Page 8 - full mag fall 2017 flip

8 Friends oF red rock canyon

By Chuck Williams
Photos by C. Williams except where noted

ou Can’t Go Home Again is a classic novel written by Thomas Wolfe. Wolfe wrote,“But why
had he always felt so strongly the magnetic pull of home, why had he thought so much about it
Yand remembered it with such blazing accuracy...”

homas Wolfe had obviously never met the Oliver
T family.

On an unusually cool Monday in July, three vehicles
containing several generations of the Oliver family
passed through the gate of their namesake Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) property and parked below
what was once the ranch corral. Brothers Bruce and
Robert Oliver stepped out on the ranch they had first
seen seventy-nine years ago as the 13 and 11-year-old
Robert and Bruce Oliver entering the remains of the casita sons of Chauncey (CB) and Edith Patton Oliver.
with Tom Curran, Randy Koch and Riley Curran.
Twenty-four years have passed since the ranch
became part of the Red Rock Canyon National Con-
Volunteers dedicated to the preservation of Red Rock Canyon
servation Area and the years have not been kind to the
property. Abandoned structures, a mostly filled in pool,
weedy yards full of overgrown vegetation and heaps of
stored material greeted the family.

The brothers led the group to the main house, pausing
briefly at the casita, or guest house, where one wall con-
tains a stone from the American Valley Ranch in New
Anna Casey’s stone with the date of the New Mexico Indian Mexico commemorating how Mrs. Oliver’s mother,
attack.
Anna Casey, helped fight off an Apache Indian attack in
1881.

We assembled in the center of the
main house, which is missing two of
the outer walls and roof. The chil-
dren and grandchildren commented
on how the house seemed smaller
than what they remembered while
pointing out where various pieces
of furniture had been, including an
Center of the main house (L to R): Carin Oliver, Randy Koch, organ. Robert’s wife Barbara walked
Evan Koch, Patty Oliver Koch, Robert Oliver, Tom Curran, down by the pool and was pleased to Betty Oliver’s mural in the main kitchen in 2006.
Julie Oliver Curran, Bruce Oliver and Riley Curran photo by Tom Hughes

the Rock - Volume 8 Issue 1