One reason the project will take so long to complete is that creating bronze sculptures is at best an intricate, time-consuming process. Doing it on this scale adds to the complexity. "We've found a few ways to speed up the process," said Fraughton.

For example, each sculpture starts as a quarter-scale clay model. To enlarge it, Fraughton and his crew have utilized a laser digitizer high-end computer and robotic cutting machine that enlarges and cuts the image out of layers of foam in exact proportions, but five times larger.

The foam armature is then covered with a thin layer of clay to create the model. Using the foam speeds things up considerably, Fraughton notes. But each piece still must undergo an involved process using rubber molds, lost wax casting, bronzing, metal chasing and patina work. The large sculptures are actually cast in pieces and then welded together into the final form.

It's a complicated but exciting process to watch it all come together, said Fraughton, who has done it countless times over his 40-year career. In addition to monumental pieces, he also does smaller commissions and gallery pieces. Among his larger works are the "All Is Well" statue at Brigham Young's Cemetery in Salt Lake City; a larger-than-life figure of Parley P. Pratt, which stands at the gateway to Parley's Canyon; and a monument honoring the Mormon Battalion, which resides in San Diego.

He has never regretted switching from engineering to sculpture. "You step through that door, and you never know," he said. "But so many great opportunities have happened to me because of that."

He also never tires of the challenges of taking something stationary and giving it movement. Sculpture is three-dimensional, but the best sculpture, he feels, is one more dimension. "Most people who have any religious feeling believe that the body has a physical part and a spiritual being. The best sculpture has a likeness, but it also has a spiritual or an emotional component. Great works have that power. That's why arts are the universal language. They communicate in different ways than through words."

So, what message does he hope his latest project will impart? "Reverence. Remembrance. Appreciation for the sacrifices those who settled the West made on our behalf." Monumental ideas captured in bronze, so they can live forever.

And this one, too: "A sense of the potential that man has."

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E-mail: carma@desnews.com