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

<title>Daily Smile: Monday, January 16, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When your best friend picks you up at the airport...

Daily Smile: Monday, January 16, 2023

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

This is a story about old-school journalism when photographers used what is now considered ancient equipment to capture dramatic images of incredible events, like 

 as it tore across north Cheyenne on July 16, 1979, destroying everything directly in its path.

It’s also the tale of two guys who found themselves in the right place at the right time, journalistically speaking, though we did nothing to put ourselves there. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Let’s call it what it was: dumb luck."}]

I was half of this team; my friend Jerry Johnston was the better half. 

Jerry wasn’t a news photographer, but he was a great one that day because he accomplished what all of us in the business want: a front-page photo in newspapers across the country.

I was a reporter/photographer for the Wyoming State Tribune, Cheyenne’s afternoon daily newspaper. Our paper went to press at about 1 p.m., so anything I did after that would have to wait until the next day’s edition.

There wasn’t much on my plate as I drove to my volunteer job at the American Cancer Society-Wyoming for a meeting of its public relations committee, which I chaired. 

The weather was what everyone in Cheyenne expects on a typical mid-afternoon about a week before 

Frontier Days — a dark, foreboding sky that promised to soon dump a healthy amount of 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Almost Everyone Fled"}]

As I arrived at the ACS office in the Melton Shopping Center, the meeting was already breaking up. 

A secretary informed us that it was looking dangerous outside, and that it was probably a good time to leave. Everyone rushed to their cars except Jerry, who was a staff member, and me. 

[{"type":"text","text":"We went outside to see if it was really that bad."}]

I got together with Jerry this week to talk about what happened that day, like I knew I would when I was assigned to write a retrospective on the most destructive tornado in Wyoming’s history. 

Although we hadn’t seen each other in many years, there’s no one I’d rather reminisce about a day 47 years ago that, as Jerry said, 

I had forgotten a few details that Jerry recalled, but our accounts were virtually the same for most of the events.

I remember seeing a large, black mass off in the distance west of us. I wondered what could be on fire — maybe the National Guard headquarters? — until I noticed in horror that it was slowly moving east. 

And at that moment, even though I had never seen a tornado live, I knew what it was. 

I believe my response was, “Holy shit!” If I didn’t say it outloud, it’s what I was thinking.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Shocking Discovery"}]

I went to my car to grab my camera, which I took with me everywhere, because it was essential to my job.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"It wasn’t there. "}]

My heart sank when I realized I had likely left it on my desk in the newsroom, and that's exactly where I found it about an hour later.

The funnel cloud kept moving, and though it wasn’t on top of us, it was getting much too close for comfort. 

My first concern, though, wasn’t about safety, even though the ACS office didn’t have a basement, so there was nowhere to immediately go if it veered in our direction.

No, my first freak-out was that the most dangerous weather phenomena I’d ever seen was smack-dab in front of us, and I was powerless to document it.

But Jerry, thank God, had a 35 mm Pentax camera he retrieved, so we were in business after all. I remembered he’d taken photography classes when we were at Laramie County Community College, so I felt things were in control. Except perhaps me.

“You kept yelling at me to ‘shoot, shoot, shoot!'” Jerry recalled. 

Yes I did, because there was nothing else I could say to convey how important it was to keep clicking the damn shutter. Jerry assured me that he had just loaded a huge roll of film, so things were cool.

But what was happening in front of us was terrifying. 

There were houses in the twister’s path, and I could see what looked like doors, maybe pieces of roofs and tons of debris being whisked up into the funnel cloud, then slammed to the ground.

“It didn’t have a classic tornado look. It looked like 

,” Jerry said, jabbing his finger at the copy of his photo that I brought to help stimulate our conversation and, hopefully, to illustrate this notebook. 

This time I remembered to bring my camera, which is actually a phone, which is all I use in this modern world.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘We Were Idiots’"}]

The photo depicts the closest we ever were to the tornado, and it was the one we eventually used. 

I chalked that up to great timing, but Jerry had a different description.

“We were idiots,” he said. "We didn’t know if that thing was going to come over the hill and right at us. But what it did was ride that ridge line all the way down, and we got lucky.”

Jerry’s right, we were idiots, but being lucky idiots wasn’t a bad thing. 

When push comes to shove, sometimes the thing that separates a run-of-the-mill photo from a great one is having luck on your side as something extraordinary passes right in front of you.

