A small but somber procession on its way to Hood Mortuary passed through Durango on Wednesday, carrying the body of longtime area resident Bill Alsup, who died at 78 when a crane he was operating rolled over at a work site on Kendall Mountain.
According to San Juan County Sheriff Bruce Conrad, Alsup was working Tuesday on a cabin on County Road 33 and finished around 1:30 p.m.
Backing down the driveway, Alsup put the right rear wheel high on an embankment, which caused the crane to rollover, Conrad said. Alsup was pinned beneath the crane and was killed instantly.
“There was someone there to immediately check on him,” Conrad said of the construction crew at the scene. “But he couldn’t have survived with that machine on top of him the way it was.”
It took emergency crews nearly a day to extract Alsup’s body as they waited for the proper equipment to arrive in the remote area. He was taken to Hood Mortuary in a small procession of vehicles from San Juan County Sheriff’s Office and Silverton San Juan Fire and Rescue Authority. Information on services were not available Wednesday.
“He was a real good friend,” Silverton San Juan Fire and Rescue Authority Chief Gilbert Archuleta said. “And he was a great man.”
Alsup was well-known in Silverton as well as in Durango, where he lived before moving to the small mountain town about an hour’s drive north.
According to previous Herald reports, Alsup had an illustrious auto racing career, finishing 11th in the 1981 Indianapolis 500 when he drove for Team Penske.
More recently, Alsup helped establish the Kendall Mountain Ski Area, a project that, according to Silverton Mountain owner Aaron Brill, would never have happened without Alsup.
“He took a huge risk personally purchasing, installing and funding the project building a lift for a ski area owned by the town of Silverton,” Brill wrote in an email. Skiers at Kendall previously used a tow-rope. “He knew it would be great for the kids in Silverton.”
Brill recounted the innumerable times Alsup would help his neighbors plow snow, groom trails throughout town or help with Silverton’s popular Fourth of July fireworks show.
“There is nobody who has ever done more for Silverton than Bill,” he said.
Alsup also was a volunteer with the town and county’s fire department for 17 years. Chief Archuleta, too, had an endless supply of stories revolving around Alsup’s inherit magnanimity.
“Anything he could do to help out anybody – that’s what he was there for,” Archuleta said of Alsup.
Conrad said Alsup’s death hit the town of Silverton hard.
“He was probably one of the most giving people our community’s known in a long time, a complete philanthropist,” he said.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
