Robert Bolton/Pioneer
A Civil War mural depicting the Oklahoma battle of Honey Springs is displayed in the courtyard of the Main Building. The 12 x 32 foot depiction was created by Visual Arts professor Mary Ann Moore and past students.

When Mary Ann Moore, Visual Arts professor, and some of her past students decided to decorate the college’s courtyard with tile murals depicting monumental moments in Oklahoma’s history, one moment they chose was the battle of Honey Springs, which took place in Oklahoma during the Civil War and was the largest battle in Indian Territory.

“My students and I created the tiles and actually installed the walls,” Moore said. “All those little pieces were put on one at a time. The wall itself is 12 by 32.

“The Honey Springs wall we especially did a lot of research on,” she said. “We wanted to get it right because if it wasn’t, it was actually written in stone.”

Moore said she and her students attended reenactments and spoke with many people from the Historical Society prior to its actual construction.

“There was students and volunteers from the community helping to accomplish the task,” she said.

Despite the immensity of the project, Moore said, it depicts a love of art.

“Art should be so much a part of our lives,” she said.“We looked at this project in the beginning and it was like enormous — four walls, 12 by 32 feet — and I thought ‘Well, we can do it. We can do it one stone at a time.’”

To contact Priscilla Colley, email staffwriter2@occc.edu.