Daily Smile

[{"type":"text","text":"Now let's all watch a dog jumping rope..."}]

Daily smile 8 18 23

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

<title>Daily Smile: Friday, August 18, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Now let's all watch a dog jumping rope...

Daily Smile: Friday, August 18, 2023

 Now let's all watch a dog jumping rope...

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Two German tourists had to call Big Horn County Search and Rescue (BCSAR) for help after Google Maps led them astray.

The tourists were were visiting the Medicine Wheel in the Bighorn Mountains when they decided to head to Shell on May 31, BCSAR reported Sunday. Instead of recommending U.S. Highway 14 either westbound or eastbound, Google Maps sent them down a backcountry road that blew out two of their tires.

The pair was evacuated by BCSAR volunteers on ATVs that evening, but their Jeep Compass was stuck in the mountains until the tires could be replaced.

“They were on a road that they shouldn't have been in the car that they were driving,” said Adam Potter, owner of Big Horse Point S Towing in Greybull. “If you're going to be in the Bighorns, don't trust Google.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mission 26"}]

This was BCSAR’s 26th mission so far  in 2026. Potter wasn’t officially dispatched to rescue the German tourists when they got stuck, but he expected to be sent into the mountains at some point.

“I got a call from one of my buddies with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Department who told me BCSAR might be calling, so I sat tight,” he said. “Two of the guys who work for me in my shop are BCSAR volunteers, and they said the same thing.”

Potter didn’t get the call he was expecting until the next morning. The driver of the Jeep, named Matthias, asked if he could get his rental car out of the mountains.

Potter said Matthias and his wife were trying to take Alkali Road from Medicine Wheel to Shell. When they encountered a locked gate, Google Maps recommended an alternate route that they weren’t equipped to travel.

“They were on a road made for ATVs,” he said. “Matthias was probably about 10 miles down there when he realized that that wasn't going to work. He couldn’t get that Jeep Compass down there.”

Matthias managed to turn around and start going back the way he came. As he did so, his low-profile Jeep scraped against a large, sharp rock that punctured two tires.

The stranded Germans contacted the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office, which sent BCSAR volunteers to pick them up. The Jeep Compass was left where it was, as there wasn’t anything that could be done right away to save it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Down, Up, Down, Up Again"}]

Once Matthias and his wife reached Greybull, he called Potter about getting the vehicle out of the mountains, which was stuck near South Trapper Rim, an area that Potter’s familiar with.

“At this time of year and hunting season, we’re up there quite a bit,” he said.

Potter knew there was no point in trying to tow the Jeep out, as he wasn’t sure his tow truck could get to the spot. Instead, he had Matthias guide him to the stranded vehicle.

“It was just the tires,” Potter said. “The rest of the suspension looked good, and he never hit anything on the undercarriage, but we can’t replace a tire on a rim on the side of the road out in the mountains.”

The solution was to jack up the Jeep, remove the punctured wheels, and take them back down to the tow shop. By that point, it was already getting dark.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was a four-hour round trip to reach that spot, Potter said."}]

On Monday morning, Potter and Matthias went back up again to replace the tires and get the vehicle going. Then, Matthias drove it out of the mountains, shadowed by Potter.

“He drove himself up out of there,” Potter said. “He got himself down there, so it wasn't too hard for him to get back out. I just worked him up the road.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What Do You Know, Google?"}]

Google Maps is one of the most popular web mapping platforms in the world. However, Wyoming consistently tests its reliability.

When the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park opens every year, Google Maps tends to 

 and redirects drivers several hours out of their way to the North Entrance in Gardiner, Montana. When Yellowstone’s South Entrance opens, Google Maps has the same issue.

When Interstate 80 shuts down for winter weather, Google Maps occasionally tries to send drivers down closed, 

 because they’re still on the map and, as far as Google Maps is concerned, are still viable shortcuts.