So, Jerry got his shot and it was time to rush back to my office so we could literally scoop every other media outlet with the first photos of this tragedy. Right?

Nope. That would have been too sensible. Or lackluster. Or wimpy. There was only one thing to do.

“We got in your car and we drove up and around Mylar Park and up to Powderhouse Road, and then we just kind of started following it,” Jerry recalled.

I think our adrenaline mutually kicked into gear, because this wasn’t an idiotic move at all. We were quite a distance behind the twister, and we could see what kind of damage it was doing.  

“As we drove on Powderhouse there was junk all over because it had thrown prairie all over, and it was getting worse,” Jerry said. “And that’s where we stopped. 

"We talked to some people who were in extreme shellshock. A woman showed us that half of the roof on the back side of her house was gone.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"That was the end of our journey."}]

“You were like, ‘I don’t think I want to drive in there any further,’ and at that point it was wise because that’s when all of the emergency crews were trying to get there,” he added. “Powderhouse became a big route, and we were pretty much stuck.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Give Me That Film’"}]

Jerry remembers shooting some pictures from a distance over toward Buffalo Ridge, which was the most heavily damaged. 

“And then we booked it back,” he said. “And you immediately said, ‘Give me that roll of film, I don’t have time, I’ve got to get this out.’ And you took off.”

Now, if this catastrophic event happened today, I wouldn’t have had to speed back, develop the film, wait for it to dry and then run it through our photo processor to get an image. 

Since our cheap, unreliable photo processor typically jammed a few times, it was a long process.

Today, we would have had a digital camera — well, I probably would’ve forgotten mine, but Jerry would have one — and it would be click away, select the best shot, send it electronically, then leave to chase the tornado.

I knew the wire services would want what Jerry shot, and I quickly found what looked like the best photo to tell the story. 

United Press International (UPI) was the wire service my paper used, and was conveniently next to our newsroom.

The Associated Press was located downtown, so I dropped a copy of a slightly different shot there. 

Both services said they’d send it out with a mandatory credit, so at least Jerry would have some reward for his hard work and putting up with my insistent order to shoot, shoot, shoot.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Morning After"}]

The next morning, Jerry started getting calls from friends and family all over, including Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota. 

“A former college roommate living in Wisconsin told me, ‘You’re on my front page!’ Jerry said. “It was kind of spooky.”

Jerry and I both laughed when he told me his son asked if he got rich from his historic photo that was seen throughout the country, and perhaps much of the world.

“About a year later, AP sent me a check for $53,” Jerry said, shaking his head. “And UP sent me about $60. My son said, ‘How much money do you think they made?’ And I said, ‘A hell of a lot more than what I did.'

“In today’s media, it might have made some money,” he added. “But honest to God, that was such a small part of it.”

What does he remember most about that day? 

“How dark it was,” Jerry said. “The photo, which is really dark, doesn’t even do it justice. I’ll never forget that, it’s etched in my memory.”

It was indeed a dark day, both in the eerie sky above and for all of the people whose homes were destroyed and lives overturned. 

That’s what I think we should commemorate on this 47th anniversary. Cheyenne was filled with brave and caring people to help their neighbors get through the tragedy.

Personally, I also think about what it was like to be part of an unlikely team that managed to work together and get the first photo of the major news event of the day on both wire services — quite a mean feat. 

It hasn’t happened to me in the 47 years since, and it won’t ever again because, as Jerry remind me, “We’re ancient.” 

And at times that day, we were too reckless for our own good. 

But we got the job done, in a far different — and I would say more challenging to navigate — media environment. 

People relied on local newspapers to inform them, not 24-hour cable news channels, talking heads, high-tech websites, apps and artificial intelligence. 

I didn’t know it then, but those were some of journalism’s best days. I was glad to be a part of it.

Kerry Drake can be reached at: Kerry@CowboyStateDaily.com

1979 tornado Kerry notebook 7 15 26

<title>Reporter’s Notebook: How Photo Of 1979 Cheyenne Tornado Made National News | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It took a team effort by a camera-less photographer and a buddy who had one on Juyly 16, 1979, to get photos of the most destructive tornado in Wyoming’s history to news wire services. The dramatic and devastating photos made front pages across the U.S.

Reporter’s Notebook: How Photo Of 1979 Cheyenne Tornado Made National News

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's general assignment reporter, Clair McFarland.

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

Politics

Putting an employee housing complex on top of a morgue makes sense because of how dire Teton County’s housing shortage is, some commissioners say.

