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You still here 10 14 22 no play

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>You Still Here: Friday, October 14, 2022 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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You Still Here: Friday, October 14, 2022

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

[{"type":"text","text":"As a young girl, Debbie Rude wondered if she had imagined it."}]

Growing up in a tiny rental house on Walnut Street in Rock Springs during the 1950s, some of her earliest memories are of standing at the fence line beside her family’s yard and staring up at what looked to her like something pulled from the pages of a storybook.

The building towering beside her family’s modest home was Schlacter Castle — a hulking stone fortress with rounded turrets, battlemented towers and thick, gray masonry that seems better suited for Germany's Rhine Valley than the windswept coal country of southwest Wyoming.

Its heavy arches and castle walls rise above the hillside with a dreamlike absurdity, as though a medieval stronghold had somehow wandered into Rock Springs and decided to stay.

The fence separating the properties made it feel, Rude said, “as though I lived in two separate worlds.”

On her side sat a hard-packed dirt yard scattered with toys and lined with a clothesline fluttering with work shirts and bedsheets in the Wyoming wind. 

Beyond it rose another world entirely — emerald grass trimmed neat beneath the shadow of stone turrets, flower beds bursting with color around a castle that seemed impossibly elegant against the coal-dust grit of Rock Springs.

“I’d dream of going inside and of living in that castle, like a real princess,” Rude said.

More than a century after German immigrant John Schlacter finished building the castle in 1914, the strange stone fortress still clings to the hillside above Rock Springs, keeping a medieval eye on the city below while generations drift through its halls and the city changes around it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Castle In Coal Country"}]

Nobody seems entirely sure why Schlacter decided to build a literal castle on a hill overlooking Rock Springs.

That mystery is part of what has kept the building embedded in local imagination for generations.

Born in Germany on Feb. 23, 1866, Schlacter came to the United States in 1886 and eventually married Viola Van Kaiser in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1890. 

The couple raised several children before moving West, first to Diamondville in 1899 and later to Rock Springs in 1907.

By then, Schlacter had already established himself as a master stonecutter.

Historical accounts credit him with helping build the Carnegie libraries in Rock Springs and Green River, along with foundations, homes and churches throughout southwest Wyoming.

With their grand stone facades, towering arched windows and stately symmetry, the libraries Schlacter helped build carried an almost cathedral-like permanence onto the Wyoming frontier — monuments to knowledge and ambition rising from dusty mining roads.

He also built portions of the local Episcopal Church, stone foundations on D Street and C Street, and homes across the city alongside fellow stoneworkers.

According to local historian Helene B. Novotny’s self-published history “The Days After Abraham Lincoln 1943-1949,” Schlacter once bid unsuccessfully on the stately Taliaferro home on Cedar Street.

One local theory suggests Schlacter responded by buying property across from it on Walnut Street and building an even grander stone residence to prove “what an excellent stonecutter he was.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Tall and imposing on the hill, it certainly accomplished that."}]

Construction on the castle began in 1909 and took roughly five years to complete. 

The stone reportedly came from the same local quarry used to build the old Rock Springs City Hall, now home to the Rock Springs Historical Museum, though the quarry itself has since been lost to time.

Schlacter hauled much of the stone himself using two horses and a wagon, according to the Rock Springs Historical Museum.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'My Baba Had To Pull Me Along'"}]

Rude only lived beside the castle until age 5, but the building left a permanent imprint on her memory.

Her family’s roots run deep in Rock Springs’ immigrant coal-mining community. Her father, Pete Mirich, attended Rock Springs High School before leaving to fight in World War II. 

Her grandfather, Sam Mirich, came from Montenegro and worked in the coal mines while helping raise seven children.

Like many immigrant families in Rock Springs at the time, they lived modestly.

[{"type":"text","text":"That made the castle next door feel even more surreal."}]

“My Montenegrin Baba would often take me for walks to the town cemetery to visit my grandpa’s grave, and she would always have to tug on my hand to get me moving when we walked past the castle,” Rude said.

Part of the fascination, she believes, came from the mystery surrounding the place.

