Dedication to Hot Springs County

The late Jack Johnson’s obituary in your Aug. 27 edition gave a fine summary of a life well lived. Jack would have liked that modest treatment.

I’m not going to let that modest recollection happen. I hope Hot Springs County citizens don’t either. 

Jack’s dedication to the county in which he spent a lifetime should earn him a plaque in the courthouse Hot Springs County Hall of Fame. 

The biggest reason is the Grass Creek Road, the public’s only guaranteed access to national forest lands in the county and the H Diamond W 4-H Youth Camp area. In the late 1980s an extended court battle over portions of the road that had allegedly become private almost limited public access forever. 

Jack, a Hot Springs County commissioner who remembered the road being public during his younger days, led the effort to restore that status.

A key point in the battle came in a 2-1 vote in a county commission meeting in which fellow commissioner Jim Skelton agreed to take the case to court. 

I don’t remember all the details of the court battle, but I believe the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management which had lands involved, helped in the case financially and even agreed to help pay for maintenance of the road. Apparently at least portions of that agreement are still in effect three decades later. 

As part of the decision, the commissioners agreed to re-route a couple of small portions of the road on ranches and to pay to purchase the land in those portions. More details are available in courthouse records, Independent Record files or from former commissioner Skelton. 

Jack was tight-fisted financially and saved the county thousands of dollars, leading to jokes about how he, a Democrat, could be more of a fiscal conservative than the two Republicans on the commission. 

At one point he convinced the other commissioners to combine the copier machine purchases and maintenance agreements for each of the elected officials’ offices (sheriff, clerk, treasurer, assessor, clerk of court) under one budget. As I recall, all the maintenance agreements were dropped and the county was able to buy a couple of copiers each year with the thousands in savings. 

Among the other entities he and his wife, Fran, aided over the decades include the Hot Springs County Senior Citizens Center, Hot Springs County Library Foundation, Hot Springs Historical Society and Thermopolis Kiwanis Club. He delivered (and sometimes paid for) meals from the Center to those in need. 

As a board member he helped multiply funds given to the Foundation into a big nest egg in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Jack researched, then led one Historical Society tour of homes around Thermopolis that had been moved from historic oil fields and construction sites such as Boysen Dam. (He had lived at many of the sites as a youngster or adult.)

He was there working on Kiwanis projects like the Hot Springs State Park picnic shelters and the 4-H Camp. 

Others will have to tell you how many times he helped the town and county when he was a key employee at the Grass Creek Oilfield for the Ohio Oil Co. and subsequently Marathon. He retired before I moved to Thermopolis.

Hundreds of people like me turned to Jack for advice or help. He was one of the people who accurately recalled county history and was quick to tell you who to check with when he wasn’t certain. 

Jack Johnson is worthy of inclusion in the Hot Springs County Hall of Fame.