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<title>Daily Smile: Friday, September 15, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It's Friday!!

Daily Smile: Friday, September 15, 2023

Kerry Drake

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

CHEYENNE — The day after Gene Holthus’ home in Cheyenne’s Buffalo Ridge subdivision was gutted on July 16, 1979, he stood outside taking photos of the destruction. 

His three sons were busy trying to salvage anything they could from the house as Wyoming National Guard helicopters flew overhead to protect the neighborhood from looting.

Holthus told the Wyoming State Tribune that he was at work at the Wyoming Highway Department when he saw the huge twister rip past the Game and Fish Commission.

“I immediately called my wife, Alta, and told her to get in the basement,” Holthus said. “She didn’t know a thing about it.”

He said the next few minutes were terrifying as he waited for a chance to get home. Holthus learned that a gas main had broken in his basement.

“Somebody called the fire department and within about five minutes they came and dug my wife out of the basement,” he recalled. “Thank God she only had a few scratches.”

As Holthus continued talking to the reporter, one of his sons came running up and handed him an envelope he’d found several blocks away. It contained vivid color photographs of the family’s garden, which was now buried under rubble.

Holthus looked at every one of the photos. 

“I just can’t believe that something this small could remain intact while bigger things were totally destroyed,” he said. 

The reporter told him he was sorry about everything his family lost. Holthus turned around and pointed at the house.

“This can all be replaced,” he said. “We survived. And I’ll treasure these photos and all the memories.”

Holthus died in 2015, but he and his family had survived what 47 years later is still the most destructive tornado ever recorded in Wyoming. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"9-Mile Path Of Destruction"}]

The tornado that touched down was not only rare for the capital city, Cheyenne had never had one within city limits prior to July 16, 1979. 

The tornado was officially an F-3, using the EF scale that ranks tornados by damage intensity. But some scientists believe it was even more fierce, an F-4, based on the intensity of destruction it left behind.

The tornado first formed around 3:10 p.m. near the intersection of Vandehei Avenue and Valley View Road. Peak winds were estimated between 136-165 mph.

Its path through the city was 8.8 miles, which it traveled in about 30 minutes. 

The massive twister was 80 yards wide, or four-fifths as long as a football field.

It was the most destructive tornado in Wyoming’s history, and it caused one death: 14-month-old David McKinnon, who the Laramie County coroner at the time said died instantly from head injuries when his family’s trailer was ripped apart by the black funnel cloud.

Damaging about 400 homes, including 140 that were destroyed, the total property damage was estimated at $25 million, which is the equivalent to 

As people dug through the rubble, called insurance adjusters, and talked to friends and family about their ordeal, one thing about the natural disaster seemed universally described by survivors as miraculous. 

How could such an enormous tornado wreaking havoc for such a long time have not killed more people?

“This was my first major crisis,” Don Erickson, Cheyenne’s mayor from 1977-1989, told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday as he recalled the challenges he faced when the tornado hit the northern part of the city. 

“We had to show the community a lot of confidence, that we were doing the best we can,” he said. "And we did. We had a great team.”

Erickson, 89, can vividly describe everything he saw happen the day the tornado hit.

“I was sitting in my office with my risk manager looking through this great big window,” he said. “I thought, ‘My God, it looked kind of weird out there.’ Big black clouds coming around, and I said, ‘Let’s go up on the roof and see what’s going on.’”

Within 10 seconds of arriving on the rooftop, Erickson said that, “There was a big blast north of City Hall. Later on, we found that a transformer over by the governor’s mansion had been struck by lightning.”

Dave Guille, the head of civil defense for the city, called to tell the mayor that a tornado had hit the north side of Cheyenne.

Erickson, who had just dealt with one shock, called Cheyenne Police Chief Byron Rookstool, and together they made a hurried trip to the scene.

“The rescue effort was underway, and the devastation was amazing,” Erickson said. “We were so lucky that people were working and the kids weren’t quite home yet.”

He flew in a National Guard helicopter to see the path of destruction. 

“We’re fortunate that the Frontier Mall wasn’t built yet on Dell Range. It would have had a tremendous amount of damage,” he said.

Erickson said Gov. Ed Herschler immediately declared Cheyenne a disaster area.

Erickson said the entire city rallied to help take care of anyone impacted by the disaster. Scores of people opened up their homes to those who had lost theirs. 

Esther Howard formed the Interfaith Task Force, which brought local organizations together to coordinate how they could help anyone who needed it.

Erickson resurrected the group when had his next big crisis, which also involved disastrous weather that Cheyenne had never seen before: the Aug. 1, 1985, flood, which killed a dozen people and caused more than $51 million in damage. 