“It's hard for Google to navigate change,” Rick Howe, president and CEO of the Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce, told Cowboy State Daily. “It works when things are consistent, but seasonal openings and closures of specific locations are really hard for the current platform to handle, and there’s no clear way to change that.”

Matthias and his wife were back on well-traveled roads after they got their rented Jeep out of the Bighorns, and they’re on their way back to Germany.  

Potter ensured they wouldn’t have any more navigational issues for the final stretch of their journey.

“I pointed him in the right direction on the maps and websites that clarify ATV roads versus groomed, maintained roads,” he said. “Google Maps doesn’t know the difference.”

Stuck German tourists 6 8 26

<title>German Tourists Get Stuck In Bighorns After Following Google Maps | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Big Horn County Search and Rescue had to rescue two German tourists after Google Maps got their rented Jeep stuck on a backcountry road. “If you're going to be in the Bighorns, don't trust Google,” is the takeaway, said a Wyoming tow truck driver.

German Tourists Get Stuck In Bighorns After Following Google Maps

Kolby fedore

Kolby Fedore

Crime & Courts

Public Safety

A second wildfire in less than a week has scorched ranchland in northeast Wyoming, leaving local ranching families worried that an already active fire season is just getting started.

The Raven Creek Fire, caused by a downed power line Saturday, has so far burned 3,789 acres across a mix of private, state and federal land and drew a targeted response from Weston, Crook and Campbell counties, as well as the Bureau of Land Management and Wyoming State Forestry Division.

The blaze was started just days after the nearby Shipwheel Fire was started by lightning and burned 456 acres in the same corner of the county.

Burning through brush and grass about 13 miles southeast of Moorcroft, the Raven Creek Fire threatened homes and energy infrastructure, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reports. No structures have been reported lost.

As of Monday morning, the blaze was exhibiting “minimal fire behavior with smoldering,” the NIFC reports. There are 125 firefighters and support personnel working the fire, along with 25 engines and a helicopter.

[{"type":"text","text":"The cost to fight so far is an estimated $500,000, according to the NIFC."}]

For Weston County Fire Warden Daniel Tysdal, the concern extends beyond the two fires themselves.

"We're experiencing late-summer fire weather conditions and fire behavior in the first part of June," Tysdal told Cowboy State Daily on Monday. "It's unprecedented fuel conditions right now."

Tysdal said wind-driven fires burning through drought-stressed fuels have created conditions firefighters do not typically expect this early in the season.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Neighbors Come Together"}]

"The first fire was earlier in the week,” said area rancher Angie Morfeld. "They had a lightning strike, I believe, earlier in the week, and lost about 500 acres."

While no livestock or structures have so far been lost in either fire, Morfeld said fencing was damaged and large amounts of grass were burned. 

Tysdal said firefighters were forced into structure protection operations as the Raven Creek Fire approached buildings on its northern flank, though crews ultimately prevented any losses.

[{"type":"text","text":"The fire has spread amid hot temperatures, wind and dry conditions."}]

Campbell County Fire Department warned Sunday that warm temperatures, strong winds and the potential for thunderstorms could create another active fire day across the region, even as crews continued suppressing existing fires and preparing for possible new starts.

For many ranching communities, the concern isn't just the acres burned over the weekend, but what the next several months might bring.

Morfeld said neighboring ranchers routinely come together when disaster strikes.

"All the ranchers that are neighboring ranchers, they all come together and help greatly," she said. "And then we have a lot of people in town, and when there's a call to action, they will donate to the fire departments and get supplies to them as needed."

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Pray For Rain'"}]

During the Raven Creek Fire, Morfeld said family members and volunteers delivered bottled water and assisted where they could while firefighters, heavy equipment operators and utility crews worked in difficult conditions.

She also urged people to remember the linemen restoring power in smoky, windy conditions.

"People get angry when they're out of power, but they forget about the guys on the ground doing the real work," she said.

"The volunteers just day in and day out show up every time there's a page," Tysdal added. "I don't think we could do it without our volunteer fire service."

