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News in Brief

A dedication ceremony is planned Wednesday at the Red Brick Arts Center, where a bronze sculpture by James Earle Fraser, “End of the Trail,” will be placed on display.

The dedication is scheduled for 5 p.m., followed by a reception. The public is welcome.



The sculpture has been presented to Aspen in memory of Marge and Henry Stein by their daughters, Mary Dominick, Carolyn Shohet and Pat Spitzmiller.

The Stein family moved permanently to Red Butte Ranch on McLain Flats in 1952, after Henry purchased the property during a 1946 ski trip. The statue graced a granite rock between the Steins’ two homes. It was acquired after a long search by Henry in 1966 and is the third of six castings.




Fraser was a contemporary of Frederic Remington and Charles Russell, other artists whose works depicted the Old West. Fraser was also known for his design of the buffalo nickel.

The Red Brick Arts Center is located at 110 E. Hallam St.

U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, on a swing through the state, will stop Wednesday in Aspen to discuss the nation’s energy policy and alternative fuel in light of the energy bill President Bush recently signed.

Salazar will be at the Mountain Chalet conference room at 4 p.m.

The first-term Democrat and former Colorado attorney general will also discuss what effect the recent passage of the energy bill will have on Colorado.

MINTURN (AP) ” U.S. Forest Service crews plan to use wire brushes and maybe solvent to try to remove white arrows somebody spray painted on rocks to mark a trail through a wilderness area to the Mount of the Holy Cross.

The arrows mark a little-used descent route on one of the state’s 54 mountains over 14,000 feet.

“For over 100 years, people thought of this place as pristine, so the damage cuts to the core of the basic concept of wilderness,” said Beth Boyst, wilderness specialist for the White River National Forest. “For someone to deface this area is sad and offensive.”

She said the arrows often run next to a clearly visible path on a route that is much steeper and more difficult than the main route down the peak.

The mountain, named for its distinctive natural cross of snow on its east face, earned worldwide fame from 19th century photographs by William Henry Jackson.

Boyst said the use of spray paint to mark the trail was a federal offense punishable by a $5,000 fine.

RIFLE (AP) ” One of the natural-gas companies wanting to drill near the Roan Plateau has asked the Bureau of Land Management for permission to build a three-mile public access road through part of the area.

Williams Production RMT Co. wants to build the road below the plateau in an area where there are other roads and trails, said Jamie Connell, field manager of the BLM’s Glenwood Springs office. The road would improve access to Hubbard Mesa, two miles northwest of Rifle.

The BLM is working on a plan to guide management of gas drilling, off-road vehicle use and other uses of the 73,602 acres of public lands between Rifle and Parachute.

Connell said Williams is proposing to improve the existing two-track JQS Road to make a surface up to 24 feet wide that would reduce traffic through Rifle. The road would fit into any of the alternative management plans in the environmental impact statement, she said.

Connell said an environmental assessment will be prepared for the proposed road.