Traditionally no stranger to controversy and mayhem, Montezuma County saw the century’s final turn around the sun bring yet another full plate of events both negative and positive, constructive and destructive. Land issues, whether public or private, continued to be matters of concern, as did the violence that left three people dead and others charged with capital crimes.

The following were picked as the county’s top news stories by the editorial staff at the Cortez Journal:

When U.S. Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt came to the area on May 24, he started a maelstrom of controversy over whether a huge chunk of rugged BLM land in western Montezuma County dubbed the "Anasazi Culture Multiple Use Area of Critical Environmental Concern" should be designated a national monument.

Babbitt made it clear that, one way or another, greater protection must be provided for the innumerable Ancestral Puebloan sites — some of them standing ruins, many of them mounds of rubble or scattered potsherds — across the 165,000-acre area.

A subcommittee of the BLM’s Southwest Resource Advisory Council was formed to gather local opinion. Most of the locals who attended public meetings voiced concern about or downright opposition to any change in status for the area. Many worried that labeling it a national monument would draw hordes of tourists and cause more, not less, degradation of ancient sites. Others foresaw draconian restrictions on multiple uses in the area (Babbitt has said that carbon-dioxide extraction and cattle-grazing could continue), fee booths sprouting where locals used to roam freely, and intrusive government intervention.

The RAC subcommittee sent Babbitt a report summarizing that opinion. Babbitt responded by saying the status quo would not do and the area was either going to be a national monument or a national conservation area, a rather uncommon designation.

Since then, the focus has shifted to the latter designation, which would offer somewhat more leeway in management of the area. However, national conservation areas must be created through congressional action, and so far, Colorado senators Wayne Allard and Ben Nighthorse Campbell and Rep. Scott McInnis have done more posturing with Babbitt than cooperating on possible proposals.

A year after voters narrowly defeated a similar proposal, Montezuma County gave thumbs-up to a 0.45-cent sales tax that will fund a $6.26-million bond to build a 110-bed jail and turn the antiquated former facility into a home for a community-corrections program and an overnight detox center.

The passage of the sales tax was a huge relief to county officials, who had foreseen possible lawsuits stemming from conditions at the current, overcrowded jail, and had considered their only other option to be allowing a private company to build a much-larger facility here.

In a related story, Towaoc began work on a $9.6-million, 78-bed detention facility of its own, scheduled to open soon.

No. 3 — The discovery of the remains of Alan Pilon

On Halloween, deer-hunters near the Utah-Colorado border came across the body of a camouflage-clad man surrounded by firearms and pipe bombs on Tin Cup Mesa near Cross Canyon. The remains were later identified as those of Pilon, believed to have been one of three armed men who went on a rampage May 29, 1998, gunning down Cortez Patrol Officer Dale Claxton and wounding two more sheriff’s officers in the ensuing chase.

The shooting spree sparked a manhunt featuring hundreds of officers from different law-enforcement agencies, helicopters, scent-tracking dogs, and a variety of high-tech equipment including an armed personnel carrier, night-vision goggles and infrared-sensing equipment.

But all the search efforts proved fruitless. One of the fugitives, Bob Mason, turned up June 4, 1998, near Bluff, Utah, shooting at (but missing) a social worker, then wounding the sheriff’s deputy that came to investigate. Mason was found dead a few hours later of a gunshot wound, apparently self-inflicted. (Pilon likewise is believed to have killed himself.)

Until Pilon’s body was discovered, that was the last confirmed sighting of any of the fugitives, although there were numerous reported sightings of Pilon and the other wanted man, Jason McVean, near Montezuma Creek, which prompted another furious manhunt and a futile effort to burn away the dense brush along the San Juan River.

The discovery of Pilon, who was just three miles from the site where the fugitives had abandoned their stolen flatbed truck and fled into the wilderness, shed no light on the fugitives’ original motives or goals. However, it cast considerable doubt on all the Montezuma Creek "sightings," which could not have been legitimate unless Pilon, who was out of shape and had a bad leg, had walked all the way there and then limped back to the Tin Cup Mesa site to die.

No. 4 — The implementation of stricter land-use regulations

1999 was the first full year that the county’s new comprehensive plan and its accompanying industrial-commercial regulations were enforced, and marked a new climate in land-use management. This year the planning commission rejected, for the first time in anyone’s memory, not one but two controversial development proposals: one for a 20-lot manufactured-housing subdivision near Yellow Jacket and one for an adolescent treatment home in Lost Canyon.

The rejection of the Yellow Jacket proposal was seen as an early indication that the new and controversial Landowner-Initiated Zoning system might be working. Nearly all the owners of property surrounding the proposed subdivision had self-zoned their tracts for larger agricultural-residential purposes.

No. 5 — Controversy over public officials in Mancos

Growing public discontent with Mancos Town Administrator Terry Short, as evidenced by vehement protests at well-attended town-board meetings, resulted in his ousting as administrator under a settlement agreement in which he was given nine months’ pay and benefits. He was replaced by Interim Manager Bill Ray, who had been removed from his job as Cortez city manager the year before. One of the precipitating incidents was Short’s failure to reach an amicable understanding with Town Clerk Diana Velasquez that would return her to full duty, but many other issues were involved, including Short’s order not to include any public comments in the minutes of the town meetings.

