July 1, 2001 Fun Along Our River KEITH JOHNSON/Standard-Examiner Chase Gabbitas (left) fishes while canoers paddle by during the 2Rivers Arts Festival Saturday. Members of Blue Sage (above, right to left) Mike Iverson, Dan Bates, Rob Ricks and Shauna Iverson perform at the festival. Walking sticks (below) carved by John Kluthe were among the displays. Weber, Ogden rivers source of enjoyment 2Rivers Festival continues today By TIM GURRISTER Standard-Examiner staff OGDEN - The question suggests both the purpose and the need for this weekend's first ever 2Rivers Arts Festival. Where is the confluence of the Weber and Ogden Rivers? The question was put to attendees of the festival at Fort Buenaventura and Miles Goodyear Park, inaugurated this weekend to create awareness of the two dominant local rivers while celebrating the arts and the environment. This reporter doesn't know: somewhere between Wall and the Interstate and 24th and 17th Streets? Qualified people like those sporting state parks patches were left out of the not-anywhere-near-scientific survey. Seven out of every eight asked were stumped. Responses varied: "Right over there." "I didn't know there was such a thing." "By the 24th Street viaduct." "They do what?" "Let's see, the Ogden River comes out of Pineview Reservoir ... the Weber River starts in the Uintahs and meanders northwesterly all the way ... and they join right here at Fort Buenaventura." All wrong. Resorting finally to a map, the Weber and Ogden river confluence, if it had a street address, would get mail at roughly 1100 W. 17th Street, just outside the Ogden City limits. The two rivers were the center of attention for the festival put together by a slew of organizations, spearheaded by the local arts tabloid, Junction. The truly huge list of sponsors included Ogden City, Jackson Street Junction music hall, and the W.C. Swanson Family Foundation. The parking lots appeared jammed at the fort for the festival, but events and exhibits, booths, and entertainment stages were spread out enough that crowds were small. Without ticketing, fort and parks employees were left to estimate attendance as 600 to 700 at any one time Saturday afternoon using the traditional formula of multiplying rough car counts by three. Everything from fly-casting contests to kayak-rolling instruction and canoe trips, plus bicycle tours and a Caribbean fish fry Saturday night filled the bill. Two sound stages offered blue-grass, Latin and Celtic music along with modern rock, punk and metal sounds. And a Mark Twain impersonator. And there was a baseball game going on right in the middle of everything most of the day at the Miles Goodyear ballpark. Saturday night also launched a rubber duck race: the Adopt-a-Duck duck derby at $5 a duck. Proceeds go for water quality testing equipment and Weber County Riverkeeper education programs. And now, more sponsors: Ogden Raptors, Ogden Symphony Ballet Association, Ogden Marriott hotel, Wasatch Sports, Weber County and the state Division of Wildlife Resources. Artwork for sale Saturday included oil paintings, textiles, ceramics, woodworking, glass, mixed media, fine soaps and Robert Whitlock's hand-carved walking canes, embellished with carved faces and whittled and buffed acorns, a hobby that's gotten out of control. "This is what I do when I watch television," said the 35-year Hill Air Force Base manager, waving to the roughly 40 canes for sale at his booth. At the top end is a $300 stained and lacquered beauty whittled out a length of daewood, a hard wood he picked up from a fallen tree after a typhoon in Okinawa. It took 150 hours of work to complete it, he said. His favorite woods to work are black walnut and local river birch, the latter easily found on the banks of the Ogden and Weber rivers, plus the occasional former stairwell bannister. Again with the sponsors: Snowbasin Ski Resort, Weber Basin Water Conservancy, Musicians Performance Trust Fund, Ogden Nature Center, Standard-Examiner, Ben Lomond Historic Suite Hotel, La Prensa, Weber Pathways, Leavitt Mortuaries, The Fly Tying Station, Bingham Cyclery and C. E. Butters Con-struction. The rivers are low enough for wading and the 100-degree heat recorded Saturday didn't seem as oppressive amid the trees and shade at the festival. Events continue until 5 p.m. today at the fort, 2450 'A' Ave. Admission is free. 71