Daily Darwin

[{"type":"text","text":"Practicing for the Moron Olympics..."}]

Darwin 4 19 23

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

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, April 19, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Practicing for the Moron Olympics...

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

A Glenrock family's Fourth of July celebration ended in chaos when a firework exploded in the middle of a crowd of spectators, seriously injuring a young boy and prompting an emergency helicopter flight to a Denver hospital.

Now, the boy's family is pleading for witnesses to come forward as they search for answers about what happened.

"Accident or not, we want to know the truth” the boy’s mother, Katrina Pergande, said in a Sunday post shared to a Glenrock community Facebook page.

On Monday, the mother told Cowboy State Daily she also wants to make people more aware of how careless people can be when it comes to fireworks.  

Pergande said her family was attending the annual Fourth of July fireworks celebration at the South Recreation Complex at around 9:30 p.m. Friday when a firework entered the area where they were gathered.

She said multiple members of her family, including herself and several of her children, suffered burns. 

Bu her son Lavon sustained the most serious injuries after the firework struck his eye and exploded.

He was transported by ambulance from Glenrock to Casper before being airlifted to Children's Hospital Colorado in Denver, she said.

"His end of the Fourth was cut short and had to be rushed to the hospital," Pergande wrote.

In Glenrock, the town doesn’t put on an organized, professional fireworks show. Instead, the fire department holds a fireworks event at the ball fields allowing people to set off their own.

Admission is $10 per car with a cap at 400 cars. No alcohol is allowed as well.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Eyewitness Describes Chaos"}]

John Rosenfeld of Casper, a former emergency medical technician who attended the event, said he was sitting on metal bleachers between two ball fields when he noticed something unusual.

"I saw it come across the ground," Rosenfeld said about observing the errant firework. "It came from the middle section of the left field, and I did see it explode in the middle of the crowd of people."

He said panic spread through the crowd almost immediately. 

Rosenfeld described people running from the area while at least one person cried out. Before he could reach the scene, firefighters had already responded.

"Big props to the Glenrock Fire Department," he said. "They were there before even I could get up and do anything."

Rosenfeld said responders quickly removed the injured person from the area. At the time, he didn't realize that was a child.

"I asked a couple of people that were in the area if they were all right, and that seemed to be the only injury that I saw," he said, adding that, "I don't think anyone shot it at the group of people. 

"I do think it was a complete accident that just happened to go that direction."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Seeking Witnesses"}]

Pergande is asking anyone who attended the fireworks celebration and witnessed the incident — or captured photos or video — to contact the Glenrock Police Department or reach out to her directly.

She said her family had been seated on the left field near the second-to-last row of fireworks stands when the incident happened.

"With so many people at this event, I truly feel that someone saw this happen or knows something that can help us find the person responsible," she wrote.

In a later update, Pergande said Lavon was receiving steroid treatments every few hours while doctors worked to reduce inflammation that was preventing them from fully examining his eye.

 she started to help cover medical costs that Lavon suffered multiple injuries “and burns on his eyelid and had significant trauma to his actual eye."

She said physicians expect to determine whether surgery would be an option after additional evaluation.

"Our sweet boy was just enjoying his night, smiling and loving his time with his family," Pergande wrote.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Not Just 'Pretty Sparks'"}]

Having responded to fireworks injuries during his career, Rosenfeld said incidents like this show how dangerous fireworks can be when they're not handled properly.

"A lot of people are not aware of fireworks," he said. "They think it's all just pretty sparks and don't really comprehend that it's an explosive device and can remove fingers and body parts.”

Cowboy State Daily reached out to the Glenrock Police Department and the Glenrock Volunteer Fire Department about the incident.

Personnel with the fire department confirmed both the police chief and fire chief had received a request for comment, but that they were unavailable prior to publication.

Glenrock fireworks boy hurt 7 6 26

<title>Glenrock Boy Airlifted To Denver Hospital After Getting Hit In Eye By Fireworks | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Glenrock boy was airlifted to a Denver hospital on the Fourth of July after getting hit in the eye with an errant firework when it exploded in a crowd at a local park. A witness said he watched it "explode in the middle of the crowd of people.”

Glenrock Boy Airlifted To Denver Hospital After Getting Hit In Eye By Fireworks

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

Courts

CASPER — A 19-year-old man who held an 18-month-old child in front of him

during an armed standoff with police plans to enter a change of plea on the four misdemeanor charges he faces.

