Gerber, 72, a county commissioner in Elko County, Nev., died in a Salt Lake City, Utah, hospital from injuries he suffered when he fell off a horse in Kansas, while protesting a federal crackdown on livestock grazing.

   Bill Ransom of Klamath Falls, who was involved in the relief fund and the Bucket Brigade that resulted in placing the 10-foot tall bucket in front of the Klamath County Courthouse, said Gerber helped establish the tax-free relief fund and arrange convoys for groups that provided the bucket.

   Over the years, Ransom said the Klamath Relief Fund generated   about $400,000, along with donations of food and clothing. The fund was allocated by an outside committee to farmers and ranchers affected by the loss of irrigation water.

   Wire service reports said he was leading the “Grass March/ Cowboy Express” horseback ride from California to Washington, D.C., when his horse stumbled on a prairie dog hole in Kansas, and he was knocked unconscious. After complaining of nagging headaches, doctors in Cheyenne, Wyo., discovered internal bleeding, and he was transferred to a Salt Lake City hospital.  

   “Just an outstanding person. He believed very strongly in landowner rights,” Ransom   said. “He believed in reasonable and common sense conservation. He believed farmers and ranchers had a right to exist. Grant was just a great guy and a great crusader, a person doing the right thing.”