The Silverthread Adobe Gallery Artspace on the Silver Thread Scenic Byway (U.S. Hwy 149) has been in creation for ten years—built one tedious adobe brick at a time by the Artists in residence, Angela and Ronald Hague. This ambitious undertaking has been a life-long dream finally come to fruition with the laying of 30,000 adobe earth bricks, each weighing 36 pounds. The building design boasts a 32' Bell Tower, an Art Gallery with adjoining Courtyards, upper Workshop accommodations along with an open deck for open air painting as well as conference and Art seminar space. |
The inspiration for this unique building design, of course, comes from “Mother Earth” and the natural clay of its surrounding lands, the intense winter solar array provided by “Father Sun” and “Sister Wind”. The wild and native land of the Ute Indian tribes, from which their ancient presence still permeates our mountain site, is easily accessed by Highway 149 travelling south through South Fork onto Lake City and Gunnison to the north (.12 mile from mile marker 23 leaving Creede).
Just around the bend of the Silver Thread Scenic Byway, from the Airport Corner in Creede, sits the “old Claymine”. It was the site of a former mining operation dating back to the 1920s. Aside from the fact that this is a popular picture-taking spot for tourists, it also became the inspiration for the adobe construction used on the Silverthread Adobe Gallery Artspace (SAGA 149).
 Ron Hague, our Clay Artist and “Old Adobe Mudslinger”, laid over 30,000 clay bricks into the present “masterwork” housing our Galleries, our second-floor Workshop Spaces, the Solar Greenhouse and Private Studio areas, the Private Residence and Courtyards, and finally the clay building which will house the Solar System and Well House down at the lower level of the site! With the painstaking experience and advice from Robert and K. D. Bellar, our friends, Don Gant, Leo Hudson, and Paul Cowles, this dream-come true, now overlooks the Mountain of the Sleeping Ute, who silently peruses its progress.
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