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Thread: "Dugout Dick" - The Last Legendary Loner of Idaho

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    Voice in the Wilderness preachtheWORD's Avatar
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    Default "Dugout Dick" - The Last Legendary Loner of Idaho

    This guy's whole life could come under the categories of "Self-Sufficiency" and "Homesteading" ("Cave-steading" might be more descriptive).

    I was fascinated by the story and thought others might be, too.

    Death of 'Caveman' ends an era in Idaho
    Richard Zimmerman, known to all as Dugout Dick, succumbs at 94
    BY TIM WOODWARD - twoodward@idahostatesman.com
    Copyright: © 2010 Idaho Statesman
    Published: 04/23/10


    A lifetime of living alone in solitary places shows in Dugout Dick's face in this photo shot in 2002. Born Richard Zimmerman, he was the last of Idaho's legendary loners. Zimmerman died Wednesday.

    Dugout Dick's caves, dug with a pick, shovel and prybar, became a virtual tourist attraction on this this hillside near Salmon.Known as the "Salmon River Caveman," Richard Zimmerman lived an essentially 19th century lifestyle, a digital-age anachronism who never owned a telephone or a television and lived almost entirely off the land.

    "He was in his home at the caves at the end, and it was his wish to die there," said Connie Fitte, who lived across the river. "He was the epitome of the free spirit."

    Richard Zimmerman had been in declining health when he died Wednesday.

    Few knew him by his given name. To friends and visitors to his jumble of cave-like homes scrabbled from a rocky shoulder of the Salmon River, he was Dugout Dick.

    He was the last of Idaho's river-canyon loners that date back to Territorial days. They are a unique group that until the 1980s included canyon contemporaries with names like Beaver Dick, Cougar Dave and Wheelbarrow Annie, "Buckskin Bill" (real name Sylvan Hart) and "Free Press Frances" Wisner. Fiercely independent loners, they lived eccentric lives on their own terms and made the state more interesting just by being here.

    Most, like Zimmerman, came from someplace else. Drawn by Idaho's remoteness and wild places removed from social pressures, they came and spent their lives here, leaving only in death.

    Some became reluctant celebrities, interviewed about their unusual lifestyles and courted by media heavyweights. Zimmerman was featured in National Geographic magazine and spurned repeated invitations to appear on the "Tonight Show."

    "I ride Greyhounds, not airplanes," he said in a 1993 Statesman interview. "Besides, the show isn't in California. The show is here."

    Cort Conley, who included Zimmerman in his 1994 book "Idaho Loners", said that "like Thoreau, he often must have smiled at how much he didn't need. É What gave him uncommon grace and dignity for me were his spiritual life, his musical artistry, his unperturbed acceptance of life as it is, and being a WWII veteran who had served his country and harbored no expectations in return."

    His metamorphisis to Dugout Dick began when he crossed a wooden bridge over the Salmon River in 1947 and built a makeshift home on the side of a hill. He spent the rest of his life there, fashioning one cavelike dwelling after another, furnishing them with castoff doors, car windows, old tires and other leavings.

    "I have everything here," he said. "I got lots of rocks and rubber tires. I have plenty of straw and fruit and vegetables, my dog and my cats and my guitars. I make wine to cook with. There's nothing I really need."

    Some of his caves were 60 feet deep. Though he "never meant to build an apartment house," he earned spending money by renting them for $2 a night. Some renters spent one night; others chose the $25 monthly rate and stayed for months or years.

    He lived in a cave by choice. Moved by a friend to a care center in Salmon at age 93 because he was in failing health, he walked out and hitchhiked home.

    Bruce Long, who rented one of his caves and looked after him, said the care center "had bingo and TV, but things like that held no interest for him. He just wanted to live in his cave.

    "People said he was the only person they'd ever known who was absolutely self-sufficient. He didn't work for anybody. He worked for himself."

    Born in Indiana in 1916, Zimmerman grew up on farms in Indiana and Michigan, the son of a moonshiner with a mean streak. He rebelled against his domineering father and ran away at a young age, riding the rails west and learning the hobo songs he later would play on a battered guitar for guests at his caves.

    He punched cows and worked as a farmhand, settling in Idaho's Lemhi Valley in 1937 and making ends meet by cutting firewood and herding sheep. In 1942, he joined the Army and served as a truck driver in the Pacific during World War II. When his service ended, he returned to Idaho and never left.

    He raised goats and chickens, tended a bountiful vegetable garden and orchard and stored what he couldn't eat or sell in a root cellar. A lifelong victim of a quarrelsome stomach, he survived largely on what he could grow or make. Homemade yogurt ranked among his proudest achievements.

    He was married once, briefly, to a pen-pal bride from Mexico. The other woman in his life, Bonnie Trositt, tired of life in a cave, left him for a job as a potato sorter and was murdered by her roommate. He claimed to see her spirit in the flickering light of a kerosene lamp on the cave walls.

    He rarely went to church, but read and quoted continually from the Bible.