As mop-up operations continue, Morfeld said her thoughts are with the ranchers who have already lost grass and face months of uncertainty.

"We need to pray for the rain," she said. "We need to pray for the ranchers that have been affected, that have lost a lot of grass, and I'm afraid it's going to be a long season for all of our ranchers in Wyoming."

Raven Creek Fire inset 6 8 26

<title>'Pray For Rain': Wildfire Burns 3,900 Acres, Has Northeast Wyoming Ranchers Worried | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A downed power line is believed responsible for the Raven Creek Fire which has burned 3,900 acres of land in northeast Wyoming. Weston County Fire Warden Daniel Tysdal said they're experiencing "late-summer fire weather conditions and fire behavior."

'Pray For Rain': Wildfire Burns 3,900 Acres, Has Northeast Wyoming Ranchers Worried

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Jackie Dorothy.

Jackie Dorothy

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

Bessemer Bend, a true Wyoming ghost town, has been claimed back by nature and alfalfa fields. 

Before its demise, Bessemer was where Wyoming’s oldest cabin was built by desperate fur traders with the Pacific Fur Co. 

Decades later, Bessemer became part of the Oregon, California, Mormon, Pony Express, and Overland trails that all crossed at Red Buttes/Bessemer Bend.

Later, the famous Goose Egg was built on the spot. This extravagant stone mansion is said by some say to have inspired scenes in Owen Wister’s “The Virginian.” 

Today, Bessemer Bend is a broad loop of the North Platte River southwest of Casper that shows no signs of the failed city. 

The landscape is dominated by irrigated fields, ranchland, cottonwoods along the river, and the red hills and buttes that explorers and Oregon Trail emigrants knew as Red Buttes. 

The town of Bessemer, now long gone, had gained a reputation as the “Queen City of the Plains.” Her founders believed that their city would one day be the grandest in Wyoming. 

Their hopes were dashed by a rigged election and the railroad. 

Ultimately, Casper “stole” the honor from them when it became the seat of Natrona County instead and, one by one, the residents of Bessemer hauled their homes over to Casper.  

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Fur Traders "}]

Bessemer first appeared in written record in the 1812 diary of fur trader Robert Stuart. 

Stuart had been hired in 1810 by John Jacob Astor to work for the Pacific Fur Co. and was on the company ship, the Tonquin, when he became marooned at Fort Astoria.  

The crew had sailed first to the Falkland Islands and then around Cape Horn and up the western coast of North America, reaching what is now Astoria, Oregon in May 1811. There, they established Fort Astoria.

When the crew sailed farther north, to Vancouver Island, an interaction with Native Americans resulted in many deaths and the destruction of the ship. 

It was left to Stuart and a small group of men to return eastward overland. The party left Astoria on June 29, 1812, bound for St. Louis. With Stuart were Ramsay Crooks, John Day, Benjamin Jones, François LeClerc, Robert McClellan, and André Vallé.

They started up the Columbia River in canoes. Before they were out many days,  John Day became “demented" and was sent back to Astoria in the care of some friendly Indians. 

In a few days, they came across some men who had been separated from another party and gave them provisions. 

A man named Miller joined Stuart in Day's place according to Molker. 

The group headed east, through what is now Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Wyoming, traveling on what would later become the Oregon Trail. 

Highlights of their journey that Stuart detailed in his diary included paddling down the Snake River, crossing Teton Pass and seeing Jackson Hole, and discovering the South Pass.

By the time they reached Bessemer, the seven men were starving and weak, desperate to rest. 

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

Described as “footsore, hungry, and utterly weary,” fur trader Robert Stuart wrote in his diary that he and his six companions had been following a river (the North Platte) for two days but had to find a place to stop and recuperate. 

The cabin they were soon to build would become the oldest recorded cabin in Wyoming. 

It was November 1812 when Stuart described how they had found a low point of land on a bend in the river and had selected it for their winter camp. 