The Teton County Commission voted last week to incorporate employee housing units into the build plan of the new coroner’s facility. That advances, but doesn’t finalize the move, Commissioner Luther Propst told Cowboy State Daily.

Coroner Brent Blue, who’s running against five other Democrats for the party’s nomination in three open Commission seats, spoke against the plan.

“I vehemently opposed it,” Blue said in a Tuesday phone interview with Cowboy State Daily. “Who wants to live in an apartment above a morgue in an industrial area? That’s just a pipe dream.”

Noting that the measure passed, Blue said the complex might work better as a bunkhouse or dorm for summertime or part-time workers who aren’t planning on settling above the morgue.   

The morgue maneuver reflects that “certainly housing is one of our critical problems for employees,” Blue said.

Chief Deputy Coroner Russell Nelson, who’s running to lead the office, was less subtle.

Blue sent Cowboy State Daily a letter that Nelson had sent the local newspaper after the vote in which Nelson referenced his past work for the Arizona State Museum’s Human Identification Laboratory. 

There, he said, he’d encountered undocumented migrants who’d died in the heat while trying to cross the Southern border, many amid a “brisk drug trade.”

“The bodies that came through our laboratory had been beaten with a variety of tools, shot, burned, dismembered or just left out on the desert floor,” wrote Nelson.

He said lab workers used an enzymatic detergent solution to loosen soft tissue for examining bone features, wrote Nelson.

“All this cooking — even under a fume hood — produced a significant aroma of decomposition in the surrounding areas,” the letter says. 

Nelson compared it to being “downwind of the carcass disposal pit at the Transfer Station.”

Nelson referenced “several” process-heavy cases, and “one rather high-profile, complete with paparazzi.”

Travel vlogger Gabby Petito was killed by her boyfriend in Teton County in the summer of 2021. 

Propst presented the motion at last week's commission meeting to include the housing  plans in the new morgue construction. The aye votes sounded, and no nay votes were audible on the 

Propst told Cowboy State Daily in a phone interview Tuesday that the vote was unanimous. 

He also believes Blue softened to the idea of temporary rather than “executive” housing during that meeting.

Blue said that he conceded the temporary housing idea as a compromise “if (they’re) going to force the issue.”

Propst noted, as Deputy County Attorney Keith Gingery did during the meeting, that housing has occupied that neighborhood. Blue had protested, however, that it’s an industrial area.

Commission Vice-Chair Wes Gardner told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday that he voted for the addition. 

The county’s dire need, the thrift of building housing on an already-planned building, and the potential to mitigate some of the coroner’s concerns factored into his aye vote, he said.

The cost estimate for the potential two housing units is roughly $1 million of the approximately $ 5 million project, the 

Paying $1 million for two housing units is nearly unheard-of in Teton County, said Gardner.

Teton regularly ranks as the nation’s wealthiest county. Wealthy people drive up home values and with them, property taxes and other costs of living.

Many of the local workers commute from other towns, and workforce housing shortage problems have recurred for years. 

County and Jackson city governments have tried over the years to handle those pressures by subsidizing housing, charging mitigation fees of homebuilders, price-capping homes, among other strategies.

“I completely understand and appreciate where the coroner’s coming from,” said Gardner. “I wish I weren’t in a position where I feel the need to put housing on top of the morgue. Unfortunately, I am in that position.”

Gardner said that on the one hand, he’s faced with an “awkward” living situation and the potential for people to feel uncomfortable. 

“On the other hand, I’m looking at the stark reality facing Teton County and our housing shortage,” he said.

The plan is for the employees to pay a low rent to stay in county housing, he said. 

Gardner said the county government is short by fewer than a dozen employees right now — which is “pretty good” for it. But it has around 26 employee units and nearly 340 employees, he said.

Commission Chair Mark Newcomb told the board last Tuesday that “we also thought” that adding the homes to the new morgue could make the project eligible for a special purpose excise tax, which is slated in part for employee housing.

“(That) might give a little boost to helping with the whole project cost,” said Newcomb in the meeting, adding that he recognized the coroner’s concern.

Propst said he agrees with Blue about making it temporary housing. He called the plot “not where someone might want to live for their career,” but a “great opportunity to provide housing.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Newcomb did not return a voicemail request for comment by publication."}]

Brent blue jackson 2 7 14 26

<title>Teton County Is So Desperate For Housing It Wants To Build It On A Morgue | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Some county commissioners say putting an employee housing complex on top of a morgue makes sense due to the housing shortage but the coroner's office is strongly against it. They say the smell is like being “downwind of the carcass disposal pit."

