Red Lady Prayer Flags hung at Annapurna Base Camp in Nepal in October 2008 by Dawne Belloise.

(Photo by Dawne Belloise)

The Red Lady Prayer Flags are available now! Join our efforts to "paint the town red" and show our spirit of opposition to an industrial molybdenum mine on Mount Emmons!

The prayer flags were designed by locals Kent Cowherd, Bob Wojtalik, Lucille Lucas & Sarah Bartow, Angie Carroll and Debby Phelps. Each flag is inscribed with some of the 100-plus prayers submitted by members of the Community. They were printed in Nepal.

Each string of flags consists of five individual flags and is about 43" long. Tie two or more strings together to span a larger area.

Prayer flags are priced to be affordable: one or two strings for $12 each and three or more strings for $10 each. This price includes sales tax, but shipping is extra if you don't pick them up at the HCCA office. Cash or check only, please.

Prayer flags are available in Crested Butte at 418, Blue Moon Books, the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum, Lucille Lucas Gallery, Mountain Earth, Pema Dawa, Pooh's Corner and Yoga for the People.

Or use our downloadable order form. Click here for a PDF order form

If you have questions, call Meghan Craft at the office 970-349-7104 ext 4 or email meghan@hccaonline.org

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Red Lady, or Mt. Emmons, is the sentinel peak of Crested Butte. Visible from anywhere in town, it lies at the western end of Elk Avenue. Geographically, it is one mile outside of the town’s boundaries. For residents and visitors, it is the place where the sun and the moon set. For backcountry enthusiasts it is the place of plush skiing, exhilarating biking and boundless wildflowers. At its base is the source of our drinking water – Coal Creek. It is home to elk, black bear, deer, lynx, mountain lion and a myriad of other, smaller creatures living in the old growth spruce, fir and aspen forests that blanket its ridges and valleys.

The Lady has a luring threat, however. Two mining companies, one from Wyoming and one from Canada, are proposing to open a massive scale molybdenum mine on the mountain. This proposal includes not only a 100-acre mining site on Mt. Emmons itself, but also a 100-acre reservoir in Elk Creek basin with a 250-foot high dam, a tailings slurry pipeline four miles long, and 200 acres of tailings ponds with 200 foot high dams in the headwaters of Ohio and Carbon Creeks. It would mandate 24 hours a day, seven days a week operation including heavy machinery transportation routes down Whiterock Avenue. Such an operation would require 500-1500 gallons of water per minute, which would be drawn from Oh-Be-Joyful Creek and the Slate River.

This project would be devastating to the health of our water, air and soil. It would damage vast acres of open space home to wildlife and the recreational playground for residents and visitors. It would devastate our sense of peace, and create detrimental noise and light pollution. In short, it would demolish the way of life we have chosen, one intricately bound and dependant upon our natural environment.

In an effort to bring about positivism, unity and awareness, the community was asked to think of how they would like to see Red Lady, rather than encumbered by a massive mining operation. What came forth were over 100 prayers written for Red Lady by a diverse palette of individuals. Six local artists: Angela Carroll, Debbie Phelps, Lucille Lucas and Sarah Bartow on a collaborative flag, Bob Wojtalik and Kent Cowherd, set the words to art. This outpouring of spirit has truly been a community-wide project.

Tibetan prayer flags date back several thousand years as a means of sending prayers to the deities. They were created from and are meant to fly in high places, such as mountains. As they flutter in the wind, the prayers are sent to the heavens. Traditionally, they are five separate colors, representing the five elements. The Red Lady Prayer Flags are all red. For the elements, red symbolizes fire.

These flags demonstrate the diversity of our community under this one collective voice of keeping Mt. Emmons moly-mine free. Our goal is to have these flags hanging from every business and home in Crested Butte, emitting a positive message of why this land means so much to us.

We encourage you to buy multiple strings of Red Lady Prayer Flags. Hang them high, hang them outside. From your rooftops, in front of your doorways and windows. Only by being visible will they demonstrate the solidarity of the community behind this issue. Only in being touched by the mountains’ wind will they be able to send their message.

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