One More For The Road

Sometimes it's just easier to ignore the suggested rules of a roundabout...

One more for 10 23 23

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<title>One More For The Road: Monday, October 23, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

One More For The Road: Monday, October 23, 2023

 Sometimes it's just easier to ignore the suggested rules of a roundabout...

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

Renée Jean

Wyoming Life

Food

Four decades ago, Chugwater was just one more dot on the map about to be swallowed by the modern economics of ranches consolidating and farms disappearing from “the flats.” 

It didn’t help when Interstate 25 came along in 1959 and whisked travelers past Main Street. By 1970, the population had dwindled to 188 residents.

The town didn’t take the trend lying down. They banded together to fight back and some of them did something a little audacious. 

Five ranching families decided to bottle up their town’s identity — grit, wind and all — and plaster it on a jar of Chugwater Chili spices.

“We were just trying to think of any kind of a business just to keep Chugwater alive,” Terry Baker recalled. “We were all farmers and ranchers who had been trying to think of ways we could help our Chugwater community survive. We just wanted to do our part, basically.”

The business those families started turns 40 this year. From its humble beginnings in a tiny, single-wide trailer, it’s now a large warehouse with a separate office/retail store that ships out hundreds of thousands of Chugwater Chili spice mixes and other products to 600 grocery stores across America.

Baker, a member of one of the five original ranching families, recalls a big brainstorming session that broke into groups at the school gymnasium to wrestle with ideas to help the town avoid vanishing.

Some of the ideas included a historical group, an economic development group and a beautification committee.

“So, like out of that, there’s little 'Welcome to Chugwater' signs that have planters around them now,” Baker said with a chuckle. “And the History Club is the best group and going still. It’s called Chugwater Historical Unity Group, or CHUG.”

Baker’s idea was for a mill that would turn the area’s hard red winter wheat into flour. But she and the other five ranchers were swayed by a completely different pitch, one that came not from Chugwater but from Cheyenne. An agricultural agent told them about a man named Dave Cameron who was a chili wizard, winning award after award at cook-offs.

For reasons known only to Cameron, he had branded his prizewinning recipe “Chugwater Chili” even though he lived in Cheyenne and had no formal tie to Chugwater. 

“I don’t remember all the ideas we took down,” Baker said. “But that particular one was not our idea at all.”

It was a compelling idea, though, and the ranchers embraced it — not least because Cameron had named his chili “Chugwater Chili.”

Baker doesn’t remember whether Cameron ever made them a pot of his award-winning chili to sell them on the idea of buying his recipe, but she does remember the very first championship cook-off. 

“We had thousands of people come out there to the Diamond Guest Ranch,” she said. “It was amazing.”

The festival was all part of an overall strategy to promote Chugwater’s newest business, and build a brand that would one day have national recognition.

Forty years later, the competition continues to be a magnet for the chili world. Many of the best chili cooks in the world call it a “bucket list” competition and make pilgrimages from as far away as Texas and Florida, just so they can say they have been there. 

After the Diamond Guest Ranch kids were grown, the event continued to grow but was moved into town, where it was placed at Staats City Park. 

Proceeds from the town’s signature event are donated each year to nonprofit organizations in town, from its volunteer fire department and community center to its FFA and FBLA youths. This year’s competition raised $17,000. 

The business, meanwhile, managed to ink several deals with restaurants that would exclusively serve Chugwater Chili.

“We made them sign an agreement that they wouldn’t add anything except our spices,” Baker said. “Because people so wanted to add I don’t know chili beans instead of pinto beans, which changes the flavor. You need to do just exactly what it says on the side of the container.”

That was another key piece in the strategy to build a business brand with longevity.

The company, formed by Jim and Marcelyn Brown, Lewis and Viola Voight, Dennis and Terry Baker, Jan and Carl Wilkerson, and Jim and Marc Kaufmann, was about as homegrown as it gets.

“They started packaging in bunkhouses on a ranch and also in basements,” Chugwater Chili’s present owner Karen Guidice told Cowboy State Daily. 

Eventually, they could afford a used mobile home for an office on Main Street.

The ranching families took turns staffing their new office and pitching in to help package bags and jars of chili spice for sale. Eventually, roughly 20 years ago, the business outgrew its single-wide and a modular home was purchased.

