Auburn unveiled its newest splash of color Tuesday with the dedication of the White River Trail mural, a 317-foot painting adorning the wall separating the trail from A Street Southeast.

The mural is the brainchild of the Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation Department, which commissioned Tacoma artist Rachel Dotson to design it. Dotson, along with Auburn Riverside teacher Gina Sandland, led several of the high school’s visual communications students in the mural’s creation.

Although many of the school’s viscom students participated in spray painting the mural, Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis honored a core group of five students at Tuesday’s dedication – freshmen Shelby Beaucage, Madison Moore and Ashley Redinger and seniors Nick Langel and Mercedes Garcia.

“You’ve done a wonderful thing. You’ve transformed part of the city,” Lewis told the students at the ceremony.

Sandland thanked the City and the Auburn arts commission, praising them for giving the students the opportunity.

“How cool to be able to give the kids a chance to do this,” she said. “It’s really hard to get an opportunity for high school students to do something this large, especially with spray paint.”

The quarter-mile extension of the White River Trail opened in December of 2010, completing the five-mile loop of the trail that starts at the Game Farm Wilderness campsite and terminates near Ilalko Elementary School off A Street Southeast.