Brayden Donald Randolph appeared in Casper Circuit Court on Monday with his attorney, Keith Nachbar, for a scheduled hearing before Judge Kevin Taheri, his first court appearance to determine the status of his case.

Nachbar told the judge that his client plans to put the charges he faces behind him.

“We can do a change of plea and sentencing at the same time,” he said, telling the judge that he would need about two hours of the court’s time.

Natrona County Assistant District Attorney Kristen Strube agreed with the assessment of the time needed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Taheri said a date would be set."}]

Charges against Randolph include reckless endangerment, child endangerment, being a minor in possession of alcohol and interference with a peace officer. 

Court records show Randolph is free on a $7,500 cash or surety bond with one bond requirement — daily drug and alcohol testing.

Randolph’s encounter with the Casper Police Department started about 9:30 p.m. on April 18, part of which was shown in the release of 

 of officers first calling for Randolph to surrender with his hands up. 

Then after a two-hour standoff, officers were shown busting into his apartment in the 1000 block of St. John Street in North Casper and bringing out a toddler.

A report from the department at the time emphasized their attempt to de-escalate the situation.

A neighbor told Cowboy State Daily that when he arrived to his home around 6 p.m. that day, he initially heard singing and yelling and a party atmosphere from the apartment.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Gunshot And Threats"}]

When he went outside after hearing a gunshot just before 9:30 p.m., the neighbor said he saw two young people fleeing in a vehicle and heard Randolph threatening to kill them.

A police affidavit on the case states an officer talked to the neighbor, went to Randolph’s apartment and knocked on the door. Randolph yelled through the door telling the officer to leave.

“Randolph yelled he had a gun,” the affidavit states. “Randolph closed the blinds of the residence to limit (the officer’s) ability to see what happened inside.”

The officer observed broken glass on the floor and a vodka bottle on the kitchen counter.

He also saw Randolph walk away from a living room and pick up an AR-style firearm with the buttstock removed and try to put the buttstock back on the rifle.

Officers were advised that a small child was in the residence, and a short time later Randolph was seen walking into the living room holding the child’s hand.

According to the affidavit, Randolph opened the door of the apartment telling officers to leave the area and at that time had a handgun in the waistband of his pants.

He then went into the apartment and reappeared holding the 18-month-old child “like a shield” while grabbing the handgrip of the handgun still in his waistband.

“Randolph told officers he had a gun and officers had guns and Randolph challenged officers to get him,” the affidavit states. “Randolph went back into the house.”

Another Casper officer contacted and spoke with a 20-year-old man who had fled the house and was told that Randolph had fired a gun during an argument, then he and another man left, the affidavit states.

Police report the child’s mother arrived at the residence around 9:35 p.m. and tried to contact Randolph several times without a response.

The affidavit states a Natrona County Sheriff’s Office negotiator was called to the scene and tried to establish contact with Randolph and was unsuccessful.

After a request for a warrant for Randolph’s arrest was received about 11:30 p.m., two Casper police officers went to the north side of the ground-floor apartment where a bedroom was located and saw Randolph sleeping on the floor, on his back.

The child was asleep on his shoulder. No weapons were visible, the affidavit states.

Officers tried to use a key to enter the apartment that was identified by the child’s mother as being in Randolph’s vehicle. 

When that did not work, they used a door ram to enter the apartment.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Resisting Arrest"}]

Officers went to the bedroom, removed the child, and Randolph “tried to resist.”

“While handcuffing Randolph, he attempted to roll away from officers and took hold of (an officer’s) foot,” the affidavit states. “(The officer) was able to break Randolph’s hold and Randolph was detained without further incident.”

Officers found a loaded firearm underneath Randolph, the affidavit states.

The reckless endangerment charge carries a potential penalty of one year in jail.

The child endangerment charge and interference with a peace officer charges also carry a penalty of up to one year in jail and $1,000 fines.

The minor in possession charge is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $750 fine.

Randolf inset 7 6 26

<title>Casper Man Accused Of Holding Toddler ‘Like A Shield’ In Standoff To Change Plea | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A Casper man accused of holding a toddler “like a shield” in front of him during an armed standoff said Monday he intends to change his plea. The man "told officers he had a gun and officers had guns and challenged officers to get him,” police say.

Casper Man Accused Of Holding Toddler ‘Like A Shield’ In Standoff To Change Plea

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily State Government and Politics reporter, Leo Wolfson.

Leo Wolfson For Cowboy State Daily

Outdoors

Looking up at Colorado's Aspen Snowmass Ski Resort, you'll see large, white tarps covering a mysterious mass two to three stories high. No, the circus isn't in town — it's a matter of snow security.