Guidice purchased the company 12 years ago after falling in love with the product.

She had been going to trade shows for the business to help promote the product. The word she heard most often was “Wow,” followed by “This is the best chili I’ve ever tasted.”

The product practically sold itself with a single sample. 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Smell Of Christmas"}]

When she learned the owners were thinking about selling the company, she decided she wanted to be its new steward. That would be the best way to ensure the town’s namesake would go on helping Chugwater.

Under Guidice’s leadership, the company has grown an average of 25% each year, she told Cowboy State Daily, and it continues to add employees to handle the increased volume. 

In 2026, Guidice built a new warehouse and dedicated manufacturing area beside the original building, creating a footprint about six times the original mobile-home office.

Each jar of spice is still packed in Chugwater and the business now has at least four full-time positions and several part-time as well as seasonal Christmas positions.

The smell of Christmas for Guidice and her employees is chili, because that’s their busiest time. Orders pour in from all over the country for gifts of Chugwater Chili and other products, like its salsa or its dip and dressing mix. 

The store, meanwhile, has a fresh pot of chili going every day. That way any customers can taste-test on the spot.

Chugwater Chili has had many national shoutouts. Perhaps the best-known of these is in New York times bestselling author Craig Johnson’s first “Longmire” novel, “Cold Dish,” where it’s spotlighted as a favorite of a certain sheriff named Walt Longmire. Johnson has told Chugwater Chili that Walt would “definitely” be a Chugwater Chili fan in one of the company’s blogs, and that he’d eat it with a “healthy dollop of sour cream, cheese and green onions.”

But that’s not the only time Chugwater Chili has been recognized nationally. The Food Network spotlighted it in a feature showcasing the 50 States of Nachos, where it praised the ground beef nachos served at the Chugwater Soda Fountain, which are infused with the company’s award-winning secret seasoning recipe.

The Scovie Awards has also recognized the brand numerous times, most recently giving it second place in the stews/chili con carne category and third place for all-purpose dry rub/seasoning.

Several national grocers also carry the brand, including Safeway, Albertsons, King Soopers, and Smith’s Food and Drug.

And then there’s all the status brought by the nationally recognized Chugwater Chili Cookoff qualifier through the Chili Appreciation Society’s International. From there, winners can leapfrog straight into the national championship in Terlingua, Texas.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Recipe For The Future"}]

Chugwater Chili is one of a handful of businesses in Chugwater that have helped keep the town from disappearing.

A small local economy has even been taking shape of late. There’s a food-hospitality cluster that includes the Chugwater Soda Fountain, which is Wyoming’s oldest working soda fountain with old-fashioned malts and ranch burgers, The Stampede Eatery with live music every Friday and Saturday night, and the Buffalo Lodge near the interstate.

There are also core services now, including the state’s first authorized charter school, a Wyoming Department of Transportation facility with a sizable staff, Chugwater Fuels, the Tri-County Mercantile with community essentials, and a fashion store called B & B Vintage that recently opened.

Some businesses, such as Tri-County Mercantile and the restored Soda Fountain, came about from much the same sentiment as Chugwater Chili. They’re owned by people who were newer to town, but loved the community and wanted to give back and see it grow stronger.

Their efforts at revival seem to be working, slowly but surely. The 2020 census estimated a population of 175, but more recent estimates put the number at 228. That compares to a peak of 287 in the 1960 Census.

Looking out at the next 40 years for Chugwater Chili, Guidice is pragmatic — apropos for a business that sells a practical and easy recipe for a quick and tasty meal.

“We’re going to continue growing, and offering a great product to a lot of people in the United States,” she said. “The more we grow, the more we can offer.”

That’s a recipe for the future that is still continuing to serve in a tiny, windswept town along I-25 that refuses to quietly disappear.

Chugwater Chili unnamed 2 8 9 26

<title>Chugwater Chili at 40: How Five Families Came Together And Saved Chugwater | Cowboy State Daily</title>

When agriculture took a nosedive in the 1980s, five ranching families in tiny Chugwater, Wyoming, decided to do something about it. They formed a company called Chugwater Chili, and 40 years later the chili — and the town — are still going strong.

Chugwater Chili at 40: How Five Families Came Together And Saved Chugwater

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

Andrew Rossi

Around Wyoming

A GMC Yukon is smashed against giant boulders in a ravine off U.S. Highway 14-16-20 between Cody and Greybull. It’s been there for two years and could be there for many years longer.

