2005, she said they started from either end of the canvas and worked their way to the middle. The women wanted Mitchell to give them direction, but she told them all she wanted in the mural was something related to farming machinery.

“Basic ideas were tossed about. It was constantly a mystery,” Mitchell said. “People would come by and contribute ideas. It was rather comical.”

“Farmers who had been there, done that” gave the women pointers on particular aspects. “We appreciated the help we could get,” Miller said.

The women would find a picture of a piece of farming equipment from the museum’s files, scan it and project it on the canvas to be sketched and painted.

“We knew we wanted a wheat field. Mary had the picture of her house, how it was when her and her brothers were little,” Miller said, so the women chose to paint an old farm house based on Turner’s original homestead.

Mitchell said they painted and repainted certain objects such as the dirt road, thrasher and wagon.

“Should that be bigger or that be smaller?” Pannell said the women repeatedly asked each other. “We’re never happy. We always find something we could do different.”

Details were added toward the end, including a tire swing, a cat in the window and a barn door.

“Each one had their own significant part,” Mitchell said. “They really traded back and forth.”

The project took more than a month to complete because the women could only come certain days to paint. Miller is an art teacher and Turner and Wahling farm.

“We didn’t have a lot of time. Mary wanted to get it done before harvest time. We decided we’d get it done,” Miller said. The mural was finished in the middle of May.

Miller, Turner, Pannell and Wahling were honored in November during the museum’s annual board meeting. Photographs were taken and replicas of the mural were mounted and given to the artists as gifts.

Everyone was saddened when Turner died Feb. 5, 2006.

“We didn’t know she was sick (initially),” Pannell said. “She never let on she didn’t feel good.”

Nearly a year has passed since the mural was completed and people take time to browse the west wing more, Mitchell said.

“We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on it,” Miller said.

Chisholm Trail Museum, 605 Zellers Ave. (five blocks west of U.S. 81), is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Admission is free. Chisholm Trail Museum is a member of Oklahoma Historical Society.