As unusually warm, long fall seasons become more frequent — like 

 — ski areas across the West and around the world are seeking new ways to guarantee they can open on time. 

One solution is pushing together snow left over from the previous winter, storing it in enormous piles, and reusing it the following season.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Harvesting the Snow"}]

Known as "snow harvesting" or "snow farming," the practice is now catching on at resorts across Idaho, Montana, Utah and Colorado. 

By securing snow piles under thermal mats, blankets, tarps or even hay bales, resorts keep their snow in a giant cooler of sorts, shielded from the heat, sun and rain. 

That means they no longer have to anxiously watch the thermometer for temperatures cold enough to make snow, or wait on natural flakes from the sky.

Antti Lauslahti, CEO of the snow-storage company Snow Secure, believes these efforts will follow the same path as snowmaking equipment did in the 1970s. Most mountains were impressed by the technology at the time, he said, but skeptical that anyone actually needed to make snow.

"Then they started to do it for just the early season, and little by little it just took off," he said.

Lauslahti said Big Sky Resort in Montana — a favorite of many northern Wyoming residents — is running a small-scale test of Snow Secure technology to use on its slopes next season. 

Snow Secure makes white polystyrene thermal mats that fold out like an accordion and can stretch as long as a football field while keeping snow insulated, much like the insulation in a house, at near freezing temperatures.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The New Snowmaking"}]

In recent years, warm weather has repeatedly kept ski areas from meeting their traditional opening dates, sometimes pushing openings past Christmas or forcing seasons to be canceled altogether. 

Early season skiing is one of the industry's most profitable stretches, when public enthusiasm runs highest — especially among casual skiers. The Christmas holidays alone can account for 20% of a mountain's annual revenue, Lauslahti said.

"The beginning of the season is becoming more unpredictable," he said. "A bad start means you lose season-pass sales. If there's at least a minimum amount open in the early season, people accept it better."

Bogus Basin in Idaho and Aspen Snowmass have both recently invested in Snow Secure's mats to guarantee a solid snow base for next season. 

In Aspen, the mats now cover piles on Buttermilk and Snowmass mountains — the equivalent of 3.5 million gallons of water, mostly man-made snow left over from the previous season. 

Beyond saving the snow itself, the practice preserves the money already spent making it and can cut the cost of snowmaking for the season ahead.

Having snow ready to go also gives mountains flexibility to time their snowmaking for the most efficient conditions. 

Snowmaking machines work better the colder it gets, so instead of blowing snow in marginal early-season conditions out of desperation, resorts can draw on their stored supply for a usable base. 

Others are preemptively making a deep base of snow during winter's coldest stretches, either to extend their seasons into May or to save it for the next one.

"It's economically really, really viable," Lauslahti said. "It's really fast, really cost efficient. You need snowmaking, you need groomers, but the point is, you have a new tool."

Lauslahti noted that Levi, a Finnish mountain that traditionally hosts the season's first FIS World Cup race each November, relied entirely on snow stored inside the Snow Secure mats to host the event this past season. 

The mountain itself opened a few years back on Oct. 6 thanks to their snow-storage efforts.

Chris Miller, senior vice president of sustainability at Aspen Snowmass, told the Aspen Times saving snow expands the resort's climate-resilient toolbox for navigating volatile weather.

Snowmass Mountain's relatively low base elevation of 7,870 feet leaves it especially vulnerable to warm, dry early-season spells. 

As host of the Winter X Games, Snowmass produces enormous amounts of snow each fall to build the massive terrain-park features the globally televised event requires. By piling up and covering the leftover snow for the following year, the mountain saves significant money.

Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Utah has joined the trend too, preserving a 15,000-square-foot mound under the Snow Secure mats. 

At just 5,600 feet of elevation, the venue is slated to host cross-country events for the 2034 Winter Olympics, though that may not happen naturally if Utah sees another winter as poor as this past one.

Luke Bodensteiner, Soldier Hollow's general manager, told NBC News he views the effort as a contingency plan, and hopes that snow farming plus new snowmakers could make Soldier Hollow the first Nordic venue in the country to open this coming fall.

"If we get the results that we think … in the summer of 2033, we'll probably have three to four of these piles going around the venue," he told NBC.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Heat Resilient"}]

Back in Aspen when interviewed last month, Miller said temperatures beneath the Snow Secure blankets were registering at 32.6 degrees. 

Even when outdoor temperatures top 100 degrees, the insulated barriers keep the snow between 35 and 37, Lauslahti said, and can limit melting to about 20% of the original mass over an entire summer.