He said he took what he learned from the tornado tragedy, and that it helped prepare him for the even bigger disaster.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Lucky For Him"}]

Tom Reed was a high school junior spending the summer of 1979 working for a construction company that was putting the finishing touches on a new house in his Buffalo Ridge neighborhood. 

On the afternoon of July 16, he was the last person at the site, cleaning it up so the house would be ready for the family that would move in soon.

He went across town to do the same thing at a house on the south side. That’s when he looked north and spotted the tornado.

“We were up pretty high so we could see it across town,” Reed said. “At first I thought it was a fire, but then I saw it move and realized what it was.”

He made another stop at the construction company, where someone told him that a twister had been heading right through his neighborhood. He raced home, but had to walk part of the way because of all the debris covering Roundtop Drive.

He said he spotted his mother, Becky Reed, outside their now heavily damaged ranch-style home doing what everyone else in the neighborhood was doing: trying to assess the damage and figure out what in the world to do next. 

Some people were looking for their pets, but his family dog was inside, unharmed.

Reed said that unlike some of their neighbors whose two-story and multi-level homes were severely damaged, with roofs blown completely off, the Reeds’ single-level house was still standing.

“The roof was kind of peeled back from where it met the west wall,” he said. “If you looked up in the family room you could look straight up to the sky.”

Reed said a lot of windows were broken, and the strong winds blew open the refrigerator door and the contents were tossed all over the house. The hallway walls were covered with ketchup and mustard.

But unlike about 1,000 other Cheyenne residents, the Reeds weren’t homeless that night. 

In fact, they never left. He said he and his father, Tom Reed Sr., who also worked for the same construction company, fixed everything themselves over time.

Reed, who has spent the last 30 years working for ESPN and living in Connecticut, talked to Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday from Dallas, where he’s on vacation. He’s headed to Cheyenne for Frontier Days.

Once he found that his mother was shaken but not hurt, Reed walked to the construction site he had left only an hour before. 

“The house was just gone,” he said. “There was nothing left but the foundation, and the furnace and a few other mechanicals in the basement. Not a stick of the house was left.”

Reed said it took him a while to process the scene. Talking about it 47 years later leaves him amazed and grateful that he got out of the area in time. 

“If I’d stayed a little longer, I would have been hiding in that basement,” he said.

Reed’s mother had been home alone working on her sewing machine when she heard the wind and realized some of the windows were open. When she looked out, she was staring at the tornado headed straight for her.

Becky Reed and the dog made it to the basement, where they went to her son’s room and pulled the mattress over them. She heard the sounds of destruction all around her as the twister plowed into homes.

“When she thought it was over, she went upstairs and out to the porch, only to see  the tornado roaring past her,” Reed said. “She told us later she thought, ‘I might have jumped the gun a little bit.’”

Reed said he’s still bewildered by what transpired that day, seeing some houses look untouched while their next-door neighbors’ homes were reduced to piles of rubble. 

Then he remembered something he said he hadn’t thought about for a long time.

“We had a coffee maker on the kitchen counter, with a pitcher and a panhandle with a metal ring around it,” Reed said. “The coffee maker was gone, but we found the handle out in the front yard. Sitting right next to it was a little dish that had $50 under it. That was just bizarre.”

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

Tornado 7 16 23 v8

<title>Most Destructive Tornado In Wyoming’s History Leveled Cheyenne 47 Years Ago | Cowboy State Daily</title>

It was 47 years ago on July 16, 1979, when a massive tornado ripped through Cheyenne, leveling hundreds of homes and killing a 14-month old. Decades later, it’s still the most destructive tornado in Wyoming history.

Most Destructive Tornado In Wyoming’s History Leveled Cheyenne 47 Years Ago

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

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Wildlife

Yellowstone National Park will spare the life of the bison that 

 hurt Washington state resident Carl Isom-McDaniel, 65, at the Bridge Bay Campground on Friday.

 that “no management action” will be taken against the bull bison that tossed McDaniel 8 feet into the air during an aggressive 

That means the bison won’t be relocated or euthanized. It will live the rest of its natural life safely inside Yellowstone.

Yellowstone officials didn’t respond to multiple Cowboy State Daily requests to confirm TMZ’s report.

Yellowstone officials rarely take management action against wildlife that injures visitors unless the offending animal shows signs of habituated behavior. The actions of wildlife are often seen as natural responses rather than deliberate acts of aggression.

Even grizzlies that attack and seriously injure park guests usually get off the hook, so long as the attack was determined to be a natural behavior, like defending cubs or a food source.

Identifying just which bison tossed the Washington man also could be extremely difficult after the fact.

Both McDaniel and the bison have been under scrutiny for their actions during the encounter. While Yellowstone is giving the bison a pass, many people are acknowledging that McDaniel wasn’t at fault, either.

McDaniel supports the decision to not euthanize the bison, expressing his desire that the bison not be penalized or euthanized for injuring him.