, Suzanne Marie Cole drove the 7,000-pound SUV off the highway in what she claimed was a carjacking. She was arrested on two misdemeanor charges of probation violation, as it was determined she was intoxicated at the time of the accident.

Cole’s case has long since been resolved, but her Yukon is 

. Its windows and windshield are gone, anything of value inside is long gone, and it's riddled with bullet holes.

Pere Davison saw the Yukon while hiking in the Oregon Basin this past week.

“I hike up along that ridge all the time, but I have to go down and look over an edge to see the car,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “It is hard to believe it got down to where it stopped. It had to go over some pretty big boulders.”

The Yukon is likely to become one of dozens, possibly hundreds, of vehicles left abandoned in remote, hard-to-reach areas in Wyoming. It’s just not worth the effort to recover it.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Fruitless Effort"}]

Zac Beardall of Zac's Towing and Recovery in Cody knows exactly where the Yukon is. After Cole’s accident, the Park County Sheriff’s Office contacted him about recovering it.

Beardall isn’t one to be intimidated by a challenging recovery. He knows he could recover the Yukon, but as a business owner practicality takes precedence.

“There's no reason for it other than it's basically a fruitless effort,” he said. “Trying to devote an entire day and an entire fleet of equipment to a non-paying job is not exactly the best business decision.”

In these incidents, the owner is usually responsible for recovery costs. According to Beardall, that wasn’t an option for Cole.

“The owner didn't really make that choice,” he said. “It's more that they had no other option because they didn’t have the money or insurance to cover the operation as it stands. It’s not like breaking down on 1000 Wyoming Street and getting towed for $100.”

Because the State of Wyoming doesn’t cover recovery expenses, Beardall would have to cover it himself. It wasn’t worth it then, and it’s even less so now.

“That Yukon will never be roadworthy again,” he said. “It launched off a cliff and bounced up three boulders. The very second it lost momentum at the bottom of that cliff, it was never going to be roadworthy again.”

Two years later, the Yukon is in ever worse condition. It’s full of holes, created by rust and dozens of bullets, indicating it’s been used for target practice more than once.

When Beardall’s on the hook for a difficult recovery, he can recoup some of the cost by scrapping the vehicle. Even then, recovering the Yukon wouldn’t be worth it.

“The recovery’s not worth the scrap value,” he said. “Even the best scrap value on it wasn't ever going to be worth the recovery effort.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Live And Let Live"}]

Given the Yukon’s location, it’s under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The agency might decide that recovering the vehicle is worth the expense.

But will it? Beardall thinks it’s unlikely, especially because it’s not doing any harm where it is.

“For the BLM, it falls under the same purview as trash and litter,” he said. “It's not hurting anything where it's at. It's not obstructing a roadway or hiking path, and it’s not causing some huge environmental friction. Nobody’s going to pay a huge amount of money to get a vehicle out when it’s not doing anything.”

That’s what Beardall described as something that’s “been the establishment” since the invention of motorized vehicles. Sometimes, they end up where they shouldn’t be and remain there.

“They're big chunks of steel that take a lot of effort to move,” he said. “Sometimes, they’re in an area where it’s not really worth trying to move them, so we leave them.”

That’s nothing new. Beardall knows of “about 50 different vehicles in the area” that ended up in similar predicaments and haven’t moved or been recovered since. Many of those are older than one might expect.

“I can take you out to places where there's Model A’s in canals,” he said. “They’ve been there since they went there, and nobody's moved them in the last 100 years.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Like, Share, Subscribe?"}]

Unless the BLM decides to pay Zac’s Towing and Recovery or some other company to get the Yukon out of the ravine, Beardall expects that it’ll stay where it is. It’s so far away from U.S. Highway 14-16-20 that it can’t even be seen from the road.

There was only one scenario where Beardall might find the Yukon worth the time, effort, and expense. That would require more social media savvy.

“I could be like some of the YouTube guys and publicize the effort to make money off it,” he said. “Maybe one day I'll have a YouTube channel set up, where we're getting paid for views recovering vehicles from canyons and sinkholes, but that’s the only way it would make any sense, financially.”

