“And this also has been one of the dark places of the earth.”
– Joseph Corad, Heart of Darkness
In the midst of asphalt ribbons the Flying Red Horse took aloft, his neon glow crowning the convergence of Highways 5 and 169 in electric vermillion. He was Pegasus – that symbol of freedom, transcendence, and imagination who once nearly bore man to Olympus, and who has also soared over purveyors of fine engine lubricants.
But the Flying Red Horse did far more than herald Mobil’s arrival to our fair city in 1936.
To locals, he was a beacon; an anomaly in their vegetable garden of a city, where the first light bulb had flickered to life only 12 years prior. He greeted them home from the highways, and beckoned them to enjoy the amenities within his little triangular dominion named “The Wye”: a gas station, and the aptly named Wye Café where pie et al. awaited.
He was no less a welcome sight to aviators. Navy pilots in training sought his guidance during their returns to the rough runway where Pappy Grill once grew asparagus. He would go on to announce fortuitous conclusions to many a commercial flight’s journey to Flying Cloud Airport.
And then, one fateful day – poof – he vanished.
“Jesse Schwartz Sr. bought the gas station in 1956 after having worked there for 20 years,” said Kathie Case, president of the Eden Prairie Historical Society. “In 2008, Jesse Jr. sold the operation to Holiday, which quite obviously had no use for a towering (and by then long defunct) Mobil logo.”
The Flying Red Horse wasn’t gone, however. He had merely been sent to the stable, where he would remain until 2013 when Katie Schwartz, Jesse Sr.’s granddaughter, graciously donated him to a city which wasn’t quite sure what to do with him.
“The Eden Prairie Historical Society gladly accepted the Flying Red Horse, of course,” said Kathie. “We may not have had money set aside to restore him or proper land ready to display him on, but it’s not like a beloved historic monument falls into our laps every day.”
The City of Eden Prairie found a safe place for the Flying Red Horse while plans were laid out. A joint effort between the Heritage Preservation Commission, Parks and Recreation Department, Historical Society, and city government commenced that would find him a suitable new home, create for him an information kiosk, and restore him to his original state of equiluminescent splendor. Thus refurbished, the Flying Red Horse was installed adjacent to his original location at the intersection of Flying Cloud Drive and Town Center Place in February, 2025.
“We were honored to welcome the Schwartz family to the Flying Red Horse’s dedication ceremony on June 17th,” said Kathie. “Reuniting so many locals with such a strong shared memory also means a lot to us. The Wye was quite the popular hangout over the years; a nexus point in our community, where more than a few romances budded between the gals working at the cafe and the guys working at the gas station.
“Interestingly, a lot of people insisted we hadn’t restored the right sign. Could it have been an impostor? Katie set the record straight. It turns out the gas station received a new sign front whenever the previous one wore out, or franchises changed. The Flying Red Horse may have had many faces over the decades, but the original from 1936 still lies beneath all those façades.”
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