Circa – 1950’s

The stories of Dr. Robert “Bugsy” Barnard and his years in Aspen are the making of legend.  He was both revered and reviled, depending upon who you ask.  One thing is certain, his years as an elected official are fraught with controversy and questionable activities.  He ruled the town in much the same manner as did Gene Hackman in “The Quick and the Dead”* but without blatant use of firearms.  As mayor he was able to have laws changed to meet his requirements or those of his friends.  He made enemies of some residents who deserved to be his enemies, and the rest of the “villagers” just went with the flow of things.

This is not to say he did not have friends as he had plenty.  Some were true friends and others just knew it was better to go along with him rather than oppose him.  Either way, he was elected to office on more than one occasion which stood for something.  Whether it was because people liked him or hated his opponents, we will never know for sure.

Sometime in the 1950’s the City Council took it upon itself to do something about the traffic in town.  People were driving faster and faster making the streets unsafe for pedestrians.  I am not sure if Bugsy was on the council at the time or even mayor.  If so they certainly over-ruled him on this rare occasion.  Over a brief period of time the city installed stop signs in nearly every downtown intersection.  Some believe the count may have gone well above 100 new signs.  Bugsy, being a man who enjoyed driving fast where ever he went, was infuriated with this new inconvenience and set out to make things right as he saw fit. 

Bugsy’s “call to arms” was to put out a bounty for every stop sign that people removed.  Teenagers and adults alike took the challenge and in a matter of hours every stop sign in the valley was gone, even the ones that had been there all along or were not even within the city limits.  No one knows for sure what he did with the signs, but they were never seen again.  At great expense to the city, some of the original signs were replaced.

Not to be outdone by Bugsy, the city shot back with their own plan.  Within days all the “culverts” and storm drains that ran under intersections were removed and replaced with “dips” that allowed the water to flow freely and still permit traffic, at slow speeds, to proceed through the intersection.  To add insult to injury, these new dips were commonly referred to as “Barnard Bumps,” further irritating Bugsy in the process. 

Many of these dips were so deep that vehicles were getting damaged.  So, over time the city did replace some of the culverts or made the dips shallower.  Some of the dips remain to this day but their name and reason for being has long been forgotten.  The irony of Bugsy’s crusade is that the stop signs could be ignored but the dips, not so much.

*The Quick and the Dead was a movie starring Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone & Russell Crowe.  The plot was based on a Lady avenger who returns to a western town owned by a ruthless gunslinger (Gene Hackman) hosting an elimination tournament.

For another fun “Busgy” story, click here!