Letter: Expansion confusion

“The airport’s new marketing campaign features a quote from Hunter S. Thompson, an ardent supporter of airport expansion.” That was a quote from an Aspen Daily News article titled “Hunter S. Thompson quote used in promoting Aspen airport” on May 25.

Here is what Thompson really said about airport expansion in 1995 as he led the campaign to defeat the Sardy Field runway expansion: “There is some s— we just won’t eat.” It was the opposition campaign theme that was promoted on a Thomas Benton poster featuring an ominous, shadowy gunslinger standing over a grave headstone with an inscription that read: “ASC RIP.”

I was here and there then. So was John Norton of Aspen Skiing Co. We led the “pro” side of the issue. Hunter and Sheriff Bob Braudis led the opposition. The expansion was defeated by a crushing 3-2 margin at the polls. We partied together afterward, somewhere in a hot tub, until the sun came up the next day.

The Aspen Daily News and the powers to be at the Aspen airport and their marketing team got one thing right: Hunter S. was ardent about airport expansion.

R.J. Gallagher Jr.

Basalt