There were cottonwoods and willows there for building materials and firewood and the area had plenty of wildlife to sustain them. 

The men had already seen the Grand Canyon and discovered the passage through South Pass. They had their horses stolen by the Crow and were on foot. 

Weakened by their trek, they had started missing shots and were starving when they had finally succeeded on killing an injured bull buffalo. 

Though tempted to eat the meat raw, Stuart had fed the men broth to regain their strength. 

Stuart describes their cabin at Bessemer as eight feet wide and 18 feet long. The walls were six feet high and the whole was covered with buffalo skins. 

The fireplace was in the center and the smoke found its way out through a hole in the roof.

“As the slaughter of so many buffaloes had provided the party with beef for the winter, in case they met with no further supply, they now set to work, heart and hand, to build a comfortable wigwam,” Stuart wrote. “In a little while, the woody promontory rang with the unwonted sound of the axe.”

He said that by the second evening, the cabin was complete. 

They rested and recuperated from the exertion and hunger they had suffered. They had been in their little cabin for five weeks when a small band of Arapahoe Indians visited them for a few days. Although the Arapahos did not harm them, Stuart was concerned that they might return in “another mood.” 

He packed up his men and some provisions and moved on toward the east, leaving behind their home on Bessemer Bend. When Stuart’s party arrived at Saint Louis they had shortened the route of Lewis and Clark, had discovered the Sweetwater and North Platte rivers and had discovered the most important gateway through the Rockies, South Pass.

Mary Lou Pence and Lola Homsher in their book, “The Ghost Towns of Wyoming,” said that some pioneers claimed the cabin stood for many years while others said the Indians immediately swooped down and burned it. 

Whichever the case, the cabin has long been gone when the Oregon Trail followed part of the same route first made by the small party of fur traders. 

The Goose Egg, or the Searight House, was built on Bessemer Bend and by 1888, a town had been planned, adopting the name of Bessemer. 

The founders had high hopes of being a metropolis. A sawmill and brick plant were brought in and homes and businesses sprung up quickly. 

When a brewery and liquor house were brought in by Max Jaensch, the residents of Bessemer saw a bright future.

“For as one citizen put it,” Pence and Homsher wrote. “Here the consumption of distilled waters was far above the average in American communities.”

In 1888 to 1889, the town promoters laid out 49 blocks and reserved land for what they hoped would become Wyoming's future capitol building. Bessemer grew quickly and attracted settlers, ranchers, and businesses. 

As Wyoming was preparing for statehood, Bessemer entered the race to become the county seat of the proposed Natrona County.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"However, it was not to be. "}]

According to Pence and Homsher, just as Bessemerites were sitting back “gloating” over the meager 304 pollings cast in Casper as compared to their 667 count, it was announced that some “skullduggery” had been perpetrated. 

The investigators ruled that Bessemer had cheated and had more votes than residents. Their count was thrown out and Casper became the county seat in 1890. 

Residents of Bessemer were still angry when they spoke to historians Pence and Homsher in the 1950s. 

“They say we cheated and voted every man, woman and kid,” one old-timer told Pence and Homsher. “Well, I know one of their men who voted three times. But they don’t tell about that!” 

The following year, the printing press for the Bessemer Journal was seized and moved to Casper to become the Natrona Tribune. 

The railroad selected Casper as the regional rail terminal and the end of Bessemer was official.

Many of the buildings were moved to Casper until only the Goose Egg and a few others remained. Eventually, even the stone mansion was torn down and Bessemer quietly faded into the past. 

“When they said the Goose Egg was no more, you could hear that awesome hush,” Pence and Homsher wrote. “You could almost see Chalkeye and Fingers and Honey Wiggin and Baldy and Missou wipe away a tear.”

Bessemer is now returned to pasture and agricultural land. However, the memory of the ghost town and the first cabin from 1812 remain. 

