Where we differ is that you can consider this an “art project” and I simply don’t see it. I think it’s more related to litter or graffiti, with the saving grace that it’s removed.

It’s quite complicated. I’d have to pull out my land maps of the area to see if the project is on public or private ground. Anyway, the art project will be anchored on the banks and suspended above the river, so it is the ownership of the banks that is important in this art project. Then there is the railroad which runs through the canyon, whose right-of-way controls a wide swath on the northern side. The Department of Wildlife is also intersested as this is an important area for the bighorn sheep, deer, and other critters. The department of transportation also has a say. Traffic can be a nightmare in the canyon on the best of days (it is a two lane highway with lots of curves and few passing lanes or pullouts for parking. Add several thousand new visitors and there is a big problem.

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It’s an unnecessary desecration of the area with no purpose, done just to show it could be done.

I realize some people don’t value such areas, and believe any exploitation is better than no exploitation. That’s the only way this sort of thing can happen.

Sure as heck it would put a lot of artists on the spot.

And who decides?

The people who live there issued permits for a privately-financed project. Who else’s business should it be?

Now if this were a public art project, you’d have something to hang an objection on.

I would see if differently if I could see any socially redeeming value, or any value at all. And the lack of business in the area is what makes it special.

Leave the river alone. All manner of living things in it need access to sunlight. I swear this is one of those Emperor and clothes issues, and this man is not an artist nor are his creations art.

I may have exposed my ignorance, or I may have exposed his. But I can’t imagine why anyone would give him a permit to do this to a river.

One, because I was just a boy when his first project in Colorado, a curtain across the Rifle Gap ended in spectacular failure from hign winds.

Two, because I know that canyon so well. I’ve driven that road more times than I can count. I was employed to map its geology many years ago. I’ve been up damn near every side canyon, I know every back road, and I’ve a six inch scar on the back of my thigh from a mis-step on a slick rock as a memento of my time there.

If they build it, I’ll go see it. I plan on taking one of those back roads, a road that is more a trail, up to an old quarry perched several hundred feet above the river, where the view should be amazing.

However, I think it is silly. The canyon and river don’t need embellishment. On this the bighorn sheep and I are in agreement.