Teton County Is So Desperate For Housing It Wants To Build It On A Morgue

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's managing editor, Greg Johnson.

Greg Johnson

Crime & Courts

Courts

Despite a Wheatland police officer running out of gas during a harrowing chase of up to 112 mph through two towns, the driver of a white BMW failed his second attempt to elude law enforcement.

Taron Hunziker-Ford, 27, had already eluded Colorado State Troopers prior to driving north on Interstate 25 to Wheatland on Sunday, Wheatland Police Department Officer Jesse Walton says in an affidavit filed Monday in Platte County Circuit Court.

Walton wrote that Wyoming officials had been alerted to watch out for Hunziker-Ford, who was wanted on “multiple felony warrants out of Colorado.”

When he saw the white BMW with no back bumper and a temporary Colorado registration tag driving north on I-25 at about 7:09 p.m. Sunday “traveling at excessive rates of speed,” Walton says in his affidavit the pursuit was on.

At one point, Hunziker-Ford attempted to get off the interstate at exit 87, “but the exit is too sharp and his speeds were too fast,” the affidavit says. “He pulled out of the turn and continued northbound.”

By that time, Walton wrote that he was driving more than 100 mph and having trouble keeping up with the BMW.

When Hunziker-Ford got to highway 26, he took it east toward Guernsey, and Walton followed, the affidavit says.

[{"type":"text","text":"From there, the BMW led police on a dangerous 26-mile ride to Guernsey."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Ran Out Of Gas"}]

“I could see the vehicle still ahead of me and what appeared to be passing other vehicles on the right shoulder — and my speed was at 111 mph shortly there (when) the BMW turned southbound on Highway 320 and continued back south toward Wheatland,” Walton wrote.

While topping 112 mph, the officer reports that he was having a hard time trying to catch this vehicle.

In the meantime, the BMW also failed to stop for other law enforcement in pursuit and set up in its path, the affidavit says.

When Hunziker-Ford got back into Wheatland, Walton hit another obstacle in the chase.

“At about this time I reached Oak Street and my vehicle ran out of fuel and I lost site (sic) of the vehicle,” he wrote.

Walton was not out of the chase for long, as Wheatland Police Chief Bradley Otte picked him up and they continued after the BMW, as was a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper and Guernsey police.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"‘Gave Us A Shoulder Shrug’"}]

With the BMW ahead of Walton and the police chief, and other officers in front of the fleeing vehicle, “we tried to attempt to make a stop on him,” the affidavit says.

That’s when Hunziker-Ford “stopped at the stop sign there at 317 and looked at us, gave us a shoulder shrug, and continued eastbound,” Walton wrote.

By then, the end was near for Hunziker-Ford because Guernsey police officers had set up spike strips in his path ahead, which he ran over.

“(The chief) and I continued to follow the vehicle for another 3 to 4 miles when he finally was unable to keep the vehicle on the road and he drove it off the south side of 27 into the ditch, through the fence, spun out about 75 yards into the field,” the affidavit says.

Law enforcement was right behind and approached the BMW with their weapons drawn, but “the driver did not respond to any commands,” the affidavit says.

Hunziker-Ford appeared incoherent and was unresponsive, so was pulled from the BMW and handcuffed.

After being evaluated at a hospital in Torrington, Hunziker-Ford was booked into the Platte County Jail on suspicion of fleeing or attempting to elude police and reckless driving.

Both are misdemeanor charges, punishable by up to six months in jail and fines of up to $750.

He was arraigned Monday and remains in the Platte County jail on a $3,000 cash bond, according to court records.

Taron Hunziker Ford and Wheatland sign 7 14 26

<title>Wheatland Officer Runs Out Of Gas During 112 MPH Chase, Still Gets Driver | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Despite a Wheatland police officer running out of gas during a chase of up to 112 mph through two towns Sunday, the driver of a white BMW failed to elude law enforcement. The driver also at one point looked at pursuing officers and shrugged.

Wheatland Officer Runs Out Of Gas During 112 MPH Chase, Still Gets Driver

Native American Tribes

[{"type":"text","text":"Tribe Tells Christian Church To Leave Reservation; Church Says No "}]

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders told a Christian pastor who said "a pipe cannot hear your prayers" to leave their reservation. The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching from the Bible. 

