"The Chautauqua Dome was the predecessor to the current Allen Elizabethan Theatre, located at the entrance to what is now Lithia Park. Once a popular cultural institution, this overgrown dome became the egg that 'hatched' the idea for Angus Bowmer to build a new Globe Theatre on its foundation.
It was also once the site for Ashland Mills, the town’s namesake. Yet the roots grow much deeper here, as we look beneath the surface to discover the sacred place called ‘Where the Crow Lights’ - an ancient Shasta village.
Ashland cast a spell on me long ago. Just walking through Lithia Park at twilight I feel like I’m in a Maxfield Parrish landscape. The sweet creek sparkles through ancient trees and woodland rocks.
There’s enchantment here. I'm not talking mystical vortexes, but about the remnants of ancestral land. Here are the tended gardens of a people that cherished this place for thousands of years. Forest animals and fish, descendants of a co-created ecosystem, still dwell here. There's countless bones beneath us, but healing all around us. The crows still fill the sky at sunset, as they return once again to their home up the valley. It's our heritage.
In this ever-evolving design concept, the plants are reclaiming the dome building, creating a celestial, oak canopy. As I continue to learn from the descendants of our land’s ancestors, I begin to understand that it's not just about preserving nature, but more the responsibility of becoming part of that nature, reclaiming and repairing the world. That we are nature.
This mural suggests a rebuilding and reconnection of this enchanting place. It unfolds a resurgence of harmony as we begin to heal this garden. As the camas grows back in the glens, so do we, nurturing and being nurtured. "
- John Pugh
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