1 / 6

Logan Von Hoene, his father and great-uncle work on removing tiles from a mural in Spanish Fork High School on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

2 / 6

Logan Von Hoene removes tiles from a mural in Spanish Fork High School on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

3 / 6

In this photo taken during the 1975-76 school year, Jane Anne Hallam, the grandmother of Logan Von Hoene, poses in front of the wall where the Spanish Fork High School tile mural would be placed.

Courtesy Logan Von Hoene

4 / 6

Logan Von Hoene, his father and great-uncle work on removing tiles from a mural in Spanish Fork High School on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

5 / 6

Logan Von Hoene's father works on removing tiles from a mural in Spanish Fork High School on Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

6 / 6

Logan Von Hoene's great uncle works to remove grout in between tiles on the Spanish Fork High mural Tuesday, April 30, 2024.

Carlene Coombs, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

A couple of days a week, Logan Von Hoene spends a couple of hours in the main gym at Spanish Fork High School, carefully chipping away at the iconic tile mural that serves as a memory of the SFHS class of 1976.

Von Hoene is on a time crunch, working to preserve the mural before the high school is torn down in less than a month as students prepare to move to the new high school that is wrapping up construction.

“I started this project because no one else was going to,” the 15-year-old said. “It was just going to be torn down with the school.”

Von Hoene’s grandmother, Jane Anne Hallam, was in the class of 1976, which raised the money to create the mural as part of their senior project.

Von Hoene said she was on the student council that year, and with 1976 being the 200th anniversary of America, they wanted to show they had “spirit.”

“They sold candy bars just to pay to have this done,” he said. “And this is where it’s hung for the last 48 years.”

In addition to the mural, the class of 1976 also found and brought “the rock” to the school, a large boulder that sits out front and is painted over and decorated several times throughout the academic year, making it a school staple.

The mural is several feet tall and sits in between two award cases in the school’s main gym, a building at the heart of the high school campus.

All put together, the white, gray, black and red tiles create an image of a Spanish Don, the school’s mascot, atop a horse with the words “Spanish Fork High School, Class of ’76” in red on the bottom.

Von Hoene has received the help of some family members, including his great-aunt and great-uncle along with his parents, in his work to preserve the artwork.

Together, they use tools to saw away at the grout in between each of the tiles and then come in after with a chisel to pry the individual tiles off the wall.

Von Hoene said they sort the tiles into bags, such as putting the gray background tiles in one bag and tiles that made up the “Class of ’76” in another.

He said some tiles have broken or been chipped along the way, but they’ve had a “pretty good success rate.” He added that he is hoping to find some replacement tiles once they are through.

Von Hoene said he first noticed the mural when he was in the building for a sporting event in the gym and snapped a photo because he thought it was cool. He later wondered what would happen to the artwork when the building was torn down.

He said he decided to email the school district, which told him they were going to “retire” the mural with the school. He then reached out to the principal and asked if he would be allowed to remove it himself and was told he could if he was willing to.

Spanish Fork High School was first built in the 1960s and is set to be torn down in June. The new school, which was built where the Spanish Fork Water Park was located before its removal, will have an open house and ribbon-cutting on May 20.

Von Hoene said he hopes to be able to find a place for the mural in the new school, but he’s also looking for help putting the mural back together.

His project has gotten many reactions from the community, with many commenting on social media thanking him for his work and even offering help.

He also created a Facebook group to document the progress. As of Wednesday, a large amount of the mural had been removed, with the center portion featuring the Don and horse still up.

Newsletter