“You can rip a house to pieces, ’til it ain’t no more, but you can’t tear up the things that happened there,” an old-timer told Pence and Homsher in remembrance of his beloved Bessemer and the people that once lived there.

Bessemer Bend and inset 6 7 26

<title>Wyoming History: Once A Bustling City On Oregon Trail, Bessemer Now A Ghost Town | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Bessemer Bend, now peaceful ranchland, was once a stop on the Oregon Trail and a bustling city known as the “Queen City of the Plains.” Now it’s a true Wyoming ghost town that disappeared when Casper was picked as the county seat. 

Wyoming History: Once A Bustling City On Oregon Trail, Bessemer Now A Ghost Town

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily reporter, Dale Killingbeck

Dale Killingbeck

A woman born in Casper and raised on a ranch near Riverton, along with her young son, were among the more than 900 people who died at Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978, when self-styled pastor turned messianic figure Jim Jones infamously commanded them to drink a poisoned potion.

Wanda Shirley Swinney moved to Jones’ People's Temple compound in Guyana in August 1977, reuniting with her husband and son. 

How Swinney’s life went from her Wyoming beginnings to ending with the command of a cult leader in Jonestown is a tale of family tragedy, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a father’s introduction, and years of brainwashing from the cult’s exalted leader.

The bottom line is Swinney was devoted to Jones. 

In a letter to him written in Guyana, she thanked her “precious Father” for providing their life in Guyana.

“There is no limit to what we can do if we follow your teachings and put them into practice,” she wrote. “Thank you Father for the privilege of being here with you.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"When It Came Tumbling Down"}]

A California congressman, along with journalists, flew to the jungle community in November 1978 to check on his constituents and other Americans who were at Jones’ compound, dubbed “Jonestown."

U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan had heard that people wanted to leave, but were not allowed.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"There was no heavenly outcome."}]

Headlines and history record 918 deaths in Guyana that included Ryan’s assassination and the murder of journalists who accompanied him at the hands of Jones’ deluded followers. Of those, 909 died by drinking the “potion."

Jones died by either self-inflicted gunshot or at the hands of an obedient assistant. Some followers slit their throats, but most of his congregants drank a cyanide-laced potion at his command.

In his now-infamous “Death Tape,” Jones tells his followers “how much” he loved them and tried to give them “the good life.” 

, he characterized Ryan’s visit as a betrayal by “a handful” of sect members “who have made our life impossible.”

Ryan and his party were to fly out with some cult members and children that Jones characterized as “stolen” from Jonestown. 

Jones said the actions of angry sect members at the airport to get their children back using weapons meant the only solution for the rest of the congregation was not to “commit suicide,” but to “take the potion as a revolutionary act.”

He quoted scripture “that no man takes my life from me, I lay it down” and then referred to himself as a communist.

“We can’t go back and they won’t leave us alone,” Jones said. “The best testimony we can make is to leave this (profanity) world.”

Born in Casper as Wanda Shirley Werner on Aug. 20, 1947, she was raised in the early part of her life on a ranch outside Riverton.

It was 31 years later when Wanda Shirley Swinney’s life ended when she — along with her young son — obeyed her “father” and drank Jones' “potion.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Temple Visit"}]

“We went to one of the meetings,” recalls Darlene Parrish, Swinney’s niece.

Darlene and her sister, Tina Parrish, of Carson, Nevada, are the closest living connection to Swinney. They are the daughters of Swinney’s older sister, Jeanie Lou Parrish. Their mother died in October 2023.

Darlene Parrish said that as a young girl, she accompanied her mother on a visit to see her sister in California. 

Her mother and aunt took her to the People’s Temple in San Francisco, where Jones preached and commanded his congregation.

She doesn’t remember a lot from that visit except that in addition to Jones and his followers, there was a monkey at the service.

“Mom told us she remembers Jim Jones getting up there, talking and everything,” Darlene Parrish told Cowboy State Daily. “He said he was ‘Jesus’ and the Bible was just a bunch of lies about him. 