The mats were put to the test last summer at Bogus Basin, a mid-sized ski area outside Boise, where temperatures outside the piles hit 119 degrees. The snow held up fine, and despite recording its warmest November on record, the resort still managed to open that month.

Snow Secure isn't just for the biggest resorts with the biggest budgets. Lauslahti argues the tarps offer even more value at smaller areas with shorter runs, where every saved inch counts — pointing to a small Wisconsin resort that’s invested in the product. "The first chairlift isn't so long, so you don't need so much material," he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Other Snow-Storage Efforts"}]

Copper Mountain in Colorado stores snow for its summertime private Woodward camps and public hike park. At each season's end, the mountain pushes 

thousands of cubic yards of leftover snow

 from its runs, terrain parks and superpipe into huge piles; months later, it spreads the snow back out into a short run with a roughly 25-foot base, letting the public ski all summer.

Trollhaugen in Wisconsin insulates its snow with 

hay bales and a large tarp weighed down by car tires

 for a terrain-park event it hosts each fall.

Snow farming Ruka 15 Snow Secure 7 5 26

<title>Save It For Later: 'Snow Farming' Is Keeping Ski Seasons Alive Across Rockies | Cowboy State Daily</title>

As temperatures soar in the summer, ski resorts in the Rocky Mountain West are "farming" snow, storing it under giant thermal mats as insurance for the upcoming season. Snow stays close to freezing in the summer even in triple-digit temperatures.

Save It For Later: 'Snow Farming' Is Keeping Ski Seasons Alive Across Rockies

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Around Wyoming

 overnight in the Wyoming Territory with canvas tents, sectional housing and buildings on wheels. It was July 1868 and the town “bred by the devil” was ready for business.

“There are perhaps, three thousand people in and around Benton,” brothers Legh and Fred Freeman wrote in the Aug. 11, 1868, Frontier Index newspaper. “To give an idea of the on-wheels movement we will mention that the office of Wells, Fargo & Co., torn down at Laramie three days before, had its sectioned shingle roof on, and stage business resumed in it that night.”

The Frontier Index, known as the “Press on Wheels,” was also a 

 business that published its paper in these overnight towns.

“Business was so lively that we telegraphed the Laramie editor of our paper, to wheel on at once to Benton,” the Freeman brothers wrote. “We since learn that our new power press is threshing out the work there.”

Benton was an end-of-track town on the construction front of the Union Pacific Railroad, about 12 miles east of present-day Rawlins and just west of present-day Fort Fred Steele.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Baddest Reputation"}]

 the worst of these Hell’s Tent Towns, with claims that 100 men had been murdered there in its short lifetime. Their reputation as a home to “bawdy women and swindlers” was earned when visitors passed through and were shocked by what they saw.

According to historians Mary Lou Pence and Lola M. Homsher, co-authors of “The Ghost Towns of Wyoming,” one 

 that portrayed Benton’s devilishness had been a misunderstanding.

Water for this new town was one of its most valuable commodities. It had to be carted by team and tank from the North Platte River two miles away. The water hauler charged an exorbitant 

Seeing a new way to advertise, a whiskey distiller paid the hauler to paste large billboards on each side of his tank that read "Tanglefoot Whisky."

A Mormon woman soon arrived by train and was waiting for a stagecoach for the next leg of her trip to Brigham's Temple. When she saw the poster-plastered wagon and women rushing from their doors with pails in hands, Pence and Homsher said she became  indignant.

 woman said. “They're buying whisky by the bucketsful!"

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grant & Buffalo Bill Campaign"}]

To add to Benton’s reputation, even future presidents visited the tent town. Ulyssis S. Grant arrived with Buffalo Bill Cody. The Republican candidate was said to have given a stump speech at Benton to an eclectic group of people, ranging from gentlemen to railroad laborers. 

The Freeman brothers were heavily Democratic and former Confederate soldiers so the story they ran in the Aug.11, 1868, Frontier Index was a satirical attack on Grant and Buffalo Bill.

“When Useless Slaughter Grant was at Benton the other night, Buffalo Bill mounted a dry goods box at a street corner and returned thanks to the people for the splendid ovation (that was not) given the military commander in chief,” they wrote.

The editors claimed Buffalo Bill then auctioned off an old watch to pay for Grant's expenses on his campaign in Wyoming. Otherwise, Grant would be forced to “bum” his way back to Washington, D.C.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mundane Shootings"}]

In the same paper, when the Freeman brothers shared the local gossip, usually reserved for such tidbits as who had arrived in town or who was engaging in business, the story was about the latest shootings. This time Brownsville, a construction camp not far from Benton, was the scene of several murders.   