“I don’t ever recall seeing a person go in or out of the house,” she said. “That may actually have made it easier for me to create my own fantasies about it.”

Her parents sometimes had to call her inside because she spent so much time staring at the building.

“Others would laugh and say it was just a little girl’s flight of fancy,” she said. “In fact, there was a period of time when I wondered, myself, if I had simply imagined it was there. 

"After all, how could there be a real castle in Rock Springs, Wyoming?”

Friends and neighbors later described the Schlacters as intensely private people, which only deepened the mystery surrounding the looming stone home.

Two of Schlacter’s daughters eventually lived in the castle, including Olga Schlacter, who remained unmarried and reportedly lived there longer than anyone else in the family while working at Parker Brothers Drug Store in Rock Springs.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Soldiers, Ghost Stories And Survival"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The castle’s history only grew stranger with time."}]

According to local historical accounts, Schlacter opened the building during World War I to soldiers in the area, allowing it to be used as temporary barracks and providing room and board to military personnel.

[{"type":"text","text":"Local stories also suggest tragedy followed the family. "}]

One account claims Schlacter and his wife returned to Germany grief-stricken after the reported death of an older son shortly after World War I, leaving much of the remaining family behind in Wyoming.

After World War II, the castle was eventually sold to the Greek family. Residents who visited the home during that era remembered wandering staircases and cavernous interiors. 

One former piano student reportedly joked she spent more time staring at the staircase and wondering how horses could ever climb it than practicing music.

Later, the castle sat vacant for years — boarded up, dark and looming over Walnut Street.

[{"type":"text","text":"That was when the ghost stories began."}]

For generations of Rock Springs kids, the abandoned stone fortress became the kind of place people dared each other to approach.

Eventually, the Hamm family purchased the building and converted it into apartments. During renovations, portions of the original structure were altered, including removal of the attic roof and modifications to the turrets. Large picture windows were also added overlooking the city below.

Those renovations ultimately prevented the building from qualifying for the National Register of Historic Places.

[{"type":"text","text":"Still, the castle survives."}]

More than 112 years after its stone walls first rose above Rock Springs, the fortress remains perched on the hillside — weathered by Wyoming winters, softened by time and stubbornly standing watch over the city below.

Today, Rude still makes a point to drive past it whenever she passes through town.

“No trip through town is complete without driving past the castle and the tiny little house that still sits in its shadow,” she said.

Schlacter Castle Screenshot 2026 06 06 at 10 23 32 AM 6 6 26

<title>Why The Heck … Is There A Castle In The Middle Of Rock Springs, Wyoming? | Cowboy State Daily</title>

No one knows why German immigrant and master stonemason John Schlacter built a castle overlooking Rock Springs more than a century ago. He spent five years building it by hand, hauling locally quarried stone by horse and wagon before finishing it in 1914.

Why The Heck … Is There A Castle In The Middle Of Rock Springs, Wyoming?

Most sheriff cruisers are designed to blend into a fleet, but the newest cruiser in the Laramie County Sheriff's Office fleet was designed to do the exact opposite.

It not only stands out, “it looks pretty badass,” said Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak.

Covered in Western artwork featuring a cowboy on horseback racing forward with purpose on a white background, the new Dodge Durango LCSO SUV is pure Wyoming.

That it turns heads is exactly what Kozak said he was going for in commissioning the look of the department's new recruiting rig.

It squats low and mean with a wild-eyed horse charging across its sides, mane whipping viciously in the Cowboy State wind. 

[{"type":"text","text":"Clint Eastwood-Inspired Cruiser"}]

When it came time to create the design, Kozak called on Cheyenne mural artist Jordan Dean, whose giant wild horse mural transformed the city's towering water tanks north of town.

Dean has become one of the state's most recognizable mural artists, painting everything from large public art installations to massive water tower projects that require boom lifts, projectors and specialized industrial paint.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak had a simple request for Dean."}]

"I wanted a high plains drifter, Clint Eastwood kind of cowboy hard charge-in graphic,” the sheriff said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Dean delivered."}]

The result is a rolling Western mural that has already been drawing attention from residents and fellow law enforcement officers.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak said he keeps hearing, \"That is the coolest car we've ever seen.\""}]

The cruiser's first major public appearance in Cheyenne was Saturday during a downtown summer event, where families were able to climb inside, check out the lights and meet members of the sheriff's office.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyatt Earp On Wheels"}]

Dean said his relationship with the sheriff's office began years ago when Kozak called looking for an artist to paint murals inside the Laramie County Detention Center. 

