Circa Mid-1950’s

Who’s to say for sure if Edward Abbey got the idea from these guys or not!  The parallels seem all too familiar not to, and since The Monkey Wrench Gang* was published in 1975, nearly 20 years later, it could be possible.  In Abbey’s book one of the main characters was a successful doctor who drove big cars and wanted to protect the environment while doing it harm and making money from it.  His friends were a blend of characters just like the local rebels.  I asked one of the members of our gang, Katie Lee, if it was possible they inspired Abbey, but she could not confirm it although she and Abbey were friends and often partners in crime if only on paper.

It would be unfair to call Aspen’s Eco-Warriors a Monkey Wrench Gang, but had Abbey not used the term first and “if the shoe fits,” well; you know where I am going with this.   The ring leader was none other than Dr. Robert “Bugsy” Barnard along with one of the country’s longest surviving environmentalists, Katie Lee.  In addition to being an environmentalist she is also a folk singer, actress, and author.  A local by the name of “Remo” was also a part of the mischievousness. Long time Aspenite, Dean Billings, was the fourth member of the group.

Who knows if the idea was borne out of a strong desire to save the planet any more than from a drunken conversation among friends.  All that is known is one night without warning every billboard between Aspen and Glenwood Springs was either sawed down or burned to the ground.  Nary had a single sign survived the slaughter.  The gang got away with it, never to be arrested or convicted, but everyone knew who had done it.  Secrets in Aspen were rare in the 1950’s especially when they were never intended to be secrets in the first place.  Katie recently told me her thoughts on the subject, “Buggsy, Dean, Remo were among those of us who felt the same about stupid encroachment on our world of beauty.”

Buggsy has a colorful past from his years in Aspen if not before or after.  His antics gained him friends and enemies alike and often contradicted prior or future acts of rebellion.  He loved cars, driving fast, real-estate, politics, money and other men’s wives.  Often those did not align with his daily activities, but Buggsy was after all focused on whatever he set out to do.  You can draw your own conclusions about the man as I already have, and in my situation I choose to keep them to myself.  Suffice to say, years later Bugsy met an untimely death at the hands of another person.  That crime was never solved but that leaves me room for another story or two, stay tuned.

*The Monkey Wrench Gang (ISBN: ISBN 0-397-01084-2) is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975.  The novel describes the use of sabotage to protect the environment from damaging activities in the American Southwest.  The term “monkey wrench” has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any violence, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems.  The characters in the book tend to contradict themselves by their very existence.

For another fun “Busgy” story, click here!