The artist known as Christo is coming to Colorado.
Christo and his wife, Jeanne-Claude, are most recently known for their "The Gates, Central Park" project in New York' City in February.
The couple is now setting their sights on Colorado. They want to cover a six-mile stretch of the Arkansas River with huge pieces of clear fabric and call the project "Over the River."
They first have to meet with state and local officials and will be in Salida on Aug. 1.
The project was conceived nearly a decade ago and would take several more years to construct if the artists can get past considerable permit hurdles.
Christo and Jeanne-Claude have traveled around the world for 30 years, creating massive, temporary public installations -- including wrapping the Reichstag in Germany and surrounding 11 islands in Miami's Biscayne Bay with fabric.
The projects typically cost millions of dollars and take years to assemble. The couple pays for the entire projects themselves and take no money from the cities where they art is placed.
The "Over the River" work would consist of large fabric pieces suspended 10 to 23 feet above the Arkansas on a stretch roughly 20 miles west of Canon City. The canopy would be constructed in sections to leave room for bridges, boulders and other natural features.
The river would remain accessible to rafters, hikers and wildlife.
The plan is to set it up for two weeks sometime between mid-July and mid-August -- prime rafting season.
"It's going to bring a bazillion people here, and outfitters are going to be beside themselves figuring out how to get all those people on the river," said 22-year river veteran Carlos Grashof, head boatman for River Runners' Royal Gorge office.
If the project does move forward, this will not be Christo's first project in the state.
In 1972, he created the "Valley Curtain" which spanned a range near the town of Rifle on the Western Slope.
Christo's public art pieces are so big they can sometimes be seen from space.
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