— a criminal offense involving at least two people —

 occurred on the streets between two men employed in Creighton's telegraph outfit, the Freeman brothers reported. 

[{"type":"text","text":"As the story goes:"}]

“They had been throwing dice for a pistol, when they became dissatisfied, and the person who owned the pistol — James Williams — refused to give up the money received, which led to a difficulty in which he was shot and supposed mortally wounded. The murderer has escaped.

"A man, named John Wood, accidentally shot himself on Sunday morning while drawing his pistol to shoot a man in a gambling house. He is now in the hospital and is doing well.

"Mike Meehan was shot by a ranchman near Reynolds & Dowling's grading camp, about eight miles from Brownsville. 

"The cause of the affair was, the graders were on a strike, and passed an order amongst themselves that any ranchman who would interfere with their strike or sell liquor to drunken men, they would clean out, and after giving them warning, they still sold liquor to the men, when the graders turned out and demolished some fourteen saloons. 

"During the row, Michael Meehan was shot and instantly killed. The ranchman delivered himself up to the military authorities at Fort Steele."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rise and Fall of Benton"}]

During its short existence, 200 framed tents and portable buildings had been erected, lots sold to the highest bidder, from $800 to $1,000, and dusty streets laid out. Benton was plotted into five wards and a mayor and one alderman from each ward had been appointed.

might become a more permanent town. A forwarding house was even established to take advantage of the active business taking place.

The most prominent building was described by Pence and Homsher as an immense canvas tent lit by imported chandeliers.

“An immense plate-glass mirror behind the corner bar reflected a strange hubbub of humanity,” Pence and Homsher wrote. “Pistol-packing mamas; lace-gowned and French-heeled dancing damsels; plaid-vested and fob-twisting come-on spielers; campaign-uniformed Indian fighters; corduroyed and buckskinned freighters; bow-tied and velvet-coated dude dandies — all taking chances with fate.”

The historians claimed  more than once during his night shift an overworked barkeep would have to change into another clean white coat to be rid of spatters of beer, bullets or blood.

By September 1868, the railroad had moved on, and so did nearly everyone else. 

The depot was moved east three miles to Fort Steele and Rawlins was designated a rail terminal. Pence and Homsher said that as tents were erected in the new town of Rawlins, former Benton residents were hesitant to buy lots and be fooled again into spending money on real estate that would not last.

Benton only existed for three months before the town was dismantled and it became one of Wyoming’s most infamous ghost towns.

Benton 1 Benton A C Hull Photo 7 5 26

<title>Wyoming History: 100 Murders In 3 Months, Lawless Benton Was ‘Bred By The Devil’ | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Of the Wyoming Territory towns that arrived on wheels along the Union Pacific Railroad, none were as tawdry, bawdry and lawless as Benton, which witnessed as many as 100 murders in its three-month lifespan. Benton, it was said, was "bred by the devil."

Wyoming History: 100 Murders In 3 Months, Lawless Benton Was ‘Bred By The Devil’

CASPER — Thirteen years ago, James Pulver sat in a jail cell wondering whether his life was over.

At 24, he was facing federal kidnapping and domestic violence-related charges and staring at a $100,000 cash bond — an amount so far beyond his reach it may as well have been $1 million.

He remembers the clang of the steel doors, the uncertainty, and the crushing realization that he had no idea what happened next.

"You don't know anything," Pulver recalls "You don't know the process. You don't know the courts. You don't know what's coming."

Eventually, Pulver accepted a plea agreement, pleading no contest to misdemeanor domestic violence and misdemeanor theft after spending 367 days in the Fremont County Detention Center.

He still insists the most serious allegations against him weren't true, but says the experience permanently changed how he views people accused of crimes.

Today, when someone in Wyoming is arrested and their family doesn't know where to turn, there's a decent chance the phone rings on Pulver's desk.

[{"type":"text","text":"The irony isn't lost on him."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"\"Before I was a bail bondsman,\" he said, \"I was an inmate.\""}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"More Than Bond"}]

Most people picture a bail bondsman as someone who signs paperwork, takes a fee and disappears.

A Casper bail bondsman has an unorthodox job that requires him to be part bounty hunter and part life counselor. And he can empathize with his clients. "Before I was a bail bondsman, I was an inmate," he said.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, April 19, 2023

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