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[{"type":"text","text":"Mark of a true champion..."}]

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

<title>Bonus Sports Coverage: Sunday, September 24, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Mark of a true champion...

Bonus Sports Coverage: Sunday, September 24, 2023

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Around Wyoming

When Wyoming State Archives materials archivist Suzi Taylor first saw an auction listing for what was billed as the original glass plate negative for Butch Cassidy’s Territorial Prison mugshot in a forwarded email from Cowboy State Daily, she stopped everything she was doing and hustled upstairs to double-check the state's collection.

“I was fairly certain we still had it in our collection,” Taylor told Cowboy State Daily. “But I ran upstairs just to be sure. Sure enough, it was in the box, just where it’s supposed to be.”

That had her breathing a sigh of relief as she carefully put this treasured state item back into its acid-free sleeve and closed it back up in a reinforced box. 

The mix-up highlights how questions of provenance can affect high-value Wild West auctions, but it also shows how Wyoming curators quietly document and safeguard key pieces of the state’s Western history behind the scenes. 

offered by RR Auction failed to meet its reserve price and was ultimately not sold during a recent sale, the company told Cowboy State Daily. 

Questions raised about the negative’s provenance — including the fact that Wyoming still holds the original glass plate — are being reviewed before the company decides whether and how to offer the item again.

Taylor, for her part, said the fact the auction house’s glass plate negative isn’t the original doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a fake. 

She said contemporary copies were made from Cassidy’s print mugshot for wider distribution to law enforcement.

That means while not original, it’s still period to the time. 

Since negatives of the time were made of breakable glass, authorities likely didn’t want to handle the original too often. Re-photographing a print was a much safer way to make additional copies for other law enforcement agencies.

Cassidy’s mugshot is one of the most iconic of the few images ever taken of America’s last cowboy outlaw, made famous in the Robert Redford movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

Taken during Cassidy’s only significant prison stint, the photo freeze-frames were taken of the young man before the notorious Wild Bunch appeared.

Cassidy never owned up to leading the Wild Bunch, though law enforcement officials of the day said he was — loudly and often.

Historians, meanwhile, have various opinions on that. 

Some suggest there’s good evidence Cassidy would have scoffed at the idea anyone could lead such a loose confederation of misfits and malcontents as the Wild Bunch, while also pointing out he couldn’t possibly have been in as many places as law enforcement was claiming. 

Others have suggested the Wild Bunch was probably Cassidy's way of getting even with Wyoming for the trumped-up horse thief charges that the cowboy outlaw always maintained were fabricated by his enemies.

Cassidy’s younger sister, Lula Betenson, meanwhile, once claimed her brother told her during a secret family reunion that if Wyoming wanted to treat him as an outlaw, then he’d show them what an outlaw really was.

The truth of that will never be known for certain. Instead, there’s this compelling photo that captures the mystery of it all in a glance. 

In it, Cassidy looks less like an outlaw posing for a mugshot and more like a patron posing for a casual portrait on a relaxing Saturday or Sunday afternoon. He wears a dark, structured suit coat and a white shirt buttoned up to his neck.

It’s his enigmatic expression that captures and holds attention, though. He offers the viewer neither smile nor frown, but his eyes seem to know something his lips aren’t about to ever tell.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Rarely Sees Light Of Day"}]

The original glass plate negative used to create Cassidy’s Territorial Prison mugshot is on a short list of treasured artifacts whose condition is frequently monitored at the Wyoming State Archives.

“I had laid my eyes on that one not too long ago, but I had to make sure it was exactly where I’d left it,” Taylor said. “I check it fairly regularly, just to make sure it’s where it’s supposed to be and hasn’t deteriorated.”

Glass is among the most non-reactive substances on the planet. But the chemicals used to create the image itself, which are laid down in a thin emulsion directly on the glass, are much more fragile.

“The image itself and the emulsion can, if the chemicals weren’t properly fixed, start to fade in odd ways,” she said. “So, we want to be able to catch that. And sometimes the emulsion gets really dry and starts flaking off the glass itself, because the image sits right on top of the glass. 

"Over time, it can delaminate and separate, so we want to make sure we are extra careful and catch that before it becomes a problem.”

Taylor frequently spot-checks other mugshots in the Territorial and Wyoming State Penitentiary collections, which include thousands of negatives of outlaws. 

Among the collection are mugshot negatives for other Cassidy contemporaries like Albert “Slick” Nard and Joseph Nutcher. 

All of the glass plate negatives are kept in acid-free sleeves inside a rigid box with additional support. That ensures the glass plate won’t accidentally break. 