“(The bison) was right on top of me,” 

. “He could have stomped on me. He could have gored me. He could have done almost anything to take my life, but he did not do so.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Reading The Bison Book"}]

Ecologist and bison expert George Wuerthner reviewed the video of McDaniel’s encounter with the bison. Based on the bison’s behavior during and leading up to the toss, he commended McDaniel for how he handled the encounter.

“He couldn’t have done much to prevent that charge,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “I don’t know if I would have done any better.”

Bison, like many animals, have recognizable behavioral patterns that indicate their moods. Experienced biologists and photographers can, essentially, read a bison’s mind by analyzing its body language and movements.

[{"type":"text","text":"In this instance, the bull bison’s behavior was easy to read. "}]

It was highly agitated and looking for a fight before McDaniel and his 13-year-old grandson were even in its line of sight.

“If you notice, the bull had its tail up in the air,” Wuerthner said. “That indicates that it was very agitated. It’s a behavior that bison do with other bison, and the other bison know what it means.”

What agitated the bison? People have speculated about everything from the movements of a white pickup driving by to being teased by other tourists before charging and tossing McDaniel.

Wuerthner has a simpler, more natural explanation. Heat, environmentally and biologically.

“The rut is on,” he said. “When bull bison are going through the rut, their hormones are going, and they’re much more agitated in general.”

According to the National Park Service, Yellowstone’s bison reach the peak of the rut in July and August. During that time, males display their dominance by bellowing, wallowing, and picking fights with other bulls that occasionally turn lethal.

This aggression is driven by hormones and instinct. The dominant males get to mate with the most females.

the photographer who filmed McDaniel’s encounter 

with the bison, also understands bison behavior. He said the incident he observed was “weird.”

“If you've been around bison for a while, you know what to expect from these guys at this time of year,” he said. “This changed my idea of what to expect, because I would not have predicted that happening.”

In this heightened state, it doesn’t take much to provoke the wrath of a bull bison. Sometimes, it takes nothing at all.

However, MacLeod knew McDaniel wouldn't want the bison to suffer for its actions. 

"He didn’t want the bison killed,” he said. “Sometimes, they put animals down for these things, for animals being themselves, and Carl didn’t want that.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What To Do Differently?"}]

After viewing the video captured by MacLeod, Wuerthner doesn’t fault McDaniel for anything he did to avoid serious injury, even if it ended with him being seriously injured.

“He was right trying to get into that little grove of trees,” he said. “He probably wasn't thinking this way at the time, but I would have tried to climb one of those trees to prevent the bison from getting to him.”

A possible alternative might have been getting into one of the nearby vehicles in the Bridge Bay Campground. However, people don’t instinctively jump into a stranger’s vehicle, even when making life-or-death, on-the-spot decisions.

Many people have said that McDaniel was too close to the bison, and that prompted the attack.

 MacLeod has repeatedly denied this, saying McDaniel and his grandson were far beyond the 25-yard minimum Yellowstone asks people to keep between themselves and bison, elk, and other large herbivores.

Wuerthner agreed, while adding that the distance wouldn’t have made much difference.

“Bison are incredibly fast,” he said, adding that, “25 yards is a safe distance, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely safe. Even bears are happy to come up to people and quickly cross  100 yards if there’s some reason they might want to.”

However, there’s another factor to consider. McDaniel was simultaneously trying to avoid the bison while deliberately keeping its attention.

According to MacLeod, McDaniel’s priority was protecting his grandson. 

To do this, he told his grandson to run while he kept the bison’s attention by running into and around the trees.

“He led the bison on that wild goose chase to keep him away from his grandson,” he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"To that end, he was successful. McDaniel’s grandson was unharmed."}]

Given these circumstances, it’s hard to fault McDaniel for anything he did or didn’t do, Wuerthner said. He made several split-second decisions that were the best decisions given the circumstances.

“I don't know how much people will do and are willing to do, especially if they’re unaware of how dangerous the bison can be under certain circumstances,” he said. “There isn’t much more he could have done.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Safety Never Guaranteed"}]

After the incident, McDaniel was hospitalized in critical condition with his right femur broken in four places. He’s undergone surgery and is 

Wuerthner knows how bison can break their own patterns of behavior and do unpredictable things, especially during the rut. He speaks from experience.

“One summer, I hiked up a small ridge in the open grasslands of Lamar Valley,” he said. “Suddenly, this bison herd started coming right towards me and split up. I literally could have reached out on either side and touched bison. They were less than 4 feet away, on their side.”

Wuerthner wasn’t hurt, but admittedly was “scared of an attack” as the bison passed by. Even so, he had been more than 25 yards away from the nearest bison when the whole herd decided to move in his direction.

Most human-bison incidents happen when someone gets too close to a bison, deliberately or accidentally.

