Dear HCN,
I read with interest your
March 13 article about Jim Catron, “The Last Celtic Warlord lives
in New Mexico” – which leads the reader to believe he is some kind
of hero of the West. Many of us here in Catron County see it
otherwise. We see him as a pompous, hot-headed little banty
rooster, who seems to keep Catron County and our county
commissioners in hot water all the time with one lawsuit after
another. He is for local government all right, as long as it
conforms to his wishes. His form of government is not of the people
by the people, but by the government for the government. More aptly
put, he believes in law, written by lawyers, for the lawyers’
benefit only.
A good friend of mine was referred
to in the article as being a “militia woman,” whose property the
so-called “county road” runs through. Myrtle Sweazie Cox has
absolutely been mistreated, lied to and her private property has
been taken from her with no compensation from our local government
officials. The implication that “armed-to-the-teeth militia
members’ have invaded Catron County is ludicrous. Myrtle Cox is a
strong, independent, 84-years-young rancher who still lives and
makes her living on the very land her father homesteaded here in
Catron County. I am one of the “jury of like-minded people” who
stands behind Myrtle and feels she has been persecuted by Jim
Catron. I am one of the “looney tunes’ Jim referred to. I am a
fifth-generation rancher/outfitter whose family on both sides were
homesteaders in northwestern Colorado and I believe in a government
of the people by the people and despise heavy-handed, top-down
officials and crooked lawyers. I would debate Jim Catron any day of
the week on who is more patriotic.
We here in
Catron County, including Jim Catron, are all battling the extremist
enviros and the liberal Clinton/Gore/Babbitt administration’s move
to stop all consumptive uses on the public land and the mandated
multiple-use concept of managing these public lands. So far we are
losing big time. The spotted owl has wiped out our logging
industry, the ranchers on the public land here are going out fast
due to multiple endangered species, and now with the translocation
of the wolves into the Gila National Forest this winter, the
hunting industry will go by the wayside also. Catron County, New
Mexico, and the Gila have become one of the premier destinations of
the trophy elk hunter and the hunting industry has taken up much of
the slack in our local economy. It, too, faces a very uncertain
future. I guess the West will be just for bird watchers, wolf
howlers and backpackers.
Tom
Klumker
Glenwood, New
Mexico
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline ‘Militia woman’ is fighting for her rights.
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