The Legends of Old Baldy

Editor’s note: This is the second in a series about the journey to write “The Legends of Old Baldy.”

Carole Ward, a researcher for the “Legends of Old Baldy”, said she is not a writer, but when she was approached about the book, she felt it was important enough to pursue. Around 20 members at the Old Baldy Club showed an interest and Ward said she thought she could delegate some of the work. Her husband Bill was suffering from health issues, and they weren’t able to tackle a project like this alone.

When delegating didn’t work, Ward said she knew she was going to have to dig in. That is when she heard about “Legends of Old Baldy” author Linda Durbano and discovered the quality of her writing, Ward said.

Ward knew Pegge Thompson, and that she was George Storer’s personal secretary for many years. “We became friends,” Ward said. “She is so interesting and has so many tidbits to share.”

Both Durbano and Ward said Thompson added the flair to make the book more interesting.

Thompson was also able to advise Durbano and Ward on things that could go into the book and what shouldn’t. “We wanted to honor George,” Ward said.

Ward complimented Thompson on her good memory. Then, computers didn’t exist and Thompson had what she calls soft records of her day-to-day activities. “We had to, (Storer) was such a busy man, we had to write down everything he was doing to keep track of his schedule,” Thompson recalled.

Thompson demonstrated her memory as she recalled the places she had traveled to as Storer’s personal secretary. “I never knew where I would be from one day to the next,” Thompson, who will be 89 in this fall, said.

The three worked together, sometimes at long distances, for three years. Ward lives in Saratoga fulltime, and in the winter she and her husband spend the prime skiing months in Steamboat, Colo.

Thompson summers in Saratoga and winters in California, while Durbano and her husband maintain several households across the United States, Thompson explained.

“It was challenging and I have always wanted to write a book,” Durbano said. “It was fun.”

Ward gave Durbano her resources, and Durbano said she took it from there and spent six months at a computer.

Ward credited former publisher and owner of the Saratoga Sun, Dick Perue, as a great source of information and photos. Gay Day Alcorn’s information was also used, Ward explained. “We talked to them because we didn’t want to infringe on anyone’s copyrights.”

The trio approached the Old Baldy Club Board and got permission to use the logo. “We had no money for the project,” Ward said, “but we felt it was an important enough project that we persisted.”

Two years ago, people starting sharing older photographs and Durbano would scan them for the book. A lot of the photographs needed some color correction and had aged. Durbano worked to remove some of the “dust” but also wanted to keep them as authentic as possible.

“Carole knew most of the people in the Valley ... I didn’t know anybody,” Durbano said. Durbano started researching online, and found a lot of the people who were members have passed away. She found their obituaries. “I didn’t think the obituaries would be offensive to the families, because they wrote them,” Durbano said. “So you are telling good stories about these people.”

Durbano said she tried to document the stories she would hear, and made sure she had two sources that confirmed the stories. “The Club has had so much information told about it through the years.” Durbano said she found stories that were written about the Club 20 years ago, and some of the things they tell are kind of comical.

Durbano said an article written years ago by a Colorado golf magazine said the owner of Old Baldy Club had gone up into the forest and taken all these trees and brought them down to the golf course.

“That is not quite how that happened,” Durbano said.

She started to get emotionally attached to the book and Durbano said she thought it needed to be more about the people.

“George Storer was an interesting man,” Durbano said. “Who comes into the middle of nowhere and builds a world class golf resort?”

The Saratoga area worked for Storer’s passion and vision in golfing and fishing, Durbano said.

“I thought it needed to be his story,” Durbano said. She researched Storer’s father and talked about how George was raised and what was happening in Saratoga and how the two different cultures came together.

What were the most interesting stories she heard about Old Baldy? Durbano laughed and said, “probably the things that aren’t in the book.”

Durbano said she found she really liked George Storer after researching him. “I really didn’t know him … and I didn’t know about him.” Durbano said she was impressed with what people she interviewed said about Storer, and how generous he was to this Valley, to Wyoming and the people around him.

“Storer was a quiet humanitarian,” Durbano said, “and it was very important to him.”

Durbano describes Storer as a visionary, someone who at one time owned a baseball team, and a railroad. Yet, he still had the vision to combine golf and fishing in a resort in Wyoming.

The final part of the series will appear in the Sept. 3 edition of the Saratoga Sun