In 1963, Schaufus got a job as an engineer apprentice in Siegen, Germany, and lived there for almost two years. In his free time, he traveled by train to explore the city that interrupted his college education.
The leftover landscape of World War II and the dramatic contrast between east and west Berlin left a profound impact on him.
“I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” he said.
When he retired in 2006, Schaufus made a series of trips to photograph the people and villages of East Germany. In 2015, he turned those stories and photographs into a coffee table book called Am Ende Der Straße Links.
“It means, ‘At the end of the street, go left’,” said Schaufus. “It’s a play on words meaning left as to socialism and communism.”
Schaufus finished his degree at Mesa in 1966 and his bachelor’s at the University of the Americas in New Mexico in 1972, before moving to Longview, Washington. He has resided there since 1978.
While visiting Grand Junction in the ’90s, Schaufus was quite impressed by how Main Street had changed, and how Art on the Corner had dramatically added to the cultural landscape of downtown. He was particularly fascinated by Lou Willie’s “Chrome on the Range,” the buffalo sculpture that sits in front of Wells Fargo Bank.
“I came back with that idea and just sat on it for a while, but when I retired I realized I had the time to really apply that same idea to our downtown,” he said.
Schaufus co-founded the Longview Outdoor Gallery, which provides a rotating exhibit of outdoor sculptures in downtown Longview and acquires new pieces for the City of Longview’s permanent art collection.
By the town’s centennial in 2023, the board aims to donate 23 permanent sculptures to line the town’s two main streets. •