Editing Liberty, Tennessee (section)

==Allen Bluff Mule==
[[File:Liberty tn mule.jpg|right|thumb|200px|The Allen Bluff Mule]]
The "Allen Bluff Mule" is a painting of a mule on a limestone bluff on [[U.S. Route 70 in Tennessee|U.S. Route 70]] in Liberty. Some residents say a local man named Lavader Woodard painted the mule; other residents contend that it was painted as an advertisement of a local stock farm. Dr. Wayne T. Robinson has claimed to be the original painter of the Liberty Mule: 
<blockquote>In early October 1906, I climbed up the face of the Allen Bluff to a ledge and with some coal tar made a flat picture of a character from a famous comic strip of that day. Everybody remembers Maud, the mule. That was 51 years ago, and even though it has been exposed to the elements and to nearby earth-shaking explosions, erosion has dimmed it very little. On the same bluff is the name of Will T. Hale, which was inscribed about 85 years ago.<ref>[http://tngenweb.org/dekalb/histories/mule/mule.htm "Historian unravels Liberty Mule mystery"] by Thomas G. Webb, DeKalb County Historian, ''The Smithville Review'' November 11, 2006.</ref>
</blockquote>

By this account, Dr. Robinson painted the original mule while a 21-year-old college student inspired by Maud the Mule, from the [[Frederick Burr Opper]] comic strip ''[[And Her Name Was Maud]]''.

In 2003, Liberty residents became upset that an expansion of U.S. 70 to a four-lane road could threaten the mule painting. The residents started a letter writing campaign to the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Supporters of the mule also placed signs along the roadway stating "Save the Mule." Ultimately the road expansion was far enough away from the mule, that it was never in any danger.