Dissatisfaction with the board in general over issues such as secret meetings likewise led to a recall effort against Mayor Tony Aspromonte, Mayor Pro Tem John Kocourek and Trustee Jim Verghis. The first two escaped recall because the election would have occurred within six months of the time that their terms would have been up, but the effort is continuing against Verghis.

No. 6 — The reintroduction of the lynx

Forty-one shy, heavily furred, big-pawed felines were turned loose in the San Juan Mountains from February through May as part of a state effort to restore the lynx to Colorado.

A coalition of ranchers, farmers and outfitters initially fought the reintroduction, fearing it would curtail their use of public lands, but so far those fears have not been borne out.

Five of the transplanted cats starved initially, but since then, the remaining 10 mortalities have been from other causes. The animals roamed widely, some heading south into New Mexico and several ranging into Montezuma County. Two or three lynx were struck by cars, and three were shot, one in the Glade north of a Dolores by a deer-hunter from Louisiana. The hunter pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of illegal possession of an endangered species and had to pay more than $18,000 in fines and forfeit his rifle and ATV.

Another 40 or 50 lynx are scheduled to be released this spring in the same area.

No. 7 — District Re-4A Superintendent Greg Conway’s departure

An investigation into allegations of financial improprieties against Conway eventually led to his resignation as superintendent, a post he had held for six years. Conway agreed to reimburse the school district $36,000 for the cost of an independent audit, associated attorney’s fees, and his salary during the time of his suspension. Board members refused to give details of the audit’s results or the allegations against Conway.

No. 8 — The death of William Baldwin

A Vietnam veteran with mental problems related to his combat experiences was gunned down on Oct. 12 by a member of the Montezuma County sheriff’s SWAT team who himself had been wounded by the enraged gunman earlier in a seven-hour stand-off at Vista Verde Village.

William Baldwin, 49, was killed with a bullet to the head fired by Sgt. Bill Conner, who had received superficial injuries in the back and leg from ricocheting buckshot and was treated at the scene. The SWAT team had responded to a report of shots being fired at the trailer park after Baldwin reportedly became incensed in a dispute with a neighbor.

Another man who was visiting the residence, Pete Mola, emerged from the trailer shortly after daybreak and was taken into custody, but attempts to negotiate a surrender with Baldwin by telephone were met with angry obscenities and volleys of gunfire. Baldwin died after erupting onto the deck of the trailer with gun blazing, according to a sheriff’s spokesman, who said shooting to wound Baldwin, rather than kill him, had not been considered.

Some local citizens and Baldwin’s children expressed doubts about whether the incident had been handled as wisely as possible. The killing is apparently still under investigation by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which will forward a report of its finding to the Montezuma County District Attorney. The CBI has refused to comment on the status of the investigation.

No. 9 — The murder of Ritche Clark

A Towaoc resident was clubbed to death sometime between Feb. 29 and March 3 in an alcohol-fueled attack, and three acquaintances were accused of his murder. Ritche Clark’s badly beaten body was discovered March 3 in a remote wooded area at the base of Sleeping Ute Mountain. According to FBI affidavits for arrest, Towaoc residents Karlas Silas, Thomas Tom and a so-far-unnamed male juvenile beat Clark to death during a drunken altercation, returning later to hide his body in a shallow ditch three miles north of Towaoc. The fatal blow was delivered by a log wielded by the juvenile, according to arrest affidavits.

On April 6, a federal grand jury indicted Silas and Tom in the killing and they were charged with second-degree murder. Silas pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact in exchange for testifying in any future court proceedings, and received a 51-month sentence on Aug. 20. Silas used her Toyota Corrolla to transport Clark’s body.

In August, Tom pleaded guilty to the original charge of second-degree murder and received a prison sentence of seven years, three months, in November. He also agreed to cooperate in any further court proceedings. The male juvenile has yet to be charged.

No. 10 — The murder of James Eaton

On April 9, the bullet-riddled body of Dolores County High School student James Eaton was discovered in a grove of cedar trees just across the Utah state line five days after he had been reported missing from his Dove Creek home.

Three suspects —brothers Terril and Jordan Calliham and Misty Ernst, acquaintances of the victim who also live in Dove Creek —were arrested after a two-week investigation and charged with his murder. San Juan County Sheriff Mike Lacy said the slaying was motivated by a soured drug deal involving small amounts of marijuana and cocaine.

Ernst pleaded guilty to attempted obstruction of justice last summer and agreed to testify against the Callihams, who are set to go on trial next month.

Honorable mentions

Some other major stories that occurred in the county in 1999, in no particular order:

• The capture of a Four Corners pipeline worker, Leonard Carter of Hatch, Utah, by terrorists in Ecuador and his eventual release months later, along with seven Canadian workers also captured;

• The expansion of the emergency room at Southwest Memorial Hospital, a long-awaited project that finally got the go-ahead this year;

• A visit from First Lady Hillary Clinton to Mesa Verde National Park;

• The completion of the revamping of the M&M intersection at Highway 160 and County Road G;

• The hiring of new City Manager Hal Shepherd;

• Ongoing improvements and expansion of Cortez’s city parks;

• Controversy over whether the county’s largest subdivision, Cedar Mesa Ranches, would be required to contribute to the cost of building a new fire substation for the Mancos Fire District;

• Deteriorating septic systems and possible violations of sanitation rules at several local trailer parks;