In this instance, Wuerthner has joined many others in exonerating McDaniel. Still, he feels there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from the experience.

“People tend to look at the wildlife in Yellowstone like they would if they were at a zoo,” he said. “Those animals are accustomed to people, but that doesn't negate their natural, wild tendencies. And, in their wild conditions, Yellowstone’s wildlife will react differently than an animal in the zoo.”

He also had a tidbit of wisdom based on the human behavior he’s observed in Yellowstone: there’s no protection across the road.

“People think it’s safe on the side of the road because the wildlife knows they’re not supposed to be there,” he said. “I see it all the time. Roads are for human occupation, and off-road is for wildlife.”

Twenty-five yards is the “safe” distance Yellowstone tourists are asked to keep between themselves and bison. Most of the time, it’s a completely safe distance, but McDaniel’s bison encounter shows that safety should never be taken for granted.

“More people get hurt by bison than by any other animal in Yellowstone,” Wuerthner said. “That’s partly because people underestimate how bison will react when they approach and how quickly they can respond. People need to know that they’re dangerous.”

Bison throw composite 7 15 26

<title>Yellowstone Won’t Kill Angry Bison That Tossed, Seriously Hurt Man At Campground | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Yellowstone National Park will spare the life of the bison that seriously hurt a 65-year-old grandpa from Washington. Park officials said “no management action” will be taken against the bison which means it won’t be relocated or euthanized.

Yellowstone Won’t Kill Angry Bison That Tossed, Seriously Hurt Man At Campground

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

Clair McFarland

Government & Politics

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.\" "}]

Special church events are suspended for now, but church is scheduled for each Sunday as usual, Lucas said, adding that some kids still want to come to youth group, and some parents have been asking when the church will start youth group again.

The church runs a philanthropic food pantry, which closed early last week.  

[{"type":"text","text":"‘Why Are They Trying To Save Us?’"}]

Chris Friday, a tribal member who has helped to coordinate multiple protests, told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that the question of whether the Lucases and church must leave the reservation “Now (is) probably going to involve the courts.”

Friday helped organize another protest outside the church during its Sunday service, which occurred on schedule. He said church attendees were seen “carrying around guns.”

Lucas confirmed this in her own interview, as she referenced the death threats.

“There’s people protesting there all the time,” said Friday, regarding the church. “Just, what they said, man. It hurts us as Arapaho people. Makes us seem like we’re lower than them, that their way is better than ours.”

Friday defended the Arapaho prayer traditions, saying they go back generations, and non-tribal members have often tried to observe them without permission.

“Why are they interested in us so much? Why are they trying to save us? I don’t know. We don’t need any saving or anything; we didn’t ask for them,” said Friday. “They should just take the hint and leave – respectfully of course. Go back to where you were.”

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which Arapaho and other tribal leaders signed along with the U.S. government, says any “bad men among the whites” or other people who “commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians” shall be, “upon proof” handed to the federal government for arrest and punishment according to the nation’s laws. The offender shall “also reimburse the injured persons for the loss sustained,” the treaty says.

Friday referenced the clause as a potential avenue for barring the Lucases from the reservation.

[{"type":"text","text":"It’s uncertain whether the tribe would win such a case."}]

Some tribes invoked it against the federal government in litigation regarding pharmaceutical companies’ marketing and sale of opioid drugs to tribal members. That claim failed because the tribes “(failed) to allege a ‘wrong’ cognizable under the treaty,” says a Dec. 9, 2020, 

 of Federal Claims, and the opioid company hadn’t come onto the reservation to commit some wrong.

Friday noted in his interview that tribal land surrounds the Foundations for Nations private land parcel. He wondered aloud if the tribe could block the Lucases’ access, but said “I don’t know how that would really work. It would probably have to go through the court.”

[{"type":"text","text":"More From That Church Service"}]

Lucas’ full sermon was unavailable at least as of Monday. The one-minute, 38-second clip that went viral last week depicts Lucas paraphrasing from the Bible: “tear down the altars, tear down the idols.”

She spoke of “this nation” gathering in recent days, praying. The tribal members had just conducted their sun dance ceremony.

“They prayed to pipes and they prayed to the ancestors, believing this is the way for their freedom. To get free from addiction, for people to be healed … this is what this culture did this week,” said Lucas.

[{"type":"text","text":"She urged the congregation to pray."}]

“Because we know that Jesus is enough. He’s enough. It’s not Jesus-plus. It’s Jesus everything. He’s everything,” said Lucas.

She referenced people she described as tribal members who have become Christians.

“And they understand the price … when they say that publicly. The persecution that can come with them publicly,” Lucas said. “But they know that this is it. Jesus is the chain breaker. He’s the only one that we should be praying to. A pipe cannot hear your prayers.”

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: Friday, September 15, 2023

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