There is a little old news in this big new year.

Sometime last weekend, vandals hacked into a steel electrical panel and smashed the circuit box for the star on Flagstaff Mountain. On Sunday, Craig Reynolds, a local electrician, repaired the damage; his company voluntarily maintains the star. This year, workers had made the star more defensible, installing new posts and cables so that the perennially vandalized star is completely off the ground.

The Boulder Chamber of Commerce, which has long supported the display, is disappointed. "I'm a little tired of it," said Stan Zemler, the chamber director.

What else is new?

The 125-foot-wide Flagstaff star, which can be seen throughout the Boulder Valley, was vandalized twice last year. Once, vandals tore down the star's support cables. Another time, they smashed about 100 bulbs.

The star was first lit in December 1947. It was an easy and obvious target. In 1955, '56 and '60, someone painted all its light bulbs red. In 1957, someone stole about half of the bulbs. Two years later, someone snipped the star's wires and then stole the bulbs.

Vandalism on the star has always evoked indignation.

"It still is strange to me that anyone could get any pleasure from an act of this kind," said Francis W. Reich, secretary manager of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce. That was 1959.

But neophytic nihilists weren't the only ones after the star. So were rival-school pranksters. In 1951, for instance, the star was refashioned into an "A." In those days, that meant "Aggies," as in Colorado A. and M. (now Colorado State University). In 1958, some kids at the Colorado School of Mines got busted for transforming the star into a giant "M."

Anti-war protesters altered the star, too. In 1969, some local university students were still reeling from the summer of love. They rearranged the star into a peace sign. The following year, they asked for the city's blessing to light a peace sign on Flagstaff. They were rebuffed.

About that time, two University of Colorado law professors filed a formal complaint with the city, arguing that the Easter cross (which also appeared on Flagstaff but was long ago abandoned) should not be lit on public property.

In early 1970, the City Council voted to ban from Flagstaff all lighted displays — crosses, peace signs, odd portions of the alphabet and even the star. A month later, the council made an exception for the much-loved star.

The vandalism resumed, sometimes as a political statement. In 1979, the Chamber of Commerce vowed to keep the star lit each night until the U.S. hostages in Iran were released. In March 1980, a group calling itself the "Monkey Wrench Gang" stole all the lights and left a note decrying the star as a waste of energy. Citing a similar concern, a group calling itself "Boulder Falls" chopped down the star six months later.

This year's vandalism involved no lofty principle, no political statement, no amusing prank. Like that of most years, it was just destruction. Like their Flagstaff forebears, this weekend's vandals helped to remind us what sort of creatures humans are. In ways large and small, this new year brings us face to face with some old issues.

Reach Clint Talbott at (303) 473-1367 or talbottc@thedailycamera.com.

January 1, 2002

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