Archive for Friday, September 18, 2009
Kathy Bassett: Browns Park and Greystone - Part 2
September 18, 2009
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Kathy Bassett
Kathy Bassett's column, "The View from Maybell," appears in the Saturday Morning Press.
I was there when Mr. Terry was murdered at the K-T Mine. His partner, Howard Sadler, had come back from town and found him, so he came to our house to call the sheriff's office.
Mr. Terry was a special man - very kind and always so thoughtful. He had picked up a couple of hitchhikers near Craig and told them if they would work for him a couple weeks at the mine, he would buy them tickets home to Idaho. They seemed eager and pleased with the proposition, and they repaid him by hitting him over the head with a sofa leg.
They stole his car and headed west. Stupid is as Stupid does, and when a patrolman pulled them over for a non-working tail light near Salt Lake City, one of the kids jumped out of the car and started yelling, "We did it!"
Then there was a time when some roughnecks decided that people in Browns Park were an easy mark. They shot out power lines, shot at people, and harassed folks on several occasions. Browns Park gals driving home from town were chased and nearly run off the highway. Once, another gal and I couldn't get across the swinging bridge because a truck full of guys were blocking the road as they sneered, laughed and pointed at us.
Finally, the other gal said she'd had about enough of them, so she got a rifle out of her truck and the last we saw of those guys was a big dust cloud rolling over the hilltop. Our house was robbed, our dogs were beaten, with holes shot in the walls and so a meeting was held! We women all got lessons in how to defend ourselves in such attacks. We all carried guns. We were given instructions to shoot at anyone who didn't belong in the park.
I looked out the window one day and saw a couple of people that appeared to be sneaking up a hill across the highway, so I stepped out in the front yard, got behind a tree and plunked a couple shots below their feet. Talk about scramble - they couldn't get out of there fast enough. Thanks to the sheriff's office, some of the thugs were caught and for whatever reason, were never seen in Browns Park again.
So things got back to a nice slow dull roar.
We moved out of Browns Park but I left my heart there so in 1985 when Deb and Ann Ducy at Greystone offered me some property they were selling, I took them up on it.
The Bower Place had a great apple orchard, and every time I tried to get apples out of there to make pies, one of the deputies would come along and threaten me with jail time if he couldn't have a slice of pie. He usually ended up eating more than one piece, and then I would have to tell him that because he ate my whole pie, I'd have to go back over there and get more apples.
Over on the Smelter Place, there were some apricot trees that had the best apricots I've ever eaten There also was a fabulous asparagus patch back behind the old house. In the spring, it was always a race to get over there and get the asparagus picked before anyone else did. Sometimes on your way in, people were coming out smiling and waving.
Back in those days, all the local folks gave other locals unwritten permission to go on their property whenever they wanted to go. They didn't worry about their neighbors messing with things they shouldn't. In fact, neighbors took care of neighbors and watched out for things that didn't seem quite right. If a fence needed to be fixed, it got fixed. If a gate was down, it got put back up. There was never any mention of money owed or "I did that for you, so you need to do this for me."
Many times, the good deeds weren't even mentioned, but everyone knew they were much appreciated. Outsiders were a different story, however. And times change.
In my next column, you will learn more about how times change.
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Question of the week
Should the Craig Chamber of Commerce revise its State of the County attendance policy to allow people to hear speakers without paying for a ticket?
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19 September 2009 at 11:19 p.m.
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Sumarjn (Anonymous) says…
*We women all got lessons in how to defend ourselves in such attacks. We all carried guns. We were given instructions to shoot at anyone who didn't belong in the park.*
Gosh! Who would have given you such instructions?
You make Brown's Park sound like a horrible place. You actually shot at two people who “appeared to be sneaking up a hill”?
Did you consider that they were probably just trying to save one of your “beakless birds”?
21 September 2009 at 6:26 a.m.
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nimrod (Anonymous) says…
I too remember the apricot trees on the Smelter ranch, along with one of the ponds that the snow was plowed off of in the winter so that we could ice skate on it. Kathy I truely enjoy your column!
21 September 2009 at 8:20 a.m.
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Kat (Anonymous) says…
Thank you nimrod … and taking the kids over to the ponds in the summer so they could chase after and catch frogs… and pulling the kids up the KT mine road with our trucks in the wintertime so they could slide down the hill on their sleds, after we all chose the perfect Christmas tree…and then having a big bonfire in the snow so we could have hot chocolate and wiener roasts…and one kind local who used to take all the kids around the whole park and give them history lessons on different things…yeppers…kajillions more stories that could be told. But times change and those days are gone. I feel priviledged to have known these times and the people who lived back then. KB
21 September 2009 at 11:22 a.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
So, you actually not only pointed guns at people, you shot the guns at them too. I would really like to know who instructed you and “all the women” to do that? Tim Jantz? Shoot any one who did not belong in the park? How did you determine that? Did you need to be a local resident to belong in the park or use the BLM land out there or what? And did that happen during the two years you lived at the county shop with the wild horse and your husband Frank Hector, or after you divorced him and moved back to Moffat County to live near Greystone after you married the Bassett guy? And from what I've been told you didn't even live in Greystone very long and it was after like 2000 or 2001 that you moved there. Is that true? I'm just getting a little skeptical about some of your “kajillions” of stories being true.
21 September 2009 at 1:10 p.m.
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grannyrett (Anonymous) says…
wow old sage-what a grouch you are. Keep the stories coming Kat! I love 'em. What memories they bring back.
21 September 2009 at 2:08 p.m.
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Kat (Anonymous) says…
Well…no, it wasn't Tim Jantz I was referring to.
Sheriff Jantz would definately not approve such activities and in this day and age, a person couldn't get by with things they could 30 years ago.