When he was done with that, he told the sheriff, "I would love to take a crack at your vehicles. I've always just thought it would be the coolest thing to design a law enforcement vehicle." 

The artist said early discussions centered on creating something inspired by a Wyatt Earp-style lawman — part frontier sheriff, part larger-than-life Western character. 

"I wanted something that had action, had motion to it," Dean said. "I wanted the horse and rider to fit in the space but kind of take up the whole width of the car.

 "It's the Laramie County Sheriff's Office," he continued. “So, the Western theme just fit, and I love that style." 

If the art causes people to stop and take a second look at the local hero's, Dean says he's done his job. 

[{"type":"text","text":"More Than A Cool Paint Job"}]

As eye-catching as the vehicle is, the sheriff's office didn't build it simply to show off.

The cruiser is assigned to Cpl. Heather Wilson in the agency's hiring unit and is intended to function as a rolling recruiting tool.

"The whole motivation was for people to ask, 'Hey, what's with this car?'" Kozak said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Once the conversation starts, deputies can begin talking about careers."}]

The vehicle is packed with recruiting features, including a pull-out television screen that can play hiring videos during public events.

The sheriff's office will soon hook up a PlayStation loaded with a pursuit-driving game so kids can climb into the back and try it out.

"It's just a vehicle to attract attention and spark up a conversation," Kozak said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lights, Sirens, Western Swagger"}]

The cruiser also comes loaded with what Kozak described as an almost absurd amount of emergency lighting.

Then there are the novelty features. Push the right buttons and the vehicle can play the famous “Bad Boys” theme from the television show "Cops."

[{"type":"text","text":"It can also blast the national anthem."}]

The sheriff's office has only had the vehicle about a week, but it's already been getting attention beyond Wyoming.

[{"type":"text","text":"Kozak said Wilson recently drove it to a leadership training in Colorado."}]

"All the Denver law enforcement officers that went to this leadership training just thought it was the best car ever that they've seen," he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"The attention is exactly what the sheriff hoped for."}]

Like many agencies nationwide, Laramie County is constantly recruiting new employees as veteran deputies retire or move on.

Kozak said the agency employs about 240 people and generally maintains around a 10% vacancy rate, leaving roughly 10 to 15 positions open at any given time.

His hope is that a cruiser people can't stop staring at might help start conversations that eventually fill those openings.

In the meantime, it might simply be the most “badass” law enforcement vehicle in Wyoming.

Or at least the most likely one to make somebody stop, point and say, "Now 

New Sheriffs cruiser 710020639 1299237672391254 5317509438597465883 n copy 6 6 26

<title>Wyoming Sheriff Orders "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" Look For New Cruiser | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak wanted a new design for the newest SUV in the fleet, he asked a local artist to create a "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" look. "It looks pretty badass," Kozak said, noting he's received many compliments.

Wyoming Sheriff Orders "Clint Eastwood High Plains Drifter" Look For New Cruiser

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Gillette resident Matthew Hohnholt’s destiny was to put on a uniform.

One grandfather fought in World War II as a medic, and his grandmother worked in U.S. Army Intelligence directly with General Dwight D. Eisenhower during that war.

Another grandfather was a tank mechanic in Korea, and his father was a U.S. Marine who served with Task Force Delta on classified missions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Once he graduated from high school in Washington state, Hohnholt traded cowboy boots for combat ones in Marine Corps boot camp.

“I was a young kid, I didn’t have any skills, and it was kind of a golden ticket out,” he said. “I wanted to serve my country, and that meant a lot to me to be able to do it.”

Hohnholt’s enlistment in 2000, and an injury while going through infantry school, had him reassigned to learning electrical repair for generators and other equipment. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Then 9\/11 happened."}]

Hohnholt remembers being at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, when the base commander called all the trainees together to talk about the attacks and “kind of explaining to us what had happened and kind of the uncertainty of the future.”

