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Show i y -' ; ... ... I i :-" ' ' v . "M. iC.;.--'---:.- . ' f Ron Kierstead and Merle Prince display ceramic pot with inscription" in-scription" Dare to Dream the Panguitch Pavilion of Native History" His-tory" as they start Panguitch Pavilion fund raising campaign. Fund Raising Begins On Panguitch Pavilion Kicking off the initial fund raising rais-ing campaign to build the Panguitch Pangui-tch Pavilion of Native History, artist and product developer Ron Kierstead and Garfield County Economic Eco-nomic Development Director Merle Prince started with a letter-writing campaign to current and former Panguitch residents with close ties to the community seeking funds. Each donor will receive a piece of sandstone etched with "I helped create cre-ate the Panguitch Pavilion of Native Na-tive History." The proposed pavilion could run between $3 and $5 million with Panguitch City committed thus far to $50,000. It is the brainchild of Kierstead, owner of a petroglyph reproduction re-production business, Current Creations, Cre-ations, Inc., Salt Lake City. Kierstead Kier-stead has developed a unique sandblasting sand-blasting technique that mimics ancient an-cient Indian petroglyph art. He uses his creative technique on sandstone sand-stone to produce an accurate copy with an authentic texture. The Panguitch Pavilion will be a living museum, involving robotics, recreating ancient Indian cultures of Utah. They will take the viewer back in time to the beginning be-ginning of the cultures, moving forward through their rise, peak and ultimate decline. The museum will also offer archaeological education and research facilities, a western art gallery and gift shop. It will also accept anonymous donations of illegal il-legal private collections of Indian artifacts to be classified, docu- men ted and displayed. The museum will also reproduce for posterity large-scale reproductions reproduc-tions of petroglyphs located around the state that are being devastated by time and vandalism. Just last week, Jack Ockey of the Economic Development Administration Admin-istration office in Salt Lake City and Mary Kathryn Alspach from the Denver Regional Office of Economic Eco-nomic Development traveled to Panguitch to make an inspection of the site for the proposed project at the old Panguitch High School building.. In addition, Kierstad meets this week with representatives representa-tives of the Utah State Historic Preservation Office. They are looking look-ing into possible placement of the old high school building on the state historic register with access to funding to renovate and conduct preservation on the building inside and out. Kierstead first approached Pan- I guitch City with his idea for establishing estab-lishing a museum of native history in the old Panguitch High School building back in August 1991. The museum would mesh the display of Anasazi history with the most innovative in-novative concepts in design and robotics. The proposed museum is i expected to be an American variation varia-tion of an Englih exhibit of ancient Viking art at York, England. 1 '. See Pavilion Page 6A i Panguitch Pavilion Fund From Page 1 Kierstead had the idea to work his Anasazi portrayal of Indian life into the museum using robotics. He visualized the museum visitor walking into different sets where robot Indians would speak to them their life, their habits, their culture. Fascinated by the concept's possibility possi-bility with the new technology available, he picked up the phone book and found Sarcos, Inc. the parent company of Animate Systems, Sys-tems, Inc. Sarcos does the research and development and Animate does research, development and marketing market-ing for the robotics firm, -The two companies and their technology were tied up with Army and Navy contracts and with Walt Disney Productions. They had created over 100 robots for Walt Disney in the states and 80 for the new Disneyland in Paris. They were able to obtain a release to allow some time to begin working with Kierstead to develop his Anasazi Indian In-dian robots concept. Panguitch City Council was very receptive but wanted to know public opinion so advertised and held a public meeting on Sept. 26, 1991. By December, the Panguitch City Council decided to form a special spe-cial service district to oversee the project. Ken Sizemore with the Five County Association of Governments Govern-ments researched and wrote the grant application for Economic Development De-velopment funds with was signed by John Williams in February of this year. As a result of that appli cation the representatives from Salt Lake City and Denver made their trip to Panguitch for an on-site inspection in-spection of the facility and the area. Kierstead, who was born in Panguitch, grew up in an Air Force family, so they moved frequently. He lived in Panguitch until he was six and then returned home anytime the family was stationed close, to stay with his grandmother Ida Webb. He lived in Europe four years, worked for Kennecott for eight years and in Yakutat, Alaska mining gold for two years. He also mined uranium in Wyoming. He then settled in Salt Lake City where he was project supervisor for a developer de-veloper of condos from 1979-87. Wife Christie, whom he married in 1981 is secretary for a Salt Lake City law firm. He started a tee shirt business in 1987 and was asked by a Navajo friend in Arizona to do a special design, de-sign, a petroglyph. The artist in Kierstead fell in love with petro-glyphs, petro-glyphs, launching a new career. From that point he had to develop a process to etch the petroglyph reproductions re-productions onto native sandstone and from which evolved his Salt Lake City business, Current Creations, Cre-ations, Inc. Donations have already begun to flow in, some of them anonymous. Donations may be sent to: Panguitch Pangui-tch Pavilion, Special Service District, Dis-trict, co Panguitch City, Box 77, Panguitch, UT 84759 or people may contact Merle Prince, 676-8377 676-8377 or Karen Breinholt.676-2311. |