If that ever happens, Beardall doesn’t anticipate becoming a social media star anytime soon. Business is busy enough without the extra clout.

“At this time of year, especially, we're ‘all hands on deck’ trying to operate and pick up cars, motorists, and anybody else who might be stranded, broken down, or wrecked,” he said. “Taking a full day to recover that Yukon just isn’t worth it.”

SUV off cliff for 2 years 8 6 26

<title>SUV That Went Off Wyoming Cliff 2 Years Ago Still There With No Plans To Recover | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Two years ago, a GMC Yukon flew off a highway in Park County and bounced off giant boulders in Wyoming's Oregon Basin. It's still there and likely there to stay because recovering it would be a fruitless effort, said the owner of a local tow company.

SUV That Went Off Wyoming Cliff 2 Years Ago Still There With No Plans To Recover

Employee kate meadows cropped

Kate Meadows

[{"type":"text","text":"For years, Milanii Engavo Sojos knew how to fight."}]

She fought in school hallways, locker rooms, buses and even the counselor’s office. She fought behind the mall and in alleys. Eventually, she fought in boxing competitions, winning a national title belt and earning an invitation to compete in the Junior Olympics.

Now, at 23, Sojos is on a dramatically different path dedicated to helping people — not hurting them.

The Eastern Shoshone tribal member recently was the first in her class to earn her certified nursing assistant (CNA) certification and continues to work toward a nursing degree. She is preparing to study criminal justice at Gillette College this fall.

[{"type":"text","text":"The path between those two lives has been anything but straight."}]

Sojos dropped out of Fort Washakie High School as a teenager, became a mother at 17, endured an abusive relationship and spent years caught in a cycle of fighting and drinking.

Today, she sees her future in a combination of two fields — caring for people and understanding the justice system.

“Growing up on the reservation, the systems have always been corrupt,” Sojos said. “Why can’t I be the one to change it?”

Ariel Sheinberg, a coordinator with consulting firm Clyde US who learned about Sojos through the online college program she attends, said Sojos is driven by a desire to help others who have faced challenges similar to her own.

That desire, Sojos said, is rooted in where she came from — not simply a desire to leave it behind.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"A Childhood Between Two Worlds"}]

Sojos grew up spending summers with her Grandma Thelma on the Wind River Reservation. She remembers swimming in the Little Wind River, coming home caked with sand, losing shoes along the way.

A pack of reservation dogs accompanied her, and together, they’d look out for snakes.

[{"type":"text","text":"“It was pretty cool, now that I look back on it,” Sojos said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She and her cousins went hunting, fishing, camping and horn hunting."}]

Her grandma taught her how to bead and sew. Together, they made fancy dresses for pow-wows.

Her grandmother provided a sense of stability in an otherwise unsettled childhood. Sojos had cousins, but few friends.

Sojos’ mother was working and attending college, and the family moved frequently. She spent much of her middle-school years in Billings, Montana.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her mother also left a strong impression."}]

Sojos said she remembers hearing people talk about her with a mixture of respect and caution.

“Don’t mess with that lady,” they would say. “She’s really educated.”

But her mother was often away working or attending school, and Sojos struggled with the fractured nature of her family, she said. Her stepfather was rarely around and her brother was becoming involved with drugs and alcohol.

[{"type":"text","text":"Her brother also taught her how to fight."}]

“He somewhat made me an aggressive player in anything I ever did,” she said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sojos discovered she was good at it."}]

“I was always fighting,” she said. “I’d go to the park or meet up with someone behind the mall or in the alleyway.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Other kids knew her reputation."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“She’s cool, but don’t piss her off,” they would say."}]

Then a friend’s uncle, who owned a boxing gym, heard about Sojos’ fighting ability and invited her to train.

[{"type":"text","text":"She quickly proved she had a talent for boxing."}]

Sojos began competing and practicing regularly, sometimes lying to her mother about where she was going. She would tell her she was spending time at a friend’s house, then walk around the corner to the gym before returning in time to be picked up.

[{"type":"text","text":"Eventually, her mother figured it out."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"To Sojos’ surprise, she supported her daughter."}]

“I wasn’t scared of my mom, but I didn’t know how she was going to react,” Sojos said. “She has a very straight face. I don’t know how to read her at all.”

Sojos won a national title belt and was invited to compete in the Junior Olympics in Las Vegas.

