Mick McMurry’s Vision of Cowboy Ethics Unveiled in Casper

Mick McMurry's imprint on Casper, and indeed, the state of Wyoming, is almost impossible to measure. And his success and spirit can probably be both explained and summed up in a book that was one of his favorites.

It's called "Cowboy Ethics: What Wall Street Can Learn From The Code Of The West" by J.P. Owen. Owen is a 35-year Wall Street veteran who felt the practices exposed by the banking fiascos that lead to the last recession were the result largely of unethical behavior that, in another time, wouldn't have been tolerated.

And that simple, very Wyoming philosophy resonated with Mick McMurry and moved him to plan a project for the new Nerd YMCA then being planned for the corner in front of Casper College.

Facing the street is a 900 foot wall that McMurry wanted to line with illustrations of the key 10 points of the Cowboy Code of Ethics.

He approached renowned children's book illustrator Zachary Pullen to do the large paintings using events from McMurry's life as touch points for each element of the code.

Filmmaker Lance Madzey was at the unveiling on Monday evening, and kindly let us use his video of the event.