"She said he took the Bible and stomped on it.”

Tina Parrish was 9 months old when her aunt took her life, but she heard the story about the temple visit several times while growing up.

“That was a big story in our family,” she said.

Wanda Shirley Werner was born to Chelsea Guy Werner and Jean Evelyn Werner, the youngest of siblings that including Leonard, Jeanie Lou, and Chelsea Jr.

The Parrish sisters said their mother was born in Missouri and the family moved to Wyoming where their grandfather and grandmother eventually ranched a few years after her birth. 

They believe their grandmother also was possible a teacher for a time.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mother’s Death"}]

A Casper Star-Tribune article on March 17, 1958, recorded their grandmother’s death.

“Mrs. Jean Evelyn Werner, former Casper resident, died suddenly in a Riverton hospital according to word received here today,” the newspaper reported. “She was 43 years old. Mrs. Werner was born in Huntsville, Missouri. She lived in Casper from 1946 to 1949.”

Darlene Parrish said her mother was 15 at the time of her grandmother’s death and became a surrogate mom for Wanda and Chelsea Jr.

The Parrish sisters said one story their mother told about Wanda involved her as a young girl playing on a stump and disturbing a nearby beehive. 

The bees swarmed on Wanda and their mom, Jeanie, had to quickly run and grab the girl and pull her away, swiping bees off as the girls tried to escape.

After their grandmother’s death, their grandfather got a job driving trucks over the road and went through a succession of wives. 

The Parrish sisters said they did not know their grandfather well and visited him once after he moved to Grants Pass, Oregon.

Their mother’s life stayed centered in Wyoming and they don’t know why Wanda and their grandfather ended up in California.

But the Richmond Independent newspaper listed Wanda Shirley Werner as among the 751 graduates of Richmond High School on June 15, 1965. Richmond is in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Three years later on March 27, 1968, Wanda Werner’s photo is in the same newspaper as a graduate of U.S. Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. 

But her military career was cut short by an out-of-wedlock pregnancy and birth of a biracial son, Darren Eugene Werner.

Darren was born on Sept. 8, 1968, in Oakland, California.

The Parrish sisters say that it was the stigma at that time associated with having biracial baby that led to Wanda Werner’s involvement with the People’s Temple.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"An Introduction"}]

“It was my grandfather who kind of got her in it not knowing what it was at the time, of course,” Tina Parrish said. “He was driving truck with a member of the People’s Temple and they also had a mixed-race child.” 

She said her grandfather thought that Wanda would find more acceptance with those people as friends. That introduction likely took place in late 1968 or 1969.

At the People’s Temple, Wanda Werner, then 22, married Timothy Swinney, 32, in 1970, after he had divorced his first wife. 

Swinney was considered a “pioneer” at the People’s Temple because his parents and family followed Jones from their home in Indiana as Jones moved from that state to California.

The Ukiah Daily Journal on Oct. 21, 1970, listed Wanda Swinney as the secretary of the Ukiah Area Council that met at the First Methodist Church. The group’s order of business was to make preparations for food baskets for people for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

San Diego State University, which hosts a website that contains information about Jonestown, and the People’s Temple lists Wanda Swinney as moving to Guyana on Aug. 10, 1977. 

Her husband had gone there on March 18, 1974, and it lists her son, Darren Swinney, as entering the country on Nov. 24, 1975.

Prior to Guyana, Wanda Swinney worked as a bus driver, accounting clerk, and had skills in animal husbandry, farming and cooking, the website states.            

Darlene Parrish recalls one thing her mother talked about was that as girls on the ranch in Wyoming, both she and Wanda enjoyed horses and horseback riding.

A woman born in Casper and raised on a ranch near Riverton, along with her young son, were among the more than 900 people who died at Jonestown, Guyana, in November 1978, when self-styled pastor Jim Jones infamously commanded them to drink poison.

Daily Smile: Friday, August 18, 2023

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