[{"type":"text","text":"But by then, her grandmother was getting sick."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"And Sojos was facing a choice that would change the course of her life."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'You Have To Figure It Out'"}]

At 14, Sojos faced a consequential choice. She could pursue boxing and potentially work her way toward a professional career.

Or she could move to the Wind River Reservation and live with her grandmother.

[{"type":"text","text":"She chose her grandmother."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I was trying to leave the fighting behind me,” Sojos said."}]

At the same time, she was increasingly curious about her Indigenous heritage and wanted to know more about the culture she had only experienced during summers.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I thought I still had time,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She moved to the reservation and enrolled at Fort Washakie High School."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"At first, she relished being home with her grandmother."}]

She peppered her with questions about sewing — how to make a particular stitch, how to pull thread through the machine, how to fix her mistakes.

When Sojos tangled the thread, her grandmother would untangle it and hand it back.

[{"type":"text","text":"Sojos would make the same mistake again."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“Can’t you just do this for me?” she would ask."}]

“No,” her grandmother told her. “You have to figure it out. I won’t always be there.”

It was a lesson Sojos would carry with her, even when she didn't yet understand how much she would need it.

[{"type":"text","text":"Life at school was another matter."}]

Sojos had grown accustomed to being singled out as a Native student in schools outside the reservation. On the reservation, she felt like an outsider for a different reason.

She isn't full-blooded Eastern Shoshone, and other students sometimes viewed her as white.

“People thought I was the white girl,” she said. “Nobody knew me.”

Instead of backing away, Sojos returned to the thing she knew best: fighting.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I was very vocal, hard-headed,” she said. “I had no filter.”"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Soon, fights became routine."}]

“We’re scrapping in the locker room, we’re scrapping outside, on the bus, in the counselor’s office,” she said. “It felt like it was me versus the whole rez.”

[{"type":"text","text":"Her grandmother saw what was happening."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“This isn’t what you’re here for,” she would tell her."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"But Sojos didn't yet know what she was there for."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Downward Spiral"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"During her sophomore year, Sojos began dating a boy."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"They started drinking and partying together."}]

“I got that sense of love and clung to him,” she said. “Trauma bonding, I guess you could say.”

[{"type":"text","text":"For Sojos, drinking became another way to cope with loneliness and pain."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I thought it was the cool life,” she said."}]

Soon, she and her boyfriend were spending their time trying to find enough money for their next bottle.

[{"type":"text","text":"The relationship became abusive, Sojos said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Her life narrowed."}]

She dropped out of school. She left her grandmother. She became pregnant, broke up with her boyfriend and reconciled with him repeatedly.

[{"type":"text","text":"The partying continued."}]

By the time her grandmother died, Sojos was pregnant with her second daughter and still caught in a dangerous cycle.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I was not doing anything with my life,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Then came an unexpected opening."}]

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Learning To Help"}]

Sojos was invited to participate in EMT training in Jackson through a buffalo incubation program on the Wind River Reservation.

The program was working to restore reservation land for buffalo by opening previously fenced parcels. Tribal members and scientists used the headquarters to discuss land restoration and cultural revitalization.

Sojos worked on the project, including cutting fence and helping manage the land.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then she took the EMT course and became certified as a first responder."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"“I loved it so much,” she said."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"The training didn't instantly change her life."}]

Her final wake-up call came later, when she ended up in jail after another fight and was charged with disturbing the peace.

[{"type":"text","text":"But the EMT experience had planted something new."}]

For the first time, Sojos had found something she was good at that wasn't about fighting.

[{"type":"text","text":"It was about helping."}]

She also reconnected with an old acquaintance from high school who had recently been released from prison.

The two eventually decided they needed to change the direction of their lives.

[{"type":"text","text":"He offered to pay the $1,600 Sojos needed to earn her GED."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"She worked nights at the Shoshone Rose hotel and studied for the test."}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Less than a month later, she had her GED."}]

While she was working at the Shoshone Rose, she heard about another young woman like herself who was attending college to become a medical assistant.

Milanii Sojos dropped out of high school, became a mother at 17, endured abuse and spent years caught in a cycle of fighting and drinking. Today, she sees her future in a combination of two fields — caring for people and understanding the justice system.

One More For The Road: Monday, October 23, 2023

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