Robert Dafford shows Vicksburg Christian Home Educator students from left, Hunter Williams, Kelsey Grover, Caleb Cresswell and Maggie Grover a photograph that he used for the mural of Teddy Roosevelt and his legendary bear hunt. Sponsored by International Paper, the mural will be unveiled May 3 at 11 a.m. (Melanie Duncan ThortisThe Vicksburg Post)

[4/16/03]The first of two new murals being painted on the floodwall at City Front will be completed by the end of the week, according to artists at the scene.

The depiction of the famous Teddy Roosevelt bear hunt near Onward is sponsored by International Paper and is the third mural being done by Robert Dafford of Dafford Murals in Lafayette, La. The next in the series of 14 is a rendering of the inside of the Biedenharn Candy Co., where Coca-Cola, then a fountain drink, was first bottled for “take-out” in 1894.

The second mural, sponsored by descendants of Joseph Biedenharn, is under way and is expected to be finished by the first of May. Both works began last week, but Herb Roe, a member of the team of artists on the project, said the Biedenharn mural will take longer because of the detail in the painting.

“That one has 50 pieces of machinery that have to be drawn in,” Roe said.

Roosevelt, president at the time, came to Smedes Plantation near Onward in the South Delta in 1902. A Northern cartoonist’s depiction of a scene in which he refused to shoot a bear cub that had been corralled for him resulted in a toy maker dubbing a toy bear “Teddy.” Since then, stuffed toy bears worldwide are known as teddy bears.

Each panel on the floodwall, which shields lower portions of downtown from flooding by the Yazoo Diversion Canal, is being sold for a mural. The $15,000 price to produce a scene is funded by a sponsor. Other murals completed last year by Dafford are a depiction of a 1907 waterfront scene including the Belle of the Bends steamboat, sponsored by Ergon Refinery, and a view of Washington Street in the early 1900s, sponsored by Calsonic Kansei of Mississippi.

The City of Vicksburg has also sponsored two murals through a state grant.

The Vicksburg Riverfront Murals Committee headed by Nellie Caldwell also raises money for the murals by selling prints of the paintings at various downtown shops. Two more murals are planned for this fall.

The Sisters of Mercy are sponsoring one, and the city is seeking another state grant for the second, Caldwell said.