I'm sure if you were to ask folks who have lived in BP all their lives about my stories, you would find out they are true.
22 September 2009 at 5:23 a.m.
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nimrod (Anonymous) says…
There was no need to dignify that with a response Kat!
24 September 2009 at 10:10 a.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
I don't think Sheriff Jantz would have approved of shooting people who you “thought” did not belong in Browns Park or any other deputy or sheriff for that matter. That is why I wanted to know who. Who gave you those instructions? If it is true name the person or persons who gave you those instructions to shoot anyone who did not belong in the park and then tell us what it was that qualified persons to belong in the park and what disqualified them so you could take it upon yourself to summarily execute them for driving through your neighborhood. I would really like to hear about that!
24 September 2009 at 12:19 p.m.
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dentedfender (Anonymous) says…
Did ALS change his handle??
24 September 2009 at 12:23 p.m.
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dentedfender (Anonymous) says…
please tell us in your next article why we can't even leave the road to look at Greystone anymore?
24 September 2009 at 12:26 p.m.
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GreyStone (Anonymous) says…
Oldsage,
Jeeez, get off your high horse.
You must have been one of the jerk-off roughnecks we ran out of the park back then:
24 September 2009 at 10:49 p.m.
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Sumarjn (Anonymous) says…
There is probably no need to ask Kat/Greystone for any specifics? Kat claims that all of the people in BP will back her stories. So there! It is settled!
Besides, the Sheriff's Deputy who ate her (whole) apple pie might start arresting any strangers who appear in BP?
25 September 2009 at 8:08 a.m.
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grannyrett (Anonymous) says…
Oh come on people-get over yourself. If all you want to do is gripe and bellyache about everything-go somewhere else. I have so enjoyed everyone of Kat's columns. They are about an area of Moffat County that I love, and about people that are a little more independent that those elsewhere. Enjoy them, or don't read them, but quit throwing a fit over every little thing that you come across. Some of you never have a nice thing to say about anything. What a sad life you must live. Keep 'em coming Kat.
25 September 2009 at 8:43 a.m.
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GreyStone (Anonymous) says…
Sumarjn,
Specifics to sooth your doubts.
9/25/1959, Fraday afternoon, six miles west of co 68 off HWY 318
Officers responded to two reports of Gunshots.
10/17/1959, Saturday night, CR 83 off Hwy 318
Officers responded to a report of harassment
That help ?
25 September 2009 at 11:25 a.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
I do not think I am alone in the opinion that it is very strange that within the last 31 years, the women of an entire community in this county were instructed to shoot anyone who did not belong there. That is the most convoluted neighborhood watch program of which I have ever heard! I simply would like to know what the criteria were for determining who belonged there and who did not. And if this story is true???, I don't think I am alone in wanting to know who the bright sparks in that community are or were who gave the instructions for this very different neighborhood watch program!
Greystone, Your specifics are not specific enough and are in any case irrelevant because Kathy Bassett did not live in Browns Park in 1959, she stated that she moved there in 1978. You are about two decades off!
Grannyrett, I also enjoy a good story about the old times, but when an author's fanciful tales go so far that the story defies any and all logic, I have to start asking questions. I have heard stories of how stupid and ignorant some of the people are in Browns Park, but the whole community being instructed to shoot outsiders is beyond comparison to anything I ever heard or seen.
25 September 2009 at 10:58 p.m.
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dentedfender (Anonymous) says…
Oldsage, you better stay out of the south then, they will and do shoot outsiders and nobody is the wiser. and stay off the Indian reservations because outsiders disappear there all the time.
25 September 2009 at 11:42 p.m.
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Sumarjn (Anonymous) says…
My doubts could never be soothed here, because it is way too obvious that Kat's stories are fairy tales and make believe?
At her age, she should know better?
She is somewhat entertaining to read though, not too many authors would attempt to pass off such bs.
Please don't be offended if some of us respond with logic.
26 September 2009 at 11:10 a.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
One might think that the paper would want to preserve at least some credibility. New terms to be learned are Maybell Legend, or Bassett Legend!
26 September 2009 at 11:29 a.m.
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cag81625 (Anonymous) says…
Just watched a show about the gang violence in Oakland last night and it brought this to mind. I guess “colors” can be all kinds of things. Stay outta my 'hood!
29 September 2009 at 8:20 p.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
Well who told you to shoot at anyone who did not belong and how did you determine who belonged?
30 September 2009 at 6:20 a.m.
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nimrod (Anonymous) says…
suffice it to say oldsage you would have been shot!
30 September 2009 at 9:48 p.m.
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grannyrett (Anonymous) says…
twice-at least
1 October 2009 at 11:46 a.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
Shot for asking questions? Or pointing is it my pointing out the secret life fantasy life of Kathy Walter Mitty Bassett! Looks like Ken Johnson would fit right into Browns Park and the secret life of Kathy seamlessly!
2 October 2009 at 9:08 a.m.
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Sumarjn (Anonymous) says…
Lies and true lies, are what makes up tale tales and specifics are not a part of the writ. This is why no specifics will ever be forthcoming. Don't bother asking questions.
Being shot at twice is a good indication that they'missed the first time, so not to worry about a weekly writer who isn't a “straight shooter”?
2 October 2009 at 12:14 p.m.
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oldsage (Anonymous) says…
Sumarjn, you are right! What we are dealing with is someone who sees no problem with moving the base line to make a foul ball fair. Clearly Miss make it up as you go, when asked, is just going to continue to say, ask any of the people she will not name if what she wrote is true and then blame us for not knowing or being able to contact any of the fictitious people she says can verify her tall tales.
What a goof!