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Greed wins in Sutey-Wexner land deal

Concerning the Sutey-Wexner land swap: I would like to provide information regarding the Frank Sutey Sr. as his voice and moral character will soon be lost forever in the Roaring Fork valley and today’s America.

My parents were more than exceptionally strong friends of the Sutey family. When I attended high school in Glenwood, we would often visit the Sutey family on their ranch. They were kind, warm, honest and very hardworking people. The very best!

Frank Sutey Sr. and my grandfather, Steve Krizmanich Sr., were from the same small village in northern Croatia, then Austria-Hungary. Both men left their homeland before World War I, because they could not make a living getting around the big guys who owned and controlled everything. They became miners in Crested Butte.



An unusual number of geographical and socioeconomic world conditions, which existed before the Great War, have resurfaced and are expanding in today’s world. World War II is considered an extension of World War I. The resurgence of the wealthy oligarchy class is one of these increasing phenomenon.

Frank Sutey and his family left Crested Butte sometime in the 1930s because he was blackballed from working in the mines. Unemployment was his reward for trying to improve working conditions for the working man and the little guy! He and his family settled the lonely, barren land on Cattle Creek which became the Sutey ranch.




I believe if Frank Sutey were alive he would be very pleased his ranch is scheduled for recreational purposes. However, I am also 99 percent certain he would be absolutely opposed to the original genesis of the deal, which directly contradicts his primary reason for leaving Croatia! Simply put, the art of “horse trading” and philanthropy created an opportunity that the BLM could not refuse. Unfortunately this deal cements the proposition: If you have enough money, you can get almost anything you want in today’s America. Furthermore, these deals create a very negative moral lesson for our youth and they increase government mistrust, resentment and unrest.

I’m not sure if the Wexners are aware of the final message they are hammering out, which is being known as hungry plutocrats getting what they want. The rise of the wealthy, greedy class has always been a part of the history of man. It is very unfortunate and exceptionally sad that it is happening in this area. The Wexners may be very pleased with a vast expansion of their private exclusive domain. However, mother nature cannot be controlled and things may not turn out as “rosy” as Leslie and Abigail had wished!

Joe Krizmanich

Glenwood Springs and Albuquerque, New Mexico