Joe Ross: The Unconventional Half Cherokee

I have been fortunate to know a number of fascinating and interesting characters in my life and Joe stands out as one of the most unusual. Joe was half Cherokee Indian and was raised on a reservation in Oklahoma. When I first met Joe, he had moved to Aspen and purchased a Pomegranate condominium.

A few years later, Joe bought a large property in Owl Creek and began building a significant house. But Joe never did anything conventionally. Instead of hiring an excavation contractor to build the driveway Joe bought a bulldozer and proceeded to bulldoze the mile-long entrance from Owl Creek Road to the home site.

Then, instead of hiring a contractor Joe flew his twin-engine plane to Mexico, recruited local workers, and ferried them back to his property. He set up a tent city with everything needed for sleeping and eating, provided food, and told them they were prohibited from leaving the grounds. Only once did a worker disobey and slip into Aspen. He was caught and the next day he was back in Mexico.

 One of Joe’s businesses was training helicopter pilots for the U.S. government and his training facilities were the largest in the country. Strangely, although an experienced fixed-wing pilot, Joe was terrified of helicopters.

Even Joe's marriage was unconventional. He placed an ad in the Denver Post to find a housekeeper. As many people do, he checked the paper that Sunday to see how his ad looked and happened to see another ad for a lady looking for work with the title “fabulous flyer.” Intrigued, Joe called her, chatted on the phone, and invited her to come see him in Aspen.

Romance ensued. Joe wanted to take Pam on a trip but felt he needed her parents' permission—they were approximately his age—so he asked them if it was all right to take Pam to Rome. Pam's father thought it was fine as she had never been to Georgia, but, of course, Joe meant Italy. They had a fabulous trip!'

Betty decorated Joe’s and Pam's new house. That is a story in itself of the many trips around the country to buy antiques, etc. Joe was very impatient at times and started giving Betty grief about slow deliveries. Betty got upset and told Joe they had to talk, but Joe sensed the problem and when Betty arrived at the house Joe preempted her by saying “I guess you are here for a ‘do better’ talk,” and he apologized.

One of the great features of the Ross home was an incredible wine cellar. Joe accumulated an unbelievable collection of first-growth wines from Bordeaux. I will never forget the party he had for about 25 close friends where all he served were first-growth wines which, at the time, were $150 a bottle (today they would be more than twice that). I thought it was crazy because after four glasses who knew what they were drinking.

Joe had a way of getting what he wanted. One night, we were all having dinner at the Lyon’s home near Aspen and Joe admired a very large Pletka painting that was hanging in the stairway. He offered to buy it from Lee but was told it was not for sale. Joe contacted Lee several times after that about buying the painting without success. Then one day, Joe arrived at the Lyon home and presented Lee with a signed blank check and told him to fill in the amount. I never asked the amount of the check, but the painting was soon in Joe's home.

Betty and I had some great sailing adventures with Joe and Pam, both on our boat in Mexico and on their boat cruising the coast of Turkey. Pam was a great cook and I have fond memories of the incredible spaghetti carbonara she served us in Turkey. We and another couple joined them on the 46-foot sailboat they kept in Greece. We spent a delightful 10 days cruising the coast of Turkey; however, we were lucky to avoid disaster on the overnight sail from Turkey back to Rhodes. As daylight broke it was obvious, we had missed our intended landfall by more than 5 miles. We realized that JoAnne Lyon, the other lady guest, who had been at the helm for the 3 to 5 a.m. shift, had put her binoculars next to the compass and the magnetism had changed the compass reading by over 10 degrees. Luckily, it took us off course to the right. If the binoculars had been on the other side of the compass, we would have been off course to the left and that would have run us onto the rocks in the dark.

One year, Joe and Pam sent out very formal invitations for a New Year's Eve party. But, about five days before the event, we received a phone call canceling the party. Joe had previously had a round of cancer treatments, and everyone assumed he had suffered a recurrence. Later we learned that the sheriff in Grand Junction had called Joe to ask if he would be home the next Wednesday because he had to serve Joe with some papers. The next day Joe and Pam were in the airplane on their way out of the country and no one knew where they had gone.

Two years later they turned up unexpectedly at our home in Puerto Vallarta. We suspected they were living in South America but really did not want to know because if we were ever asked to testify, we could honestly say we did not know where they were.

A few years later, Canadian friends who knew them read in the Toronto paper that Joe had been arrested on a U.S. warrant in Vancouver where they were living openly under the name Picon. Pam was even the Council for Belize. Bail was set at $40,000, was paid, and they were gone again.

They turned up in Belize, where there is no extradition treaty with the U.S. for civil crimes. They bought a small resort that they ran openly and successfully until Joe died several years later. Originally, Pam continued her missionary work in Belize, but last I heard, she was living in Guatemala and exploring the country via motorcycle. I had email contact with Pam for a while but have had no response for several months. Pam's parents have long been gone so I have no way of verifying that she is okay, but I have a great sense of foreboding about a 70-year-old woman traveling around Guatemala on a motorcycle.

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Jim Briggs: Larger than Life

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Lee Lyon: Friend and Fellow Adventurer