Like last week’s editorial on MB, every word of this editorial is true. His best stories cannot be published…on second thought…there is just too much good material to ignore. This will be the second in a series of three editorials on MB, a man who makes life fun. Previously unpublished, these are a few of his stories.
MB made it look easy—most everyone who thought they knew him, really didn’t know him and thought that the man just went to his office, opened the mail, and played for the rest of the day. While this may have been true on some days, he managed to hold the family business together when his father, the founder, lost his way and did everything but sink the ship—much like the donkey in the White House today. MB gathered a great team and held it together, although he is very modest about his role in saving the largest propane distribution business in the western United States from going up in the flames of a family feud. From my vantage point, he is a model of integrity and success at navigating troubled waters.
You may recall another UPSTREAM IDAHO editorial about shooting a Confederate cannon across the South Fork for Jim Ellsworth’s last Home Evening, just before he died. The cannon was fired from a high bluff overlooking the South Fork, east of Ririe, where MB built a new cabin on about 200 acres of farmland above a mile and a half of shoreline. He told us that he bought it to keep the land out of the hands of The Nature Conservancy. He put up a 6x10-foot white sign with big red letters reading, “NO TRESPASSING. NO BUREAUCRATS. NO ENVIRONMENTALISTS.” If you’ve floated the South Fork from Swan Valley to Ririe, you may have seen it. When Dick Cheney was Vice President, he saw that sign each time he floated by. The Secret Service checked MB out because he owned enough interesting weapons to arm a special forces unit, an ATF license, Security Clearance, a 50 caliber machine gun that he mounted on the bow of his aluminum fishing boat, and a Confederate cannon that he fired off on special occasions. This alerted the Secret Service of a potential wacko sitting along the shore of the VP’s favorite trout stream, and they were required to check out the armory and the man behind all of this. What they found was a harmless little fuzzball who liked guns. They exchanged email addresses and became fast friends. After that, his beach became a designated site for offloading the VP in case of an emergency, complete with arrangements for Blackhawks to land on a site up by his cabin. I don’t think they ever needed the site—but this was fishing, not hunting. I later learned that some of my emails to and from MB were being screened by the Secret Service. They never showed up to check me out, but I didn’t have an armory full of exotic weapons nor a long beach and landing pad sitting on a bluff above the South Fork.
Last week’s human-caused Antelope Creek Fire was on land adjacent to MB’s 200 acres. In the first picture, you can see the fire on either side of where Antelope Creek comes out of the canyon and empties into the South Fork.
The second picture shows fall colors at sunset along the South Fork. I am told that this is another one of Idaho’s world-class trout streams. I think the world would be a better place if Liz Cheney went back there and spent most of her time peacefully floating on guided fishing trips, looking at MB’s sign on a regular basis.
Ever vigilant,
RT
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