Recalling Ristine: Wayne Cryts recounts his stand against government in new book

~ The 141-page book tells the story of the grain elevator takeover and the events that followed.

NEW MADRID, Mo. -- As Wayne Cryts walks across the grounds of the now-defunct Ristine Co. today a wave of emotions comes flooding back to him.

His mind is filled with memories of an event that happened here 25 years ago -- an event that would come to define his life and shake Southeast Missouri to its core.

"This is the first time I've been here in 25 years," Cryts says as he walks over the concrete pads, now cracked and choked with weeds, where farmers' trucks from all around the area used to bring their grain for storage. "It still brings back all the emotions I felt back then."

Now defunct, the Ristine Co. was the scene of a standoff in 1981 between Wayne Cryts, his supporters and federal authorities. Cryts, along with co-workers, has written a book detailing those events.

Fright, elation, anger -- all of them were streaming through Cryts on Feb. 16, 1981, as he led a convoy of farmers to the Ristine elevator to take back their grain.

The elevator had gone bankrupt the previous summer. The grain Cryts and the other farmers had stored there was to be seized to pay off the company's debts. But Cryts had a different idea, as did other farmers.

Between them and their grain stood a line of FBI agents and federal marshals, holding a court order with the legal power to stop the farmers.

"It's hard to imagine how high tensions were," Cryts says as he stands in the spot where the feds stood 25 years before. "We really didn't know what was going to happen."

The agents stepped aside and allowed Cryts and the other farmers to take their grain, but that was only the beginning of the saga. Years of political and legal drama followed, but the dust has long since settled.

Now Cryts is ready to stir that dust up again. He wants to bring the ghosts of those events back to life at Ristine, where rusted sheet metal and empty Quonset huts now sit, where concrete slabs show the footprint of large structures long gone.

He wants to tell his story, in his words, and with the help of a few good friends, he has now done that. This week "One Man with Courage: The Wayne Cryts Story" will become available to the public.

The 141-page book uses Cryts first-person accounts to tell the story of the Ristine takeover and the events that followed with pictures to illustrate the drama.

The Ristine Co. grain office, located near New Madrid, Mo., looked much like it did 25 years ago when local farmer Wayne Cryts was questioned by federal authorities as he and a large group of his supporters arrived at the bankrupt grain elevator. With approximately 300 trucks, the group was defying a court order to take possession of his harvested grain. Cryts revisited the site for the first time Wednesday.

Four men spent more than a year compiling the text and pictures. All of them are co-workers with Cryts at Puxico, Mo., public schools. Loran Caldwell researched and found documents to authenticate Cryts' tale, Don McRoy taped hours of Cryts' recounting of events and prepared the pictures and Jerry Hobbs put the story into a concise package.

"The thing I'm trying to do is impart the emotion he was feeling at the time," said Hobbs. "I tried to catch the emotion in his voice."

Hobbs said the story is one that had to be told.

"This is a story of average people who were just typical American citizens trying to get their private property back," said Hobbs.

The relevance to today is clear for Hobbs. This isn't just a 25-year-old story of Southeast Missouri, it's a story that has lessons about private property rights. Those rights are under assault again with the modern-day issue of eminent domain and its use for private development.

Before Hobbs could write the story, McRoy had to pore over the hours of tapes on which Cryts' voice was recorded -- tapes that could be emotionally intense at times. The tapes would be the fuel for Hobbs writing, and they told of a man's daring act and the consequences of that act -- including jail time.

Even as he speaks of the past today at Ristine the emotion is clear in the nearly 60-year-old Cryts' voice. He almost chokes on his words as he remembers the federal agents taking him into the Ristine office to talk to him.

"I could feel myself getting ready to come all to pieces," Cryts remembers. "I'm came so close to giving up."

Much time has passed without Cryts recounting the events that took place, but the old farmer has his reasons for waiting so long. Through his long saga Cryts made many friends, both police and farmers, and many enemies.

With the 25 years that have passed, he now feels that he can be candid about what happened without putting anyone's career in jeopardy or stirring up extra anger and hurt feelings.

But it's a story that even years later will interest people in Southeast Missouri and beyond. When Cryts took his daring action, it inspired people from all over the country -- 35 states in all, he said. Some farmers from Nebraska showed up in support that day, carrying an American flag and a scoop shovel with the words "These beans are Wayne's beans" written on it. The shovel appears in one of the book's photos.

Of course, not everyone was on his side. Some saw Cryts as a hero, taking back what was his from a government that didn't care about the little guy. During a time when farming was becoming harder and harder economically, Cryts story was an inspiration in the farm belt.

But some saw Cryts as a renegade and outlaw who spit in the face of the law. Cryts doesn't pretend to tell both sides -- the account in the book is his own.

For Hobbs, the inspiring part of the story is that Cryts is not an outlaw. He was victim.

"What better people to steal from than farmer, who are traditionally law-abiding people," said Hobbs. "They aren't going to defy the government to take back what's theirs."

But Cryts did. However, he couldn't have done it without the support of friends, neighbors and the community in Puxico and throughout Southeast Missouri.

As he stands outside the Ristine office nestled in the fertile plains around New Madrid, Cryts has no regrets.

"Sure I would do it again, I just would have sold my grain before the elevator went under," Cryts laughs.

Even though he no longer has his farm -- he had to sell it off in 1987 because he couldn't sustain it -- Cryts still has 40 acres of his family's homestead. That, and the memories, is all he needs.

Cryts' story will be available this week at Barnes & Noble and Hastings, as well as online at Amazon.com.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182