Article contributed by Jean Miller Bill Cullen moved to Hideaway Park from Berthoud Falls in 1961, at which time he bought several pieces of property. One was the filling station and the Village Inn, priced at $25,500, belonging to Wally and Dottie Tunstead, who had come to town right after the war. The Tunsteads moved back to Oklahoma, their former home. Behind Tunsteads’ stood a very small, old house, on land possessed by Easy Butler; Bill bought this too, in 1963, as well as a house near Vasquez Creek, owned by an old-timer, Charlie Tigges. Next he bought old Mrs. Zeida’s house; she had died in 1964, and when her son Joe came to clear it out, Bill hightailed it over to see him. “I’d like to buy your place. Would you be interested?” Joe was definitely interested, so the two came to an agreement on the price: $100 down and $50/month. Adjacent to this was land belonging to Marie Roth, which Bill had already bought, and the Roth/Zeida properties formed the nucleus of Bill’s “homestead.” One of his first projects was to put in an access drive to the house, for there was none. Few of these people drove, you see. Almost immediately Bill discovered that there was a huge rock in the way, one which wasn’t going to be moved with just a pick and shovel. Wandering over to see his friend, Dwight Miller, he inquired, “Did you by chance have any dynamite left over after blasting those beaver dams the other day?” “Why, as a matter of fact, I did,” answered Dwight. “What do you need?” Thus it was arranged for Dwight to come blast that rock out of there. Now Bill’s driveway was to be built along the very edge of his property, which also happened to be very close to the home of Mrs. Hart, who lived with her son, Ken, and his children, Beverly and Danny. Bill and the Harts always had a running battle going. He had gotten cross-wise with Ken, when he blacktopped the road in front of the Village Inn filling station, thinking to make it easier for customers. Because Bill and Dwight were friends, by extension, Dwight was also Mrs. Hart’s enemy. Mrs. Hart was a crusty old gal and when she saw that something was a-foot, she hustled out to protest. “You two’ll have holes knocked in the roof of my house with all that blasting! You can’t do it.” Bill thought a moment. “I see your point, Mrs. Hart. I tell you what. I know where there’s an old mattress. We can put that over the rock and it will contain the sound as well as odd rocks that might go flying.” So Bill and Dwight headed down to the little house behind the Village Inn. It seemed that some fellow was renting it from Bill and he hadn’t bothered to pay his rent, minimal as it was, for at least four months! Without a qualm, the friends brought back a rather ratty mattress that would do the trick perfectly. Dwight dug down next to the rock and carefully stuck his sticks of dynamite around it. They laid the mattress over the top and placed the fuse leading away from the rock. Mrs. Hart stood, glaring at them from inside her house. The moment had come. Dwight lit the fuse and the two men ran off to a safe distance. A few moments later --- KABOOM! Dwight and Bill saw the mattress rise and rise, higher and higher, up to the very tops of the nearby pines. They heard the rattle and clatter of small rocks tumbling and skittering off Mrs. Hart’s roof. They watched that furious old woman rush from her house with fire in her eyes, almost before the mattress had a chance to make a safe landing. She was ready to tear them limb from limb! But they checked her roof, and amazingly there was no damage at all. What a bit of good fortune. They inspected the rock and found that it had shattered beautifully! Bill would have no problem at all in building his road now. Dwight did earn from this project, however, that there were some things he didn¹t know about blasting rocks! As for the mattress, they searched for it. I can assure you that that mattress was never going to look the same again. Off to the dump it went, at least those parts of it that could be found!
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