"I was always willing to be reasonable until I had to be unreasonable. Sometimes reasonable men must do unreasonable things." - Marvin Heemeyer
It was a beautiful yet hot day in June when I decided to venture to the City of Granby. After all, it was blue skies, sunny, and the perfect day for a road trip into the mountains (as is literally every day in Colorado). I honestly had no idea what to expect. A year ago I first became acquainted with the "Killdozer" rampage story that went down in the town of Granby, and my natural curiosity finally spurred the road trip. No disrespect to the memory of Marvin Heemeyer, but a lot of people in Colorado refer to him as "the bulldozer dude."
On my journey, I passed Winter Park. Wow, Winter Park is such charming scenic ski towns with quaint downtown establishments and rooftop patios. I had to make a quick pit stop and shoot a quick pic of the gorgeous scenery (I hope to do a blog piece on Winter Park in the near future).
When I actually arrived in Granby (elevation 8,000 feet), I was on the phone with a friend. I was like, "Wait, I think I might be in Granby!" Seriously, if you get distracted, you can literally drive right through without knowing it (Total area of town: 12.38 square miles, population: 2,039, and the downtown stretch on Main is a little over a mile). The town is quite charming, and I enjoyed parking my car and meeting all the friendly locals! The town is centrally located and within a few miles of Grand Lakes, Winter Park, Hot Sulphur Springs...
When I say "small town," that is an understatement. For anyone (like me) who has ever resided in a small town, you'll quickly find there are perks to small town livin'...and, then there are the downsides. For instance, often times it can feel like you're living in a fishbowl where every knows your business. Also, sometimes small towns bring a "mafia" type mentality where a small group of locals/natives/board members run the entire town...and everyone essentially plays by their rules.
Enters circa 1991(drumroll please) Marvin Heemeyer, an "outsider" from South Dakota, into the small town of Granby:
Like me, "Marv" (as everyone knew him) fell in love with Colorado. He was stationed in Colorado in the Airforce (honorable discharge). However, after his service ended he didn't want to leave! He decided to take up residence in Grand Lakes, Colorado. And, I can't blame him. This area is absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. Marv was enamored with snowmobiling. It wasn't just a hobby for him, it was his LIFE!
Marv just wanted to start his own muffler shop business and make enough money to pay his bills and sustain his snowmobile fix in the mountains of Colorado. He found a great steal at an auction and purchased a piece of land with a garage in downtown Granby ($42,000). Marv had purchased and leased muffler repair shops in surrounding cities and leased them, but this one he kept to operate for himself and called it "Mountain View Muffler." Marv was great at his trade, was well liked by his friends, and as one local stated, "[Marv would] bend over backwards for anyone." Another recollection of Marv: "If Marv was your friend, he was your best friend, but if he decided that he was your enemy, then, he was your worst and most dangerous enemy." One town local said he threatened to kill her husband after when he didn't pay his muffler bill. But, for the most part, and what I gathered from my time in Granby, Marv was a well liked dude.
Marv was set to make a wonderful living in Granby until the trouble started. The Town of Granby reannexed + cut off Marv's link to the City sewer due to an adjacent business moving in. They gave him the option of spending $82,000 of his own money to building an underground pathway to tie into the line, but Marv could not afford that. Then the City began to fine him $100 a days for running a business without proper sewer tie in (and fined him for illegal dumping + having junk cars on his lot). Not only that, but the owner of the concrete company would not grant Marv an easement to tie into the City sewer line. This seemed to be the major ordeal that made Marvin snap. I use the word "snap" loosely as what I'm about to share was very premeditated. According to Marv, there were a series of other miscarriages of justice. To name a few: a shady zoning change (referred to as "spot-zoning) went down next to his business and he believed the City Counsel, court system, his lawyer, local newspaper editor, Cody D. (owner of the concrete plant), and the Thompson family (Marv alleged Dick Thompson told him: "you can suck my dick") were all corrupt + conniving against him. Marv often referred to the "leaders" and locals of the town as the "good ol' boys' club."