He was put on a list to go to Afghanistan, but that tour was canceled.

In 2003, he was sent to Kuwait in support of a Marine fighter squadron as the invasion of Iraq was being staged. 

That led to a role in providing security for convoys into Iraq when the war got underway.

The 45-year-old now is a 100% disabled veteran who suffered more loss last year when his 19-year-old son, Garrett, took his own life. 

Hohnholt is still trying to pay off the funeral debt.

“I’ve been divorced for four years,” he said. “I kind of ran low on money and had to get rid of the house because I couldn’t afford to make payments on it anymore. 

"And then I moved in with my brother, and so, I just have been kind of helping with my brother and that’s kind of where I am at.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Funeral Bill"}]

He said he still owes $8,000 on his son’s funeral bill and is trying to save money for a gravestone.

Candy Morris, a Washington state friend who went to school with Hohnholt, started a GoFundMe campaign last October to try and help chip away at the funeral debt and also to assist with housing. 

She characterizes Hohnholt as an “all-around great guy” who is the best friend of her husband. 

Morris and her husband moved to Alaska 15 years ago, but Hohnholt has visited a couple of times and they stay in touch.

“He showed up for our family with care and love, spending hours with us and helping care for my newborn daughter,” Morris said. “He became her first babysitter, and I later named her after his grandmother, Faye, a woman who meant so much to him.”

Morris said she was recently contacted by Australian kindness and mental health social media influencer Samuel Weidenhoferl, who asked her to revise the 

as part of his “kindness” effort for a veteran in every U.S. state. 

Once she did, Weidenhofer made Hohnholt the Wyoming representative of his campaign.

Weidenhofer has helped raise thousands of dollars for veterans in other states. He typically meets with the veteran, does an interview and then posts it on his social media with a link to the GoFundMe.

Weidenhofer has 8.1 million followers on TikTok and 3.3 million on Facebook. His GoFundMe effort so far has raised $2 million nationally from 53,500 donations.

Hohnholt said Weidenhofer traveled to Gillette to meet the man at his son’s grave on Memorial Day. 

Hohnholt came away impressed and calls Weidenhofer and his cameraman “super nice guys.”

“I was blown away at him telling me I was selected,” he said. “It was a flattering, humbling experience.

"I have never really been recognized for anything before, and it was pretty emotional. I believe he even got me to cry, just a little bit.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Thankful For Recognition"}]

Hohnholt said any money he receives is secondary to just being recognized for his time in the Marines and trying to lead by example while he served. 

He said he appreciated “just having someone there and telling me that I was not alone.”

An attempt to reach Weidenhofer was not successful. 

Hohnholt said he appreciates people who have donated to the GoFundMe to help with his son’s funeral costs. 

Garrett Hohnholt struggled with depression for much of his life, but had seemed to have come of the tunnel of darkness that surrounded him, he said.

“He graduated from high school and had a couple of really good friends that he loved,” Hohnholt said. “It really shocked me. … I spent a lot of my time with him and I was really looking forward to getting to know him as a man.”

Born in Wheatland, Hohnholt’s Wyoming roots go back to time on a ranch outside of Guernsey until second grade. 

His family moved to Casper until he was in sixth grade and then to Washington state. 

Hohnholt said he returned to Wyoming every summer to work on his grandfather’s ranch.

Hohnholt said his war experiences left him with PTSD and definitely changed him. 

He has struggled with depression, anxiety and stress. He likes to socialize and has friends, but avoids crowds and busy places.

He also finds there are times he just needs to be alone.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Shock And Awe Stuff'"}]

While serving in Iraq, Hohnholt’s security role for convoys involved protecting their fuel, water, and supplies for a helicopter squadron at forward bases as well as other convoy missions.

“We saw a light amount of combat, and it was pretty much during convoy operations,” he said. “It’s not like we were staying and having big battles. But it was moving gear and stuff like that.”

After Iraq, he spent a year serving in his career field doing generator and electrical repair before getting out of the service. 

