Christo vs. Colorado

Known professionally by his first name, Christo is famous for draping entire buildings, valleys and New York's Central Park in colorful fabric. Now, at age 75, he's trying to convince a swath of southern Colorado to let him temporarily suspend flat sections of silvery fabric over a 42-mile-long stretch of the area's Arkansas River. For two weeks, people will be able to drive alongside this mirror-like ribbon or raft underneath it, he says. He has spent $7 million and 18 years working out the logistics of the project, "Over The River," and he is campaigning hard for the permits to pull it off. Christo is a hot topic in the region: Admirers are eager for the global attention and tourism dollars the artwork could draw in; detractors worry such a circus could clog traffic, disrupt the river and spook wildlife. The main opposition group, Rags Over The Arkansas River, calls Christo an eco-terrorist. Last month, the federal Bureau of Land Management held a weeklong series of hearings in a few towns along the river's edge in Colorado so that locals could debate the project's potential impact on the environment...more