{"id":2446299,"date":"2019-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309345"},"modified":"2019-07-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T06:00:00","slug":"art-and-world-war-ii-dog-sledding-artifacts-on-display-at-ashcroft-ski-touring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/art-and-world-war-ii-dog-sledding-artifacts-on-display-at-ashcroft-ski-touring\/","title":{"rendered":"Art and World War II dog-sledding artifacts on display at Ashcroft Ski Touring"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
A marquetry artwork of Stuart Mace’s dog Yukon King, now on display at Ashcroft Ski Touring.<\/strong>
Courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Stuart Mace-designed dog sleds, parachute equipment and uniforms from his air rescue service during World War II are now on view in the upper reaches of the Castle Creek Valley, where Mace settled his family during modern Aspen\u2019s dawn in the late 1940s and operated the Toklat Wilderness Lodge.<\/p>\n

The wartime artifacts, never before publicly displayed, are being exhibited this summer at Ashcroft Ski Touring\u2019s King Cabin along with Castle Creek Valley-related art curated by Lynne Mace. She runs the Toklat Gallery, now located in Basalt and celebrating its 70th anniversary<\/a>, and is keeping her father\u2019s legacy alive.<\/p>\n

The display includes a parachute that Stuart Mace used in the Arctic during the war, along with a harness he used to parachute huskies into remote rescue sites. The sleds include one he used for wartime rescues, carrying Mace along with doctors, support crew and dog managers who parachuted to remote plane crash sites.<\/p>\n

The second sled was too heavy for wartime use, but the Mace family used it recreationally for dog sled rides after the Maces settled in Ashcroft. Lynne Mace recalled riding it down Pearl Pass as her father led 13 dogs pulling it. Stuart Mace\u2019s service pants (called \u201cblumpers,\u201d as his daughter recalled) and a fur coat with wolverine collar, also are on view.<\/p>\n

The artifacts had been stored away for decades and have never before been publicly exhibited.<\/p>\n

The concept for the display came to Lynne Mace this winter, when she was preparing for 70th anniversary festivities at Toklat, which unearthed an oral history her father recorded about his wartime dog sled rescues.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really gripping,\u201d Mace recalled on a walk through the satellite gallery. \u201cThat inspired me to talk to John (Wilcox of Ashcroft Ski Touring) and try to share this. \u2026 I said, \u2018I\u2019d love to borrow this building, because we could hang the parachute here.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The artifacts are complemented by new artworks that reflect the history of the Mace family\u2019s dog-sledding business at Ashcroft and the area\u2019s idyllic scenery. Among the works on view are paintings of the Castle Creek Valley by Doug Graybeal and Michael Kinsley, marquetry works by Ellen Kinsler of Stuart Mace\u2019s sled dogs Yukon King and Rustic, jewelry by Kathy Hansel and wood sculptures of wildlife by Nick Eason. It also includes Veryl Goodnight\u2019s painting \u201cGhosts of Ashcroft,\u201d depicting Stuart and his dogs in action, which was unveiled earlier this year at Toklat.<\/p>\n

The gallery fills an open section of the airy 2014-built cabin that, in the tour operator\u2019s busy winter season, is filled with ski racks, boots and poles.<\/p>\n

Wilcox, and his son Johnny \u2014 the resort manager for Ashcroft Ski Touring and the Pine Creek Cookhouse \u2014 saw it as an amenity for people visiting the remote area for the Ashcroft ghost town, a hike to the Pinecreek Cookhouse for a meal, or to take one of their biking and fishing tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted a summer use and we thought it\u2019d be great to have art that reflects the valley and a sense of history,\u201d John Wilcox recalled.<\/p>\n

atravers@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A marquetry artwork of Stuart Mace’s dog Yukon King, now on display at Ashcroft Ski Touring.Courtesy photo Stuart Mace-designed dog sleds, parachute equipment and uniforms from his air rescue service during World War II are now on view in the upper reaches of the Castle Creek Valley, where Mace settled his family during modern Aspen\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 07:15:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}