Rutland, Vermont has been called "The Marble City," and West Rutland, part of Rutland until around 1900, has been a marble quarrying and fabricating center. In 1985, sculptor B Amore had the idea of using an abandoned marble-working business's store as the headquarters for a school that would preserve and develop the internaiional art of carving in stone. Marble and carving are at the heart of the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center, but sculptures of many kinds now appear. The enterprise has been a resounding success, in part because of its picturesque location. The annual SculptFests take place in part along a road that runs in back of the remains of a marble cutting and shaping factory, the huge hoisting booms and transport girders of which remain, overlooking heaps of unused marble slabs. On the other side of the road is a line of water-filled quarry pits, 100 feet deep or more, the network of excavations rumored to extend under the whole town. In late fall, when the ScuptFests take place, very possible there is no spookier setting in the state, especially at dusk, while migrating birds stream southward in the last light of sunset in the mountains to the west. These pictures are from several years, and are only meant to be indicative, since the place combines highly dynamic and changing elements with others that create a sense of a rooted and enduring history.