Latest / Colorado Soul Stories / JoJo Tells ANOTHER Story: Me and the Sheriff, an Unforgettable Night in Westcliffe, CO

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JoJo Tells ANOTHER Story: Me and the Sheriff, an Unforgettable Night in Westcliffe, CO · Colorado Soul Stories

• 0:00
  Hi, here we go again, Colorado Soul Stories, been all over the place.
• 0:05
  If you're listening in order, you would have listened to my discussion with
• 0:12
  my lovely friend, Andy Mast of Westcliff, Colorado.
• 0:17
  Andy is a wonderful artist and just all around good guy.
• 0:23
  My interview with him is very different than what you're going to hear next.
• 0:28
  And the only connection is that they are both based in Westcliff, Colorado.
• 0:35
  Here is my friend Jojo Elmquist again, telling one of her crazy adventure stories. Enjoy.
• 0:46
  Okay, we're having a bit of a chuckle remembering I was not there,
• 0:50
  but I know the story, this next story that JoJo's going to tell.
• 0:55
  What's the name of it? Me and the Sheriff. You and the Sheriff.
• 1:01
  Do you want to give any more intro or do you want to just read?
• 1:04
  Oh, I'll read it and then you can ask me anything after. Sounds good. Go ahead. All right.
• 1:10
  Westcliff in the late 1980s was more of a spot on a map than a vibrant Colorado mountain town.
• 1:16
  Nestled up against the Sangre de Cristo mountain range, it was a hamlet few people knew about.
• 1:22
  Therefore, it was especially strange to be working there, commuting from Denver on the weekends.
• 1:27
  I was a newly licensed real estate agent and wasn't having much luck selling
• 1:32
  houses in Denver, so I figured selling Colorado mountain property more closely
• 1:37
  aligned with my then-current life experiences.
• 1:41
  Especially since as a kid, I went to summer camp just up the road at Rainbow Trail.
• 1:47
  The locals were not happy that the big city greedy real estate people were in
• 1:53
  town to sell off their land, even if technically we were hired by the current owners to sell it.
• 2:00
  Change is hard and the locals were not going to accept that quietly.
• 2:05
  Saturday and Sunday days were spent guiding prospective buyers around parcels
• 2:10
  of land subdivided into home sites.
• 2:13
  Saturday night consisted of going to one of the three restaurants in town for
• 2:17
  dinner, and then either headed to one of the two bars in town or going back
• 2:22
  to the loneliness of the motel room shared with one of your co-workers.
• 2:27
  After dinner, Jim, one of the more experienced salespeople on the team,
• 2:31
  asked who wanted to go to the Silver Dome.
• 2:34
  The Silverdome, aptly named, was a geodesic dome-shaped bar.
• 2:39
  As one of the younger people on the sales team, I jumped on the opportunity
• 2:43
  since watching TV from my motel room bed seemed too boring for the night.
• 2:49
  I jumped in his Subaru wagon and off we went.
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  He immediately spied a group of young ladies at the pool table and went to introduce
• 2:58
  himself, buy rounds of drinks, and try to get lucky.
• 3:02
  I didn't have a lot of hope for him since he was at least 25 years older than
• 3:06
  the ladies, but good for him for trying.
• 3:09
  I sat at the bar and ordered a Coors Light, one of the few beers on tap.
• 3:15
  Off to my right were a couple of cowboys in faded, dirty Wrangler jeans, boots, and hats.
• 3:21
  To my left, a combination of working men, some in cowboy boots,
• 3:25
  some in work boots, all in dirty jeans.
• 3:29
  The bartender brought me a beer and a shot of Jim Beam. I said, I didn't order that.
• 3:34
  The bartender says, it's from the guys over there, pointing to the guys on my right.
• 3:39
  I lifted the shot in a silent salute to my benefactors, brought it to my lips,
• 3:44
  gulped it down and said thanks.
• 3:47
  That was their signal to move closer.
• 3:50
  I needed the company since I knew Jim would be otherwise occupied for the duration.
• 3:55
  Kyle and John introduced themselves and I did the same.