Hohnholt looks back on his Marine Corps service with no regrets, and while he does not like to dwell on specifics about incidents that led to his disability, he said they can be put into the category of “shock-and-awe stuff.”

Hohnholt left the Marines with an honorable discharge and campaign ribbons. He sees his younger self as a “just an average Marine doing average things who fought in a war.”

But if called upon, there is no hesitation about whether he would raise his hand to take the oath of service again.

“You know, absolutely I would,” he said. “It’s the good and the bad that has made me who I am. I have a lot of family and friends and people seem to like me. That’s just good enough for me.”

Garrett and Matthew Hohnholt

<title>Gillette Marine Vet With PTSD Struggles To Pay Off Funeral Debt From Son’s Suicide | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A 45-year-old Gillette Marine Corps veteran struggles with PTSD, along with paying off funeral debt from his 19-year-old son’s suicide last year. "I was really looking forward to getting to know him as a man,” said Matthew Hohnholt.

Gillette Marine Vet With PTSD Struggles To Pay Off Funeral Debt From Son’s Suicide

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Business & Tourism

Business

CHEYENNE — Patricia Miller was helping another customer when a smooth-talking gentleman came in and quickly grabbed some crystals that he said were a gift for his mom. 

“He was trying to small talk with me about how wonderful of a person he was, because he’s getting them for her,” Miller told Cowboy State Daily. “And he’s going to print out information about each one of them, and all this other stuff.”

Miller thought that was sweet and said so, but what happened next was anything but sweet.

“He handed me this $100 bill, and I could feel that something was different,” she said. “And I was looking at it, and I’m like, ‘Well, maybe it’s old?'”

That prompted the man to helpfully add that the bill was from 1996.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That’s when things clicked for Miller."}]

“Like, who knows what year the bill is that you’re handing a cashier?” she said. “So that’s what really triggered my mind to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is counterfeit.’”

Not wanting to falsely accuse the man — or ignite a confrontation — Miller took a different tack. 

“I said to him, ‘I”m sorry, but I don’t have change for this. You’re going to have to maybe get change and come back. Do you have anything smaller?’" Miller said. “And he said, ‘No, I’ll go to Bomgaars and get change.’”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"The man never returned for his items. "}]

Later, looking at the store’s video surveillance, Miller saw the man had several recognizable bags with him. When she visited those other stores, it confirmed her suspicion that the $100 bill had been fake. 

The same man with the same story and multiple copies of the same $100 bill, all sharing the same serial number, had hit all of the stores.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Same Serial Number All Over Town"}]

Miller’s social media post about the experience drew jeers from some skeptical online commenters who accused her of overreacting. 

She posted the bill so others would know what was happening, to prevent anyone from getting duped.

A manager at a discount store on South Greeley Highway in Cheyenne, who asked that her store not be named for corporate reasons, confirmed she’d encountered both the same man and the same $100 bill as Miller. 

The man came to the store on South Greeley between the hours of 3:30 and 4 p.m., she said, trying to buy some baby wipes and a gallon jug of water with the $100 — a classic, small-purchase, big-change tactic.

The cashier felt something was off with the bill, but couldn’t identify what. She used a traditional counterfeit detector pen. If the iodine ink, which reacts with starches in standard, wood-pulp paper, remains black, that’s supposed to indicate that a bill is real. 

But the manager has learned a different trick to identify counterfeits lately. 

“I swabbed it with rubbing alcohol, and the ink smudged,” she said. “So I told him it was fake and we were not going to accept it.”

When the cashier told the man the bill was fake, he said, “Keep it,” and walked out, by then visibly trying to hide his face from the camera.

“That confirms to me that it was fake,” the manager said. 

The bill has been turned over to Laramie County Sheriff’s Office for further investigation.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Bleached Bills Fool Counterfeit Pens"}]

The discount store manager said counterfeiters have come up with a smart strategy to fool the traditional iodine counterfeit detector pens.

Counterfeit $100 bills are getting passed throughout Wyoming and store clerks say iodine counterfeit detector pens won't detect the fake bills. “The counterfeit pens are garbage,” said one store manager

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