The wind blew, and seemed almost to cause the billows in the dress and cape of the 7-foot "Spirit of Pioneer Women" bronze statue unveiled Saturday at Cross Orchards.

Seeing the statue unveiled brought to an end three years of work by the Coalition for a Historical Marker, formed in 1996 by Katherine Nelson - then regent of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The Coalition is composed of members from the Mount Garfield chapter of the Daughters of the American Revoution, the Grand Junction Commission on Arts and Culture, the Museum of Western Colorado, the Mesa County Historical Society, the Old Spanish Trail Assocation, the Mesa County Genealogy Society, the Western Colorado Center for the Arts, the Grand Junction/Mesa County Riverfront Commission, Mesa State College and the Mesa County Women's Network.

The group wanted a monument to celebrate "our past and our future, and serve as a monument to our community and our pioneering spirit," according to informational materials released at the unveiling.

Particularly meaningful the day before Mother's Day, the statue symbolizes how women pioneering in the West overcame weakness to triumph over horrible circumstances and forge a life in the western wilderness.

The coalition got permission from the city of Grand Junction to place the sttue in Eagle Rim Park, which will be built on Orchard Mesa when it is completed. The site will overlook part of the north branch of the Old Spanish Trail.

"Men were the first in the West but women settled it," said U.S. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who was present to discuss the sttaue and the Old Spanish Trail Project. He cited his Nortive American heritage as his link to the West, where his roots are.

In their quest to have a memorial to celebrate pioneer women and the pioneer spirit, the coalition had to find a sculptor to create the piece. They interviewed several Western Colorado artists and selected Paonia sculptor Lincoln Fox, who has created pieces for the United Nations, Albuquerque International Airport and the city of Mobile, Ala. He has had one-man shows at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Kennedy Galleries in New York City.

In 1997 the coaltion began efforts to raise the $30,000 needed for the statue, plus benches and lighting around it and a 5-foot granite pedestal for it. By Febraury 1998 the coalition had raised half the funds through private donations as well as grants from the Colorado Council on the Arts, the city of Grand Junction's One Percent for the Arts program, Mesa County's Colorado Lottery funds and the El Pomar Foundation.

By the end of 1998, the coalition had raised all the funds. The statue will be on display at Cross Orchards until Eagle Rim Park is completed.