"Where in North America is this?" Section X

[Mark Sedenquist]

Whoa! A full piano! On the water. I wonder how long they had to spend to re-tune it?

Some of my river-running buddies from the olden days, are credited on a couple a CDs from music that was created in one of the really large amphitheaters that exist on the Colorado deep in the Grand Canyon -- They were the boatmen that hauled all of the musicians, instruments and electronic recording gear to that isolated spot.

I would have loved to have heard the violin playing! Thanks for this really, really good stumper of a puzzle.

Mark

[Mark Sedenquist]

Here's another one -- I bet this one is a toughie too...?


(Photo by Gerald Thurman)

What's the name of this statue? Where is it?

Hint #1: It's located on the campus of an educational facility in the USA....

Mark

Clue #2: Found in a two-word state on a college campus.

[Twilight]

Whoa! A full piano! On the water. I wonder how long they had to spend to re-tune it?

Mark

From elsewhere on the Moab Music site:

The Voyage of the Grand Piano

Often, the greatest challenge of the River Concert is the ferrying of a grand piano (or even two!). Legs removed and wrapped in moving blankets and straps, the piano is slid carefully up a gangway and strapped on its side into a motorized boat. It makes quite a sight as it slowly floats past red rock canyon walls, meandering around sand bars – and occasionally beaching on one of them. Once the piano arrives, the most delicate – and back-breaking – work begins. Each year the height of the river and the shape of the bank are different. Setting the gangway and securely unloading the piano is a unique challenge. Even the placement of the piano in the grotto is new every summer. Each year’s spring floods leave a different floor in the grotto. A wooden stage is put down and leveled. Only then can the piano tuner – Miriam Graham, who is also a Ranger at Arches National Park – do her job.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Notice to all roadtrippers: The dates of the Moab Music Festival are tentatively set for Thursday, September 2; Thursday, September 9; Monday, September 13. I don't think I'll be able to go -- but I'd love to have some field reports....

Mark

[Foy]

Twilight,

Great stuff. My initial and most serious error was thinking the boat in the pic is a normal lake-style pontoon boat. Few of them have the power to handle current in the Colorado proper, so I guessed one of the two big reservoirs.

But, that's no pontoon boat, I'd say. Must be an aluminum jetboat. The top is similar to those on a pontoon boat, but the jetboat in the pic looks bigger overall (as one would expect).

Is this grotto upstream or downstream from Potash, where the multi-day trips from below Moab all the way to the confluence with the Green, thence through Cataract Canyon to Lake Powell, typically put-in? I took a 5 day oarboat trip from Potash to Hite in 1994. It was terrific. I wonder if I passed this location along the way.

Again, good stuff.

Foy

[Twilight]

It's downriver from the Potash put-in, just past the bend for Dead Horse park with this view:



and a few hundred feet past this sign



Re-post from Mark: Twilight's Google Map link -- it was the satellite view of this rock structure that finally pinged the recesses of my mind about what this might be "good for" + His clue, of course.

[Mark Sedenquist]

Clue #2: Found in a two-word state on a college campus.

This can be found in New Mexico....

[howard]

Photo by Gerald Thurman

Hint #1: It's located on the campus of an educational facility in the USA....

This can be found in New Mexico....

I know that Gerald has visited UNM, but I think he’s been to NMSU as well.

At first glance it looks like this could be at UNM – the light-colored stucco buildings and the pine trees look right. But I’m also noticing the red-painted louvered vent on the building to the left. I don’t recognize that. Hmmm….


How about one more hint, Mark? Did this school’s football team go 1-11 this year? ;-)

[Mark Sedenquist]

I don't think this college even has a football team....

The sculpture is made of sandstone and was originally installed at the Sandia School for Girls, but it's been in it's current location since the early 1960's....

I might have guessed that Howard would be able to narrow the focus down on this one a bit! Good work.

Mark

[Twilight]

I've had New Mexico since the 2 word state clue, and even checked Google Earth & Street View for UNM and NMSU campus views. The Sandia clue is how I found something.

New Mexico Technical Institute in Socorro is where it was moved to in the 60's. However, on this page I found it was moved back to the Sandia School for Girls, now Sandia Preparatory School in the late 90's for restoration, and seems to imply that it was left there. Since Sandia Prep is a High School, I'm going to guess it got moved back to NMTech, especially as Google Earth does show a hexagonal shape in the main open area of the school.