June 2025.
Rock Rapids, Iowa.

Last week’s Cellpic Sunday featured D.G. DeWaay, one of several people we saw depicted on murals during our recent trip to Rock Rapids. The city’s public art initiative honors local entrepreneurs and professionals. This week, we move just a few blocks away to the side of the Rock Rapids Theater, where another towering mural commands attention. The artwork honors a man whose empire was built on cattle, semis, and sale barns.

At first glance, I mistook him for John Wayne. The hat, the stance, and the dramatic sepia tones all felt straight out of a Western. But this isn’t Hollywood. It’s Tony Jansma, a real-life cattle buyer whose reach stretched from coast to coast. His mural doesn’t romanticize the frontier: it documents a life of relentless motion, sharp deals, and Midwestern grit. Jansma didn’t play a cowboy; he lived it, in boots and spreadsheets.

The mural paints a tableau of his life and the machinery behind his success. To the side, his father, Walter Jansma, offers a quiet nod to the business’s roots, the cattle, and the feedlots’ generational roots. A semi-trailer emblazoned with the Jansma name rumbles across the wall, symbolizing the thousands of miles crisscrossed in pursuit of cattle deliveries. Above it all, a company plane soars skyward; a reminder that Tony’s reach extended far beyond Iowa’s borders. Each element forms a visual ledger of a life spent in motion.

If Tony Jansma ever needed to cool his heels, he wouldn’t have had to go far. The old Rock Rapids Jail sits just a brick’s throw from his mural. Tucked beside the theater, this historic structure once kept the peace in town, one cell at a time. These days, it’s more of a backdrop than a booking station, quietly lending its charm to the mural’s Western vibe. No cattle rustlers here; just a reminder that every good cowboy tale needs a sheriff’s office within shouting distance.

About the photo: I captured the image in Pro Mode on my Samsung S23U, then imported the DNG file into Adobe Lightroom Classic. Using the Adaptive Profile, I adjusted exposure settings, then I cropped and straightened the image. Next, it was off to Luminar Neo, where I made a tweak with its Smart Contrast and Accent AI adjustment tools to complete the edit. If you’d like to examine the image in greater detail or check its metadata, click the image to view it on my Flickr site.

I invite fellow bloggers to join in by creating their own Cellpic Sunday posts. There’s no set theme—the only rule is that your photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or other mobile device. The second rule is simple: link your challenge response to this post or drop a comment here with your link so others can find it. And remember, despite the name, there’s no penalty for sharing on a day other than Sunday.

John Steiner