Cassidy’s negative, in particular, is rarely handled. 

“We have a digital surrogate that we use instead of taking the negative out,” she said. “The less it’s handled, the less likely it is to break.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Helps Tell Territorial Prison’s Story"}]

Another place where Cassidy’s mugshot appears is the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site, where Superintendent Jessica Lira has made it a prominent part of the museum’s exhibits.

“We have a big portrait of his mugshot, his intake photo, right when you walk into the building,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “The exhibit talks about his life and how, even though he only spent 18 months and was let out early for good behavior, it was after that he starts blowing up trains and blowing up safes around Wyoming and Colorado.”

Cassidy, Lira said, is the most famous outlaw the territorial prison ever held, and his face is an instant hook into the larger story of crime and punishment on the frontier.

Lira uses high-quality prints and digital reproductions for her exhibits, keeping the originals at the Wyoming State Archives to protect them. That’s how the state balances public access with preservation.

Lira uses the mugshots to tell stories about real people, as well as to illustrate changing ideas about law enforcement in the West.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"How Experts Know"}]

There are several telling details that immediately distinguish Cassidy’s original Territorial Prison mugshot negative from the mugshot negative offered in RR Auction’s Western Americana sale of the Jochen Zeitz collection. 

“The (prison) photograph of Cassidy was taken in May 1895 by Laramie photographer Louis Heyn,” historian and Cassidy expert Mike Bell has told Cowboy State Daily. “The original shows a wider view of Cassidy, including part of his leg in striped pants. 

"The picture was then cropped to show the head and torso version, which is well-known and widely circulated.”

Bell, too, believes it is possible the auction house’s glass plate negative is a contemporary copy of the original photograph. Lots of police departments did have copies of Cassidy’s mugshot at the time.

“For example, Sheriff Louis Grant Davis of Sweetwater County got a copy,” Bell said. “He showed it to E.L. Carpenter, the manager of the Pleasant Valley Coal Company, which was held up by two men in 1897.”

Carpenter told Davis at the time that he recognized the photo of Cassidy as being one of the two men who had held him up.

Butch Cassidy negative main illustration 6 7 26

<title>Wyoming Archives Has Butch Cassidy Negative, Despite ‘Original’ Offered At Auction | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Despite an East Coast auction house advertising a glass plate negative of Butch Cassidy’s mugshot as a one-of-a-kind, the original is housed in the Wyoming State Archives. “I was certain we had it in our collection,” archivist Suzy Taylor said.

Wyoming Archives Has Butch Cassidy Negative, Despite ‘Original’ Offered At Auction

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.

In Guyana, Wanda lived in a separate residence from her husband and was listed as being in charge of the livestock, the “piggery,” and large animals.

Although Wanda Werner was patriotic enough to join the Marines during the Vietnam War, undated letters from her to Jim Jones reflect she believed Jones' Marxist anti-American messages and preaching that came out of his pulpit in the years leading up to the Jonestown event.

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

A massive FBI file created after the Nov. 18, 1978, mass murder and suicide includes a Nov. 21, 1978, message from the Omaha, Nebraska, office to the San Francisco office that contained an interview with a woman who joined the People’s Temple with her then-husband in Los Angeles. 

They were told to move to Ukiah, California.

“(The woman) advised although the group on the surface appeared to be a religious group, it was actually politically oriented and Jim Jones professed a political philosophy adhering to the teachings of Marx and Lenin,” the FBI memo states. 

“All members of the group had to attend closed instructional meetings two or three days a week, each last several hours,” it continues.

Swinney’s letters to Jones were written while she was in Guyana. She wrote her “Father” that among the reasons she left the United States “were because it is a capitalistic nation and we are Socialists and trying to learn more of Socialism.”

Swinney wrote that the U.S. economy was not going to “exist much longer,” according to an economist, and that the nation was quickly approaching a day of “race war.” 

She foresaw a time when the “fascist government” would round up people and put them in ghettos and concentration camps that were already prepared.

“It is a known fact that train box cars are strategically located, just waiting for the signal for when people will be herded like animals into these camps,” Swinney wrote. “Nuclear war is a constant threat also and here in Socialist Guyana we are safe from the radiation fallout if war does break out.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Precious Father'"}]

Tina Parrish said because of her aunt’s involvement in Guyana, while in college she did a research paper on Jonestown and the People’s Temple. But she was unaware then of her aunt’s letters to Jones.

When told about the content, Tina Parrish said one thing was clear.

“I don’t think she would have gotten that from Wyoming or from her dad,” she said.

Darlene Parrish remembers the day her grandfather called her mother with the news of Wanda Swinney’s death.

