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Did Basalt cow get capped?

Scott Condon
Aspen Times Staff Writer

It was mysterious enough when a black-and-tan cow disappeared from East Valley Road in Basalt sometime Sunday night. It was downright sinister when a smiling green gecko a short way away on Willits Lane turned up missing Monday morning.

The gecko and cow were products of Sunny Harrison’s Basalt High School art class. The plywood cutouts were made for the Basalt public works department as “traffic calming devices.” The brightly colored objects were placed on various roads last month to try to get motorists to gawk and slow down.

The gecko braved frigid temperatures and Saturday’s blizzard to attend to his duties. The cow always kept a smile regardless of her moo(d).



When they turned up missing yesterday morning, Bob Byram of the public works department tested a hunch. “My first thought was to check out the shooting range. I thought someone might have popped a couple of caps into the cow,” he said.

No sign of skullduggery was found at the shooting range. Byram is optimistic the animals are alive and well. “If they’d just put them back, we’d appreciate it,” he said.




So far a mermaid, a monkey in a palm tree and another palm tree still grace the streets.

[Scott Condon’s e-mail address is scondon@aspentimes.com]