Title: Temperance

Year: 1992

Artist: Dan Sawatsky, Chemainus, British Columbia

Location: 137 South H St. (north side of building)

Description: Lompoc was founded in 1874 as a temperance colony, but all the dynamite in the valley and mobs of ax-wielding women couldn’t keep liquor out of town. A fierce lompoc housewife named Mrs. J.B. Pierce appointed herself Lompoc’s Carrie Nation and gathered a band of ladies to fight the evils of alcohol. In 1883 they were a part of a vigilante committee that strung a rope around a building, yanked it off its foundation and pulled it for a block – booze spilling out as it went. As years passed, the “wets” grew in number and eventually the courts nullified the no-booze restrictions.

The murals of Chemainus provided the inspiration for the Lompoc Murals Project. This mural recalls Lompoc’s early days as a temperance colony in the 19th century. In an effort to keep Lompoc “dry,” more than one keg of whiskey met its demise at the business end of an axe.