The Northern Arapaho Tribe’s executive branch has asked a Christian church to leave the reservation, the tribe’s chair said Friday.

In response, Foundations for Nations pastor Sarah Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she and her family aren’t planning to leave yet. They’re looking to legal solutions to stay – and hoping for a “revival” in the meantime, Lucas said.

The church, which has operated in Fremont County for nine years, sits within the borders of the Wind River Indian Reservation, but it’s on a parcel of private, not tribal, land.

The controversy erupted eight days ago when Lucas discouraged some tribal faith practices during a church service, just as the tribe finished its Sundance ceremonies. She had said, “a pipe cannot hear your prayers,” and “we know that Jesus is enough.”

. Northern Arapaho Tribal members were furious at what they cast as an insult to their “grandfather pipe” – a revered relic associated with the Arapaho creation story.

Protests unfolded at the Riverton City Hall and at the Foundations for Nations church site in the town of Arapahoe.

“I want a public apology from them,” said Northern Arapaho Business Council Chair Keenan Groesbeck during a 

 last Tuesday. He stood in front of a yellow tape line that stretched across the church’s driveway. 

[{"type":"text","text":"He said Lucas’ message was disrespectful."}]

“If they don’t want to apologize to us, they can leave,” said Groesbeck. 

Protestors joined in a traditional chant as honks and whoops sounded from passing vehicles.

Lucas went to a meeting with tribal leaders Friday. She said the council allowed its “Four Old Men” elder group to join the meeting, and leaders discussed the importance of the pipe relic and told her to leave.

[{"type":"text","text":"Lucas described the meeting as unprofessional."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Groesbeck took to Facebook about two hours later."}]

“Just so everyone knows. We told Foundations For Nations and Sarah Lucas they got to go. We ain’t putting up with their bullshit,” says Groesbeck’s Friday post. “

Groesbeck could not be reached for comment by publication. Nor could the other council members except for Sami Dresser, who declined to comment.

The tribe’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment by publication.

Lucas told Cowboy State Daily she won’t apologize for preaching from the Bible, though she wishes to apologize “that it came off as an attack.”

“But I am a Christian preacher. I am a pastor and I preach the full counsel of God’s word,” she said. 

Lucas said she’s not against the sun dance altogether: she supports fasting and praying as a whole concept. But she understands the ceremony also involves “the worship of the pipe,” she said, adding that’s idolatry, and irreconcilable with the teaching that “Jesus is the only way.”

She pointed to the divisive messages the Bible attributes to Jesus, and the persecution and martyrdom his followers suffered.

“You could take everything from me but you can’t take my God,” said Lucas. “I’m willing to be martyred for the faith. I’ve counted the cost.”

She voiced mild surprise at the current outrage, saying community members have maligned Jesus and biblical teaching to her for years and she hasn’t retaliated. 

Regarding the tribal community, Lucas said she loves them and wants to maintain a forgiving posture. She referenced the high suicide, poverty, and addiction rates of the reservation. And she reiterated part of the same message that sparked this clash.

“Only Jesus can turn a life around, can deliver somebody, can set somebody free,” she said, adding that she’s called to preach that and is “more concerned with eternity, than I am about earthly hate.”

Lucas said people have been “twisting” her family’s message, casting their work as a grift and slandering them. She countered, noting that she did not take a salary for the church’s first several years, and that she’s now at about $25,000 annually. Her husband has worked two jobs in the past to pay their bills, she said.

She rebutted other rumors about harms to kids in the church’s sizable kids’ program, saying “All these lies are making the kids in our program feel unsafe. And that just hurts.”

Lucas indicated her family isn’t ready to leave the reservation. She said she wants to see people’s hearts changed.

“They might be mad for now, but I believe the supernatural power of God is going to turn this around,” said Lucas. “We don’t obey man. We obey God.”

She said she and her family are working with an attorney to remain on their parcel. They’re also weathering death threats, according to multiple screenshots Lucas sent Cowboy State Daily.

[{"type":"text","text":"The FBI confirmed late Monday it is \"aware of the situation.\" "}]

Northern Arapaho Tribal leaders have told a Christian church to leave the reservation after the pastor preached "a pipe cannot hear your prayers.'  The pastor said she's staying, and won't apologize for preaching that "Jesus is the only way."

Daily Smile: Monday, January 16, 2023

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