Lazar has been a tempered-glass mosaic artist for years. Then, last summer, she took a workshop from Isaiah Zagar, famous for creating mosaic murals in what had been a condemned area of South Philadelphia.

Lazar has borrowed Zagar's style for the Gunnison project: outlining the dragon with black paint, then bordering the black with pieces of mirrored glass that add both an extra element of dazzle and a chance, as Lazar says, for walkers to see themselves reflected as they pass by. Inside the black outlines are the fragments of colored tile, applied according to the whim of each volunteer.

Gunnison is no South Philly needing a giant redo. Still, the town is interested in creating more of a sense of place, says Anna Bolton of the Utah Arts Council. The Council awarded Gunnison's Casino Star Theatre Foundation one of its "creative communities initiative" grants to help do several arts projects, including the mural.

"Gunnison is a pretty basic Mormon town," says Foundation member Diana Spencer, who despite her royal name has lived in nearby Mayfield for 32 years. "It's laid out on a grid, just as Brigham prescribed," referring to LDS Church pioneer-era president and colonizer Brigham Young.

These days, in addition to agriculture, the community's main industry is the prison located north of town.

Before, Spencer says, the town was dependent on weather cycles. "The correctional facility has served to stabilize the economy. People can stay and raise their families."

The Foundation is hoping to receive grants from the Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area and others to restore the town's theater, built in 1912 as both a vaudeville and a movie palace.

The theater is one of only two remaining Beaux-Arts style buildings left in Utah, says Spencer. The town hopes to have the theater restored by its sesquicentennial in 2009.

In the meantime there are the dragon and the riverwalk. Town council member Nay points east as she talks about the town's plans for planting cottonwoods and willows along the paths.

"Just imagine a lot of trees here," she says.

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E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com