{"id":3179,"date":"2013-02-16T12:02:16","date_gmt":"2013-02-16T20:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/?p=3179"},"modified":"2013-02-16T12:02:31","modified_gmt":"2013-02-16T20:02:31","slug":"when-melvin-dummar-came-to-moab-and-his-howard-hughes-story-stiles-from-the-2006-archives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/16\/when-melvin-dummar-came-to-moab-and-his-howard-hughes-story-stiles-from-the-2006-archives\/","title":{"rendered":"‘WHEN MELVIN DUMMAR CAME TO MOAB’ (and his Howard Hughes Story) —Stiles (from the 2006 archives)"},"content":{"rendered":"

(From the 2006 archives)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

DID MELVIN DUMMAR FIND THE “LOST” HOWARD HUGHES?<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago, I was listening to KUER\u2019s excellent “Radio West” with Doug Fabrizio. He and his producer Elaine Clark manage to offer one of the most consistently informative and entertaining programs on public radio. I\u2019m grateful that they haven\u2019t moved on to bigger markets. We need “Radio West.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The program that struck a personal chord with me was Fabrizio\u2019s interview with Gary Magneson, a former FBI agent who recently wrote a book called “The Investigation.” The book is about Utahn Melvin Dummar and an incredible story that few believe. But I do (I think).<\/p>\n

Dummar claimed that in 1967, while driving a lonely dirt road in the Nevada desert, he came across an old man lying semi-conscious and incoherent in the middle of the gravel. Dummar helped the man into his truck and drove him to Las Vegas. The old man identified himself as Howard Hughes. Hughes asked for money, Melvin gave him all the change in his pocket and left him behind the Sands Hotel. He never gave the encounter another thought.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Years later, after Hughes\u2019 death, a will was discovered on a receptionist\u2019s desk at Mormon Church headquarters in Salt lake City. In it, Hughes left $156 million to his desert savior, Melvin Dummar. Later, Dummar\u2019s story was ridiculed and dismissed by the courts and the public. Hollywood made a movie called “Howard and Melvin” but Dummar faded into obscurity.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now, Magneson has found evidence that supports Dummar\u2019s claim. He says that old Desert Inn records, the hotel where Hughes stayed, prove Hughes was away on precisely the day Dummar claims to have encountered Hughes. And he has the testimony of Robert Deiro, a Las Vegas businessman and pilot who says that on four occasions in the late 60s, he flew Hughes to a brothel north of Vegas called the Cottontail Ranch. Hughes apparently had an ongoing interest in a prostitute named Sunny. On one of those visits, Deiro fell asleep waiting for Hughes to return from a Sunny visit, but when he awoke, Hughes was gone. It was the same night Dummar found Hughes. Deiro flew back alone, but never made the connection to the Dummar story until just a couple years ago.<\/p>\n

Recently the media asked Dummar if he felt vindicated after all these years. He said, “I\u2019ve got a lot of hope but not much faith.”<\/p>\n

The reason this story interests me is a tiny anecdote I can add to the discussion. In 1982, when I was still a seasonal ranger at Arches National Park, my buddy Mike Salamacha and I were at a place called Plateau Supply, near a vacant lot next to the old Miller Shopping Center. We were loading cedar posts into the bed of a Park Service pickup truck to do some fence repairs in Salt Valley.<\/p>\n

On that vacant lot, someone had pitched a small version of a circus tent and one man stood there with what appeared to be an inventory of used or blemished furniture. I gave the man a glance and went back to the cedar posts.<\/p>\n

But a moment later, I heard a friendly voice over my shoulder.<\/p>\n

“What are you fellers doing?”<\/p>\n

The face looked familiar but I couldn\u2019t quite place it. Then I recalled a photo I\u2019d seen in Newsweek a year or so earlier. Why it registered with me, I\u2019ll never know.<\/p>\n

I stood up in the truck and said, “Say…aren\u2019t you Melvin Dummar?”<\/p>\n

He grinned a bit sheepishly and nodded, “Yes I am. How did you know that?”<\/p>\n

“For some reason I remembered your face from a magazine,” I replied. He nodded again and smiled. I could tell he enjoyed being recognized but also seemed to be bracing himself for more doubt and derision. Still I couldn\u2019t help but ask.<\/p>\n

“So Melvin,” I asked as I sat down on the tailgate. “Is the story really true?”<\/p>\n

He sighed and sat next to me.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s all true,” he said wearily. “Just like I said. All I was trying to do was help an old man. I never believed he was Howard Hughes at all until years later when the will showed up.” He shook his head. “Now I\u2019m selling used furniture and everybody thinks I\u2019m crazy. But I\u2019m not.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We talked a bit about the movie and he confided to me that the actress Mary Steenburgin, who won an Oscar for her role in the film was “sort of snooty.”<\/p>\n

“I had a bit part in the film,” he told us, ” but didn\u2019t get paid much.”<\/p>\n

Melvin helped us load the cedar posts and when we were done, Mike and I shook hands with Dummar and drove back to the park. “I don\u2019t know,” said Mike. “It\u2019s a wild story but I almost believe the guy.”<\/p>\n

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “He really wanted us to believe him. I got the feeling that was more important than the money.” The next day I heard the city had denied Melvin\u2019s application for a temporary vendor\u2019s license to sell his furniture. Dummar\u2019s luck continued to hold\u2014all bad. He had to move on. But I never forgot the conversation. When I read that vindication at this late date might still be a possibility, I can only hope that it\u2019s true. Melvin Dummar deserves some good news.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Feb\/Mar Z (click the cover)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(From the 2006 archives) DID MELVIN DUMMAR FIND THE “LOST” HOWARD HUGHES? A few months ago, I was listening to KUER\u2019s excellent “Radio West” with Doug Fabrizio. He and his producer Elaine Clark manage to offer one of the most consistently informative and entertaining programs on public radio. I\u2019m grateful that they haven\u2019t moved on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3179"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8313,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3179\/revisions\/8313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.canyoncountryzephyr.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}