Billy Roos, November 1, 2015 ~ El Dia de los Muertos ~ el otro lado ~ te extrañamos compay

the spirit remains ~ Abuelo Wells

COLORADO NUT COMPANY ~ A JADED HISTORY

As told by Billy Roos this past autumn (Sept. 2015) while sipping bloody beers at the Rocky Flats Lounge

Colorado Nut Company was the 1st to domestically produce artificial nut/chalk stones in Amerika… Billy Roos & Paul Sibley in 1967 or 68 started out in a 10′ x 10′ Denver basement that had a hole cut in an exterior wall to pass stock through to the band saw in order to cut it … the work was slow & very inaccurate … eventually they bought a drill press. Billy & a lady friend, Julie Clemens rented a house in Eldorado Springs with a garage that became Colorado Nut Company’s new home. After a break up with the future-ex girlfriend a very short while later Colorado Nut Co. was evicted by the landlord for making too much noise…

Billy and Sib, autumn 2014 (back of Wally Berg’s head) in Macho Acres courtyard .  rōbert photo

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One afternoon while driving to the dump in Marshall … Sibley spotted some old guy slouched in a pick up truck in front of a run down adobe shack…

the boys stopped and talked to the gentlemen and Sibley struck a deal to purchase the Marshall shack… the old man didn’t know what it was worth… junkies had lived in it and trashed the place so it was in hideous shape…… Paul paid (payment plan) maybe $10,000 for the dump. The old guy probably died…. broke and homeless according to Billy.

Macho Acres in the beginning.

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Soon after the purchase a large shop was built behind the Sibley residence that had become known as Macho Acres … It was shared by 5 guys who built it and the Nut Company moved into Macho about 1971.

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Dirt Pimp Matt Wells proudly shows the converted ‘chicken coop’ that he and a cast of hundreds worked so hard to convert into a condo @ the Acres over the years.

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A sorted group of shameless reprobates & sociopaths resided in the ‘coop’ over the years… Boulder County finally declared it a HAZMAT zone.

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Climbing rag ad

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Collectors items on E-Bay

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# 2-6 Colorado Nuts Classics

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Within a few years the successful business entrepreneurs gave it up – went out of business … but they were still in demand because of the poor and retched local climbing bums. The boys said they were too lazy, the work too dangerous & besides they had girl friends with trust funds and just didn’t want to work anymore ….. Chouinard & Forrest about that time came out with their lines of climbing paraphernalia which was far superior and refined compared to Colorado Nuts rather rough products..

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The remains of Colorado Nuts eventually got tossed out in the campo santo/scrap pile behind the shop.  What didn’t make it to the Marshall dump became an old climbing gear archeological dig that Billy and I visited one afternoon while drinking beer and wandering around Sibley’s vast holdings complete with a shooting range, old abandoned cars and of course the famous Sibley Museum.

Scribed by rōbert

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Excavated archeology site/La Brea Tar Pits at Macho Acres

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Paul Sibley with an original Colorado Nut poster, September 2014. Poster of Kevin Donald on the West Buttress of the Bastille by Bernie Arndt Esq.

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Entrepreneurs ~ Sib, Billy with rōbert ~ autumn 2014 ~ Macho Acres

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Historia antigua

Meet Paul Sibley, a Boulder Icon, pioneer 1960’s climber, master wood worker, blacksmith, 60’s drug runner (everyone dabbled in that role in the 60’s), rebel, Outward Bound problem instructor…. and … on and on. Paul, along with Pat Ament had the biggest impact on my early days climbing in Boulder and Yosemite. Paul owns a small little ranchet outside of Boulder, nicknamed macho acres and los vientos (the winds). The ranch house is the old Marshall stage stop building. Paul was my landlord for 4 years. Climbing like a mad man and married, I needed something other than my VW van to live in so I rented a small renevated chicken coop (with loft bedroom!!) for 90$$ a month that many previous reprobates remodeled including Matt Wells and Billy Roos. Gravity feed water, solar shower, pit toilet, and tiny wood stove and kitchenet. It was a good and simple life perched high above the Eldorado canyon coorridor. The coop was also home to Jeff Lowe, Jeff Long (writer) and a host and cast of individuals from the more..interesting side of life. All running wild going 90 mile and hour on a tank full dreams trying to keep the view in the windshield bigger than the rear veiw mirror. Amen.

Mike O’Donnell