Marv purchased a bulldozer (Komatsu D355A) from a California auction and had it brought to Granby. He then parked it within view of the Concrete company. Many people thought this was threat. Marv had the opportunity to sell his business for over 4 x what he purchased it for and leave Granby. But, Marv stayed and slowly reached his melting point with the town and its people. I could argue that, imbedding within each of us is a "fight v. flight" mechanism in how we respond to outside stimuli, and Marv's mechanism was definitely "fight." Thus, Marv hung around.
Marv finally ended up selling his muffler shop to a trash collection company, but he wouldn't leave. In fact, he retained a slot in the garage after auctioning all off all his belongings. Nobody made a bid on his bulldozer, so according to Marv, it was a sign from God for him to proceed with a plan to seek revenge on those who wronged him. He had previously had an epiphany, what Marv called a divine inspiration in his hot tub, that he was supposed to exact vengeance. Some townspeople said he spent way too much time in that hot tub.
Marv pulled the dozer into a garage stall and for the next 1.5 years he worked to transform and modify the dozer the into a tank with layers of steel and concrete. He used cameras he installed so he could see when the trash company left, and he would spend all night working on the killdozer (sleeping during the day). He also wrote out a list of those he would seek vengeance upon (finally audio recording onto a cassette tape). Marv believed that because no one noticed his work on the bulldozer or tried to intervene, that it was further prompting from God to proceed with his plan of destruction.
It is believed that when Marv when into the tank, he never planned to get out (as it was impossible to penetrate the tank or gain any entry/exit after it was sealed shut). On June 4, 2004 Marv busted through his previously owned business and headed straight for the concrete plant (which is now not in operation). The owner tried to stop him, but the killdozer was unstoppable.
SIDE NOTE: I'm not sure why the modified bulldozer was nicknamed the killdozer, because no one was actually killed or injured. Although some will argue that if Marv's automatic rifles had discharged correctly and hit the propane tanks, it would have killed a lot of people in the surrounding communities. Some also argue that the reverse 911 calls made to the locals to shelter in place probably helped matters and maybe saved lives.
Marv then proceeded to bulldoze the office of the local newspaper (aimed at Patrick Bower of Sky News who allegedly slighted him), a residential home of the former Mayor, a hardware store (owned by a man Marv had named in a lawsuit), attempted to shoot industrial propane tanks at Independent Gas (located near a senior citizens community), the library, town hall, a children's play park (which nobody really understood), and finished his rampage through downtown Granby specifically targeting the businesses of those who had wronged him. His last bulldozing rampage was at Gambles (picture of rebuilt building below). Around the time his engine started overheating, Marv started taking out the side of Gambles. Marv didn't know the building had a basement, and his tread got stuck as it crashed through the flooring rendering him helpless + immobile. He took a handgun to the roof of his mouth and ended his life. It wasn't until 2 a.m. the next morning, that SWAT teams from other counties were able to gain entry into the tank (they had used explosives and finally had to cut through the steel layers).
The entire attack last 2 hours and 7 minutes, damaging 13 buildings (including the utility service center), and racking up over $7 million in damages. As for what happened to the "killdozer"? A lot of the townspeople, including the Thompson brothers, thought the town could make a killing off putting it in a museum. However, the killdozer was disassembled and sent to several different scrap yards to prevent anyone from paying homage to it.
The armored killdozer...
A quick shout out to Eric, owner of Trail Riders Motel. Eric helped a sister out in finding Town Hall and the Library. Give Eric a ring if you're riding through and need room + board!
Trail Riders Motel, 215 E Agate Ave, Granby, CO 80446,
907.887.3738, trailridersmotel@gmail.com
Also, a shout out to Maurio Archuleta for being so friendly and letting me pet Millie. If you're ever in need of a great auto mechanic in Granby or for some fresh new ink, Maurio is the man to see!
Maurio Archuleta, Tattoo Artist, 970-238-0719, archuletamaurio@gmail.com
Finally, thank you to the owners of the Budget Tackle + Sporting Goods shop for being so friendly and having a cool conversation about our current state in this Nation. Obviously their sign lured me in!
Here are some pictures of the, then, remnants of Marv's killdozer rampage. By the way, this made national news; however, it was thwarted the next day by coverage of former President Ronald Reagan's death (the day after):
Thanks for stopping in! I hope you have a terrific weekend (and maybe learned something new by reading my blog)!
Love,
Kimmie
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