Saturday, July 9, 2022

Lamar Station to Sheridan Station

There is an art walk from Lamar Station to Benton Street, just two blocks shy of Sheridan Station. It's part of the West 40 art district around Colfax Avenue. The green line on the pavement leads from the Lakewood Legacy Tree (see the Lakewood-Wadsworth Station to Lamar Station blog) to this piece just off Benton.

Dermal Plate Gateway was created by PUNCH, in MountAir park to commemorate Colorado's state dinosaur, the stegosaurus.

The Lamar Station end of the walk has this column with art pieces on all four faces.

This is one of 11 Story Totems in the area by Nestor Fedak. The panels change occasionally to keep the West 40 Art Line experience fresh and they light up at night.

These installations provide a free art and recreation experience for local people and visitors.

Denver has a thriving art community and there are so many pieces that I pass over simply because there are...well, so many pieces. I hope that I am encouraging residents of, and visitors to, Denver to tour the many art venues. You can usually find background information on the Internet. Try these sites.


And that doesn't even include aaaaall the major museums that you have to pay to see.

Don't forget that a gulch runs through it.

At this point near Sharidon Station, I'm following Dry Gulch, a nearby tributary of Lakewood Gulch. Sharidon Station is named for Sharidon Boulevard, part of Colorado highway 95. To the west is Jefferson County and to the east is Denver and Adams Counties. 

The street runs from Broomfield to the southern Denver suburb of Sheridan, named after the Civil War Lieutenant General Phil Sheridan (the one that marched to the sea and burned Georgia - you can see it in Gone With the Wind!) There were those who hoped for Fort Logan, in Sheridan, to be named Sheridan.

There's more about Sheridan, Colorado and Fort Logan in my January 25, 2017 blog, My Range.

The confluence of Dry and Lakewood Gulches is further east but they begin cutting deep banks in this area.

The creek bed is still muddy here. It shows how deep the stuff is that has been washed out of the Colorado Plateau to form the Rockies.

Sheridan Station has the train station under the bridge and the bus stop on top.

The primary art fixture is a space of streamers called "Gift of Rain", by John Flemming. The artist is from Seattle, Washington, so it's understandable that he would think of rain in the high desert.

The walls and columns of the bridge are also decorated with interesting relief depicting the surrounding grasslands.
A trail begins at Sheridan Station and, from the train, it looks like a series of parks with trails run along beside the light rail from here to Empower Field football stadium. That will make navigating these urban areas easier.

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