• 3:59
  We talked, drank, laughed, drank more. A typical Saturday night in any small town bar.
• 4:06
  It was getting late though and both Jim and I had to work early so we called
• 4:10
  it a night and made our way back to the motel.
• 4:13
  We said our goodnights, and I thought it was the end of the night.
• 4:17
  A short while later, I heard tires screeching to a halt in the parking lot outside
• 4:22
  my door, then banging on room doors.
• 4:25
  I peered out the window and saw the two cowboys from the bar.
• 4:29
  I opened the door and asked, what are you doing here? The driver of the F-150
• 4:34
  truck, Kyle motioned for me to come outside.
• 4:38
  You need to get out of town. The sheriff is looking for you, he said.
• 4:42
  What? Why? I asked. He explained, after you left the dome, the other guys at
• 4:49
  the bar started a fight with us.
• 4:51
  I wasn't even there. What does the sheriff want with me?
• 4:55
  Well, the fight was because of you. The other guys didn't like the way we monopolized
• 5:01
  your time. I guess they wanted to chat with you, and then a few shots were exchanged at the bar.
• 5:07
  I guess if we had gone outside, this would have just blown over.
• 5:12
  What? Is this a joke? There was
• 5:14
  a gunfight at the bar after I left and the sheriff thinks it's my fault?
• 5:19
  That's just how he is. He doesn't like foreigners like you in town.
• 5:23
  He will calm down after a few hours. You better come with us.
• 5:28
  By then, my motel roommate was getting angry about getting woken up by the ruckus
• 5:33
  and told me to get out of there, since she didn't want any trouble with the sheriff.
• 5:37
  I wasn't sure why she would be in trouble, but stupidly I went.
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  I got in the truck in between Kyle and John, and we took off out of town towards
• 5:47
  the forest. I looked down into the footwell beneath John and saw a cooler of
• 5:52
  beer, which was expected, and about 20 guns of all shapes and sizes.
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  Not what I expected.
• 5:59
  I tried to act like it was totally normal to be driving fast in a pickup truck,
• 6:04
  heading out of town and into the forest with a couple of guys I met at a bar
• 6:08
  who had enough guns to arm the local cavalry.
• 6:12
  The only thing missing was a
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  sheriff following closely behind with sirens blaring and lights flashing.
• 6:18
  We drove up the rutted-out dirt road, and it was obvious they had a destination in mind.
• 6:24
  We pulled up to a clearing with a fire pit, old logs around the pit, and parked.
• 6:29
  There were multiple signs that this was a frequented area, including broken
• 6:33
  bottles and smashed beer cans that littered the ground.
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  They put the tailgate down and put the cooler and guns in the bed of the truck.
• 6:42
  We can have a few beers and then do a little target practice, said John.
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  While my knowledge of guns was limited, I figured that I should be armed,
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  just in case something bad happened.
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  A small stature woman out in the forest with two relatively unknown,
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  heavily armed men seemed like the scene from a horror movie.
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  I slipped a small snub-nosed revolver down the back waistband of my jeans.
• 7:08
  Drinking and shooting guns goes together like America and apple pie.
• 7:13
  I didn't understand it until then, but if you were drinking,
• 7:17
  you had a replenishable supply of targets to shoot at. Makes sense, right?
• 7:22
  I had fired rifles and shotguns, but never handguns or anything close to an
• 7:27
  automatic or semi-automatic weapon.
• 7:30
  The recoil from some of those guns made my arm sore.
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  Beer, shoot, put up more targets, beer, reload, you get the picture.
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  As light began to trickle through the trees and the sun was just peeking up
• 7:45
  above the mountain range, we headed back to the motel.
• 7:48
  They dropped me off and each of them gave me a hug and said they'd be at the
• 7:53
  bar next week when I came back to town.
• 7:56
  I needed a shower, clean clothes, and some breakfast before headed to work.
• 8:01
  My motel roommate, Maureen, questioned me about my whereabouts from the night,
• 8:06
  told her I'd explain it at breakfast.
