STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

You’ve heard the expression, “Stick a fork in it.”

That’s exactly what someone’s done at Ketchum’s triangular corner dividing Warm Springs Road from Highway 75.

The fork in the road has taken on added meaning now that a fork made of steel that stands higher than a street sign has been planted squarely at the juncture.

The fork was planted under the cover of darkness on Election Day. But, it seems, many people have driven by it without even noticing it.

Tina Cole who works at Backwoods Mountain Sports, said she found it hilarious but had no idea who was responsible.

Lisa Enourato, assistant city administrator for the City of Ketchum, had no idea it was even there. But then, she said, she’d been out of town for a few days.

“I’ll have to check it out,” she said.

A few employees at the Limelight Hotel, when told about it, postulated it may have been put there by those responsible for Hotel Ketchum, which is under construction on the north end of Main Street.

After all, they pointed out, representatives of Hotel Ketchum had placed colorful plastic sheep around town in conjunction with the Trailing of the Sheep Festival. And the hotel had commissioned Molly Snee to paint a mural of sheep on one side of the building.

ISIS, which likes to claim responsibility for a lot of things, didn’t claim to be behind the fork in the road.

And President Trump? He hasn’t offered one tweet about it, even though someone seems to have slapped a bumper stick saying “Impeach” on it.

Finally, Gallery Owner Gail Severn offered a somewhat knowing smile.

The fork is not the latest in the Ketchum Arts Commission’s new endeavor to surprise people with pop-up art, she said.

"The fork was a real surprise," she added.

Instead , the fork was a piece placed by an individual and friends.

If you like the concept of surprise art, check out the owl painted by Wood River Valley native Rudi Broschofsky that stretched 36 feet across the south side of the Ketchum Innovation Center building at 311 First Ave., N.

That was a Ketchum Arts Commission project, which was approved by the city.

Broschofsky created the work with metallic enamel and spray paint on five-foot-high wood panels and called it “Flight.” The owl’s open wings symbolized the idea of KIC as a place where entrepreneurs’ aspirations hatch and take flight, he said.

Severn said she welcomes surprise art in any shape and form.

“Any time we have opportunity for public art it adds to the conversation, the excitement,” she added.

Everyone The Eye has talked with thinks the fork is just as functional as the one we spear our asparagus with and would make a welcome permanent fixture.

After all, it just adds to our directional capabilities when we tell someone, “Turn left at the fork in the road.”