    Services are pending. A brother, Raymond Zimmerman, has requested that his remains be sent to Illinois.
    Link to article with a few photos:
    http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/0...an-era-in.html
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    This is a great story ,, Thanks for sharing

    I especially liked the part about him breaking out of the nursing home at 93 years old and hitchhiking back to his cave ,,

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    Thanks, I liked that his father was a "Moonshiner with a Mean Streak"

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    I would have loved to had a conversation with him about his life , bet there would of been a lot to learn from that fella.
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    Just a thought, but do you think Richard would want his remains sent back to Illinois?
    I know when my day comes, I don't want a funeral, nor to be buried in the ground. My last wish is to be cremated and my ashes sprinkled in Spring Creek, which is where I spent most of my time "growing up" without supplies other than fishing tackle and a bic lighter with a very close friend (who is no longer a friend). I don't want any memorial where people come and feel sorrow and shed tears over my death. I'd rather they visit a beautiful wild place and smile and rejoice in the life I lived.
    I would think that Mr. Zimmerman would want the same.. to be released by fire into the aether, and whatever is left returned to the earth at (most likely) his favorite place to be.. Salmon River.
    just a thought...
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    Wow. I have heard about this guy for years from friends that raft guide out of Salmon. I remember first hearing about him one night sitting around a campfire next to the Lochsa River in Idaho and being in disbelief. I think that was 1995! My friends were talking about how old he was then! I never would have dreamed he was still alive. I am not sure he is the last of Old School Idaho loners though. There is an old man that lives in a hand hewn one room cabin along the Middle Fork of the Salmon and lives hand to mouth. Then I also know of an old man who lives in an old shed near LoLo Creek in Idaho as well. I have seen them both before. I should go back over that way and look around and try to get their stories. I also know of several old fella's that live similar lives here in Montana....however, not caves...that old fellar was unique in that sense. All the other old loners live in cabins or buses.
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    I hear that his cave was 240 miles from the nearest road. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
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    Quote Originally Posted by welderguy View Post
    I would have loved to had a conversation with him about his life , bet there would of been a lot to learn from that fella.
    One of the greatest experiences in life is talking with folks like that. Started with my Grandfather and his "hucksterin'" days. When I was stationed in NC in the early 70s, I would spend an occasional weekend in the mountains in NW NC. The oldsters talked about gunfights, feuds and general lifestyle. I could sit for hours. They're disappearing (except for SD of course).
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    They should have made his cave a museum !

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    Definitely a fascinating story. A cave museum would be a neat place to visit.
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    I missed this post the first time around for some reason but enjoyed the read now. I'd be willing to bet even though his earthly body resides in Illinois his spirit is still roaming the salmon river valley YCC. I hear often men saying they'd like to live as this man and others of his breed have done. However, they seldom do. Was there something wrong with them that made them want to live that way or is there something wrong with modern man that makes him want the life we have? Got to tell ya. Stories like this really make my mind wonder about it all.

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    What type of land was it, who owned it, what made the feds and state stay away?

    Wonderful story though. I own some land and also a vacation condo in Coeur d'Alene Idaho and have always wondered about minimalist living out there. I get there maybe 3 weeks out of the year and when I go there I have a canvase tent, some folding rustic furniture I made and some camp gear (lamps, fire irons and cast iron pots, elevated water systern). There is a stream as well as a natural spring fed pond. It is right at the base of some mountains (I honestly do not even know the name of the mountains).

    The next land over from me, the guy raises chickens and has dairy cows, so I trade him stuff for eggs and cheese. I usually bring him some green river butcher style knives I gather up. If I shoot a Mule Dear, I trade him some of the meat for his stuff as well.

    Much of my diet for that 3 weeks is Brooke Trout from the stream. I also will shoot morning doves and pop the breast meat out and have those with eggs from the guys farm. This year, I think I will stay a full month now that I need to settle down and ease up life a lil.

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    Senior Member randyt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by welderguy View Post
    I would have loved to had a conversation with him about his life , bet there would of been a lot to learn from that fella.
    I bet the old guy would have said "kid do what makes you happy because life is not a dress rehearsal".

    I've read stories about the old guy. If memory serves, I think Backwoodsman magazine and Idaho Loners has stories about him.

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    Did you read the comments after the article?

    Just as normal, there has to be some stupid fool that gripes about the posting date as if the article had no value because it was a year old.

    I have been blessed by knowing people that hoboed during the depresson. They all have tales to tell. Even their tallest tales have value.
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    I've never heard of richard Zimmerman but I have heard of Richard Proeneke, another homesteader. He went to alaska to build a cabin, taking a few carpentry tools and a rifle. I would have loved to talk to him at least once before he died.

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    I would guess that those guys wouldn't have too much to say.....Like the old mountain men would say.."I came to the mountains to get away from people like you".

    So all in all those stories touch a little place in your head, thinking, "I could do that"......Most people never would try it and fewer would be successful.

    Cool stories and all, not my cup of tea.

    Personnel experiance.
    I have a loner living in an old camper that I donated to him, still there a couple of miles from hear.
    Before that, he lived in a blue school bus, till it got flooded out, then in a yurt, about 12 ft in diameter.

    Talking with the guy, he "ain't right" in most peoples eyes, logic a little different.......but gets by just fine, just doing what he wants to do and live.
    Not for me.
    Sorry to hear that Richard Zimmerman, has passed, but he did it "His Way".
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