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  I walked across the carpet in my muddy boots, not paying much attention.
• 8:14
  I might have still been drunk.
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  We packed up and headed to the restaurant. While I sat back drinking my black
• 8:21
  coffee and waiting for breakfast to arrive, an unwelcome guest entered the restaurant
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  and made a beeline to our table.
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  It was the sheriff and his posse of deputies.
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  It's time for you to leave, he said in a voice loud enough to be heard by the entire restaurant. Me?
• 8:38
  What did I do? I asked demurely.
• 8:41
  The shootout at the Dome, defacing public land, shooting guns all night,
• 8:46
  and now trashing a motel room, he explained.
• 8:48
  I protested against the allegations and pleaded my innocence.
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  Now, or I'm taking you to jail. but I haven't even gotten my breakfast.
• 8:59
  Pay your tab, get in your Jeep, and we'll escort you to the county line.
• 9:04
  What? I was being escorted out of the county by the sheriff and two additional cars of deputies?
• 9:10
  This was the 1980s, not the 1880s, but it certainly seemed more like the 1880s.
• 9:18
  I could see he wasn't joking. I did as I was told and got into my car.
• 9:24
  One of the deputies told me to follow his patrol car.
• 9:27
  Then the sheriff got into his patrol truck and pulled right behind my Jeep.
• 9:33
  We stayed in tight formation all the way to the county line.
• 9:36
  As we approached the county line, the lead car pulled to the side of the road,
• 9:42
  and the sheriff behind me turned on his lights and siren.
• 9:46
  I pulled over behind the patrol car, and the sheriff pulled right next to me,
• 9:51
  rolled down his window, and told me, Don't come back to my county,
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  or I'll have you in lockup faster than a jackrabbit fleeing a prairie fire.
• 10:01
  I left the county, and that was the last time I went back for over 20 years.
• 10:07
  Oh, my God. The Wild West. Colorado soul stories. That's what you're getting here.
• 10:14
  All kinds of stories that emanate from Colorado from all different time periods.
• 10:19
  It was such a different place back then.
• 10:23
  However, I go to Westcliff frequently, and it's still a very tiny town.
• 10:28
  Yep. I heard, didn't we hear that? that sheriff recently passed away?
• 10:33
  Yes, we did. I was at a party and someone mentioned that they were living in
• 10:37
  Westcliff and I told them this story and he goes,
• 10:41
  I think I know who that sheriff was and he recently passed away and he did rule
• 10:46
  that county with just an iron fist.
• 10:49
  So I feel safe to go back now.
• 10:52
  For many years, I envisioned that there would be wanted posters of me up in the local post office.
• 10:58
  Then I remembered I hadn't been charged with a crime, only accused of one.
• 11:02
  So I figured there weren't any official wanted posters.
• 11:06
  Oh, man. And the attitude about guns was a little different.
• 11:11
  We didn't have mass shootings yet or anything.
• 11:15
  It was just kind of a casual Western thing or American thing, I suppose.
• 11:20
  It's gotten a little out of hand now, but back then it was pretty innocent,
• 11:24
  wouldn't you say? Yeah, I mean, it definitely was just part of the way of life
• 11:28
  of most rural communities.
• 11:30
  I love your stories. I knew that one, but I mostly, I think one time I invited
• 11:34
  Jojo, somehow we were going through Westcliff or to Westcliff.
• 11:38
  No, I can't go there. I said, why?
• 11:41
  The sheriff said I can't come back. I was like, hang on.
• 11:46
  So I knew a little of the story, but that was great to hear the whole thing.
• 11:50
  Good stuff. Yeah. And I think it really tells the story also about that community spirit that was there.
• 12:00
  Those cowboys didn't, they didn't want any harm to come to me.
• 12:04
  They wanted to protect me from the sheriff.
• 12:06
  And it's that type of community that really makes you love the parts of the Old West.
• 12:13
  Oh, yeah. And we still have that in little parts of Colorado. Absolutely.
• 12:18
  I love it. Okay. Thanks a lot. Thank you. See you next time.