“I felt bad for her. I didn’t know exactly what was going on. She got off the phone and she was just sobbing,” she said. “Mom said later on that he (Chelsea Werner Sr.) decided because it was such a mess out there that instead of bringing her home, he would just have her buried with the people there.”

Records from the San Diego State University website show that the remains of Wanda and Darren Swinney were eventually brought back to Oakland, California, and buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

“Next of kin could not be located,” the file states. “Buried by receiver on June 19, 1979.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wanda’s Son"}]

A remembrance by Don Beck, a People’s Temple member who directed the children’s choir while Jones remained in Redwood Valley, California, characterized Darren Swinney as a boy who in second grade struggled until Beck directed the youngster to report to him each day on his way home regarding his performance.

“Darren was like many of our kids. They needed more of our attention, consistently,” he wrote. “Unfortunately, we were often too busy to give the extra attention our kids needed.

"This was one reason we wanted to build a community.”

While both Parrish sisters never knew their aunt or their young cousin who was a year older than Darlene, they still feel the ties and loss that a blood relation brings.

Darlene Parrish said people who make flippant remarks about happened in Guyana are not thinking about those who were left behind.

“Our family, it hit us pretty hard,” she said. "And none of us like the jokes that people make about 'drinking the Kool-Aid.' It’s ridiculous.

"think about (the fact) that there are family and friends who are still alive that knew those people and were affected by it a lot.”

Wanda and son Jonestown site in 2022 AFP via Getty 6 7 26

<title>Casper Woman, Son Among 909 Who Drank Poison At Jim Jones’ Guyana Compound In 1978 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

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.

Casper Woman, Son Among 909 Who Drank Poison At Jim Jones’ Guyana Compound In 1978

Entertainment

Rodeo champion Rusty Wright’s big comeback didn’t start with a wild bronc or record-setting ride. It began between rides, in the dust and noise of Cheyenne Frontier Days when a stranger asked him to do a quick interview for a documentary about barrel racing legend Angela Ganter. 

They wanted him to talk about something he feels strongly about — the importance of women in the rodeo world.

“I’ve got a pretty strong opinion about it, so I figured I’d go ahead and do it,” said the saddle bronc champ. “I didn’t expect it to be as big of a deal as it turned out being. I was passionate about it, and they loved that, so I think the interview went a little longer than it was supposed to.”

His off-the-cuff, passionate interview would become what Wyoming filmmaker Raen LeVell describes as the “beating heart” of his 

 a film he believes is well on its way to becoming a grassroots rodeo blockbuster.

It’s enjoyed a multi-week run as the No. 1-ranked Western documentary on IMDb and earned major praise from national outlets like Sports Illustrated. 

It’s also gained elite backing from professional rodeo leaders, who have given it prime screenings at some of the sport’s biggest venues, including the National Finals Rodeo.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Women Behind Rodeo’s Biggest Champions"}]

Ask Wright who the real heroes of rodeo are, and he’ll point first to the women — those who compete in the arena and the ones who never step inside of it.

In his Cheyenne interview, he poured his heart out about his own mother, ShaRee Wright, and all of the other rodeo moms and wives who help keep riders like himself going. 

“They asked me what my mom meant to me, and the things she’s done for me in my career,” he said. “Everybody hears how our dad helped us along. He gets lots of recognition, which he should. 

“But I don’t feel like my mom or the wives behind the scenes ever really get the recognition they deserve. Honestly, I think it should be just as much as what my dad would get.”

If there were gold buckles for “backbone of the family,” Rusty said he's convinced his mom would have several of those.

The deep respect for women behind the chutes is exactly the kind of authenticity LeVell was hoping to capture in his film, from Ganter’s story to the moms and wives behind the scenes.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"Ganter’s ‘Red Devil’ Comeback"}]

“Outriding the Devil” focuses on the little-told comeback story of Ganter, a barrel racer whose stunning career slammed into a stage-four breast cancer diagnosis so advanced doctors told her she was unlikely to live.

But Ganter had always been a fighter and refused to give up. 

The chemotherapy that ultimately saved her has a telling nickname, though. It’s called the “red devil,” and it wreaks havoc on the human body in its quest to ultimately save it.

There were days Ganter couldn’t walk from her bedroom to the living room. After chemo like that, almost no one believed Ganter would even be able to ride a horse again, much less fight her way back to compete at an elite level. 

“That red devil chemo had road-graded her nervous system,” LeVell said. “She had lost her balance. She didn’t really know left from right. So the idea that she would get on a horse and be able to just kind of like work on a horse was a little fanciful, and the thought that she would come back to rodeo was kind of like Disney-line stuff.”

