Show CIO — The Herald Journal Logan Utah Wednesday September 18 2002 LegeiradlG7 ELK BEND Idaho (AP) — The stream of songs and poems penned in a cave above the Salmon River has slowed to a trickle The guitar is silent the picks and shovels idle Time is catching up with Dugout Dick The “Salmon River Caveman" is 86 and in his words “too laid up to do ' much" For most of his many years Richard Zimmerman lived life alone and oh his own terms He rode freight trains with railroad tramps herded sheep dug for precious metals He was digging on a mountainside near Elk Bend south of Salmon when he had the idea of digging a home -- u “I made $40 the other day' And the Army's started sending me money every month I'm livin' high on the hog now’’ - ' e Dugout Dick A cave was perfect for him providing shelter and the inde- pendence he craved One cave led to another and the legend of Dugout Dick the Salmon River Caveman was bom For 54 years he's lived in his cave tended his goats and his garden and delighted fol- lowers of the state’s mountain ‘ solitaries Once part of the fabric of life in Idaho the hermits who lent their unique character to its river canyons and ridgetops 'are fading into history Buckskin Bill free Press Frances ' and the others are gone Dugout Dick may be the last and even legends get old “I broke my hip two years ' ago and spent 17 days in a hospital in Idaho Falls” he - Ddlalto© herao'li: sDmvniM dtowm said “It's the longest I've ever been away from the river “I walk with a cane now and my fingers are loo stiff to play the guitar I haven't been able to make any caves for a long time’’ Then he brightens says he “can still make music" and pulls a harmonica from a weathered box His feet tap the floor of the cave the rock walls ring with the strains of “Wabash Cannonball" He plays and sings three lively verses then stops abruptly “I better quit now” he says “I'm getting my breakfast in my harp” Even at 86 there's no one quite like Dugout Dick He came to the canyon to leave the world of people An unhappy home life in Indiana left a lasting mark He's turned down offers to appear as a guest on “The Tonight Show" He’s been featured in National Geographic magazine and on “Good Morning America" His summer visitors this year have included television crews from as far way as Germany “I ain't no hermit now” he said He feels obligated to stick around for the visitors who rent his caves — he has 14 — for $5 a night or $25 a month Others pay him gratuities for cave tours photos sketches and autographs “I’m in the tourist business” he said “I made $40 the other day And the Army’s started sending me money every month I'm livin’ high on the hog now" His hip injury and World War II service made him eligi- ble for a veterans disability pension He's using the money to pay his hospital bills And after decades of living alone his solitary status is in danger The caveman has a bank account in Salmon The Disabled American Veterans recently made him a lifetime member the Bureau 'AP photo Inside his cave in Elk Bend Idaho Richard Zimmerman known as Dugout Dick tells the story of how he came to Idaho from Indiana riding the rails His shelves are filled with cooking utensils herbs and supplements from the health food store in Salmon The rock wads are home to worn and discolored photographs one of his brother and one of an old girlfriend in front of a Christmaq tree of Land Management brings river When he isn’t visiting him firewood arid his neighhe’s likely to be doing most of bors across the river take the things he’s always done He just does them slower now messages for him and invite him over on Sundays He rises with the sun and “This Christmas I looked spends most days close to out and saw him over there home puttering in his caves and wondered what in the visiting with renters and world he was doing for tourists and reading magazines and his Bible When the Christmas” neighbor Connie Fitte said “All his cave spirit moves him he writes renters had left religious poems Every other “I went to town and bought ' week he writes a letter to his him a shirt and helped him sister in Indiana start a fire I could see he wasHis goats are gone They n’t well ThaLnight my hushad the disturbing habit of band went over and invited eating his books and newspahim to our house for the folper clippings But he still harHe had a bath vests fruits and vegetables lowing Sunday and I cut his hair He’s been from his one-ac- re orchard and our Sunday visitor ever since garden He’s like my adopted grandfaThe garden is watered by a ther now" windmill he designed to draw For his part the “adopted water from the river Unable to eat meat wheat or sugar he grandfather" enjoys the visits A delicate stomach keeps him lives mainly oh fresh and ferfrom the dinner table but he mented vegetables rye-flomush pork and beans yogurt appreciates the company and the hot baths — a pleasant and dried fruit change from his usual practice of battling in a washtub or the ail ur He still sings the old railroad songs still makes his stinging-nettl- e yogurt still hard-h- at wears his ever-prese- hillside with his cane On winter days he’s been known to climb into his 1994 Chevy pickup and just drive It’s his nt “You bump your head a lot when you live in a cave” he explained His caves are equipped with doors and windows — mostly old windshields and meager furnishings The one where he lives has carpet and linoleum a wood-stov- e tables and chairs a tube that brings fresh water from a spring and a solar collector to run his radio and a light in his bedroom He dug the caves alone ' using a picky shovel prybar and nothing else He hauled the supporting timbers in by horseback He helped build the access road which was named after an aviation pioneer Now there are days when it’s all he can do to climb the arthritis remedy “The heat and the vibration of the gearshift against my knee” he explained He half jokingly says he’ll a thousand years then admits to worrying about what will happen to his caves after he’s gone The BLM owns the land and some of the locals have complained that a hillside honeycombed with caves and strewn with junk isan'eyesore in need of bulldozing Others including its occupant — say the site shouid be preserved as an Idaho landmark ‘The road should be named Dugout Road” he said “And the caves should be made into a memorial As it is now the only manorial around here is Uve me” STRATEGIC GftOUr ILC iVD OGDEN PLANNING Jlltf WASHINGTON UTAH 1403 The STRATEGIC PLANNING GROUP Presents How WILL NEW TAX LAWS ON EVERY GAS OR ELECTRIC RANGE Arm YOUR RETIREMENT? 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