And yet, Ganter not only survived, but she returned to rodeo at the highest levels, finding a special horse named Bugs and clawing her way back to champion-caliber barrel racing. 

Lighting A Fire Under Rusty Wright’s Comeback

For Wright, who hadn’t known the full depth of Ganter's ordeal until that Cheyenne interview, her resilience ended up lighting a fire right when he needed it most.

“When I did that interview, honestly, I was kind of right in the middle of my own personal issues and stuff,” he said. “I went from, you know, top of the world — I was reserve world champion in 2018 — and then I had a bunch of personal struggles. I wasn’t even making finals one year. I wasn’t even top 50.”

Learning what Ganter had overcome helped him push the reset button.

“You start playing the ‘poor me’ game, and if you open your eyes and look around, everyone’s got something,” he said. “You sitting there crying about your problems, that isn’t going to help you get out of them. 

"A lot of people have it a lot worse off than I do, and they made it. They conquered it. So that kind of lit that fire under me to get my stuff together, and you know, set my goals, realign my priorities, and away we went.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"From NFR To Wyoming"}]

After its premiere at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas — the Super Bowl of Western sports — “Outriding the Devil” has hit the rodeo trail. That’s included premiering at major Texas events like RodeoHouston and the San Angelo Stock Show & Rodeo.

Now after making waves on a national stage, the film is circling back to where Rusty’s turning point began — Wyoming. The film will have an especially long runway in the Cowboy State with several free premieres ahead.

It will open the College National Finals Rodeo in Casper on June 13, making it one of the rare films to both premiere as an official event of the NFR and later open the college finals as well. 

From there, it heads to Sheridan for the WYO Rodeo kickoff on July 5 and then to Cheyenne Frontier Days, where it will premiere July 16. 

All of these shows will be free to the public thanks to Visit Casper, the Wyoming Foundation for Cancer Care, the WYO Rodeo, and the Gold Buckle Club. 

These Wyoming events will also be the last chances to see “Outriding the Devil” on the big screen, and they’ll include opportunities to quiz the director and rodeo figures after the show.

Streaming deals are being negotiated for a wider, national release, but premiere-style events will end once those begin.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"}],"text":"True Meaning Of Grit"}]

The Wright family is considered rodeo royalty by many, and has been an integral part of “Outriding the Devil,” LeVell said. 

During the Las Vegas premiere, the Wrights were there in force alongside country music stars and “Yellowstone" actors, including Mo Brings Plenty. 

One of those stars was Ned LeDoux, who plays a young Ganter’s uncle in the movie opposite Lily Wright, who is Stetson Wright’s sister.

In the film, Rusty’s brother, Stetson Wright, takes viewers inside the chute as he walks through his mental processes before a ride. 

Rusty, meanwhile, talks about the importance of family sticking together and why he sees rodeo as “one big family.”

Rodeo is one of America’s most dangerous and physically demanding sports. It takes a certain mindset to keep going, one that’s hard to sustain without family and friends backing it up.

“Everybody always sees our highlights and our wins on social media,” he said. “Everyone talks about our wins and yeah, that’s inspiring and everything. But to me the real inspiration, what gets me fired up, is seeing people’s struggles and what they had to go through to get there.”

Rusty said it took 50-some horses before he could stay on a bronc at all, and probably 300 horses before it finally started to click.

“I remember that moment when it finally clicked for me and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s how it’s supposed to feel,’” he said. “If people could watch how many dirt naps and how many wrecks I got in getting to where I’m at, I guarantee you, most people would be like, ‘I can’t believe he’s still riding.’”

By showing those struggles, Rusty hopes his own kids will realize that whatever they want to do in life, they can do it.

“It doesn’t matter what you’ve been through, or what you go through,” he said. “If you work at it, buckle down, if you stay hooked, you can get your way to the top.”

That’s the larger message he sees in Ganter’s story, too, and it’s one he absorbed thanks to a random interview request at Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming.

“I don’t really believe in coincidences,” he said. “I believe in faith. I was just walking by, and they’re like, ‘Hey, you want to come do this interview?’ God knew I needed that. He knew I needed to hear something, to give me that little push I needed.”

Now that push is on a much bigger stage, playing out in rodeo arenas and theaters across Wyoming and the West — an audience full of cowboys and cowgirls who know exactly what it means to get bucked off hard, dust off, and stand back up again in the arena. 

“Outriding the Devil," the Wyoming-made film that shows the brutal side of "real" rodeo, has enjoyed a multi-week run as the No. 1-ranked Western documentary on IMDb and has earned major praise from national outlets like Sports Illustrated. 

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